Christmas Market — Was That Too Early?

Hi guys,

It's a long(ish) post but I would really appreciate if someone reads it...

So I had a 5 "good days" last week, including 1 day of barely audible T!!! This week was a bit tougher, but I blame final exams related stress. I was getting 7-8 hours sleep, every day!!!

Anyway, I really started to believe that:

1) You can have a perfectly happy life with tinnitus.
2) As long as you are considerate with your hearing, you can get a huge chunk of your "old" life.

And a bit more controversial thought:

3) Even though there is a lot of controversy around "standard" safe levels, 75dB can be considered safe for us for at least an hour or maybe two (substracting 10dB from "standard" levels (2x reduction), and dividing exposure time by 4 or 8 seems like "being on the safe side" for me lol. Anyone disagree?).


When my friend asked if I want to go to Christmas Market, having in mind 1,2 and 3 and knowing there will be no loud music played, I sad "yeah, why not". I don't know why but I love Christmas Market so much! Would be such a shame to not see it this year because of some imaginary sound

Long story short: (loudness approximations, expressed as average/peak)

- 30 minutes walk to city center -> 65/80dB, wore headphones (no music) for those 10dB reduction
- 30 minutes on christmas market -> 75/87dB, wore 33dB foam earplugs, I'm not 100% sure they fitted correctly, but they gave some protection for sure.
- 40 minutes walk home -> 65/80dB, wore headphones (no music) for those 10dB reduction


Now, I have a spike. Slept 2 hours. My ears feel full. My anxiety is of the charts. Crap.


Questions:

- Was that a stupid decision?? Should I blame myself? This was not a bloody club night out, noise levels were reasonable (???), exposure time was reasonable (???). I felt like I might be overprotecting but I wore some protection all the time. What happened?!

Since I'm just 6.5 weeks since onset I feel like absolute crap for going.

- Is there a point in seeking help from GP? I don't think so,. I seriously doubt they will give me prodnisdone, so I don't see a point.

- Are my assumptions wrong? I'm quite confident about 1) but I start to doubt 2). Never really trusted 3)

- What do you do when you have a spike? Give your ears a rest for sure. Use/don't use sound enrichment?

 

Hi @maltese Sorry to hear about your tinnitus spike. Things will calm down believe me. You are still in the very early stages of tinnitus and it does take time for it to calm down and could go away, or reduce to a very low level. What you are going though is not usual and you should try and carry on with life the best that you can. That means doing things that you want to do and not restricting yourself. By all means wear noise reducing earplugs only in noisey environments.

If you have a printer, then I advise you to print my "Positivity posts" in my started threads. I say this because they are a form of "counselling" and refer to them whenever you feel like you do at the moment. Coping with tinnitus, especially in the early days affects our emotions considerably, due to the rollercoaster ride many people find themselves on. It takes a while for the brain to accept the tinnitus and this is why counselling is so important when tinnitus is intrusive.

It is for this reason my post: Tinnitus, A Personal View, is largely based on positivity. This happens with time and cannot be rushed. Looking at the what we are able to do with tinnitus and not what we are "unable" to do will gradually sink into the subconcious and life will become easier and less problematic.

Michael

 

Thats odd, i was at a christmas market on Saturday and didn't wear plugs. I gusss it was a around 70db as well with all the talking going on and some background music. No problem here, i guess everyone has different noise tolerance levels.

With plugs i am sure you did no permanent damage.

 

Micheal, thank you so much for your reply.

Thank you for your calming words. I hope you're right.

I find numbers to be very calming so I developed such a "policy" regarding noise:

<75dB - all good, have fun
75-85dB - wear protection
85dB+ - run for your life

It was meant to be "on the safe side", I didn't want to risk more damage to my ears. But I trust it so much less now.

I haven't thought about it, but it sounds like a good idea!

 

Not that I disagree, but I don't understand. Where does that calculation come from?

The noise levels you indicated seem very reasonable to me. Actually I believe 85 db is fine for several hours without protection.

It looks like you worry too much about this. I would advise you to relax and simply follow the following rule of thumb: only put earplugs in environments where you have to raise your voice in order to be heard by someone next to you (and, of course, when there is a high risk of sudden loud noise)

 

Don't worry your spike will settle! New T certainly is strange. 1 week after onset I wore earplugs (foam) a whole day during a day trip to Trieste in Italy, and when I came home my T was SCREAMING at me. I'm not sure why, but maybe it's because all sounds are blocked out which causes the T to spike (the brains perception of T and yada yada)?

I no longer use foam plugs (I would use them if I were going to a concert or nightclub, but that won't happen in the nearest future lol). I have some filtered ones if I get uncomfortable with the noise levels around me.

Since I stopped overprotect my ears the "reactive" part of my T has become more and more calm. It has even piped down in volume (knock on wood). I'm sure yours will too!

Regarding sound enrichment, I don't use it at night (I can't fall asleep with sounds around me) but I have the window open so it's not completely quiet. However I use sound enrichment during daytime. If I have a spike I just try to lower my anxiety levels, drink a cup of tea and/or go for a walk.

Take care, and try not to worry

 

Pretty much all "safe levels" tables agree on "hearing loss threshold" - 85dB for 8 hours. To be on a safe side, and taking into account my ears might be more susceptible to damage, I decided to go with 85dB - 10dB = 75dB instead. Decibel scale is not linear - a change of 10dB corresponds to 2x increase/decrease of 'actual' volume*, hence those 10dB less should be a more than sufficient safety margin. Decreasing the exposure time is just me being paranoid Better safe than sorry.

You might laugh, but I honestly have no idea what it means xD "Raising my voice" is waaay too vague, some of my friends are American, so they raise their voice all the time (just kidding)

I wanted a number that I know 100% for sure is safe so I can relax easier when meeting with friends If that is not safe, then what is?

Hey Capricornus Mind if I ask what plugs do you use?

Thank you all for your messages, it really helps to not be alone in all of that!


* I'm oversimplifying a LOT. So much it's not really accurate anymore haha. More accurate information for any curious people: http://www.sengpielaudio.com/calculator-levelchange.htm (WARNING: a lot of physics)

 

@maltese I use "Alpine PartyPlug" SNR 17 db. They're transparent! A lot of pharmacies have musician earplugs as well

 

@maltese I strongly advise you to print my positivity posts and refer to them whenever you feel the need. I am not saying this to inflate my ego or to give the impression that I am all knowing because that isn’t the case.
Habituating to tinnitus takes time and the reason for this is because it involves the retraining of the mind, which happens over time. This is why counselling with a Hearing Therapist is so important and can help people that have difficulty accepting and adjusting to tinnitus when it’s loud and intrusive. The counselling helps to take away and demystifies the negative thinking often associated with this condition, and a person starts to look at life more positively.
Michael

 

I know how you feel, I get spikes all the time, after gym, driving a car, even just going out for a walk for 30 mins my ears are blasting when I get home.

They always settle after 30 mins or so. So depressing though.