Huge Tinnitus Reduction Over 10 Months (Noise Induced from Concerts)

10 months ago I went to a few concerts without using hearing protection. The first 1-2 months after the ringing was so bad that it was noticeable against heavy machinery or loud vehicles. My understanding was that this was going to be my new life and it shocked me, I think many people would feel the same.

Over time it has slowly subsided to a much gentler level. It is still noticeable sometimes unfortunately but so much less so. I don't have any secret or medical expertise to share, the only thing was taking care of myself physically and of course avoiding exposure to loud noise. Recently it must have been dropping even further, extremely slightly but enough for me to suddenly stop and think "wait a minute - isn't this supposed to be louder?"

My story to share is that noise-induced tinnitus can get better by itself. Of course that won't be everyone's experience, for me it hasn't even gone away completely, it could take many more months or years, whether that is the ear or the brain healing itself who knows. If you're relatively young or lucky though you might also see a reduction. So please don't give up hope.

Also for all the people who don't have tinnitus... don't be like stupid me.

WEAR PROTECTION!!!

 

I am glad to hear your story! I am into my third month now. Mine was caused by loud noise exposure too, mainly using too much volume on headphones while DJing. My tinnitus started 2 days after my last session. My tinnitus is not as loud as many people's on Tinnitus Talk but I have also got some symptoms of hyperacusis and dysacusis which bothers me more than the tinnitus.

Did you do anything else to help your tinnitus, e.g., supplements, sound therapy or it just happened to get slowly quieter and better on its own? Also did you have and hyperacusis or distortion with it?

G

 

So pleased for you Zud, thanks for sharing your success with us.

Here's hoping your recovery continues and you see even further reduction in noise!

 

Thank you for posting your experience. I am also 10 months in and I am experiencing major improvement and, like you, I can't say that it's gone completely. Mild discomfort is still present to this day but I can say that I am returning to my old normal life with some restrictions of course.

 

@Vassili that's amazing! Did you have any setbacks at all along the way?

 

I think I did because till this day I can't say that healing was a strictly steady process. It was always like one step forward two steps back, three steps forward one step back. But in the beginning every month, now I think every three months all this noise in my ears got/gets quieter and stays at that level of quietness and if I do have a setback or a spike then it fluctuates within this last level of quietness that I've reached recently. It means that I never go back to the noise level that I've experienced, for example, three months ago. Healing is weird.

 

@Vassili but were you ever accidentally exposed to loud sounds that you felt set you back? I feel like I had an issue with a blow drier that set me back although I had ear plugs in.

It’s all too much, I just want silence again.

 

Almost every day. I just can't avoid noise in my city, it's impossible. I even think that loud ambulances, fire trucks, barking dogs, motorcycles haunt me. Plus sometimes I am being clumsy at home so noise is everywhere. A million times I thought that I damaged my ears again but now, it was just my fear and negative thinking. Sounds were unpleasant but not damaging. So I don't think a blow drier could do any damage. I just know that my symptoms they fluctuate on their own. It can get worse without any sound at all, in total silence.

I also want silence. I just reached a stage when my tinnitus is so quiet that I have to look for it but I still have fullness in my ears, reactivity hasn't gone completely, spasm and burning sensations are still present but are very mild so I still have a long way to go but compared to where I was in the beginning it feels like silence with some mild discomfort. So my aim is to stop thinking about it and return to my normal life as soon as possible. No one knows how much time it will actually take to heal completely.

 

@Vassili I had this extremely odd sensation the other night where I could literally feel my ear drum, or muscles, or something vibrating onto my pillow. It was so bizarre.

I am going to start with the sound enrichment at night because I have a lot of reactivity. I get this weird “loudness” in my ears after being exposed to noise. I just hate everything about this and want to be normal again. In terms of fading, do you consider fading by a change of tone or volume?

 

I have that too, but it settles and goes back to my ”normal baseline” after about 15-20 minutes everytime it happens.

 

I have it too sometimes. Usually it lasts for a couple of seconds.

My reactivity got a lot better but it is still present. My ears favorite noise to react are computer fan and tea kettle. Also a working TV if it's in a distance.

Volume.

 

@Mymlan I went to my friends pool and she had a radio on. I stayed a few hours, also drank which isn’t great for tinnitus but whatever. Anyway I got into my car and the loudness was SO insane. Like what the hell.

 

Drinking is what triggers the worst spikes for me.

