*Hyperacusis Central has researched, talked to hyperacusis sufferers who conversed with Justin, and discovered what unfolded in his final days by looking at his own words. We’re sharing this piece to educate the world. What happened to Justin is tragic and an injustice of sorts, because people in his situation are often abandoned by the systems of this world. Our goal is for future Justins to either be prevented or get the help they need. To do so we must first convey the warnings of what can happen and the needed systematic changes. Hopefully the world will listen.

By Jerad J. D. Rider

“I might do it tonight,” wrote 35-year-old Justin Andreas in reference to taking his life as he flooded the inbox of a tinnitus and hyperacusis sufferer. The date displayed on the screen was the day he killed himself.

He was discovered in his car in Los Angeles, California. A toxicology report confirmed he died from fentanyl (as reported by the Hollywood LA News), leading to cardiac arrest. While Justin’s cause of death was ruled an accident, it stands to reason that those investigating were not privy to the information suggesting otherwise, where Justin confessed to his intentions to take his life. So despite their ruling, we can conclude in good faith that this was suicide. Justin’s idea to overdose seemed to have spawned a half year earlier from Discord interactions, where he thought up contingencies to implement if his symptoms were ever to reach unbearable, as he had witnessed so many of the sufferers of these conditions succumb, and he worried he’d be next.

Justin will never be forgotten, and today is the two-year anniversary of his death. He had suffered from a trio of ear conditions that were severe: pain hyperacusis (also known as noxacusis), loudness hyperacusis, reactive tinnitus. His story reminds us just how brutal these conditions can get, and it started the way that many romance stories do: wooing a girl at a club. Something as simple as that.

“When I first got nox,” Justin wrote on his story with Hyperacusis Central, “it was in November of 2021 at a really loud nightclub in Colombia. I remember walking into the nightclub thinking to myself that it was way too loud. . . . But I felt hitched to this girl that I had just met on a dating app. Ironically, she didn’t even speak English. I didn’t even speak Spanish. It was the stupidest date ever. That’s one reason why I didn’t leave right away. I didn’t know how to communicate to her that my ears were taking a beating. Also, I had parked my motorbike at her house.

“Since my date had my motorbike, and we didn’t even speak the same language, I felt chained to the club. It was a dreadful position to be in. Of course, I didn’t know how much damage my ears were taking. Sometimes it felt okay, depending on how close I was to the speaker. Also, when you’re dancing and chatting with people, you aren’t paying attention to your ears as much. But halfway through the night, my right ear ‘broke.’ Or, in more medical terms, it suffered an ‘overcontraction.’ Looking back, this was probably my middle ear muscle, the tensor tympani. Or possibly the stapedius.”

So why did something as normal as visiting a club—something millions do routinely around the globe—injure Justin Andreas? Well, many nightclubs can average 98 to 112 decibels {Schuster-Bruce, Beeley, Petschi, Radomskij, Kanegaonkar). Throughout the world, there are different scientific research entities or agencies enforcing regulations in regard to the dangers of noise. In the USA, for example, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) says 100 dBA carries the risk of damaging a person’s hearing if exposed to it for over 15 minutes. The NIOSH Recommended Exposure Limit (REL) determines the safety of noise by weighing exposures against an average 8-hour workday (CDC). While their measures strive to provide a sense of safety for the workplace, they can’t control what happens outside of it, since people sometimes engage in loud activities for recreation. Before or after their shifts begin, people could exceed those established thresholds of what’s considered safe in terms of daily doses of noise, and affect whether they’re safe at work. It’s also important to keep in mind that safety regulations cannot predict a person’s genetic susceptibility to noise damage. Some people have weaker ears than others. So genetics certainly play a role in determining a person’s auditory citadel or lack thereof, as James A. Henry, PhD, author of The Hyperacusis and Misophonia Book, discussed in our recent interview.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) also has mandates for noise safety in the workplace. The major difference between NIOSH and OSHA is their established dBA exchange rates. OSHA’s model instructs that a 5 dBA increase heightens the risk of noise dangers. So this theoretically means that people could expose to noise for not just longer periods but also at higher volumes than the standards NIOSH’s 3-dBA exchange rate employ (Neitzel).

