Hello, Musician with Tinnitus

Chaise Wilson is the name.

I am a musician who was gigging on a regular basis with no ear plugs of course. The straw that broke the camels back was a small hard rock club concert I attended last April. Stood too close to the speakers and woke up with my ringing that has never gone away. My quality of life has decreased significantly since, and my life dream of playing music with my band is ever more difficult now that I have this condition.Hearing is still in pretty good shape as my audio grams put me at a normal level when tested. However the ringing and hyperacusis damn near drive me mad.

i would rate my t at about a 4/10 I can mask it most of the time, but I can always find it if I look. The hyperacusis irritates me far more than the T does, but i realize it is all from the same source.

I joined a couple other boards before finding this one, other boards just tell you to learn to live with it. I see here you folks are investigating possible cures! My kind of people.

I currently am still playing music but always wearing er-20's custom earplugs... experimenting with magnesium to try and lessen my T. I have also been researching stem cells and would eagerly try them for hearing loss as soon as treatment becomes available. Any other advice from you folks? Any avenue of relief?

Thank you for any help, and I look forward to participating on the board!

 

Hello Chaise,

Nice to see a fellow musician visit tinnitustalk forums! I do not have hyperacousis myself, but I have read that generally it's a condition that goes away over time. The best advice I have found others mentioning was to avoid wearing earplugs all the time, and gradually expose yourself to louder sounds (still safe levels, of course) to get used to them.

I have a question to you - I would say my tinnitus isn't much of a problem to me except for few specific situations:

- going to sleep, I put my head on a pillow, covering one of the ears;
- I wear foam earplugs;
- I wear headphones/ear monitors.

Basically, anything that covers my ears and mutes the environmental sounds causes my tinnitus to be MUCH more noticeable. You said you use musician earplugs, don't you have this problem while performing?

I have also become a bit paranoid about volume levels on stage, to the point I started using industrial-grade ear protectors... I may look kind of silly but I want to make sure the T doesn't get worse. The problem is, while wearing the protectors, my T again becomes much louder. Recently I've been to a fairly large venue and volume levels could easily reach 90-100dB there. Thanks to ear protectors, I had no problems hearing my T loud and clear...

Do you take any other safety steps besides wearing ER-20's ?

Regarding stem cells, I have great hopes in this field of medicine. This is our great chance! If stem cells do work, then we will have treatments for majority of diseases known to mankind. It might also help those with tinnitus, if there is hair cell damage involved. Who knows, time will tell!

 

I also have some of the same problems that you described. When I lay down to sleep is when it bothers me the most. I lay my head on the pillow and it cancels out all the other noise but the Tinnitus.

I wear my ER 20's whenever I am in a situation of loud noises such as mowing the grass, running power tools, shooting when hunting ect.

When I first put the earplugs in and there isn't loud noises it greatly increases the volume of the Tinnitus. However When the music fires up it masks the sound of the tinnitus for the most part. I also im very paranoid of furthering my damage, I feel the er-20's providing a 20 db reduction should keep me fairly safe. But every now and then if I jam for extended hours or I attend a extremely loud concert, even with the ear plugs in my ears will feel fuller than normal and a bit fuzzy afterwards. They never ring like they used to when I never wore plugs, but I worry I might still be making it worse. I would love to wear the industrial foam ones( a 30 db reduction) but when I used them I could barely hear myself play or the music. The big foam ones are just too much to a try and gig with imo.

 

I'm taking vitamin A, C, E, Magnesium, Folic Acid and Ginkgo Biloba. I want to perserve my perfect hearing on my right ear as I get older. Ginkgo Biloba is trial and error. I'm waiting to see in six months to see if it works.

I worry about listening to music now. I'm afraid to crank it up. I always enjoyed listening to music but it strange they use sound to mask the tinnitus.

 

I just had the molding done last week for my custom plugs.

The only difference on mine though is that I have the option to put in a 25 db filter rather than a 20db. I also ordered a 15db filter (apparently the filters pop in and out easily so you can swap) for when I am playing with acoustic or low volume type bands.

After reading your post though I guess I need to consider how the T will mix with the music coming through the earplugs.

I've also been experiencing the hyperacusis Chaise for a bout two months now. It's definitely crazy and has made me re-evaluate how I mix audio ... this weekend was the first time I tried to "muscle through it" when we had some friends over for dinner. The conversation got really loud/ boisterous..etc. and for a moment there I thought I was going to have to excuse myself because it was really tough to focus. Then I just decided to focus on the conversation and see if I can still enjoy myself and it worked out pretty well. It was still painful/sensitive (however you want to describe it) , but I'm glad I stuck around and I hope I can push through more of these types of scenarios so I can get used to the louder sounds again.

I still haven't gigged yet so I'm sure that will present a some interesting challenges.

 

It might be obvious but remember to have your hearing protection during sound check already. I forgot mine at first and learned the hard way

 

Yeah for sure. I doubt I would go anywhere near an amp or sound system without the plugs. I don't even step outside without noise isolation earbuds (not playing music through them) Thx Fish!

 

I too am suffering from loud music,not sure if I will ever play again due to this tinnitus,but live in hope. Its nice to see people being positive and still playing.

 

I think sound check is the most dangerous part of the music hobby.It's precisely that moment where you can have feedback loops or baldy wired equipement that can create loud noise.

I learned it that way too when an old vintage guitar amp "farted" loudly in my left ear while eq'ing it.

 

What a valve amp?

 

A lot of us are paying the price of it I think, I just wish I had used ear plugs when I was giging for years

 

it wasn't even a valve amp, just a rubbishy transistor amp...

 

This is an old thread I found by searching Google... are there any remaining musicians here on the forum? How do you cope? I hate wearing the earplugs. I dont know what to do anymore

 

Do you have custom molded earplugs? Depending on the music style you make they attenuate, but don't muffle the sound like the foamies do.

 

Yes I have them. I still hate wearing them. I feel disconnected to everything.

 

Wonder how op is doing?

 

Hi, as of now I'm 27, been dealing with Tinnitus since New Year's Eve (2014-2015) while standing next to a huge column of speakers for about 30 minutes. Also been in a band since I was 21, rehearsing at really high levels and playing shitty shows with debilitating noise levels. I am still in the band, have quite a few shows and rehearsing regularly. I got my self some musician ear plugs about 6 months after the trauma (only -9db) but I just CAN'T wear them. I sing and play guitar so I lose every frequency that counts.

Daily struggle includes : not ever going to sleep without sleep-aids, anxiety and ear-pain.

That was my exposé, I don't have any specific questions except, should I quit music ? I have a plan B but I feel like I'm going to ''survive'' my life if I don't play music. But music is being mean with me because of my ears... Any tips to hear yourself while playing shows while wearing earplugs and/or tricks to get you to sleep are also welcomed

HATE THAT TINNITUS/ why did I get so fucked up on December 31st, 2014

 

@JackPistol Do not play in a band without wearing ear plugs. Your hearing and T will get worse. I just did a gig the other day but I had the ear plugs in. I was fine. Could hear everything. I was singing and playing keys. everybody wears plugs these days.

 

@Robert44 thank you man, I guess I'll have to get used to it, haven't been able in 2 years....it takes so much out of my already thin confidence, it's a doozy

 

Tried in-ear monitors?

 

I agree, read the tinnitus comment from Coldplay's Chris Martin.