How to Convince My Brother to Stop Using Headphones in Order to Protect His Hearing?

Hi.

I don't want to look like a hysterical kind of person but I am just trying to adapt to harsh reality. My tinnitus brutally worsened after I bought headphones and used them for one day on lowest volume. This is a fact. Ok, maybe it wasn't caused by headphones, but who knows? I haven't had problems with abnormal tinnitus when I didn't use them. And now, suddenly after one day of using them, this happens.

On the other hand, there is my brother. He has used his headphones for years. He has them on his head many hours every single day. He uses them primarily to Discord etc, but he also listens to music, but not normal music, but "bass boosted" kind of music. And since it is about bass, I suppose he listens to it loudly.

He is younger than me and he doesn't report any tinnitus at all. However, I also didn't have tinnitus at his age (but I hadn't used headphones/earbuds at all back then). And because of that, he totally doesn't understand what tinnitus and related ear problems are. He knows I have tinnitus (although he doesn't understand what it is), and he knows it happened to me after a single use of headphones, yet he still ignorantly uses headphones despite that. He even acts like a total asshole and make super loud noises because he always accidentally drops something etc. When I tell him it might give me spike (it never happened but who knows), he just laughs.

I know that I might not have noise-induced tinnitus. He is more physically active than me and has much straighter spine than me (therefore I might have C-spine induced tinnitus) but what if not? There is no diagnostic tool that would confirm that someone's tinnitus is noise induced.

I also know that young people don't give a F about tinnitus and hearing problems. Because it seems unreal for them. They act like "yes, surely listening to one Ed Sheeran song on lowest volume will give me tinnitus and dysacusis, take meds schizo". Well, I will probably take those meds because I listened once and I have raging tinnitus that is absolutely real unfortunately.

I really don't want my brother to end like me. And I'm really scared because he uses headphones like 10000 times more than me. Help me please.

 

I understand the concern that you feel for your brother Stanlex and you are right to warn him of the dangers of headphones. However, providing he uses them at level that isn't too loud there is no reason for him to stop using them. Since he is a long term user of headphones, on occasions he's probably listened at a higher volume than he should, it's likely he already has tinnitus albeit at a low level that his brain is able to dismiss it quite comfortably. Therefore, my advice is just to say try not to use them at too high a volume nor for long durations and leave it at that.

If you keep on at him about headphone use, there is the danger that he might start listening for it. In doing so the brain is likely to focus on the tinnitus that I believe is already there and it will bring it to the forefront of his mind and make itself known. Please don't think it can't happen because it can. You have done all you can to help him so now just let the matter rest. That is my advice.

Regarding your tinnitus, please don't think it can't improve because it can with the self help or get a referral to an Audiologist that specialises in tinnitus management. I have written many posts on this that you will find on my started threads.

Take care
Michael

 

Tell him he should always use 75% at most or end up like you and have an area in the house blasting your T and roughly your volume for a week.
100%and further with amp or pushing treble with equilizers is extremely unsafe especially given he could be genetically predisposed like you.
My brothers got a wake up call. I think they keep shit low now ever since seeing their big brother who was a tough military guy who's been stabbed shot at and suicidal and came out on-top brought down by this...which all started at the gym playing stuff way too loud even for me...but it was too little too late.
Granted music at night while working out without antioxidants regularly and and having light or fleeting T moments are much bigger risk factors for hearing damage from my research. What's worse is your ears fatigue with constant noise and so loud volumes get accustomed too and lower in perceived volume..making further dangerous increases not feel painful or distinctly too loud compared to initial listening.
Didnt know that then.
I was a perfect setup for getting it based on those factors which I wish someone had told me even on a generic ear health poster in the gym.

 

I mean, it’s very nice and caring of you but there really isn’t anything you can do other than educating and warning him.

Let’s be real, to most of us tinnitus was something that happened to others who were unlucky before we got it.

 

While I think it's really nice and responsible from you that you want your brother not end up on a tinnitus forum with raging tinnitus, there is not much you can do.

When he is calm, you can show him what you are forced to listen to all day everyday, and maybe show him some research papers or threads from Tinnitus Talk, but it's his life, not your responsibility to talk him out of a potentially dangerous habit. If he doesn't want to listen to you, don't "nag" him, because he might get defensive and irritated about it. You can ask him to lower the volume though. And he can be one of the lucky ones who abuses his ear a lot and will never develop any hearing related issue.

I used to do the same when I got hit by tinnitus, I wanted to "save" my family and my friends from this, but it's counterproductive. Now, if someone is interested, I tell them my experience and how I think earphone use *might have* caused mine, and recommend one to be very careful about volume, but that's about it.

I bought my whole family earmuffs for loud stuff a while back , they don't use it, I have accepted that I can not make decisions for other people.

 

I threw out my 3 adult kids' headphones in the trash. I also explained to them the damage they can do. I used to tell them to lower the volume, but my lower is not their lower.