Everybody Is Different When It Comes to Tinnitus and Hearing Protection

Upon acquiring noise induced tinnitus, I've spoken to multiple people in my life. Several claim to have it.

One of them, my own dad. "Join the club. You'll learn to live with it like I did. I've probably had it 20 years."

This is the first time I heard him ever mention it.

My wife's parents divorced so I have 2 father in laws. (Both great guys). One of them was a mechanic and then contractor most his life and he has noise induced tinnitus. He also said to get used to it, it'd probably be for life.

Another older friend in his late 60s is an airline mechanic who also I never heard mention it until I recently got it.

Speaking with my wife's dad, (who doesn't have tinnitus) he made a good point. Saying you have tinnitus to some people is like saying you have back pain. Everyone chimes in that they too have back pain. But that can vary wildly.

What made it so evident was when I attended the fireworks for July 4th recently. My dad, wife and friends all went. I wore 32 dB foam ear plugs and 3m heavy duty ear muffs over that. I offered them to everyone. My dad says "why would I want that?".

It's so obvious some people don't get it.

All the guys mentioned here I've offered ear plugs for loud situations and they all say na I'm good. Trust me, I now know how crucial it is to protect your ears.