Greetings! 23-Year-Old, Tinnitus for One Week, Possibly from Loud Sounds Through Headphones

Hello everyone. I am new to this forum. I started getting tinnitus in my right ear including some slight hearing loss just about one week ago. I don't know exactly what triggered it, but I suppose my habit of listening to music & watching videos online with my headphones on has ended up damaging my hearing :/

I have been lucky though, it's not a very loud sound (high pitched, but faint) however I can still hear it at all times unless I mask it with other sounds from my headphones.

I am new to this experience, I'm not sure how to handle this. I hope I can make it better by not listening to any loud sounds anymore, but I fear it is too late.

I am 23 years old, and I am a little discouraged by my tinnitus. I hope to live a long life and having to cope with the fact that I might have bad hearing and tinnitus in my right ear forever is hard to accept.

Wishing you all a very nice day and thanks for reading my introduction

 

Hey there and welcome.

Since your tinnitus is probably noise induced, you will first want to avoid all noise sources that can make it worse. This ensures that you still have a good chance that it will fade on its own (over the next months, maybe up to two years).

It is often suggested here that listening to music through earbuds or headphones can make it worse. Some users have experienced this and as such I would consider the advice of not using them anymore. Use computer speakers or something like that instead. Also obviously loud concerts, cinemas, clubs etc. are a problem and you have to decide whether to keep going with hearing protection or skipping them totally. Hearing protection is not a guarantee that you won't get a worsening. It all depends on your susceptibility. Some people can go to loud concerts for decades without hearing protection, others get problems even with hearing protection after just a couple concerts. I will stress that you do NOT want a worsening. There is mild tinnitus such as yours now that has little to no effect on your life quality (after some time to get used to it), moderate T that comes with a noticeable drop in life quality (but definitely manageable) and severe tinnitus that will make you want to quit life.

Good thing is that in 3-10 years we can expect some sort of cure/treatment for hearing problems and tinnitus. Things are looking pretty optimistic. Until then, try your best to not worsen your tinnitus. You have to decide on your own how much risk your willing to take. As somebody who has experienced a worsening after taking just a small risk (it was bad luck / lack of experience) I will tell you that no amount of fun is worth the risk of getting a worsening (even if the risk is small).

 

Welcome. Sorry this has happened to you, believe me I know it's a tough pill to swallow.

There are a number of supplements that people have had varying degrees of success with reducing their tinnitus and even getting a little hearing back. I thought I'd let you know as you're still in the early days when they'd probably be most effective.

NAC
Curcumin
Magnesium
Astaxanthin
NAD+
B12 (or B complex)

As Sevv pointed out, we are awaiting the first generation of regenerative medicine (3 to 10 years). Head over to the research news section and check out FX-322. You may not be stuck like this forever. If your ears don't heal on their own, there is hope in the future.

 

Tweedleman, would you recommend taking all of these supplements? Or only one during any period of time, etc.

 

I'm currently taking all of them. I didn't start all at once, only because I didn't know about them all. It can get expensive, especially the NAD+, but seeing as I'm not spending any money on alcohol or other vices anymore I said screw it. If you had to choose just one I'd probably start with the NAC. I couldn't tell you if it's best to take one or a few supplements at a certain time, although my guess is it probably doesn't matter. The fewer you take the easier it will be to attribute any positive gains to, though.

 

Thanks for the comments. I will keep your tips in mind.

 

So, last time I posted on this forum it was right after I had first gotten tinnitus and signed up for my account here on Tinnitus Talk. Since then I went rogue and never posted or particularly lurked. Mostly due to the fact that I wanted to cope with this whole thing alone. Now that I've had tinnitus for 8 months I figured it that time to put my story of dealing with/coping with what I would myself describe as moderate tinnitus. Moderate as in, I can hear it at all times except when I'm in noisy environments. It affects me to a noticable degree, and I don't have a single day that I'm not actively dealing with this problem. However, before I get into that I'd like to start off from the beginning.


I first noticed I had gotten tinnitus when I woke up one morning in march. I was just getting settled in at my home office (I work with tech support) when I noticed I had a hissing sound in my right ear. I thought it was pretty odd and decided to put on some relaxing water sounds from YouTube to try to ease of the problem. 5 minutes... then 10 minutes... then 20... minutes. It didn't help at all. I resigned the idea of relaxing my ears to calming sounds and turned of all sounds and only used my headphones for talking with customers.

