22, New to Tinnitus, Pretty Damn Sad Right Now

Hi guys,

First post here, I just have to say the community you guys have built around this terrible circumstance is really incredible. Everyone seems so thoughtful and caring and I'm actually quite excited to get involved. That being said I am really fking bummed right now about this ringing in my ears.

I make a ton of hip-hop music, and I've committed the greater portion of the past 4 years completely immersing myself in music production, vocal techniques, etc. I fell in love with everything about music and it quickly became my dream to make it for a living. The past year I have really been starting to gain traction and get to a level I'm quite hyped about. Enter tinnitus.

Just a bit over 2 weeks ago I got back from a 3 month trip and was so excited to record music that I locked myself in my room for 16 hours straight and made a bunch of tracks. Ear fatigue was definitely maxing out and the volume was likely cranked on my closed back headphones (worn the entirety of the session). Prior to this my ears had hurt a bit after long recording sessions, but I didn't think anything of it (I didn't know.... I didn't KNOW)

After the recording session I took my headphones off and my ears were ringing. I had experienced periodic ringing before but only for maybe 1-2 seconds maybe twice a month, and in a much lower frequency. Nothing like this at all. I was concerned but when I looked stuff up online I was told that it would likely go away in 1-2 days. Here we are 2 weeks later and my ears are still ringing away.

I've been avoiding headphones completely, taking a complete audio break, and I felt it starting to subside quite a lot (ringing was only audible in a dead silent room on the ear that was on the pillow level). Yesterday I made a beat just through my airpods on legitimately 10% volume and it feels like I've done a COMPLETE reset on the ringing. I'm so so discouraged and pissed at myself.

The ringing is really getting to me and I'm sincerely hoping it isn't long term. In the worst case scenario that it is long term I honestly have no problems avoiding blasting music, being open with my friends about it, carrying around earplugs for the rest of my life if it means I can keep it at bay. What is eating away at me is watching my hopes of pursuing music as my career crumble alongside this. It's literally all I've dreamt about since I was a kid and I'm actually just starting to gain a fair bit of traction. If I can't listen to airpods at 10% volume how am I supposed to record anything? Am I just screwed forever now? Any recco's for improvement? I'm sleeping with a fan now and it helps - this isn't prolonging it or anything correct?

Sorry for bogging you down with this massive rant - I'm just really bummed right now. My family is completely there for me but it's just hard because I don't feel like anyone around me really gets it.

Thanks in advance for your help

 

Welcome to the forum.

You've clearly had multiple acoustic traumas and this was the last straw, damaging your ears. When you encounter the pain threshold that's your ears way of screaming at you to stop. This is basically what happend to me, although I was at an absurdly loud indoor death metal gig. Have you noticed much of a change in hearing? In my case my hearing was immediatly mangled, so I'm pretty much screwed. But if your hearing seems normal, the damage may not be so permanent and the tinnitus could fade to a manageable baseline if not receding completely. Getting a hearing test wouldn't be a bad idea, although it wont tell you everything. Look into hidden hearing loss.

You may not be screwed forever, but your ears are currently very tender. Ears generally take forever to heal. We're talking months to a year, possibly more. In this time you need to baby the crap out of them. No more concerts, clubs, guns etc. If the airpods are spiking you at only 10% then you need to avoid headphones/earbuds completely. You may eventually get back to being able to safely use them at low volumes in shorter sessions again, but not any time soon.

You will encounter some very militant anti-headphone users on this forum that will likely tell you your headphone days are over. Headphones are quite controversial here as they pump sound directly into the ear canal. And no, sleeping with a fan isn't going to prolong things unless it's an abnormally loud one. Most of us mask our tinnitus with something.

You need to familiarize yourself with safe dB levels and exposure times. This is the metric to start going by. Grab a dB measurer app on your phone and be cognizent of dBs everywhere you go. Generally if you're going to be exposed to noise exceeding 80 dB, you need to protect your ears.

