Acoustic Trauma from a One-Day Music Festival → Persisting Symptoms: Constant Tinnitus and Earache

In September 2023, my life was going great in every way. However, my decision to join a group of friends for a one-day music festival changed everything.

I got to the festival a little late, and joined them towards the front of the field, but still a distance back from the stage and speakers. The music was loud and long. Everyone was fine and having a good time. We were there for five to six hours, with very short breaks between bands.

At a number of moments in the day, I thought "that music is too loud for me", but everyone else was fine and having a good time, so I brushed off the thoughts and stayed with the group. I had never attended a concert or gig or music festival before. I had no idea what the consequences could be...

Subsequently, for the past three months, I have been suffering from acoustic trauma and constant tinnitus. My hearing disappeared at the start, but has largely returned. I have had sound sensitivity. I currently have constant earache and constant tinnitus. It has been the hardest, most stressful thing that I have ever been through in my life. I have despaired of my life. Everyone else was fine. Apparently I have (or did have) sensitive ears.

My main questions for the community are whether acoustic trauma, noise-induced tinnitus, sound sensitivity and loud noise earache resolve successfully, given time?

I know that there are no definite answers, that everyone's story is different, and that I can only give things time.

I write this nearly three months after this all happened on September 9th, 2023. I may give further updates to help others, who may be going through something similar.

Any thoughts or advice on my situation are very welcome.

 

Hi, I'm sorry you're dealing with this. You can check my post history for information on my case. I am also suffering from tinnitus caused by acoustic trauma (music festival). I've had mine over a year now. It has largely improved but I still have ringing.

Everything I did to try and mitigate the damage is documented in my posts if you want the information.

Best of luck and stay strong. You're under six months in so it may still go away. For some people it can take two years to go away.

EDIT:

I just realized you've commented on my post before. Lol.

Well, there are ideas there. Supplements. Possible connection to HPPD (in terms of what changes in the brain cause it and how they could possibly be reversed).

I think it's possible for it to go away but I haven't quite worked out how and neither has my brain yet.

Don't lose hope though.

 

Hi @Blackbird1016, thanks for the message.

Your story is one that I definitely relate to.

At the moment, my main battles are:

• Getting used to slightly impaired hearing
• Coping with ear discomfort
• Tinnitus
• A loss of confidence in my hearing
• A concern about how to keep my ears safe

Three months ago, I didn't have any of these issues, but now they occupy my mind all of the time.

I am trying to keep a semblance of normalcy to my life, but it isn't easy to do. My life is a shadow of what it was before.

Your advice to stay strong and not lose hope are welcomed. I have felt very much the opposite, for the past three months...

It is good to read your posts and sense the hint of hope.

 

@Blackbird1016, I just had one further question.

Since my acoustic trauma at the music festival, I am just not hearing as well as before (which makes me very sad)...

I can still pass an audiogram somehow (maybe my hearing was excellent before or maybe the audiogram is not a good measure of hearing).

The world somehow sounds much duller though.

I just wondered, with your recovery, did you notice any improvement in the sharpness and the clearness of your hearing, over time? Or perhaps not?

Thanks for any thoughts.

 

Although there are no guarantees, most acoustic trauma induced tinnitus will resolve itself in 12-24 months.

20 or so years ago I was exposed to extremely loud power equipment for about an hour. My ears literally were in pain, and I developed screaming loud piercing tinnitus, pain, fullness, and sensitivity to noise. I was suicidal and thought my life was over.

Well, everything resolved itself in about 18 months and my tinnitus faded to zero. The problem was that it left my ears vulnerable to loud sounds, and I need to be careful. I must use earplugs if I go to places that are too loud (casinos, large gathering, bars, even singing in church, etc) or my tinnitus spikes back, which can last for weeks or months.

You will probably start to see some slow improvement after about the 6-8 month stage, and it will be a very gradual fading. It will take many months, but I think in a year from now it will be noticeably better, over time (2 years?) it could be unnoticeable.

You must always protect your ears from now on, no earbuds and no concerts without full ear protection.

 

Thanks for your message, which gives me hope.

I relate especially to the part where you wrote:

"My ears literally were in pain, and I developed screaming loud piercing tinnitus, pain, fullness, and sensitivity to noise. I was suicidal and thought my life was over."

I am at the three month stage and feel like I have ruined both my hearing and my life. I envy all the sensible people who still have two good ears. I keep thinking that I only did what everyone else did, but I realise now, that I needed to know the risks, and listen to my own body...

