Headphone-Induced Ear Pain and Hearing Loss with Delayed Onset

[waterbird]

I made a very foolish choice. On July 15, I listened to music for an hour straight, even though it was seriously hurting my ears. The volume was only about a quarter of the maximum, so I managed to convince myself that no real damage was being done (how could I have thought that? I am cursing myself every minute).

I took a break, then went back and listened some more. When I went to sleep that night, my hearing was muffled and my ears hurt a lot, but I felt fine the following morning. The headphones still hurt my ears to use, although less so the next day.

I continued using headphones over the following week.

A week after the initial incident, I woke up with muffled hearing, ringing, and pain in my ears.

Now, nearly a month after the original incident, there has been only slight improvement.

This happened while using JBL TUNE510BT headphones.

I am interested in hearing from people who have had similar experiences, especially given the delay between overexposing my ears and the onset of hearing changes. If you damaged your ears with headphones, did you also notice pain?

I want to know if there is a chance I might improve, although I am aware that permanent damage has likely been done.