Since you are still in the acute phase I would highly suggest you start taking some antioxidant supplements to help bring down the inflamation. My reccomendation is NAC and Astaxanthin immeditatly. NAD+ if you can afford it.

Hang in there dude. Your music career probably isn't over for good, but your days of blaring music are. Your ears are your moneymaker, so take care of them.

 

It ought to be safe.

If it had faded once, there is a good chance that it will fade again. Ears can take forever to heal, so you will need to give it time.

You will want to be easy on your ears for at least a year or two. Give yourself time to heal. Then, if you absolutely have to, you might try experimenting with exposing yourself to music or headphones for a minute, then if nothing happens over the next 24 hours doing it for 2 minutes, etc. Having said this, personally if I were in your shoes, I wouldn't wear headphones ever again.

Some (many?) people take this risk and are ok. Others take this risk and aren't ok.
Then there's

It's a risk...

The good news is that there is a good chance that eventually your tinnitus will fade and you will feel a lot better.

Check out
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/thread...eone-else-who-has-tinnitus.26850/#post-307822

 

You have got to agree that his experience doesn't seem to contradict what those users have been saying... In fact, the next time someone asks "is it ok to use headphones at low volume?" I plan to reply by quoting his post.

 

As a former music producer I would suggest never using headphones again. I think you should draw the same conclusion from your experience. I got tinnitus in a similar way to you, but I got no warning and my tinnitus came one week after the event that I suspect caused it.

Since your problems seem pretty mild so far, after giving your ears a chance to rest I would suggest only working through studio monitors. It can take time before you find a monitor that works. I would suggest trying Amphion One 15 since they excel in low level reproduction (mixing can be done at 60-70 db no problem). Some people experience ear problems with these because of their metal drivers and buying monitors for 2000 USD might not be the first thing you should do right now. There are much cheaper alternatives like Dynaudio LYD that I think should work well. Let me know if you want to discuss monitors in depth, I've spent months researching this.

 

There isn't exactly a multitude of possible outcomes concerning using headphones at at low volume. Without much effort one could find some experiences on both sides of the equation (although I suspect that people who claim that they got their tinnitus from headphones at low levels are probably unknowingly turning up the headphones or don't really know what safe levels are.)
While it's good to be cautious about sound levels it's probably a bad idea to quote a post from someone who claims to know for a fact that low-level headphone use is a very harmful thing to the ears.

A new user coming on here for support who is likely already in a heightened state of stress and beating himself up over a mistake with loud sound levels on headphones doesn't need that kind of message. I'm obviously not advocating for telling anything other than the truth and I don't mean that we should be hiding any information. It's a well-known fact that loud sound exposure can cause tinnitus.

Here's is what is bugging me lately on here, and it's in no way directed at you Bill. Of all people introducing themselves on here there's practically none who need us telling them what mistake they made. They know. They state it in their introduction. They come here for support.

There's a pattern that I'm seeing all the time. Mostly it goes like this : New users are already beating themselves up for whatever mistake they made. Some go on to tell a person in that vulnerable state that low volume headphones, earphone use etc. is harmful. The person then starts wondering what else is harmful. Because... who would've thought about the headphones right? Sometimes it's really ugly to see these new users fall into the rabbit hole and starting to adopt some bad habits when it comes to noise exposure. They increasingly start fearing sound and protecting when it isn't necessary. Again, I'll always advise to err on the side of caution when it comes to protection, but I don't think it's something we need worry about with most users as we're already a risk-averse bunch. I've rarely come across a post of a new user who needs educating on the harmful effects of loud or long sound exposure.

The problem is that with the uncertainty and doubt about sound levels and what's safe and not comes a heightened sense of anxiety and stress, which is what feeds into the tinnitus. Whatever spikes will come from the added stress can be mistakenly interpreted as them not being protective enough and it's a deep hole to climb out of afterwards.

