How to help someone with sensitive hearing

If you have normal hearing and want to be supportive to someone who finds sound painful:-

1. You need first to understand the problem, which is what the first page in this section on sensitivity and pain is about. So please read that before reading further.

2. When you notice situations in which loud noise may be about to occur (like someone picking up a microphone or about to bang a drum) do alert the person with the sensitivity so that they have time to block up their ears. They may otherwise not notice until too late.

3. Do respect the wishes of people with sound sensitivity about not going into noisy environments. If the person is close family, with whom you would like to share a social life, this may, unfortunately, mean developing your own network of friends with whom you can enjoy these environments.

4. Watching television with someone who is sensitive to sound can be annoying because to you, with normal hearing, the sound level keeps changing as the volume control is readjusted by the person with the sound sensitivity. If this happens often, you need to decide if you are prepared to go along with it or ask the person with sensitive hearing to use separate headphones. You may even need to take the drastic action of getting a separate television. It is pointless and unkind to expect anyone with serious sound sensitivity to keep listening without tampering with the volume control.