Got Tinnitus Nearly 2 Weeks Ago After Going to the Club

Hi everyone, my name is Grace and I'm 21. I went to the club about 2 weeks ago where they were playing music way too loudly and everyone was screaming, and now I have tinnitus. So that's fun. I'm grateful to have a pretty mild case and I'm hopeful that it might diminish or possibly fade away within the next few weeks. I've been avoiding noisy environments and caffeine, and have been trying to sleep a lot and stay hydrated.

Despite my case being mild, I've been suffering emotionally and can't help but think of worst case scenarios and the possibility of the sound getting worse in the future. I've had breakdowns and have been crying every day. It's been brutal. I'm not sure why, but today I got a little motivation back and was able to catch up on laundry and cleaning while mostly ignoring my T.

Both of my ears sound like a bell ringing, but it's much more prominent in my right ear for some reason. I haven't been able to sleep on my right side because it gets wayyyyy louder once my ear hits the pillow. But during the day I can't really hear it.

Although my left ear also has the bell sound, it's faint. What's more noticeable is a high pitched static-y sound. I'm conscious it a lot because the frequency keeps going up and down, like someone is tweaking the pitch every 15 seconds (I'm hopeful that maybe this is indicative of healing?). The sound also feels way closer to my ear/head than it does in my right ear. It's way harder to ignore during the day, which has been annoying and distressing. Weirdly though, I've still been able to sleep on my left side because the sound doesn't get much louder with my ear on the pillow. It's weird.

I've been trying to keep a positive mindset, but it's been difficult for me since I also struggle with anxiety and OCD. I also feel angry that I wasn't properly educated about hearing protection in loud environments like that. I've read a lot about tinnitus within the past 2 weeks, and I can't even count how many people's stories I've read. I'm really not sure if having all of this information is helping me or hurting me--regardless, it makes me feel better to know that I'm not alone.

I will definitely update on my situation if it gets better. Hopefully I'll come out of this with a successful healing story. If not, hopefully I'll adapt to this new reality as time goes on.

If anyone has any advice or other insights, I’d sincerely appreciate it.

 

Hi Grace, I hope your tinnitus gets better "by itself". Some things I'd do if I was in your case;

-Check with an ENT doctor always ASAP, as a first step. If you have access within days, you could ask him on early medication for this sometimes used in the first days -you can do a search on forum for more info, but it all requires you getting to your ENT anyway soon, also to rule out any other ear sickness.

-Check with a TMJ specialist dentist/surgeon. Sometimes the mouth is behind our issues, particularly if it clicks when you bite or could have bruxism - many people with anxiety and ocd do suffer this and are 100% unaware as it happens during sleep.

-Check with a physical therapist. You having anxiety issues is usually very linked to biomechanical or postural issues too.

- Check in half an hour the tinnitus trigger points on YouTube. Worst case is half an hour of self massages, but it could give you some hints of TMJ or neck issues if they're obvious.

Good luck Grace, you deserve healing!

 

@Grace19, I also can't believe there is practically no information out there to warn people for the dangers of loud noise and the risk of damaging one's hearing and developing tinnitus. It's surreal... I had never heard about tinnitus until I got it. People are told over and over and over again about the risk of getting lung cancer as a result of smoking or getting liver cirrhosis due to alcoholism. But the connection between being at loud and noisy environments and getting tinnitus is never explained, not in the media, not at schools, not anywhere. It's simply unbelievable... Maybe it's because society has become more loud and noisy than ever before. The past few decades the volume has been turned up to 10 in cinemas, restaurants, shops, anywhere really. We live in a noise culture, everything must be LOUD, for whatever reason. The authorities who are responsible for educating the people and providing them with information on how to protect their health have been sleeping when it comes to the the human hearing.

 

Hi Grace,

I'm Sarah and I've had tinnitus for nearly three weeks now.

I'm 30 and don't usually got out to night clubs, but I went out to dinner one night for a friend's birthday, got quite drunk and decided to go to a nightclub that is notorious for dangerously loud music. A day later I noticed my ears ringing, but didn't pay much attention because they had rung like that times before where I had been stupid enough not to wear ear plugs. But the ringing had always gone away after a couple of hours.

I hear a high pitch static which I can't pinpoint to one ear, it sounds like it's in my head and it never goes away. Sometimes when I let my anxiety overwhelm me it appears louder and the sounds change; it gets louder and I hear additional frequencies coming in and out. My ears have become super sensitive to noise too.

