Background Noise Problem or Cocktail Party Syndrome (CPS)

The inability to differentiate sound from background noise is a very common problem affecting at least 20% of the population, both old and young. This condition may be an indication of hearing loss or the person may have acute hearing but simply have a problem with auditory discrimination.

Living with CPS

How bad is it really to live with a back ground noise discrimination problem? The difficulty this problem creates for most people is that they do not necessarily fit into the category of hard of hearing, a hearing aid will not help, people know you are not deaf, yet you have to be constantly explaining that you cannot hear in a noisy environment. So much of our social communication takes place in noisy environments, so normal communication becomes a daily dilemma. You meet someone at a conference who lives near you and says "Oh, why don't we take the train home together?" You immediately panic, knowing the stress and embarrassment that will be caused for you all the way home because you cannot hear your companion over the noise of the train. At social gatherings you are always nervous that you will respond inappropriately and embarrass yourself, you may say yes when you mean no, or no when you mean yes, or you could end up agreeing to a date or a business deal that you had no idea of. But you are not deaf! People telling you to get a hearing aid does no good, because you can hear perfectly well, you just can't separate the fore sound from the background sound. No one has ever heard of or acknowledged your condition, practitioners tell you the problem is psychological and you just don't want to listen. The good news is, you have exactly the same problem that brought Patricia Joudry to Sound Therapy and was the reason behind her developing the portable program to help thousands of others like herself.

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Real life listeners tell how it helped their CPS

Patricia Joudry, an excerpt from her book: Sound Therapy Music to Recharge Your Brain

"On an afternoon in my sixth and final week, as I sat listening in my little room, the therapist came strolling in. I tensed up, in mortal fear that he was going to say something. Not only did I have to keep silent when there were voices in the background, but also when music was playing.

He began to speak. I went into my act, waving my hands frantically and objecting: "I've got the music on! I can't talk when there's music on, I never could!"

He smiled and said calmly: "You can now."

I stopped short and listened to him. I ventured to answer. We chatted about many things and the music played on, and he was right: I had been cured.

I went out into the stores and talked to salespeople, with the babble of voices all around me. No problem. I couldn't believe it. Neither could my family when I got home that night. I walked into the house and all talk stopped, as usual. "Go right on," I said airily. "Doesn't bother me a bit."

William A. Whiteside, Toowomba , Queensland , Australia :

"My hearing was progressively deteriorating and my social life disintegrating as I could not possibly concentrate on a conversation in an environment with a cross current of various conversations. When trying to sing in church I could not hear my own voice, and so gave up trying. Whereas I used to enjoy music, now it just existed and gave me very little lift. I had to try so hard to distinguish any words a soloist was singing.

Road noise drove me frantic. The noises I did not want to hear became a maddening roar, and those I wanted to hear I could not.

After listening to the Sound Therapy tapes, all this is changing. It brings tears of gratitude to my eyes, this recharging of life, made possible by this wonderful therapy. I can now hear the timbre in my own voice as I sing equally with that of others, and I can even hear the birds singing as I walk in the park. I am using my hearing aids less and less.

It is more that just improved hearing though. I find myself able and willing to communicate with people, it is easier to smile and reciprocate love.

K. Joseph Biggs, Burleigh Heads , Queensland , Australia :

"Looking back over past years, I have come to the conclusion that somewhere in my childhood, I closed off my hearing level to a point where the darkness of retreating eventually overcame my ability to want to hear.

...by the time I was 35, I had passed through some of the most disastrous years of my young life. About that time I contracted an industrial disorder where industrial noises repeat in the hearing long after the noise is out of range. Within the next four years, I made an appointment (out of sheer frustration) with a specialist who performed a stapedectomy.

I say categorically, no person should be subjected to this dangerous treatment before being alerted to the alternative treatment which sound therapy provides.

I was always mentally drained, the numbness was still there and there seemed something pressing on the ears which affected my ability to hear. My doctor shrugged his shoulders and said the audio test was the same as that taken about four years ago.

I commenced sound therapy in January 1991. After about 200 hours of listening everyday.I noticed some changes, headaches diminished, tiredness fading, less restless sleep. Shoulder and back pain reduced, posture improved, better sense of direction of sound, improved sense of balance. Hearing improved, fuzzy noises in ears not so apparent.

Previously, trying to talk to a group of people in a room was nearly impossible, and a one on one conversation always brought signs of rejection, when everyone else thought that they were not part of the conversation.

I have now clocked up 444 continuous days for a total of 2043 hours, and now average about 3.5 hours per day. You don't have to be sick to gain benefit. One very noticeable benefit is the correlation between resonance in the voice and the ear. If you can hear better, you can speak better.

Noises in the ear, (by the way aggravated by an operation) at times now reduce to zero. I am not embarrassed by noisy locations, or entering into casual conversation. Sometimes there is pain in the ears, but this soon passes. The reduced need for sleep, about six hours per night, is sufficient and does not interfere with what may have been necessary previously.

Being able to express thought better, do not tire easily - more energy, posture improved, mental alertness, self confidence, better concentration, more relaxed - but alert, some dizziness - soon passes.

There is no doubt in my mind, the findings of Dr. Tomatis are widespread, with outside noise levels discharging our energy and childhood problems being carried into adult life. a great deal of credit must go to Patricia Joudry for her effort in making the treatment available."

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How does Sound Therapy help CPS

There may be several factors which explain the remarkable effectiveness of Sound Therapy for background noise differentiation problems. The ability to differentiate and focus on specific sounds in a noisy environment is partly a function of the ear and partly of the brain. Dr Tomatis postulated that the middle ear muscles (the hammer and stirrup muscles) play a role in determining which sounds the ear will focus on. They have a tuning function, changing the tension on the ear drum and other membranes allowing the ear to tune in exactly to a certain sound input. The gymnastic rehabilitation of the middle ear muscles caused by Sound Therapy may contribute to the improved ability to differentiate sound from background noise.

Another aspect of the Cocktail Party Syndrome is Central Auditory Processing (CAP), which means the ability of the brain to sort and make sense of different, simultaneous auditory inputs. It is quite apparent from the results on learning, speech functions and short term memory that Sound Therapy facilitates Central Auditory Processing. The ear is the end organ through which the auditory parts of the brain can be stimulated. The organised harmonic structure of classical music with its stimulating effect further enhanced by the Electronic Ear has proved an effective way to increase neural efficiency in processing sound.

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