Bluetooth Speaker Playing Loud Static Near My Ears Caused a Spike — Considering Suicide

My name is Zach. I have had tinnitus since 2018, to which I gradually habituated after months of hell. I am 20 years old.

Last Wednesday, I had a Bluetooth speaker at less than half volume which I forgot was on when I opened a YouTube video with an EXTREMELY LOUD static intro.

Since then, my previously moderate tinnitus has been screaming in both ears. It has been a week, and no improvement. I see my audiologist on Monday, and I’m hoping they can give me steroids to help although I missed the optimal time frame as they were overbooked.

Is there a chance this might return to baseline? If my audiologist says there’s nothing they can do I will probably go ahead and end it.

 

I too have worsening tinnitus due to sustained loud noise on Sunday. I already had tinnitus but now it is louder and shrill.

Would steroids still work for us?

 

I would like to add that my exposure was NOT sustained. This was two or three seconds, max. However, I think we are in the same boat, basically.

 

Welcome to the forum. You seem to have a spike from a new acoustic trauma. There is no need to talk about ending it all. Life is too precious and ending it all is a one way ticket with no certainty of solving the problem. There are many stories on YouTube of people with near death experience from suicide and they said they would never do it again. So from their stories I decided way back when my tinnitus was new and was a nightmare that I would rather soldier on and fight to reclaim my life and I did.

I hope you don't depend on the opinion of an audiologist or ENT for your life or death decision. These folks are not trained to deal with tinnitus in general. So try to post your story in the main support forum and try to read up as many success stories as you can. People do get better over time. It may take months and not weeks as the ears are unstable now and they need time to settle down for tinnitus to go back to baseline. Try masking your ringing if it bothers you. It will get better over time. I never thought I would get better during my worst time but I did and so did many people in the success stories. So read these stories to give you hope for a better future. Take care. God bless.

From Darkness to Light, How I Recovered from Tinnitus & Hyperacusis

 

Hey Zach, extremely sorry to hear about the time you're having. I know exactly how those hellish spikes can feel.

I had a similar situation happen about a year into my habituation process (an unfortunate up-close encounter with a fire alarm I was trying to replace the battiers of) and it went through the same process of dying down to a more reasonable level over the course of the previous year as my initial trauma did. There are plenty of accounts on this forum of acoustic traumas healing up and the spike dying down, one week in honestly isn't too long so you've still got a wide window for natural recovery. Steroids and the like are probably still a good idea and worth trying, but I have confidence you'll heal naturally too.

Don't give up hope! I've experienced suicidal thoughts myself associated with a spike and now I'm so glad I didn't go through with them. It always seems wayyy worse when you're in the thick of it, but acoustic traumas really can be slow pokes when it comes to healing. I have confidence you'll heal.

 

You're very young and have the benefit of time on your side. What you're experiencing is a spike that will subside to your baseline level but you need to give it time. By the time you are 25-30 there will be many advances in the treatments. See the Research News page. Read Success Stories. Talk to a family member or friend. You will get better.