A List of Places Where You Could Be Exposed to Loud Noises. Places to Watch Out for.

No offence taken. It all depends on what caused your tinnitus? Getting help also depends on what part of the world one lives and if they are able to access it which you have said has been unsuccessful. I hope at some point in the future this changes for you.

Michael

 

Impacted ear wax and using a ear wax drops to soften it was the exact moment it started. Instantly, like someone flipped the T switch. Both ears.

 

Somehow I thought you lived alone.

I get the same kind of spikes with vacuums and power tools despite wearing hearing protection. Same happens to me at work, but there isn't much I can do about it.

 

The family member doesn't have to live with you, for you to ask them to help you out.

 

If you are worried about the loudness if the alarm you can put some tape over the hole. But DONT DISABLE THE ALARM. I hope you dont live with anyone. You can seriously wake up with your whole house on fire. Not only do you endanger your life but your neighbours life your pets life and the firefighters life. All over your paranoia.

Also what about driving? accidents are very loud and so are air bags. Would you put your passenger at risk by disabling the air bag? Or do you not drive at all?

Theres sensible precautions and then theres reckless endangerment. And i think this falls in the latter

 

A very reasonable price to pay to reduce the chance of making T louder. If 100 more lives had to be endangered for this to happen, it would still be a bargain.

This tape you speak of - how much noise reduction are we talking about? 1 dB?

 

You can search this site for a thread where I joined others to warn people with T to find a way to disable the airbags (that can be as loud as 170 dB, if I remember correctly) in their cars.

Without any hesitation.

My behaviour makes perfect sense for people who agree with me that having to listen to debilitating T for decades is many times worse than death.

 

I didnt know Tinnitus turn people into sociopaths.

But on a more serious note. You should know that Tinnitus is very much a neurological disorder. And the way we think about and sub-consciously perceive tinnitus has a great affect on how "Loud" it is.

The way you let T dictate your life shows that you place T at the very highest priority in your life. Which means your brain will always be anxious and eventually hardwire itself to always look for the sound.

This is the opposite of habitutation and will most likely make any spikes in the future that much more devastating

 

I do...

That ship had sailed a long time ago. I am always monitoring the volume and pitch of The Sound. Perhaps I would be happier if I were not to do it, but I don't really think I ever had that option. This is part of who I am.

 

Same!

 

You consider 100 people dying worth it if it helps you avoid your tinnitus maybe getting worse?

No, your line of thinking makes sense for sociopaths. I think having to listen to debilitating T is worse than my own death. I do not think it’s worse than the guilt of knowing my actions killed someone, especially not anyone I care about.

But, I do not expect you to understand because you have made clear on other threads that your regard is only for yourself.

 

Why do you pay so much attention to your T and not other background noises that are just as loud.

People drive hours everyday and its usually 70-80dB background noise. Pilots fly 12 hours a day with even more background noise. But our brain can filter all of this out and essentially dont hear anything.

So yes its possible to live with loud T and yet still not be aware of it or let it bother you. But with the way you describe your relationship with T, thats not going to happened.

I suggest looking into meditation and mindfullness based therapy rather than actively avoiding little noise in life

 

Before I got T, the first thing I would do upon walking into a hotel room would be to turn off the cooler/fridge.

I can normally stop the other noises by using ear plugs.

I can handle any noise if I know that eventually it will be gone...

I consider "more than 100 people dying with a very low probability" worth decreasing the probability of T getting worse.

Just because evolution made humans altruistic does not imply altruism makes one better off. One has to fight one's natural instincts and do the right thing. I am working on changing my attitude to a healthier one (i.e., assigning zero weight to the well being of others). It is not easy to achieve this state of mind. I envy psychopaths. I envy them a lot.

 

Or just drive vintage cars like I do... No airbags. My passengers already know the risks when they ride with me in my old bimmers.

 

For the love of all that is holly, try to stay as far away as you can when the hood of a car is being slammed shut..................

 

Bill, in all seriousness, I don’t think you should be giving advice on a forum like this full of vulnerable people. I’m glad you wasn’t around when I signed up (and was at my worst) because posts like yours may have done some real damage. I still remember your suicide thread, where you wanted to discuss the best ways for people to kill themselves.

I really feel for you because you obviously need serious help beyond what a forum can provide, and I really wish you would step out of your house to seek it. You need to get your mental health in order as your first priority. At the same time I feel sorry for all the new, nervous, people reading your posts, because the combination of the two is sad to see.

The sound a fridge makes, and a door slamming, for example, is not dangerous, and people should not feel they need to be scared of such things. You are going to give people some serious phobias and other mental issues. Also, urging people to risk their life, and the lives of others by removing batteries from alarms is also wrong on so many levels. It’s toxic advice that can spread quickly through a community; especially when you have thousands of people at their lowest following your every word.

Please seek real help before I go.

 

I believe that your advice is poisoning people's minds and is setting them up for making their T louder (as opposed to actually healing, which is completely possible in most cases, provided one is able to avoid noises). Either you caused your T to become permanent, or you were unlucky and it became permanent through no fault of yours. The problem is that now you are (consciously or unconsciously) trying to get more people to become as sick as you. You are doing that by telling them not to worry about noises that almost every day people here are reporting are giving them serious spikes that slow down or end their healing.