In 1974, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) decreed its estimations for what is considered safe in terms of decibels, though their advice is only recommendations. The responsibility for noise regulations was shifted to state and local levels. (You can learn more about noise laws and regulations by reading Hyperacusis Central’s interview with John Drinkwater, who operates his firm, John Drinkwater Law, from Tucson, Arizona, where among many things, he helps people with disabilities understand, and advocates for, their rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and related federal and state laws, and writes about laws and policies relating to environmental noise.) Guidelines for noise safety outside of work are largely unenforced or unregulated, and really that needs to change to make sure people are fully aware of the risks at hand. People make their choices unknowingly, and dance and lounge at clubs for hours. Many leave with temporary tinnitus because their ears were dangerously challenged. Others, like Justin, leave with life-changing damage.

From that day forward, certain things in his life were compromised because many everyday sounds were causing extensive pain that worsened if he didn’t avoid them. Or, if he didn’t plan his journeys through the outside world carefully with earplugs and earmuffs. In spite of that, before his condition worsened toward the end of his life, he classified his symptoms as mild due to the fact he could use ear protection to coexist with sounds.

Those mild restrictions were short lived; hell was not contained. While the nightclub was the catalyst, Justin’s downfall was ultimately linked to his past. Before his ears became a problem, he had tamed his drug addiction two years prior, celebrating his sobriety every day. He was determined that nothing in life was going to ruin it. Nothing did, until the acoustic trinity came along, proving to be a challenge too difficult to battle without drugs. Justin’s physical limitations coupled with his stress and lack of sleep pushed him into taking a benzodiazepine called Xanax. The result was devastating. All it took was a single pill to get him hooked; Justin took the benzo in abundance and quickly suffered side effects—noxacusis, loudness hyperacusis, and tinnitus becoming catastrophic. No longer could he engage with a world whose every aspect is connected to noise. Even with ear protection the torture was extreme. Therefore he chose the unthinkable; death was preferable to living.

(The reason Xanax could worsen these ear conditions is related to the way it affects a person’s GABA receptors or when withdrawal happens. Some find that such medications make their symptoms feel better at first, but then their effects quickly backfire when reaching tolerance and withdrawal symptoms. Or, if they don’t taper properly, causing their body to go into a tailspin. Justin took large amounts of Xanax and worsened. It has even been reported that a single pill of clonazepam permanently worsened a sufferer. Others, however, report benefits from long-term use of benzos. The reason that negative reactions or contraindications with certain medications vary from person to person is discussed in our recent interview with Dr. Henry; he explains that genetics likely play a role in how a person will respond to meds.)

It’s tragic to see a life extinguished. Someone with so much love for life it was pouring out of his smile, and so much vigor prior to crossing the trio. Before his downfall Justin had been living exuberantly. His work in real estate—along with his hobbies like surfing, hiking, playing with his dogs, and writing—made for a fulfilling life. He was strong, talented, empathetic, intelligent, a problem solver and critical thinker, but finally met a problem whose only solution was infused with morbidity. It got too damn severe.

Something that people often have trouble understanding about these conditions is the different severity levels. One might say that it’s a patient’s quality of life which determines their severity (i.e., what the person can and cannot do, or the limitations imposed on their daily life because of their disabilities). A common trend in the hyperacusis community (and it’s also common in other chronic illness communities) is seeing people with milder symptoms shaming the people who are more severe and limited, calling into question why the severe aggregation of sufferers cannot engage in all the activities that the milder patients can. It’s a form of toxic invalidation, gaslighting those who are powerless to improve. And sometimes the apathetic critics go as far as saying a person who suicides is weak. So they want to silence the catastrophic crowd because what they did or have to say is profoundly grim, and can lead to widespread panic for people new to these conditions. While such an attempt to censor information is understandable in a way, denying them their stories does a grave injustice to educating people existing outside of these conditions’ bubbles, hiding the true extent of the patients’ losses and devastation. People need to know how bad this stuff can get, and understand the logic behind the arguments that funding for research and treatments is crucial.

