Acoustic Trauma: 2 Months Later

Hi everyone,

Today's my two month anniversary of noise-induced tinnitus! Unfortunately, I haven't really noticed any changes. I can still only hear it in quiet rooms, which is a blessing. But the fact that it hasn't improved has me a down because I'm worrying that this could be forever and that I will never hear silence again. As a 23 year-old student, I'm finding it hard to cope. It's also impacting my sleep, schoolwork, and my ear/jaw have been painful.

I'll probably try to get out of the house to keep my mind off of this. I'm really hoping for a sign of improvement. The ear fluttering isn't as bad as it was, luckily enough. On the positive side, I've encouraged all of my friends to wear proper ear protection. Hopefully this becomes a hard-learned lesson for me too.

Have a great weekend

 

Is your hearing loss recovering?

 

I never had detectable hearing loss. I've done 3 audiograms and all came back normal (can hear up to around 16k and do not have speech-in-noise issues).

 

2 months is too early
leave it alone please. Mine was like yours and I touched it & now I am dealing with severe tinnitus. Please leave it alone.

 

It's done. You messed up and have a ringing for the rest of your life probably. That's not the real issue however. The real issue, is that you are only 23 when your tinnitus has started. That means you have plenty of time to make it worse and you bet if you're not careful it will, even in the span of a year.

The louder tinnitus gets the worse your life will become. Right now you are understandingly gutted that you have to live with this, but you can only hear it in quiet rooms. It's perfectly livable. If you are struggling with it now, imagine if it gets louder, you will be in for a new hell. Accept that you messed up, see it as a life lesson and move on.

Now I don't mean to sound condescending, but this is the brutal truth, solid advice that most people here won't tell you out of sheer virtual signalling. My advice is what will prevent you from falling of the deep end. They won't be there when you become complacent and it happens. No one will.

Also, when my tinnitus was mild, I remember after having a really good day, my tinnitus was barely audible even while listening to it. It is linked to anxiety to a certain degree. The louder tinnitus gets the less anxiety matters however. Since your tinnitus is mild, you need to relax, accept you fucked up and take very, very good care of your ears from now. It's no different when breaking your leg and not walking on it so it can heal. In this case there is no healing, you just want to keep what you have of your leg.