My advice to the OP would be to rest your ears for a while and keep your stress at bay. Try to figure out what works in terms of sound exposure. You can just as easily get a spike from near-field monitors when mixing so just try to establish what you can handle. Don't worry about what you should be able to handle for continuing with your music production, but go by what your body tells you. Most importantly, try not to panic over every little exposure. It's unlikely something like a fan for sleeping will make anything worse.

All the best.

 

If using headphones at low volume were to not carry any risk, there wouldn't be anyone convinced that doing so caused a serious spike for them.

There's a difference between claiming to know something and sharing one's experience of it happening to them.

Another thing to keep in mind is that the victim is the person who has the most information and so is the person the most qualified to determine the most likely cause.

It makes sense for us to make sure that we don't do any of the above.

It IS tempting to ask many of them "what were you thinking", but I don't remember seeing too many posts like that.

Having said that, there are many lurkers reading those posts, and it's a good thing to educate those people about activities that might be risky.

Good! It's ok to fear dangerous things.

Above, I hope that by a "bad habit" you mean reckless exposure to noise. Having said that, I am pretty sure that you actually mean being "too cautious." When something that can drive one to suicide is on the line, that can make one's body uninhabitable for the rest of one's life as a result of indulging into something fun that lasts for a couple of hours, there is no such thing as being too cautious. It's ok to be cautious for the first year or two after the onset, when one is especially vulnerable, and to let one's body heal itself.

Just because some people react in irrational ways (e.g., when the doctors tell us to wash our hands, some people develop a syndrome where they feel compelled to wash their hands all day long), doesn't mean that the rest of us should be cut off from helpful information.

Are you sure?
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/i’m-at-a-rave.33722/

Spikes that one gets before one learns that "I am not the same as I used to be before the onset of my tinnitus" cause even more anxiety and stress. People who have got tinnitus recently shouldn't be using a vacuum cleaner. It is natural to continue doing those things. This is why it is important to educate the people here that they don't Have to abuse their ears like that. By the way, eventually many of those people will be able to use it with appropriate ear protection.

The above seems to be very reasonable.

 

Is there even money in music anymore? Tinnitus may have saved you from a life of being broke!

On a serious note, I agree with all that has been said. Stay away from loud noise and baby the hell out of your ears. The level of ringing should diminish then. You will survive this and remember you are not alone.

 

It seems you have a good chance for recovery if you rest your ears for a few months and avoid loud noise.

However, be careful with your ears, since they somehow got damaged by sound and after that ears get more prone to hearing damage in the future if you are around very loud sound. Good luck!

 

I guess they must've been listening too loudly. Frankly what some people without tinnitus consider low listening levels baffles me sometimes. It might take a while after developing tinnitus to part with the old ways.
Also, the forum is riddled with posts and experiences about spikes from just about anything. Thinking that something might give you a spike can very well make it happen by force of will alone. I'm far from telling anyone their experience with spikes is false but sometimes I can't help but think that some reasons are far fetched. Correlation is not causation.

We all make mistakes. Most of us have learnt the hard way with sound exposure, I'm wondering if those people are as closely monitoring their UV exposure, blood pressure, sugar intake and whatnot. We may think we're so smart now being able to control our affliction somewhat, there's always the many unexpected events that are simply known as life. Making any sufferer feel guilty doesn't help them navigate life. Positive mindset and outlook are very important in dealing with tinnitus.

I don't know about your vacuum cleaner. Mine has a lot of settings that control wattage. At the lowest three settings, mine is absolutely fine to use without a problem. Even in the highest it produces around 70-75dB which should still be okay for the time you're going to use it.

