Category: Hyperacusis Tinnitus Toolbox

• Season for Self-Care & Socializing

  ‘Tis the season for self-care & socializing. This is a common time for flare-ups if you have tinnitus or hyperacusis. I’ve gathered together some coping strategies, soundscapes, and tips on how…

  

• Tool Review: Mental Health Apps for Tinnitus, Hyperacusis, and Anxiety

  Looking for the best free apps to cope with stress, worry, sadness, or poor sleep? In this video, I discuss highly rated mental health apps as of 2025, what to…

  

• Coping Tools for Hyperacusis & Tinnitus

  There are so many videos out there promising instant relief to tinnitus, and they just aren’t real. In this video, I info share about what coping tools actually work and…

  

• Tinnitus Hyperacusis Entertainment Quiz

  Do you know who in the entertainment world has tinnitus? Test your knowledge and find out!

  

• AI Gets Hyperacusis & Misophonia Wrong

  People say they can’t stop laughing and can’t stop watching. What I said versus what AI thinks I said when captioning my videos. This is why I upload custom subtitles…

  

• Safe Sound Science with Granny Jan

  Are you looking for a tinnitus hyperacusis playlist of science supported info on free coping tools or self-help strategies? Maybe you want a playlist on the facts about environmental noise…

  

• Losers Mantra

  I first read this stanza of Losers at age 14. Around 1979 ish. It was after my first serious mental health crisis. Since then, I’ve used it as my mantra…

  

• Over The Counter Hearing Aid Resource Centre

  Quiet cheers to Speech-Language Audiology Canada for adding an Over the Counter Hearing Aid Resource Centre to their website. While these products can help improve access to hearing healthcare, SAC…

  

• Granny Jan now on the YouTube

  I’m going really high tech. You’ve listened to simulated tinnitus and noise-induced hearing loss on my SoundCloud. (If not, check it out! Scare yourself. Scare friends and loved ones.) But…

  

• Rethinking Care for Hyperacusis

  My latest article in Tinnitus Today (Spring 2025) is titled When the patient becomes the clinician: Rethinking care for sound hypersensitivity. In this post, I’m giving a short overview and…

  

• Tinnitus & Hearing Loss Simulations

  Image by Aditya Chinchure on Unsplash. What does it sound like to have tinnitus caused by loud music or noise exposure? I’ve put together a short SoundCloud playlist of noise-induced…

  

• Safer Personal Listening Guidelines

  If ears bled from unsafe personal listening with headphones or earbuds, maybe there would be mandatory manufacturing safety standards to better protect public health. Imagine riding a 10 speed bike,…

  

• Teaching Children and Teens about Safer Personal Listening

  There are many causes of early childhood or teen onset hearing loss, tinnitus, and/or hyperacusis (decreased sound tolerance). Unlike other causes, early noise damage to hearing health is entirely preventable.…

  

• Gaming Could be a Contributing Factor to Hearing Loss and Tinnitus

  Dangerously misleading “safe” listening information is shared in a recent article in the British Medical Journal that found gaming could lead to hearing loss and tinnitus. Risks included gaming at…

  

• Tinnitus and Hyperacusis Wellness Apps

  [Originally published August 26, 2018] Many people with tinnitus or decreased sound tolerance (hyperacusis) are told nothing can be done. Or they wait months for appointments without being given any…

  

• Online Resources for Tinnitus & Hyperacusis

  [Updated Feb 5, 2025] These links to free online resources include research, coping information, peer support, prevention, and social media, mainly related to tinnitus and decreased sound tolerance. This includes…

  

• Tinnitus & Hyperacusis Emergency Lifelines

  This is a list of suicide prevention resources. If you’re struggling with depression or distress and thinking of hurting yourself, you are not alone. There are millions of people around…

  

• Style Guidelines for Children’s Hearing Protection

  As a general rule, earplugs are not recommended for children up to age 12 unless prescribed or fit by an audiologist or hearing healthcare professional. Earplugs are difficult to insert…

  

• This is Your Brain on Noise

  It is generally accepted that loud and very loud noise exposures can cause hearing loss. When I first read Dr. J.J. Eggermont’s book Noise and the Brain, I was horrified.…

  

• Call to Action: SoundPrint’s Find Your Quiet Place Challenge

  I’m partnering with SoundPrint, a hearing health app, to promote hearing health awareness this October. I don’t represent an organization. I’m just one person. But every person counts when it…

  

• Protecting Hearing at Concerts

  Images by Jan L. Mayes Whether it’s pop, rock, or country, amplified music at concerts is loud enough to damage hearing health. I’m an old bat in my 50’s and…

  

• If Ears Bled from Everyday Noise Exposures

  The image for this post was a graphic for a hearing health shock campaign I planned in 2017. I wanted to raise awareness about noise risk from common everyday sound…

  

• Virtual Reality Headset with Ultrasound Exposure

  Apple’s new patent for an Augmented Reality or Virtual Reality (AR/VR) headset includes ultrasonic sound waves to simulate a breeze or physical sensations on the user’s face while they interact…

  

• What Tinnitus Taught Me

  Yes, that’s me on the cover of Hearing Health magazine! I’m sharing some of my current coping tools after being asked to write about how having tinnitus (and decreased sound…

  

• Airhorn Noise Joke

  When my oldest child (now a young adult) arrived at work on April Fool’s Day this year, there was a noisy joke waiting for her. Co-workers rigged an air horn…

  

• Too Loud Article in The Hearing Journal

  I was very excited to have an article published in The Hearing Journal. The title is Too loud: Noise exposure in everyday life is causing hearing loss. I co-authored this…

  

• Tinnitus Q & A

  I did my best to answer a hard question in the Summer 2021 issue of Tinnitus Today: Tinnitus can be unsettling, but it is seldom a sign of serious disease.…

  

• Finger Plugs Protect Hearing Health

  This International Noise Awareness Day 2021, ignore the images showing people clapping their hands over their ears to block out loud noise. This doesn’t lower sound levels. Hands are NOT…

  

• New Cover for Tinnitus Toolbox Hyperacusis Handbook

  I’m updating the Tinnitus Toolbox Hyperacusis Handbook ebook and paperback cover from a blue ear and swirl to a more stylized 3D darker cover by a professional graphic designer. This…

  

• When Hearing Aids Don’t Work

  [Revised January 19, 2024. Originally published December 17, 2020 at silencity.com.] Many people with hearing difficulties delay getting help because they’re told hearing aids don’t work. But in my experience,…