Acoustic Trauma and My Struggle

Hey guys,

First of all, much love to everyone on here. This forum has been a godsend and has given me a lot of hope. I went to an extremely loud concert without ear protection in the beginning of June and had severe ringing and muffled hearing for about 2 days. It subsided and I thought nothing about it. The following week I went to another concert (stupid I know) and then went to an amusement park for the weekend.

The following Monday I sat down to read and thats when I first heard the high pitch EEEEEEEEE in my ear. Then the panic set it. I think I sat on my bed, holding my ears and thinking "I can't live my life like this" for a solid 2 weeks. Lots of dark bad bad bad thoughts.

I've been in and out of the ENT since January for chronic ETD, so I got in about two weeks after the noise exposure. He prescribed me prednisone but told me that I would have this for the rest of my life. That was a tough day. And the prednisone didn't help.

Here I am 2 months later and not much has changed other than my ability to deal with it. I've been avoiding anything loud and it seems to help the intrusiveness. I've also cut out coffee and alcohol as those both make my T much louder. I hope I can fully habituate soon but still have hope that this will pass as long as I protect my ears moving forward.

This is a mental illness and it almost beat me, but we have to fight and stand tall together. Let's keep it positive as most of us are carrying enough negativity as it is. I know I do.

One Love
brownie

 

Did you do an audiogram? Do not do any (DONT) any ear tests or it will worsen permanently. Wait another 8 months and tell me how you feel.

 

@dpdx I had an audiogram that came back normal, nothing else.

 

Did you do above 8khz. DPOAE?

 

@dpdx nope. It was relatively tame

 

Hmmm there is always some hearing loss. My audiogram from October was normal but I damaged some outer cochlea cells.