I Wanted to Be a Pilot — Are My Dreams Shattered Because of Tinnitus?

So I’ve been suffering from tinnitus for almost half a year. Things aren’t getting better. Apart from the fact that I have reactive tinnitus, I recently acquired a new tone out of nowhere in my right ear that sounds like a loud car engine when I’m in silence and intermittent bass in semi silence.

Thankfully I recently got a job as a software developer, which I like, but my real dream before tinnitus was to save money to go to aviation school in the future.

Do I have to trash my dreams because of this terrible disease? I have no hearing loss, but I’m afraid that air pressure changes + loud engine noises + constant usage of headphones as a pilot would make things even worse. I don’t want to end up with an orchestra in my head, I’m already suicidal because of my reactive tinnitus and this new annoying low pitched sound. Even though, I’m in a pretty bad shape right now, I know that things can be even worse.

 

After reading a lot of this forum, one thing I've learnt is that ear problems are not very forgiving. I'd probably avoid being a pilot if I was you.

Just have a nice life, surround yourself with people you love and be careful with your hearing.

 

I would not focus too much on the future at the moment and make life-changing decisions. First get well and have positive thoughts. The cause of your tinnitus is unknown? Could the cause be COVID-19 vaccine, medication, stress, TMJ, depression?

For me personally, every job where loud noise is involved, I would avoid. But being happy about what you do is also a good way to diminish your tinnitus.

Just wait for a year and then ask an audiologist for advice.

 

Pilots are basically deaf after 4 kHz and quite deaf from 2 kHz...

So basically tinnitus is NOT going to show on your medical exam.

If you want to be a pilot, go for it and do it ASAP, as the entry medical exam should be more demanding than periodic renewals of your licence. It all comes down to your strength to cope with tinnitus, and that's hard, but can be done.

 

It will cost you £140,000 to become a pilot. Planes these days mostly pilot themselves so all you do is sit in the cockpit most of the time and observe dials etc and take the controls where necessary - landing and take off mostly. Now that you have tinnitus - even more reason not to be a pilot. My son is in his final year of doing an aeronautical engineering degree and in year 2 he said he wants to be a pilot. It is now year 5 and he is working on a propulsion and trajectory program for space missions. He has not said anything about being a pilot in 2 years and I am relieved.

Save yourself the money and focus on being a software developer.

 

Being brutally honest, as someone who has an orchestra in my left year, it's better for you to stay in computer science. If you want to become a pilot, wait a while for actual cures (with a plural) in the next 10 years (i.e. follow this forum for the next decade), and play the Flight Simulator game in the meantime. I know it's not the same, but still. Protect those ears at all costs man.

 

My tinnitus started suddenly in my left ear, only two days after an earwax removal. I was lying on the bed and suddenly I heard a high-pitched “EEEEEE”.

It got worse 3 months later when I got COVID-19. It got even more reactive and coincided with the start of high-pitched tinnitus in my right ear as well. Low-pitched tinnitus in my right ear started 5 months later.

According to my Apple Watch, I haven’t been exposed to noises louder than 80 dB for more than a few minutes during these months, though I had averaged ~70 dB for a few hours while in a highway with minor spikes afterwards. No history of depression or anxiety before my tinnitus onset.

I’ve been to 7 ENTs and 3 audiologists. The ENTs were useless, dismissing me as fast as they could as if I had some mental illness. As for the audiologists, they only did hearing tests (one of them also did the extended frequency one) and only one of them offered me a $4,000 hearing aid with the amplification feature disabled to generate white noise everywhere.

Maybe white noise generators can help me desensitize my reactivity, but I’m not ready to spend $4,000 on something that might not even help me at all.

I’ll try to wait and see what happens, but after reading this forum and, based on my experience during the latest few months, I know that things are more likely to get worse rather than better.

 

Thanks for the advice. I’ll try my best to find ways to cope with my tinnitus since my fear of making the tinnitus worse is what would be limiting me to go to aviation school, but the worsening seems to happen even by doing nothing at all.

 

Well, tinnitus reacts to all kinds of noises, and you are going to find those at work and out of work too, pretty much everywhere... good luck!