Most of us...
There are musicians continuing their career with bad tinnitus. Who's to tell who's right or wrong? Tinnitus isn't very well correllated with extent of hearing loss. It's about what you're willing to endure and make peace with the worst possible outcome. For some musicians making music IS as important as life itself. It really is the old choice of Achilles in Greek mythology choosing between a long life in obscurity or a short in glory. It depends on the person's own mindset. That's not to say that every sufferer should fall in these extreme categories, but everyone is wired differently and one's risky behaviour is another person's cautious behaviour. In the end we can't really presume that the choices we're making concerning tinnitus are better than someone else's.

When I first got tinnitus over 12 years ago Al DiMeola was already raising tinnitus awareness and going on record saying his tinnitus was very bad. Nowadays it's still the same story. Same with Pete Townshend. They have found a way to somewhat control their affliction and continue playing music. I can only assume that they must feel they've made the right choice in hindsight. I also think that for someone with your psychological make-up it's impossible to understand why someone would take such a risk.

You're right in that the victim has the most information and should make a choice accordingly. Whatever they choose and whatever the outcome, every sufferer deserves support and not to be judged.

 

I disagree.

The sufferer has the most information. And they had determined that despite being far fetched, that was the reason.

You have a point. Having said that, most of the time the spike begins the second after the noise exposure is over...

It has happened to me yesterday. I saw a YouTube clip where the author talked about why old TVs make a high-pitched sound. This noise was present in his previous video and he didn't hear it because he is in his thirties, but the people in the comments talked about it. I read the comments of the first video and they mentioned that he is playing a high pitch sound at the end of his video. In the past I learned to not play with any online hearing tests. Somehow curiosity and sleep deprivation got the best of me and I played the portion of the clip with the sound. I didn't hear anything, so I raised the volume. I heard a piercing high-pitch sound right away and I muted it immediately. Too late. I got a new relatively quiet high-pitch hiss sound now. I am not panicking - I learned that one has got to wait several months before it makes sense to panic. But this is incredible - people go to concerts where they are exposed to loud noises generated by giant speakers for hours and are ok, whereas I couldn't handle an exposure from my little $10 speakers that lasted a small fraction of a second.

Based on people's experiences, there is a risk when one uses it during the first year or two after the onset.

Those people's objective isn't minimizing the chance of getting a spike. You are right, this has to do with their preferences, and nobody can judge the validity of another person's goals. However, for those of us whose objective is to minimize the chance of getting a spike, it is more clear which actions are irrational and which aren't.

On its own, the phrase above is true. But not if we add a requirement that one is trying to not make tinnitus worse.

 

I think no one deliberately wants to make his tinnitus worse. I was just pointing out that in the end, everyone has to find that sweet spot where they feel they are doing enough to control their tinnitus whilst still living a fulfilling life, and not be paralyzed by fear and anxiety.

Sorry to hear that. To emit a very high pitch sound a speaker doesn't have to be big. Cheap speakers distort more, which is worse on the ears. High frequency sound also rolls off more the further one is, so the proximity of the listener can make for a very shrill experience when listening to that kind of videos. From what you describe you're most likely going to be okay.

 

I was talking about objective functions that include things other than tinnitus. A musician might have some tradeoffs between money/career and tinnitus volume. In that case what is optimal depends on the rate at which the musician is willing to trade one of those things for the other.

I said that if all one cares about is tinnitus (as the impact of most other things on one's well being is dwarfed by tinnitus), then the problem becomes a lot easier.

It's ok to fear dangerous things that can forever change one's life for worst.

Often "living a fulfilling life" is being interpreted as indulging in a fun activity that lasts a couple of hours. Many of us would agree that Nothing that lasts for a couple of hours is so good that it would be worth risking a lifetime of suffering for those couple of hours of fun.

 

I'm 22, had tinnitus begin for me right before my 21st birthday. It's been 461 days now, approaching 462 in a few hours. It's tough but there's good moments. Main thing is how it affects careers, and then when you're left without money and forced to cough up hundreds of dollars for treatments that won't do much, then the stress affects you negatively.

