Have Any of You Warned People About Tinnitus?

I go by bus to attend the morning classes at my uni. It is early, so the bus is really crowded. And there he is, a guy in his twenties, wearing huge earbuds and looking outside the window. The music he is listening to is so loud I can clearly hear repeated hi-hats going 'tss tss tss'. Probably everyone else in the bus can hear it too.

I never bothered before, but just this once.... I walk up to him and poke him gently.

- ever heard of tinnitus? you are damaging your ears.
- go mind your own business buddy.

I am not going to argue with him but it really pisses me off. It happens so often, every week I meet morons like him... There is clearly not enough education about tinnitus. People think their hearing will just become worse. O what I would give away to have my hearing weaker instead of tinnitus.

 

I always warn such people and receive a grin in return.

 

I tell school kids who have their iPods. If I can hear them through their earbuds I will mention the dangers of getting tinnitus. I even take my masking hearing aid out and let them listen to the white noise. I tell them that's what they will be hearing 7/24 if they don't take care of their ears and they usually turn down the volume. I also mention about tinnitus when I sub for a music class. They usually pay attention.

 

Yes, 2 years ago, I warned a super nice woman who worked in my college library. She was planning on taking her son and 2 of his friends to a 2 day long (12 hours both days!!) heavy metal festival in another state. I did not mention tinnitus, because to people who don't know much about it, it would not likely mean anything (certainly would have no impact on the son -- teens are invincible!), but I did warn her about potential hearing damage to her son and his friends. I really tried to stress the damage that much exposure could cause, especially if they refused to wear hearing protection. She had not thought about this and conceded they would never agree to wear ear plugs, and there was no way she could control that sort of thing anyway since she was going to drop them off and go shopping. She ended up cancelling the trip, and told me it was in part due to my warning.

 

Have any of you warned people who are listening to loud ear buds about tinnitus?

This morning I was on an elevator, standing next to a women who was listening to extremely loud ear buds. I told her that she better be careful about getting tinnitus, because I have it.

She responded, "How do you know that I don't already have it?". Yeah, right...

There's usually a line that I don't cross talking to strangers. But in this case, I couldn't keep my mouth shut. Still, I felt sort of weird.

 

Markku -
No problem. I didn't realize there was a similar thread.

Interesting reading these previous comments. The woman who I warned, who must have been in her 40's, was kind of snotty. She works at a radio station in our office building.

Even if she thought I was rude, perhaps I made an impression that will save a few cochlear hairs (or not). People have no idea.

 

Yes, I do warn people whenever I can. They usually listen, but I guess they don't really take my advise seriously.

 

I try and warm people as well, in as positive a way as I can, but if they are like I was 20 years ago they probably won't take any notice either. I just say "you won't understand what I'm saying or even care until it happens, then you'll know". Then I add "I didn't care either until one day I did"

 

Yeah, it doesn't really have any effect to shout 'Doomsday is upon your ears!".
I just did a double interview on the subject of noise limiting in Belgian bars, festivals and concerts. Me being all for this limit and a (young) guy being against. I wish I could trade with that guy for a couple of days, then he would understand…

 

I've taken the time to warn my friends who frequent clubs on the regular with me, another is also a DJ. They understand the risk and they can see how it has had an effect on me but they're just too lazy to bother with ear plugs. That is absolutely is fine with me though, it's their choice and I'm pretty sure I would be exactly the same about it. I think it's just difficult to understand how much it can potentially affect someone's daily activities.

As far as dealing with strangers on the train or bus, I don't bother at all. It's too hard to explain to someone what tinnitus exactly is and how it results from loud noise, and most people just don't want to be disturbed, which again I can relate with.

 

I believe that most people, even if they know what tinnitus is, wouldn't really care much about it because, let's face it, we never think such things could happen to us. I think that telling someone, who is listening to loud music, to turn it down a little because they might get tinnitus is the same scenario as telling a person who consumes products that contain aspartame that they could get a cancer. Tinnitus and aspartame have something in common -- not many people know about it. Anyway, to not get off the subject here, I always warn my friends, family members and acquaintances, but not complete strangers.