Saturday, 28 January 2012

• Tinnitus as Possible Symptom of Auditory Sensitivity in Autism?

  

   

  Yesterday I had a terrible attack of tinnitus. It was extremely painful and annoying to hear certain sounds, I had to keep the volume turned low on the TV. Whenever I spoke, my voice sounded like I was in a tin can and it was difficult and irritating to hold a conversation or concentrate on anything. I felt like I was being bombarded with noises and stimuli from every direction and I just wanted to shut down. I looked up possible causes and/or treatments to prevent it from occurring again and found some interesting parallels. 

  My son has Pervasive Developmental Delays with Autistic Spectrum Disorder as well as toxic encephalopathy from hydrocephalus and a ventricular peritoneal shunt. He's had sensory integration disorder for as long as I can remember and tends to cover his ears to prevent hearing certain noises that obviously bother him. After my bout with tinnitus yesterday, it made me wonder if this is anything like what he may be experiencing... If so, I have a whole new empathy for auditory sensitivity.

  The list was quite long but a few of the possible causes that seem to pertain are ear infections, wax build-up, nasal allergies or congestion, mercury or lead poisoning, head injury, thyroid disease, Vitamin B12 deficiency, iron deficiency anemia, anxiety, etc. We do biomedical intervention with our son and many of his symptoms improve with vitamin, mineral, and amino acid supplementation. He also receives allergy and vitamin B12 injections andwe have him on a strict elimination diet for foods he is allergic or sensitive to; particularly gluten/wheat, dairy/casein, but also soy, corn, oats and a variety of other things.

  So I'm thinking my son's auditory sensitivity may have something to do with underlying health issues that result in symptoms of tinnitus. As long as we stay on track with his diet and supplements, his behaviors improve, he is much less irritable, has better concentration, eye contact and improvement with speech/communication.

  Coincidence?

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