Spreading the worst of the worst accounts can also educate the patients who are new to these conditions, so they can avoid the mistakes which lead to the other people’s catastrophes. In other words, such awareness can work both ways, and the truth is the truth, is it not? The people who are like Justin Andreas was in his final days have a next-to-zero quality of life. His progression helps us understand that a person’s level of severity changes the ballgame significantly. Part of his final words establish that.

Yes, symptom severity changes everything. A critical component, discerning its variance can help us understand why Justin took his life. Some have lived with these conditions for decades, going from the mildest of levels to the most catastrophic. When they were mild, life activities were only MILDLY affected. Again, a person’s quality of life is determined by the extent their symptoms intrude on it, just like any disability. It’s the nature of sickness—all conditions have different levels of suffering; ears aren’t any different. Severer symptoms often consist of every sound hurting and sounding deafening, and tinnitus getting louder and more aggressive with exposures to sound. In contrast, milder symptoms permit a patient to have more freedom and tolerance toward sound, and tinnitus is much more stable (if it’s even present).

When mild, people might say they can still perform a job, still converse with people, still survive a car ride, still do normal things. Their relationship with sound isn’t completely forbidden. Even when their symptoms are moderate. Earplugs and earmuffs allow them to uphold some semblance of normality.

Severer symptoms, and especially catastrophic ones, don’t; everything goes out the window. The aids they relied on are lost. Earplugs and earmuffs provide little to no support. Their sensitivities are almost immeasurable, to the point that the faintest of sounds become painful or uncomfortable, and exposures will permanently worsen them. Even with ear protection on. This is when it becomes an existential crisis, because sound is weaved into every part of life.

This is when, for example, people cannot bathe or brush their teeth without worsening (many permanently). Their disabilities reduce them to an incompatibility with most of life’s equation. They’re homebound and never see people anymore. They can barely eat, finding only yogurt, ice cream, or something soft as viable choices for their meals, since chewing sounds are problematic for their ears. They cannot cook with a microwave or oven because the noises those devices make are too excruciating. And even in their homes, sounds from the outside world penetrate their walls and torture them: birds, trains, people cutting grass, planes, distant traffic. They can’t make money anymore; to work you have to make noise, usually. Even typing on a keyboard is too much. Sometimes they can’t get disability benefits, either, because the systems require visits to doctors or agents to assess their disabilities. Everything is nearly impossible because they’re allergic to a pillar of life: sound. And treatments remain elusive. So they’re trapped in a prison of inhumanity.

The distinctions between the mild and severer states are obvious: the lesser ones are coexisting with life with ear protection or careful safety measures, while the others are hiding from it. Nonexistence, more or less. Homebound destitution. The things that make you physically human are completely stripped. All that remains is a brain whose panic or candid discernment of the torture at hand decides it is time to say goodbye. Who can blame the tortured?

People need to understand and respect the night-and-day differences of sufferers’ testimonies, and realize that simply living with their conditions isn’t always doable or reasonable without extensive help from others, which many can’t acquire. Especially if their friends and families don’t understand or believe them, which is common.

These distinctions emphasize why these ear conditions are sometimes next to impossible to survive, unless the people suffering can hide in their houses and avoid every aspect of normal living for several decades, all alone. Justin was 35. He had 40 to 50 years to go, assuming he would live an average man’s lifespan. No one would want to live like that for half a century. They shouldn’t have to, either.