I don't really know how to describe it, but shortly after consuming alcohol it's like my tinnitus shuts off for a split-second and then comes back 10 times as loud. :/

In your case, the radio might've contributed as well?

 

Hi I'm new to this forum I had tinnitus since the late of April due exposure of prolong loud noise of my headphones and it started it out with reactive tinnitus it was loud for the few weeks before tune down and then by June I started having the ringing in my left ear my tight doesn't seem to have any tinnitus I checked and plus I loss hearing from my right ear since I was born and it's moderate hearing loss but back to my story it got loud for some days tried using my stereo and phone to mask my t when sleeping at night and in the morning it get some loud before it fades when I start doing something and then one morning it gotten quieter and I hardly could hear it and the next day it almost disappeared haven't heard a sound within 20 to 40 minutes tops and yesterday was the best I had a whole day of silence before I went to bed best damn day of my life but it's now comes and goes when I have to give it some tension and I do wear hearing aids in both ears helps gives better hearing when need to listening to people when having a conversation lol so I'm trying to managing it and as for sleep I'm starting to sleep without any noise this time and I sleep pretty well and in fact my t is so down as I get up it's barely there and it's easy to ignore at times when your in a silent room hallelujah I'm not stress about it anymore will hope you all are being strong with your t and let's hope we can end this evil demon in our heads once and for all God bless you all and may God gives strength to live everyday with peaceful ears

 

Do you have it in both ears or just one ear?

 

Are you still on benzos? Two months in and my psych wants me to try it.

 

No, not anymore.

 

Thank you, I hope yours continues to improve and heal.

 

Can I ask if you are young?

 

Hello!

I am 32.

 

@Vassili hey! So what do you mean by reactivity?? Meaning your tinnitus gets louder after noise or tinnitus gets louder during noise? I have tinnitus that gets louder after noise exposure... especially after I get out of the shower, it turns really high pitch and loud... I thought it was fading but it’s been intrusive this week... all sorts of fluctuations and tones :/ I’m losing hope... I just hit 2 months today.

 

I mean that my ears react to certain sounds with pain or other sound that I shouldn't hear. Don't lose hope. I felt first positive changes only after 8 months I think.

 

@Vassili
What were the positive changes? I can’t tell what’s positive or not... since mine fluctuates sooo much... sometimes I feel like it gets softer... then it gets way louder not even sure what my normal baseline is.

 

In my case reduction in volume and headache levels.

 

How many months in did your headaches start to get better?

 

I think after 8-9 months.

 

I know you mentioned computer fans being an issue for your pain - did it ever spike your tinnitus? I don't have much h pain but hearing computer fans for me is like setting my tinnitus to turbo mode. They are so quiet so it's hard for me to understand what could possible be going wrong...

 

Same on the computer fans - makes my tinnitus so much louder after spending a couple hours close to them.
I have a MacBook Pro.
Past weekend I researched how I could bring the noise down and you actually can.

TL;DR: MacBooks are notoriously ill constructed in the heat exhaust department + combined with the fact that MacBooks by default are "always" in turbo mode (remember the "Turbo Boost" button on early PC's).
So I installed a little tool that lets you disable that Turbo Mode bringing down the RPM's from 5000 rpm to about 2500 rpm... which also reduces the temperature.
Fans are much quieter now. It's night and day.

You'll probably get some performance issues here and there when doing heavy tasks (watching 4k YouTube videos or working on heavy files in Adobe Premiere) but just surfing is so much more quiet.

 

Thanks man - my issue is my desktop is a gaming PC, so it's kinda purpose built to have fans. I'm just confused why my ears even react like this in the first place. Music does not spike me but extremely silent fans do... weird. At least I know there are others out there with similar issues!

Just FYI, the new M1 chipset MacBook Air has no fan and apparently is a stellar performer. I'm considering getting one for this reason.

 

So yours behaves exactly like mine.

A way to stop this reaction is to turn on music on the MacBook so my ears don't get fed the fan noise anymore (as the only thing)... very strange.

M1 chipset without fans! Can't wait.

For the time being I bought Bluetooth trackpad and keyboard so I can put the MacBook far away and work on an external screen.

I'm hoping this reactivity will subside after some time (I m already 7 months in) just like my hyperacusis more or less did (it's still there but less bad as it used to be).

Very sloooooooooooow process... that's the thing we are not used to, we are used to the body healing much faster (cuts and bruises).