15-Year-Old with Tinnitus Wants to Ask If Your Tinnitus Got Worse or Remained the Same After Onset

Hello everyone

I'm a 15 year old boy from Belgium, I got tinnitus 2.5 months ago in August and I'm almost sure that it won't go away. I'm pretty sure that a medicine that I used some months ago caused it. The past 2.5 months weren't that bad to be honest and I'm pretty sure if my tinnitus doesn't go louder I could live with it for the rest of my life (if a cure doesn't get developed).

So now to the question, the last months I have been reading a lot about tinnitus on the internet and I sometimes see posts that say that for some people their tinnitus got louder, these posts make me a bit scared because I don't want my tinnitus to go louder.

Now I wanted to ask to you people did your tinnitus get worse after onset or is it still the same?

 

What kind of medicine did you use? There are some ototoxic medicine that can cause T.

 

Isotretinoin

 

Tinnitus does have an unpredictable nature. It's impossible to say, if it will get louder or not. What I can say is this, especially for folks that are young like you......Avoid places that have loud/dangerous level sounds. Your low tone hiss/ringing can get MUCH louder if you abuse your ears. Drinking can also increase tinnitus, stress/anxiety CAN increase tinnitus and cause spikes.

Some medicines CAN increase tinnitus. As my good friend Michael says avoid headphones at all costs.

You are young and the world is tempting, try to be smart and don't make the foolish mistakes I made and DON'T make your tinnitus MUCH worst

 

@fishbone thanks for these tips. But I have a question why avoid headphones I know if I listen to loud music it will cause damage but using them for a short time isn’t going to cause damage to my ears .

 

Short time can possibly cause damage. Headphones send music/vibrations to the ear in a closed environment. That makes more of an impact on your ears and can be destructive.

I'd avoid this, if i was you. I was in your shoes before and no one warned me and I wish i had someone to help me, close to 30 years ago.

 

@fishbone do you have a source ?

 

I don't live by source. I live by experience..so..yes..I am the source

 

Hi @Young Lad
Exposure to loud noise is the most common cause of tinnitus. Typically headphones and going to places where loud music is played. If loud noise caused your tinnitus then I advise you not to use headphones even at low volume.
Michael.

 

Headphones did TONS of damage to my ears, that will not ever get better (for me at least)

 

ok thanks for sharing your experience

 

Loudness is subjective. Physical pressure fluctuations in the air are absolute. Music that might not be considered "loud" may have high physical intensity which does the damage

 

You should google "isotretinoin AND ototoxicity"

 

@Niko already did that and I’ve seen a lot of post of people getting Tinnitus because of that medicine.

 

You are young and you need to take Michael and Fshbone advice they are the knowledge of tinnitus

 

@Young Lad

Please click on the links below and read my articles that you might find helpful. Try to read them in full and not skim through them.

Michael
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/tinnitus-a-personal-view.18668/

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/hyperacusis-as-i-see-it.19174/

 

In most cases it gets better ... if you keep killing your ears .... you know the outcome ..

 

I had mild T. since 2000, at the age of 20. I used headphones and went to clubs without any issues.

Then 6 months ago I had a noisy job for a couple of months, one day at home, I listened to music through headphones, quite loud. That spiked my T. and now I'm quite messed up. Can't do those things I enjoyed before, but have to be really careful with what I'm doing.

So, you never know, you can probably be fine, but one day one thing leads to another.

Since you didn't get your T. from noise, I'm not sure if it's any concern or not for you.

 

@Michael Leigh thanks for these links they were intersting to read.
@Wojtek Kalka I know listening to loud music will damage your ears but I wanted to know how can listening to something on a decent volume with headphones damage you ears.

 

You are welcome and hope you start to feel better soon.
Michael

 

I had tinnitus at about the same age as you i got used to it quickly and it became a small issue in my life problem is when you stop noticing you become complacent and you play your music that bit louder and go to loud events without ear protection and this catches up with you so please avoid the headphones or be very careful and don't go to loud events without ear protection if you are sensible im sure you will have no issues.

 

@SamW thanks I will take care of my ears

 

Please re-read post #12 above and others.

Listening to music at "decent volume" through headphones is a subjective experience. What happens when your surroundings get noisy (e.g. you get on the bus or subway train) - you ramp up the volume. It is the physical pressure changes that damages your ears - not subjective loudness

 

I listen to music and and now to maskers maskers all my life it did nothing to my T ...

 

now you have an acceptable noise level? as it is expressed - do you hear it only in silence? Did you pass the audiometry?

 

@IvanRus I hear it most of the times when I’m in a silent room

 

I'm 19 and have it too for me it gets worse when I'm under A lot of stress, I have had it tone down as time passes just avoid being stressed about it and loud music or things of that sort especially headphones earphones and such ! Hope this helps

 

Hi @Young Lad

I was on the same drug around the same age; I didn't actually develop tinnitus until several years later, though (or at least I didn't notice it) so it's hard to say if it's related or not.

My tinnitus was stable for a decade, then got significantly worse following some really unreasonable noise exposure. Based on that I'd say be really vigilant about protecting your ears, never do concerts/guns/motorcycles/etc without earplugs, and don't let your friends give you a hard time about that (if they do then they're not really your friends).

 

@Young Lad

Agree with all of the above about being careful with your ears.

In terms of statistics hardly anyone stays around here with worse tinnitus, the pattern is to learn and understand more about it then get back to life. The numbers are heavily in your favour. around 98%+ are able to lose it altogether or have it where they can get on with life.

 

How is your T now?