I was just tryna take a stroll

Fucking airplane at 200 meters like 650ft height above my fucking head. Its fine when i completely close my ear but it still left me startled. Sometimes when i get into a routine and have 2 good days i delude myself into thinking i can ever beat this. Deep down i really dont think ill ever get rid of this. Its just a realization moment of knowing: this'll never end.I'm about 60 dB short of a meaningful life. Fuck. Just i only have to go outside once to realize how fucking impossible this is. It was 11 pm for fucks sake.

When i first got hyperacusis, I was so shocked and whatever but i took a shower without earplugs and went outside and could just hear a plane flying right over my head and id be fine, that was my first day. I'm like 60 db removed from the time I already thought my life had ended.

 

I'm doing Mickel Therapy right now, which is helping me shed the last bits of symptoms I was still experiencing — it's genuinely profoundly shifting things for me.

Mickel Therapy, developed by Dr. David Mickel, deals with conditions like fatigue, pain, IBS, or hyperacusis as signals from your body's emotional system, not physical breakdowns.

The Heart of It: Your hypothalamus (stress HQ) goes into hyperdrive when you unconsciously squash emotions — there are four types of emotions involved: anger, grief/sadness, boredom/un-fulfilment, or fear. (Dr Mickel says that things like 'frustration' and 'anxiety' are at their base one of the four, and not separate additional emotions.) Because we're trained out of feeling/acting on emotions as kids, our body hijacks nerves/muscles etc., to create symptoms that demand our attention, like turning normal plane noises into painful assaults.

How to use it:

• Ask the 'magic' question: "Putting aside the symptom I am experiencing (which is merely an 'alarm' going off) — what emotion would my body be screaming to me instead?"
  
  
• Let's say your gut tells you "anger" (perhaps at something your parent or someone else said or did), so you take one tiny instant action — e.g. safely vent, set a boundary (with someone or about something), or do something that gives a tiny spark of joy. If you can't pinpoint the emotion, default to assuming it's one of the big two: anger or boredom — and deal with them by, for instance, grabbing a pencil, scribbling marks furiously in a notebook, then rubbing the pencil marks out (the motion hits either one).
  
  
• You do the above daily, with patience: Repetition gradually tells your body "message received, no more suppressing" — the alarms fade. No digging up past traumas required.

That reaction to plane noise at 11pm is a body scream for your attention to you ignoring and suppressing your emotions. (Bear the following in mind: yes, you are liable to 'fear' your symptoms/noise and be 'angry 'about them, but the underlying emotions concerned will be about other things in your life.)

Dr. Mickel says that to lose the symptoms the following needs to be one's attitude: "I no longer take any shit and I thrive on joy." (You don't force yourself to be joyful, but what you do do is notice the little things that you like that you can do — perhaps note them down to remind yourself of them — and gradually add them to your life... no enormous forced overwhelming striving to be joyful/happy, just take 'baby steps' with it.)

I posted up two videos of Dr Mickel being interviewed in this thread (for people to either take or leave): https://www.tmswiki.org/forum/threa...wing-dr-david-mickel-of-mickel-therapy.33293/

 

@BloodMoon
This is awesome and I’m glad to hear you’re starting to lose your last symptoms. Hooray! I really relate to this:

That’s happening in my life. And I’m feeling better too!

@Mani
Don’t let one experience make you give up hope. Try and get back out there.

 

@BloodMoon, this is incredible, thanks.

I always tried to contextualize tms as an end all be all truth but it doesnt need to be. We can just look at it as a body calling out for help, for whatever reason that may be. Some people might benefit more from journaling while others need the somatic tracking more. I dont mean to act as the ultimate authority on how this works, I just wanted to kind of explain why I think theres different methods for apparently the same 'disease'. I do feel we have to look at it integrally.

Speaking for myself, I know I've repressed emotions ever since i was a very little kid. I have had somatic issues as a result of them from a very young age. I know theres a win in there for me somewhere but im really struggling. I dont think it is past trauma anymore.

This should be something incredibly useful specifically for me, but I find this so hard. I try to be aware of my emotions, but when theres a loud sound that leaves me morally broken and I ask myself: 'apart from my symptoms, what would i be feeling without them (so not the response to the sound)?' and i never really have any idea. I might be missing something but I'd like to discover this particular side of it more. Also my symptoms respond to sound (obviously) so why would that point to an acute emotional reason? I'm not really trying to argue I just want to have a reasonable conversation about this. I already watched the first video with Rachel 'something something'(?)

 

re frame "morally broken" into - that sound scared me and I reacted in panic- that's all. Nothing more or less. No big stories, no heavy drama.
Just keep working on the panic part. Slowly and surely it will change.

 

@Mani
Your hypothalamus runs in a steady "milder overdrive" from day-to-day emotional override, staying primed in low-grade fight-or-flight.

Daily baseline
Unprocessed Body emotions (e.g. anger, boredom) keep signalling quietly, but you override them. Hypothalamus stays overstimulated, draining energy and sensitising the system without full meltdown.

Plane frenzy trigger
Sudden plane roar = massive interruption. Body takes advantage of the noise to scream "Listen NOW!", overloading the already edgy hypothalamus and spiking acute symptoms.

It's not the plane alone—it's plane + backlog of ignored signals = frenzy.

However, you don't need to go back through the 'backlog'—just reduce day-to-day override by letting emotions flow as energy (emotions are energy)—notice, acknowledge, feel them fully. This means tuning in at all trigger moments—not just noise, but other times too, like when your parents upset you the other day and raw rage/anger hit and you felt like expressing it but, of course, didn't (to keep the peace or whatever). What you needed to do was pause there too: scan midline, feel that fury fully, ask what Body wants (e.g., set boundary, walk away, express it safely), then act. This drains the baseline overdrive everywhere. This stops the hypothalamus being stuck 'on'.

In Mickel Therapy you notice:

• Body sensations first (don't rush to name as you find that difficult): Scan midline (gut, solar plexus, chest) for tightness, heat, emptiness, butterflies, heaviness etc.—these are the emotion.
  
  
• No need for perfect labels: If stuck, just say to yourself, "Body's urgent signal". Words can come later (as you make this a daily, regular practice).
  
  
• Action over naming: Ask "What does Body want me to DO now?" (e.g., close window, step away, say "I need quiet"). Acting lets it know that you are listening to it; with practice symptoms reduce or drop. You already duck away from noise sometimes, but without feeling the emotion fully first—that's the key difference. Now, pause to sense it, then act: this truly meets Body's need. Moving away from the noise now (that is, at the start of your recovery journey) is temporary—you won't always need to, as daily practice gradually calms hypersensitivity.
  
  
• Don't generally avoid noise: Symptoms give you something concrete to act on—use triggers as practice opportunities to tune in and respond, speeding recovery.

If you're truly interested in pursuing this, my suggestion is that you watch all of the videos and video shorts on Dr Mickel's YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/@MickelTherapy-OfficialSite-m6v/videos plus the other videos on Raelan Agle's YouTube channel that he's on. That's what I did. With me, the realisation that my predominant emotion that I have been suppressing is boredom was a big 'ah ha' moment. Other than Dr Mickel, no one else (that I've come across anyway) talks about this... so I'm now doing his online 'self-treatment' course, which can be found on his Mickel Therapy website. My residual symptoms are reducing and 'the proof of the pudding will be in the eating' as to whether all of my remaining symptoms will gradually and eventually go.

 

@BloodMoon

Thanks a lot! I'm just gonna watch some more videos before i bother you with a load of questions. Let me know how it goes!