This is why funding and research are paramount. People should not be expected to simply accept a life of torture that is unmitigable because the powers that be refuse to provide extensive funding, research, treatments, euthanasia (while Hyperacusis Central doesn’t condone it, if at the very least the system provided euthanasia, it would be proof it cared or understood, albeit in a twisted way, choosing death (cheaper) over forking over larger sums of money for funding and research), or sometimes even disability benefits. (As previously stated, many are denied and cannot get them because they’re so disabled that complying with requirements—such as leaving home for doctor visits to validate their disabilities, or meetings with the agents evaluating whether they’re candidates for benefits—are not achievable. They’re too disabled to seek assistance. Isn’t that ironic? Depending on the state or country, including America, the systems sometimes don’t respect the concept of homebound patients.) So what do these systems expect to happen, then, given their refusals in all these categories? In the USA, for example, the system sometimes expects people like Justin to hide in their houses and just endure the barbaric, inhumane, physical limitations for decades and maybe half a century. Its choice to do nothing is inadvertently executing this rare disabled group, more or less. Look what happened to Justin: he had to resort to purposely overdosing on a street drug to end it all. It’s important to note that the systems are ignorant and cannot understand the complexities of such a disabling set of conditions as the ones this article is about. That’s why we strive to educate, so people like Justin do not die in vain.

The world needs to look at Justin and The Wall of Remembrance victims—the memorial Breanne Woods created to pay respect to those who died with hyperacusis (many by their own hands; suicide or euthanasia)—and realize change is needed. We need more funding for research and treatments, and eventually we hope we can get our cures. But we have to start at the bottom.

Many researchers are doing brilliant work, such as Hyperacusis Central’s Scientific Advisor Kelly Jahn, and Dan Polley, James Henry, Megan Beers Wood, Manoj Kumar, Wei Sun, and Thanos Tzounopoulos. They’re doing the best they can and it’s going a long way. Imagine if the funding for research were higher, much higher, as it is for many health conditions. Worldwide, ears get almost nothing. It’s the sufferers or the friends or families of sufferers footing the bill. In this regard, the current system does not adequately respect hearing disabilities. We need the world to understand how cornered we are as victims of aural injuries, to see why it’s important to fund our conditions for research and treatment aspirations. Awareness is important, and showing the world what Justin and many others went through is a piece of the puzzle that champions for change.

Be a part of change. Spread their stories and encourage people to donate to Hyperacusis Research, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization whose mission is multifaceted: raising funds for research, developing treatments for these hyperacusis conditions, and improving the quality of life for those who suffer with them and their comorbid conditions. The donations are tax deductible as much as the law allows. Any help, big or small, goes a long way. We thank you in advance for contributing. Donations can be made by check (please make checks payable to Hyperacusis Research Limited, Inc., and mail them to this address: P.O. Box 1295,
Marlboro, MA 01752) or credit card, or through a DAF (Donor Advised Fund), or a Facebook fundraiser or other online platform. All these options are outlined on Hyperacusis Research’s website (click HERE to visit it), and can be accessed from the drop-down menu at the top of the page. Look for DONATE NOW.

From everyone who has a form of hyperacusis or loves someone who does: Thank you.

DISCLAIMER

If you’re suffering from suicidal thoughts, you’re not alone. You can call or text 988 for the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. You can also chat with 988lifeline.org. Or text MHA to 741741 for the Crisis Text Line. Or, for a comprehensive list pertaining to different countries, visit the following link: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_suicide_crisis_lines.

*AI wasn’t used to write or edit this article.

REFERENCES

[1]. Hollywood LA News. 2023. https://www.hollywoodlanews.com/justin-andreas-dead/.

[2]. Schuster-Bruce, James, Beeley, Petros, Petschi, Cameron, Radomskij, Paul, Kanegaonkar, Rahul. Evaluating Listening Behaviours of Nightclub Goers: An International Web-Based Study with Resident Advisor. Noise Health. 2025 Feb 28;27(124):58–64. doi: 10.4103/nah.nah_94_24.

[3]. Understand Noise Exposure. CDC. 2024 Feb. https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/noise/prevent/understand.html#:~:text=Key%20points,the%20workplace%2C%20you%20should%20know:.

[4]. Neitzel, Richard. NIOSH and OSHA Permissible Noise Exposure Limits. Audiology Online. 2008 Sept. https://www.audiologyonline.com/ask-the-experts/niosh-and-osha-permissible-noise-247#:~:text=The%20graph%20below%20compares%20these,the%2085%20dBA%20NIOSH%20REL.