There is nothing worse than wanting to commit suicide and not having the means to do it (or botching it and ending up having even more problems). If you think that suicide can't become the best option one has, then we have nothing to talk about. I am not interested in your religious beliefs.

I am glad I didn't read your posts encouraging insanity when I signed up. Posts like yours have the potential to literally make T permanently worse. Now what?!

I am the last person you need to worry about. I will worry about my well being and you can worry about the well being of your daughter.

This is like saying "being tickled with a feather and being shot in the head are both safe." A fridge is quiet. On three occasions, I experienced spikes following doors slamming. These spikes lasted between three days and something like ten days. I am convinced that we have a limited number of second chances. Get enough of these spikes and you will begin seeing some permanent consequences.

It is good to be scared of scary things that can irreversibly change your life forever (and turn it into a never-ending nightmare) in a matter of seconds. You can ignore reality, but reality is not going to ignore you (nor will you be able to ignore the consequences of ignoring reality).

In my opinion, the above applies to you. Now what?

If you read my posts carefully, you will see that I just made them aware of that option. In this case, it is very clear what the pros and cons corresponding to each of the choices. Nobody is being deceived into doing anything that is not consistent with their preferences and beliefs.

No.

 

I’m being serious @Bill Bauer, you need help. I’m hoping the fact it says ‘hall of fame’ above your name doesn’t convince people that your advice should be followed. A lot of your posts suggest you have deeper issues, and I’m concerned about you. I’ve always advocated protecting ones ears in dangerously loud environments, or simply avoiding them. Removing ones self from the world to avoid the odd noise here and there will certainly do more damage to ones mental health; and will most likely turn ones tinnitus into an obsession. It is not the answer. And Carrying ear muffs 24/7 is a sure fire way to keep your anxiety and paranoia at its maximum; it’s certainly not going to help anyone relax. It’s unlikely that someone is going to accidentally walk into a rave, or a rock concert, without knowing about it in advance. Spikes based on fear are very real, and putting oneself into a state of perpetual fear greatly encourages this. All we need to do is protect where necessary, and avoid obvious dangerous noise. This doesn’t require the kind of drastic action that you suggest.

I’m not trying to argue, I’m genuinely concerned about your behaviour and wellbeing, and that of others on the forum.

 

No need to carry muffs when you are home (assuming your home is quiet). Many people would be anxious if they had nothing to protect them (if they were one false fire alarm away from having no choice but to commit suicide due to debilitating tinnitus). Having protection ought to reduce anxiety.

You are the one with a child - you are the one who needs help.

I don't think I had removed myself from the world. I am also not advocating for anyone to remove themselves from the world. T doesn't have to stop one from traveling.

Your need to make personal attacks against me seem to imply that you are the one with issues.

That hasn't been my experience.

This is nice, but please stop being concerned.

 

I don't think he said this to be mean Bill, he seems genuinely worried about you. No need to do personal attacks here.

 

According to the notification that I received, I got that as a result of receiving 1000 positive ratings. I wish this forum where to allow down votes too. In any case, as it stands, your one down vote (and down votes of a handful of others) are dwarfed by the feedback that has been positive.

 

What part of my post seems to you like a personal attack on Ed?

 

Given Julien's feedback, let me clarify the sentence above. I agree with Karl Pilkington that having a child is like having a disability (in the sense that one can't do things that one would like to do). By definition, a child uses up resources. If anyone needs a leg up, it is a person with a child (and not a child-free person).

 

He needs help because he has a child, what sense does this make?
It sounds like you just replied with a very defensive attitude.

Edit : just saw your last post

 

This is like advice 101 on the quickest way to give yourself an anxiety disorder. Am I in the minority here or what? Muffs on top of earplugs to go shopping? Most of your threads are littered with bad suggestions, but some of the things you say are absolutely terrifying. I know we’ll never come close to agreeing so I’ll leave it there.

 

They say that traffic rules are written in blood. Likewise, every single one of the quotes above are lessons that I learned The Hard Way.

Like I said - I had different doors slam three times around me. These led to spikes ranging from 3 to 10 days (and setbacks as far as my healing was concerned.

A man who was moving a set of metal carts decided to turn those carts 90 degrees when he was close to me. That led to a very serious spike. A plate fell 10 cm onto another glass plate (30 cm from my bad ear) - that resulted in me getting T in my formerly good ear. For 10 months I had T only in one ear. Now I have it in two ears.

I can't think of any reason why you might think that trying to be ready for a fire alarm in advance is a bad thing.

It is ok to take off the muffs (keep the earplugs) when you enter the supermarket.

 

I didn’t understand that either, but he obviously hates kids as he alluded to this in another thread. I don’t see how this is even relevant?

 

Earplugs in a supermarket?

 

It’s when you talk like this that you show physcopathic tendencies. It’s seems you would do anything to protect yourself at the cost of all others, which is a disturbing trait to have. Similar to what you said about disabling fire alarms and airbags. It’s a bit too self serving, and bordering on narcissistic.

 

Earplugs when you are outside of your home (unless you live and work in a quiet rural area where there is nobody around to make loud noises).

I felt good about wearing earplugs at a supermarket on a number of occasions. Screaming kids, supermarket employees throwing frozen fish from the box onto the shelf (it is noisier than this description makes it sound). There was more, but I can't remember those incidents now.

At many stores (Best Buy electronics store, in my case) they use metal ladders that have heavy parts that slam with a horribly loud noise.