Finally Decided on a Career in Music... Tinnitus Getting Worse.

First time poster. Figured I'd say hello and give a little background.
I'm a musician. I've played in bands since I was about 15, and I've been going to concerts for just as long. I'm 34 now. I've finally decided to go back to school for music, maybe acquire a job as a sound engineer.

I'm used to a slight ringing in the ears that normally I can usually ignore, and only happen to notice when in complete silence.
Though, for some reason today, It's just persisted, and I haven't been able to ignore it at all.
The level is almost at the same as regular conversational dB level. Though the pitch is somewhere above 5k Hz.
I went to a concert a week ago, but wore ear plugs the entire time. Also, I did do a bit of drinking yesterday.
I'm uncertain if I'm just dehydrated, and that's causing it to get worse, or if something is going on that's caused it to inflame.

I just recently decided to go back to school for music after 15 years in another career.
I'm kind of worried that if my Tinnitus gets worse, I won't be able to make the grade.

 

Sorry about your T. Very frustrating. I am wondering if you are sort of feeling out whether you should really go back to school. I have been thinking of getting into the Library Sciences. That might be a better bet for someone with T. Probably, any environment where it is really quiet.

Magnesium is supposed to protect the ears a bit. Avoid caffeine, sugar, booze. Now I need to follow my own advice, haha.

 

I think you should be fine; there's this guy at work that said he has "Severe Tinnitus" that plays in shows and stuff still. He said it doesn't bother him he said that at first it did bother him but now it's just whatever.
Hope you're having a great day
Ricardo

 

The truth is that even earplugs don't protect from too loud sounds if you have already damaged cells

I found this myself the hard way

They only reduce sound but sometimes the levels and bass isn't going to be sufficiently reduced if it's too long

 

The human hearing wasn't designed in the 20th century - it was designed to withstand the noise levels of 10,000 years ago ... wandering in the nature and listening to wind rain , birds and the occasional cow fart !
not clubbing , concerts , shooting guns or using portable music players all day

Maybe with evolution in another few hundred years humans will have ears that can withstand a lot more loud noise - and use their iPhone 2812s all day to listen to max levels - but thats not us

 

Yes, we are destroying ourselves with our technology. Witness the amount of people here who got T from loud concerts, medicines (biotech) etc. It has its plusses and minuses.

 

It's all part of the Thanatos instinct.