I especially feel like my left ear is hearing less well, which is upsetting.

The thought that things could still improve gives hope, even if the timescale is long, three months has felt like forever.

I especially want the ear discomfort to resolve, and of course the tinnitus...

Protecting my ears from loud noise is another challenge. Can I attend that party, or that night out, or attend church with the loud music, can I play my violin or not... I guess that the thought is that I will now need to take my earplugs.

I never thought that I would have suicidal thoughts, but I have, quite frequently...

I never anticipated that I would doubt my Christian faith, but I have, quite frequently too... Why has God allowed this to happen?

It has been hugely disruptive to my life.

I have been offered antidepressants.

I know that my hearing isn't as good as before.

Hopefully, I will start sleeping again soon.

Thanks for the encouragement just to give things more time, and to hope.

I will pray for my recovery - although as mentioned, faith feels hard when bad things happen. However, faith prior to this, has been my joy too.

 

Unless it happens fairly quickly, tinnitus usually doesn't actually go away - recovery usually means people are able to live with it without as much duress - they habituate and just try to live their lives the best they can.

My tinnitus has just gotten worse over the years and hasn't improved since it spiked to a new level 22 months ago. I would say it's even worse, and it's still causing anxiety.

Antidepressants have helped a lot of people, especially early on. I haven't had any luck with them personally, but it's worth considering if it's making such a large impact on your life.

 

Yes, it seems like a long time, but this will be a long recovery. Ears take forever to heal.

Lots of people have these thoughts at first, but I promise what you have now will not be what you have a year from now.

Don't take an antidepressant as some can actually cause tinnitus.

A noise machine with rain sounds helped me a lot for sleeping.

 

@jjflyman is the man and bearer of hope! I truly hope my experience will be similar to his.

I am 11 months in and despite setbacks (which can be beyond horrible), I do believe I am improving, and that's with hearing loss.

 

@jjflyman, thanks very much for the message and the encouragement to give things a good amount of time and to be hopeful. I will try my best to do this, and to fight off my frequent thoughts of despair.

As well as the physical issues, I am also mentally tortured, by my failure to protect myself at the music festival... something that I could easily have done with hindsight, if I had been aware of the risks, and if I had listened more carefully to my ears. I would do anything to have that day again, and for my hearing to feel normal again...

@gameover, glad to hear that you are experiencing improvement too. I know from your posts, that you have had a difficult time, so it is encouraging that you are recognising some improvement too. I relate a lot to much of your journey.

I am wrestling with my Christian faith too. Why would the God who loves me, allow this to happen...? Why?

I am meeting with Occupational Health at work, in a couple of weeks, to discuss my fitness for work. Another concern is losing my job.. I will see how this goes.

No time to mention the sound sensitivity issues that I now have too.

Festivals should be required to advise the audience on how to listen safely.

 

I absolutely know that feeling my friend. I think you will find almost all the members here have terrible regrets about how they got tinnitus, almost all of us got it because of someone else's carelessness or we just didn't know about tinnitus.

I wish there was more education about tinnitus, I had never even heard of it before I got it, and none of my family had heard of it when I tried to explain what happened, so nobody could understand the torture I was in.

 

Thanks for the message and for the empathy. Tinnitus, and in my case acoustic trauma too, can be very heartbreaking conditions. I agree, much more needs to be known about them before people get them.

I have just a further question. Hope that it is okay to get your thoughts.

Three months on, after the acoustic trauma that I suffered at the music festival, my hearing still feels very muffled.

I know that you mentioned about giving things time, perhaps a year or more to improve. Is this just in regard to the tinnitus? Or do you have any thoughts on whether my muffled hearing might improve too?

I also now have unbalanced hearing as well, but I am guessing that that isn't likely to get fixed.

In amongst it all, I can still pass an audiogram, even though my hearing feels so far from what it was.

Thanks for any thoughts about muffled hearing.

 

I can't speak specifically about muffled hearing, but after my first trauma (20+ years ago from very loud power equipment) my symptoms were: pain, fullness, extreme tinnitus with multiple tones (piercing ring, ring, hum, hiss, etc) and extreme sensitivity to noise. Basically it was a catastrophic injury. All this cleared up and faded away to nearly zero in about 18 months.

I suffered a second bad trauma about 6 years ago from an outdoor church concert (I stupidly did not wear earplugs.) That trauma was not as bad and cleared up about 90% in 2 years, but did leave me with mild tinnitus, mostly hissing.