I've suffered from anxiety since I was a small child, so I can understand how this has shaken your world. It has mine too and some days I find it most difficult to keep going. I focus on it most of the time and it is plaguing my life.

After about a week I was noticing it a little bit less. I was trying to keep myself busy. I find video games have been helping a lot. They require a lot of focus and attention. I've been good for the past week up until a couple of days ago. I've let the ringing bother me again and it's really, really upsetting me again. I'm trying really hard to stay positive and I hope it eventually gets a bit quieter and more bearable.

For me the hardest is sleeping. Especially if I am already distressed. I recently ordered this gimmicky material hairband that has build in ear speakers that you can wear to bed. I'm hoping they will be able to help me relax while I'm trying to sleep.

I am currently waiting to see a hearing specialist on the 10 August who also specialises in tinnitus management. I am just trying to keep myself sane until then. Taking one day at a time.

I hope you are okay. Please don't blame yourself. I know personally it's really hard not to. I blame myself too, but blaming yourself isn't going to make you feel any better right? Shit happens.

Be kind to yourself, and I wish I hope it gets better

 

I wonder why everyone is so strict on not smoking in bars or restaurants, while it's perfectly fine to have clubs playing music at dangerous levels. I simply don't get it. That's just downright criminal. No one will die of lung cancer after one evening in a smoky bar, but for tinnitus only a millisecond of loud noise is sometimes all that's needed.

 

Hi @Grace19, firstly sorry to hear about your symptoms; it's not a fun time at all.

I'm 22 and also found out the hard way what tinnitus was by going to a noisy bar which isn't even nearly as bad as a night club so I feel you on the whole lack of education about these things. In retrospect, even school dances and pep rallies were dangerously loud in high school. It also turned out I knew a good number of people near my age that had it but just never talked about it. It's such an easy problem to avoid with just a little education on the manner.

Fortunately for most people tinnitus at least gets quieter if not disappearing completely, assuming you have healthy ear habits. It may help to start supplementing with Magnesium and antioxidants since they supposedly help this sort of thing but if not, you will be healthier for it regardless.

 

Your experience sounds similar to my experience getting tinnitus from a nightclub ~8 weeks ago (detailed in my post here).

At the two week mark, your decisions on how you take care of your ears will still have a significant of impact on how they heal. The first thing you should seek to do is to calm down -- a big part of tinnitus is how we react to it. By not letting your tinnitus give you anxiety, you'll be able to get more sleep, make better health decisions, etc, which will all contribute to helping you recover.

Depending on your means and life situation, I would take time off to focus 100% on recovery and habituation. Hopefully habituation won't be necessary for you and tinnitus goes away completely, but imo it's a good opportunity to learn how to make peace with something outside of your control and learn how to listen to your body. For me, I took 2 weeks of time off, listened to my tinnitus in absolute silence while doing things I enjoy, and got outside and cycled some great routes on my bike. I think deliberately listening to my tinnitus in silence helped me not only reduce my anxiety to it, but helped me control it and reduce my awareness of it even in complete silence.

Another thing I recommend you do but that is controversial and not widely agreed upon is to avoid using any form of noise masking and live, work, and sleep in absolute silence -- at least early on. I believe that the ears need time to recover from noise trauma, and even a quiet noise such as a fan running next to your bed while you sleep will cause your ears to be active when they should be recovering. This means no masking, no headphones / earbuds at low volume, and no music through speakers.

Buy earplugs that can attach to your keychain. If I ever begin to feel even a little uncomfortable with the sound levels, I just slide them in (say, in a loud conversation with friends or in a meeting) and will pull them out when I feel it's safe to do so. It might feel weird to do the first few times you put them in while in front of other people, but who cares? It's your ears & sanity. Do whatever you need to protect them! Also, the ones I have are transparent, so people rarely notice them unless I point them out.

Lastly, go schedule a hearing test from an audiologist. It's likely you don't have hearing damage from one night out at a club, and the chances are great that you recover if your hearing test results come out perfect as mine did. Knowing I still had perfect hearing went a long way with helping me reduce my anxiety early on.

Hope this helps! Best of luck with your recovery with tinnitus.

 

Don't worry, most cases disappear within 3 months.

