I Have Had it for a Long Time

I have worked a lot of loud jobs. It gradually got worse. At first it came and went then it never went away. Then I got hyperacusis along with the 10 to 12,000 Hz ringing. I can't stand loud noises and use earplugs and ear muffs whenever I am going into an environment where there will be noise. Even my refrigerator running irritates me. The sound of the tinnitus doesn't bother me even though it's loud. To me it is the sound of silence. Still I would love for it to go away because I love music and it interferes with that to a degree.

Along with working loud jobs I played in bands encompassing five decades and 2 millennium ,some of those bands were very horrible, some were okay, and some were actually kind of good.

Right now I am waiting for my ears to get back to the normal ringing level they usually are because my son-in-law came to the door and knocked on it like he was trying to prove he wasn't gay , my dog was by my side and he went off like a firecracker , like a machine gun burst of loud barks.

I don't know how long it will take till the ringing subsides to a normal level and I can enjoy music again . every time this happens I always think it's going to be the end. One time after a particularly bad experience like this it took years, I'm not kidding. My ears are frail but my hearing is still not too awful I can hear 14,000 hertz .

 

@yope
Interesting to read that your ears did improve after years - there seems to be a one sided medical community assumption that ears don't heal and it's permanent - but we also keep reading stories of slow but genuine improvements

Can you comment on those episodes where you notice improvements ?

 

It improves when I give my ears long periods,of total or almost complete silence. This last experience happened about 36 hours ago. Out of habit I slapped my hands over my ears when I heard the painful noise so the dog only got in about three good barks before my ears were being protected. There is noticeable improvement already. I think it's because of the short duration of the noise and it could've been louder. He was about 10 feet from my ears.

After being retired I was enjoying some noticeable relief and even playing in bands again . then at Christmas time my stepdaughter bought some tickets for us to go see the Rockettes . The sound levels at that show really did a number on my ears . I suffered through a long time sitting there because I didn't want to hurt my stepdaughters feelings . After 15 minutes I gave up and walked out . Now, four years later there is improvement but they never came back to the way they were before that Rockettes show .
This is kind of personal and it doesn't have a lot to do with tinnitus but not being able to play music live has left a big hole in me that is more painful than the ringing in my ears . I still play every day but it's not the same . arthritis didn't keep me from playing , I had 2 implants in my fingers to replace joints . I relearned to play using what I've got left of my hands and that was no problem because as long as your fingers work a little bit it's mostly in your head. hyperacousis and tinnitus were too much . recording music and putting it on the Internet has become my surrogate band . I'm just glad I can still do that.

I am going to try that method where it's kind of like biofeedback in the treatment forum . I think the user's name was I love music or something like that . fundamentally it said don't think about how loud the sound is today but rather think about how you're feeling is about it . it rewires your brain , that's the theory of it . he wasn't selling anything and he swore worked for him.