But hopefully there's going to be a cure in the next few decades. When you're young and get tinnitus there's hope. When you're older, you may start to lose hope. Medicine will improve, slowly but steadily.

 

Which "treatments"?

There is no treatment for tinnitus or hyperacusis.

 

There are plenty, sadly none of them are reliable, and many are actually a scam.

However, bimodal stimulation is quite a clear candidate at this point. Though Lenire has not gotten the kinks out yet, their device often gets results: sadly not always the positive ones, but it can clearly influence tinnitus a lot. Further upcoming there is Susan Shore, the Michigan device...

It can still take some years, but eventually we'll get there.

 

Hi all,

I just wanted to say thank you so much for all of the help and support and information! Super happy that I made this post.

I really hope not being able to wear headphones again is not my reality as it is directly correlated to making music (I do some production which I could do on monitors, but mostly vocals). My plan is to cut out all non-essential noise completely except for low level stuff coming from speakers (TV, music, etc) until (hopefully) the tinnitus either dissipates completely or to a lower level (hopefully within 2-3 months).

If there isn't any change within the next 2-3 months I'm gonna go to my doc to get checked out (avoiding this right now due to COVID) just to rule out anything weird, then assess from there. If I decide to use headphones again, I would slowly reintroduce them (5 seconds on, assess, 15 second on, assess, etc). Does this seem like a good plan of action assuming that I want to push on with music (I really can't see myself not creating, I just can't...)?

Also, is there a chance this thing goes away on it's own? I know no one knows too much about tinnitus and general practitioners aren't experts, but the two I spoke to in the family told me it's still quite likely that it dissipates as it is quite early to be deeming it chronic. Is this true? It just seems like everywhere on this forum people have experienced one off incidents like me where they pushed too far and got chronic T, so it doesn't give me much hope :/

Thanks again everyone

 

And FX-322 sounds promising, though it's main point isn't meant for tinnitus spefically.

 

Hey--I don't have a lot of advice to give because I'm in a very similar position, but I did want to offer support and say that I completely understand what you're going through. I got my tinnitus in June from pursuing music, and it's been very hard to deal with. I agree with the advice that you should be really gentle on your ears for the next year or so--my tinnitus would probably be gone if I had done that. As a fellow producer, the prospect of not wearing headphones seems really difficult/impractical, but in the past ten months, I've managed to get away with wearing headphones only 4 times [only because I had to for a studio recording class]. I did get some small spikes afterward, so if I were you, I'd avoid headphones completely for at least a year, then re-evaluate. Additionally, I found that I got less of a spike if I wore earplugs underneath my headphones, but honestly, that could just be some psychological comfort.

Lastly, I can not stress the importance of getting custom musician's earplugs. Foam ones are difficult to put in, painful, and inconvenient as hell. I wear mine every time I leave the house since I live in a noisy city, and they've saved me so many times from further damage from ambulances, construction sites, honking cars, etc.

I really hope your tinnitus decreases though! It sounds like you have a good chance as long as you're careful.

 

It is very likely that you will feel better in 6 months - 1 year. Resting your ears now is key.

I had severe hyperacusis and was able to use headphones again like 2 years afterwards. My case was quite serious, very bad hyperacusis. At the beginning I couldn't listen to TV or hear music through speakers even at minimum volume.

But take this into account: sometimes our ears change and they will never be the same as before, so even if you feel better in a few months, be very cautious with loud sound, as your ears may be more prone to sound damage.

Good luck!

 

Almost 23 years old here... I've had this for 4 years... I'm sad to say, your life is probably f**** if it doesn't go away soon. It will just chip away until you no longer have a will to live.

 

Did it stick around despite you avoiding loud noises?

 

Oh yes it it has... Over the last 4 years it has become way way worse with time... Comparing it now to the beginning, the level of tinnitus was a walk in the park back then.

 

Hi Bill,

I did the same thing accidentally yesterday with an online hearing video. Heard high pitch that was aggravating and I turned it off quickly.