It´s too early for you to fall in despair, just don´t stress yourself about it. For the people who have chronic tinnitus there is something going on in the brain.

But you are just in the beginning, hopefully it will resolve withing the next weeks.

Be positive, being stressed can only worsen it. Just think about it that way: you cannot do anything to make it better yourself. So only time and no stress can heal you.

 

Hey Grace. First of all, you are not alone!!! you're older than me... I turn 21 this October, and I have had tinnitus since last October.

Mine isn't noise induced and I am still working with doctors on a diagnosis (I have other issues too, kinda complicated, feel free to read my introduce yourself post... although some of my posts weren't the happiest... I was really going through it). There are many young people with tinnitus from many different causes. If yours is from music, it is likely that as long as you protect your ears, the tinnitus will at the very least decrease in volume and obtrusiveness.

I have a relatively mild case but its only in my right ear, so I totally get how putting that ear on the pillow sucks. I didn't sleep on my side for a while, but also using an air purifier really helped me at night. I no longer have to sleep with a fan, but it really helped in the beginning.

A big thing for me is that dwelling on it isn't good. Even right now... being on here is the most I have thought about my tinnitus in months, but I owed the good people of this forum a chance to see that I am doing better. and you will do better too! Give it time, a lot of time. Keep yourself comfortable. No reason to sit around and listen to your tinnitus, that may come at a later stage (I can sit with mine for a while and be fine). Keep low music on, movies, TV, a fan, anything. Stay active! You got this. This is just one of those annoying human things that happens. Modern medicine will probably have a way to just straight up replace our ears eventually... so that's a thought, too.

Just hang in there. you are NOT alone. Chances are, someone else out there is hearing the exact same frequency as you. Just stay positive and strong. Get checked out by a doc, stay healthy, and do what you love. It is so important.

 

An update:

So I'm 21 and got tinnitus a little over a month ago after going to a loud club. Each of my ears has two different sounds: a lower, more stagnant tone, and a higher tone that sounds like wind chimes or bells. My left ear also has the sensation of static that reappears every 10 seconds-ish then fades away.

Over the past week or so, the high pitched tones have been getting quieter and the low pitched tones have seemed more prominent (not sure if they've gotten louder or if the higher tones were just masking them this whole time). The static sensation has also been less noticeable as the days go on. Overall, the volume of everything has decreased a little bit, but it was mild to begin with so it's hard to tell how much quieter it's gotten. Things have been changing at a glacial pace.

I want to be hopeful that this means it's going away, but I've also heard that noise induced tinnitus can be volatile in the very beginning. Honestly, I worry that it's going to morph into something less tolerable. Though I've been taking good care of my ears, avoiding loud sounds, sleeping a lot, etc. Luckily I'm an unemployed college student and it's summer, so that's been doable for me.

I've been adjusting to dealing with the current sound, and at this point I'm wildly grateful that it's mild and mostly unobtrusive. I know that I could live with this--I've been able to enjoy life again after being severely depressed for the first two weeks. But the thought of the sound changing for the worse really freaks me out.

 

I know what you mean. I'm worried about changing for the worse too. But I'm 4 months into this and it's definitely backed off a bit, even though it still fluctuates up and down.

Hang in there and Keep Calm <3

 

Hi Grace. Good to hear that you're getting some reduction in volume. Things can move very slowly and a month is still quite early, but it looks like you're going in the right direction. Experiences with tinnitus vary considerably - for some people it'll go away after 3 months, 6 months, 1 year, 2 years... The most likely outcome is that it'll continue to fade in the coming months. For most people tinnitus either goes away or reduces in volume materially over time. The important thing is to give your ears rest and not expose them to loud sounds during this healing process. Low level sounds should be fine provided they don't cause you any pain, but listen to your body on this one. Going to clubs, concerts, using ear buds or headphones are likely off the table for now, though the headphones advice has been hotly debated on this site. Wishing you further volume reductions in the coming months.

 

Hi @Grace19, I just found your story.

I developed tinnitus after a rock concert in 2015. I was very anxious about it and always checked if it's still there or not.

After 4 months I started to not give a fuck about it and then it gradually decreased.

After 6 months (I don't remember exactly) I was tinnitus free.

Unfortunately I got a new tinnitus in May 2021 :-( but I hope it will decrease also. I'm still in the panic phase right now.

 

How’s your tinnitus?