Tinnitus Talk Support Forum

I wonder if this is what's worsening some people. I've seen the correlation before

I'm starting to think there is, for me at least. Its a catch-22 though because I think my tolerance has been reduced because of it. Im going to try easing up on the earplugs a bit and see if that helps.

It definitely increases the perception of tinnitus, but I maintain that you can't do any permanent damage via "sitting in silence".

You should speak to my friend @Stacken77 about this.

He overprotected and neglected sound enrichment for a bit too long too; now he's climbing that mountain of lessening his reactive tinnitus and hyperacusis by exposure.

@Foamearplugssuck. I too agree, @Damocles, that silence doesn't cause damage to the auditory system, but I believe the sensitivity it can cause can be long lasting and a challenge to revert. After months of sound deprivation, it doesn't take "a few minutes" for the tolerance to get right, as some may believe.

@Foamearplugssuck I got H from my acoustic trauma. It resolved in a month or two. I firmly believe that during a week of pure sound deprivation my H came back and my T became hyper-reactive. In March I had a 2 hour conversation which set back my H real bad.

I still believe the H is maintained by the deprivation of sound, but since T is spiking to any attempt to reintroduce sound again, it's a Catch-22. If you believe your H stems from deprivation of sound, then easing the earplug use very gently is a good idea.

My tinnitus has also been getting worse, permanently, and I believe it is due to the constant temporary spikes that increases the baseline over time. Then again, I wouldn't be surprised if the brain sees this constant deprivation of sound as more "emptiness to fill in" so as to generate more tinnitus, but I digress.