 

Sorry, I did not see this earlier.

Yes, I did. My acoustic trauma was very severe immediately after the incident.

I had aural fullness in both ears, pain, my ear canals felt wet all the time (I still do not know why this was), and I could not hear properly (muffled hearing/everything sounded lower than normal). Especially out of my right ear. My right ear was affected more than my left. I don't know why.

This went on for about 2 months. I took two rounds of Prednisone during this time which I believe helped. There are mixed opinions on whether or not this is good to do or does anything. The exact doses are in my original write up on my profile.

I avoided all loud noises and basically stopped doing everything but work. I quit alcohol and caffeine. Did not go to any cafes, bars, restaurants, concerts, parties. It was hard. I ate very healthy. I didn't listen to anything loud and used earplugs when I had to. I did still have sound exposure, i.e. low volume TV, sound enrichment, etc.

I used a lot of Valerian root tea to try and sleep. I took NAC. I don't know if it really did anything.

I can remember being very frightened after going to Target and realizing I could not hear what people were saying to me, especially out of my left ear.

It resolved after 2-3 months. Slowly and not all at once. I do not have aural fullness at all anymore, my ear canals do not feel "wet", I do not have any pain, and my hearing returned to what I would call normal despite the ringing.

My acoustic trauma was severe and my hearing did recover. I'm 31. I was 30 when it happened. So not very young but I think my age was on my side as well.

Just really baby your ears, avoid loud places, get as good of sleep as you can, and eat clean (low inflammation). I would think your hearing will recover if it was just a festival that damaged it.

Since you're saying you are at three months and it is still bad, I would try to see a doctor. The symptoms you're mentioning do have treatment options. It's really only tinnitus they don't treat. Hyperacusis can be difficult as well.

If you can't get to a doctor, I'd look at your diet. Make it really clean, immune boosting and anti-inflammatory. Maybe take a break from alcohol for awhile if you drink. If you take any medications that are ototoxic (damage ear cells), try to get off them or find a brand or alternative that isn't ototoxic. I've stopped taking Advil at all even when I have my period. People think I'm nuts but I'm just not willing to risk it.

The body is always trying to heal and return to homeostasis so don't lose hope. I like to think it just needs time and the right environment to recover.

Hi - your first acoustic trauma - you suffered ringing and it resolved? Did you do anything in particular to help with that? If you did have ringing, how long did it last?

I agree. Are you in the US? I want to do something about this. Most of the people I've spoken with think it's impossible but I don't think it is. It should be illegal to hold concerts and festivals without a warning.

What's even crazier is that the roadies, sound tech, etc have Unions and laws to attempt to protect the workers from sound damage, and the musicians are also aware of it, but the crowd is left to rot.

It really left a sour taste in my mouth about the music scene and frankly I'm out for blood if I can get it. Especially with the electronic music. These people are careless with a very delicate and important aspect of their patrons well-being in the name of making money.

They've got crowds of young kids with no idea what damage they could be doing to themselves on a bunch of booze and drugs, blowing their ear drums out.

It really feels less like hippy dippy magic and more like a crime when you see it that way.

 

Thanks @jjflyman and @JJJ147.

Both of your stories are very encouraging, and give hope that time is the medicine. I am noticing this in my own experience, with each passing week.

Thanks very much for sharing.

Thanks very much for the message, and for the advice on taking care of ears, whilst they heal. Three and a half months on, I have had more progress. My ears feel about 90% fine. I still have tinnitus, but it is getting much quieter. Very encouraged by this.

Yes, I totally agree with your point about the need for something to be done regarding loud noise awareness at music festivals.

I am based in the UK, and I have tried to raise this with the festival organisers, the Health and Safety Executive, the Local Authority, my Member of Parliament, the Secretary of State for Culture.

Every single individual and organisation has told me that this issue isn't their responsibility. It is very frustrating. No-one seems remotely interested in doing anything about it, even though with action, completely avoidable hearing damage could be prevented. I hope that you make some progress on this issue in the US.

 

Yes, I had horribly loud, piercing ringing, and loud humming. It did fade away to zero or near zero in about 18 months. Very slow improvement that was only noticeable in months, not days or weeks.

 

Thanks. It's quite ridiculous the way people look at it as "just ringing"...

This is nice to read as I'm holding onto hope I could still improve some.