How is your "new tone" since April when this happened to you?

 

I'm the same as you man except only 1.5 years into this. I had flutters/air pressure reactions to sound first, then tinnitus. Though tinnitus was no concern vs the flutters.

But it's just been getting louder for a year now despite living the most quiet life possible. 24/7 I stay home in the quiet. Any attempts at re-introducing noise just make it worse even faster.

I've done every test possible and all say nothing is wrong. I'm waiting on results of an MRI.

Only 3 things I have left to try are Prednisone, TTTS sectioning surgery, and stem cells. Any chance you've done one of those?

What you said is very well put. This condition just chips away at your will to live. Every new volume level of tinnitus takes a week or two to get used to, then you get about 3-5 weeks of grace before it steps up to the next level. "Habituating" is impossible because it's not a constant. It's fucking terrifying that yours hasn't stopped in 3-4 years. It's already so loud for me. Crazy how can ears just degenerate over time like this.

 

I have not no. Doctors where I live just disregard this and don't even introduce any sort of alternative or experimental treatments.

Very true... It's been a year since I originally placed that comment, and ever since then I have gotten progressively worse. Honest to god don't know why I'm even alive anymore.

 

Advice From A Musician With Tinnitus

Take care of you and your dreams !

 

Hey man. I truly feel the same, I'm only 16 months into this but mine was severe from 6 months of onset even though I protected my hearing extensively when needed. I also have severe hearing problems that can't be explained as all hearing tests don't explain the severity. I will probably kill myself soon as I have also lost everything in my life due to this problems. I'm 21 btw.

 

I'm 24. Also about 16 months into it. Flutters/air pressure spams in reaction to sound started December 2019, first tinnitus noise began April 2020. Between June to July my tinnitus and spasms actually improved, to the point where I could go to a 10 person gathering with some music, and just light plastic earplugs in. I had a big setback and it's been all downhill for tinnitus since then. No matter what I do, it gets worse, and I've lived the most quiet life a human being could live since July. I never leave the house, and wear plugs/muffs around the house almost 24.7. Ive tried every combination of supplements possible. I'm willing to go fully experimental on any treatment available, but doctors are too dismissive to point me anywhere. I've been thinking about suicide for a while, getting more and more comfortable with the idea. I think get really high on painkillers then go off a bridge or hang myself. I also live close to Washington/Oregon which have legal assisted suicide. It will shred my family apart since my grandpa and our beloved dog are very close to passing now. My mom won't be able to handle it.

If the condition remained severe it would be fine, but the fact that it just continuously degenerates and worsens is too much to handle. I have about $30k in the bank for anything experimental. I feel like I've already died. These days are just a buildup to fate.

 

Hey Christian - sorry to hear about your situation. I don't know if you were exposed to dangerous amount of noise but I got it from working in a café for 2 years which is a joke taking into account the severity of my symptoms. I have been dysfunctional for almost a year having to cancel university and quitting my job - there is no way i can accept that much dysfunction. I was a young healthy man with functioning body and brain and my life went to zero real fast - not understanding speech, having moderate hyperacusis and severe tinnitus, on top of other health problems that emerged after the ear problems. I have been suicidal for almost a year and there was a time I was out at night daily planning to hang myself but I always chickened out. I also tried everything and even offered a prof' of audiology to do a case study on me regarding my auditory processing sudden problems - all to no avail. Whatever you do, don't hang yourself - it's brutal and can fail (from my experience), I'm going to end it via a high building in my case.

I considered VAD in Pegasos but needed parents' consent for Pegasos to approve so it's out of the table.

This is just absurd how it can destroy young lives leaving them with nothing in life, but i have made peace with this.

My family don't care at this point as they are tired of dealing with me and all these problems that can't be treated and destroy my life. I hope whatever you do that you are satisfied and pain free, for me life has ended months ago and it's just passing the time until I pull the plug.