1 day later. 2 days later. 3 days later. No improvement. Same exact problem. Same exact sound. A very very high frequency sound stuck in my right ear on repeat that never ceases. At this point it is affecting me emotionally.
I am getting increasingly stressed out and annoyed at the whole situation. I start getting chills all over my body, I'm feeling really on the edge. It feels like my body is in a huge distress from not being able to stop the sound in my head. I start taking painkillers before going to sleep to calm myself, I did this for several days because I felt to uneasy about this whole thing. Eventually as things continued to not improve I started crying due to being unable to properly handle the tinnitus. I am not a tough guy by no means but I am not one to cry easily, I have a background of being bullied & carrying mental illness & all the negative shit associated with that. So I know how to handle issues in life, but this tinnitus situation got me deep in trench.

Unfortunately things got worse. Roughly 1 or 2 weeks after I got tinnitus in my right ear it slowly started to ring in the left ear too. Despite me being super paranoid about sounds and not listening to any loud music or noise whatsoever.
It started incredibly feint, then it got gradually worse until it reached the same level as my right ear. From there on (at least so far) it has since been stable in both ears.

Looking back at this early period of coping with T it is obvious that the first few weeks was the hardest part to deal with. Eventually I realized I had to change my mindset if i were to ever be able to properly handle living with tinnitus for the rest of my life. After having cried 3 times I decided that that was it. No more crying, no more being sad. I'm going to accept this tinnitus for what it is and do my best to move on.

"I do not want to live a life being sad. It has no use."

That quote was playing in my head that night I felt the worst. After I said that to myself I slowly started to change my mindset and start with what I can control and what I can control the easiest. I found back to things that made me feel relaxed, like going for walking trips, bicycle trips. Playing easy to play games and watching TV. Engaging my self with these activities again helped me realise that I can control my mind enough to at least maintain a healthy level of contentment.

Fast forward to June of this year. I finally get an appointment with my ENT after waiting for two months. They take me in a for a screening of my ears and an audio test. My ENT specialist said my hearing test was almost flawless and that he did not find any evidence suggesting I have any hearing damage whatsoever. I then asked him how come I can get tinnitus at just 23 years of age with perfect hearing and no hearing damage. To which he basically replied that not everybody
who gets tinnitus gets to find a reason why they get tinnitus.

So here I am, sitting here in November 2020 typing this out. I am dealing with tinnitus just fine, my life will never go back to being "normal" again, but I refuse to stand down to tinnitus.

I will never kneel to tinnitus.

I will never let tinnitus control my life.

Lastly I'd like to show my respect to all of you who have severe tinnitus, I may seem overly dramatic in my description of tinnitus considering I "only" have moderate tinnitus, but it is what it is.

I could go on for much longer than this but I am not writing a book here. Just voicing out my otherwise unheard thoughts.

 

I am pleased that you are feeling much better Janni. Something usually causes tinnitus and your first post to this forum, mentioned you suspect headphones caused it. Headphones/earbuds use are the most common causes of tinnitus.

I would like to give you some advice and if you follow it you could save yourself a lot of heartache and misery in the future. You are fortunate that the tinnitus is moderate at the moment and I hope it remains this way and ideally improves with time. You have also said that "You will never kneel to T or let it control your life". You have been fortunate but please don't think tinnitus is a simple thing as some people do because you have recovered in a very short space of time.

Tinnitus can be a seriously debilitating condition and believe me when I say, it can make you Kneel if it is severe enough. In order for this not to happen, I strongly advise you never ever use headphones, earbuds or a headset again even at low volume. In addition to this keep away from overly loud sounds. Please do not think wearing earplugs even high-end musician types will protect you from loud sounds at clubs or concerts in the future because they wont. If the sound is too loud it can cause mild or moderate tinnitus to spike and increase to a new permanent level.

I am telling you this because I have had tinnitus for 24 years and unlike you it is not mild all of the time. It can reach very severe levels, however, I have habituated and visit this forum and others to try and help people as I was once helped. If you return to using any type of headphones even at low volume, you may find that your tinnitus will increase perhaps not immediately but it might, to a level that you wouldn't think possible and remain there; and I assure that it has the potential to make you kneel. Please see this as a friendly warning and don't think because your tinnitus is now moderate you are out of the woods because nothing more could be further form the truth. The tinnitus is there, just waiting to strike the moment you think all is well and you can start using headphones or listening to loud music, then the sordid nightmare will return with a vengeance that you wouldn't believe possible, and you may not get off so lightly as you have this time.

Take care and I wish you well.

Michael