I'm 15 Years Old, Does It Mean I'm Going to Suffer More as I Keep Getting Older?

I'm 15 years old. My question is, since I got tinnitus now, when I hit like my 30s or 40s, will I have moderate hearing loss because I got my tinnitus at an early age?

And will it just keep getting worse?

 

Just because one has tinnitus, doesn't always mean they will have hearing loss...vice versa. You are very young, you need to protect your ears from now on. Avoid loud spots, music and just try to keep your stress in check.

Turning 30-40 years old is not going to happen for you, for a long time. Enjoy your youth and protect your ears

 

It is the other way around. Since you got your tinnitus early, you are more resilient. For you it is more likely than it is for the older people that your tinnitus will fade. If you don't get a new acoustic trauma, it is reasonable to assume that your tinnitus will eventually fade. Now that you are aware of how bad tinnitus is, you will be able to avoid loud noises (e.g., avoid concerts), and as a result your hearing will likely be in a better shape than the hearing of an average person (who has been attending concerts).

 

@miodragdimic

Please follow the good advice @fishbone and @Bill Bauer have given and it's likely you will have no problems with tinnitus in the future. Time can be a great healer for many things. Although you say the onset of your tinnitus is "unknown". I am fairly confident that it was caused by Headphones when listening to music or a Headset, when playing computer games. If you want the tinnitus to reduce then my advice is to never use headphones or a headset again even at low volume. I know this sounds extreme, especially for someone of your young age. However, please think seriously about what I am going to say below.

You have experienced tinnitus at a very young age and discovered that it's not very nice. It will fade away and most likely completely disappear in time. Please be under no misconception tinnitus can be very debilitating when it becomes severe. If it is not treated with respect by this I mean, not subjecting your ears to overly loud sounds, it can be a person's worst nightmare and I mean that in every sense of the word. Someone with "noise induced" tinnitus, which is what I suspect you have, risks the tinnitus returning when you think it has gone or it becoming much worse if they use any type of headphones or headset even at low volume.

Some people with "noise induced" tinnitus use headphones at a low volume and have no problems. However, there is always a risk when using headphones as the tinnitus can slowly increase or you can get a spike. When this happens it will usually (but not always) increase to a new permanent level. There are many posts in this forum written by people that have noise induced tinnitus. After a while it reduced and they habituated. Thinking all was now well, they returned to using headphones at a low volume and regretted it. When your tinnitus reduces and reaches a point where you hardly hear it or it goes completely, it can be easy to forget. Be under no illusion the tinnitus is still there, waiting quietly in the background ready to strike, so please be careful and listen to the advice that you have been given.

I wish you well.
Michael

 

@Michael Leigh is spot on! Don't take your barely noticeable/ beginner stage of tinnitus for granted. If you continue to listen to loud music or surround yourself in loud environments....Your tinnitus can get much louder and you do not want that! I was in your shoes with beginner stage of tinnitus and now I have intrusive tinnitus. I wish I could have came here when I was younger and took advice from the kind mentors that help others out....

 

Will going to the city damage my ears? Because of traffic? When I'm there I feel normal but I don't know if I'm damaging my ears.

 

I'm not sure if I'm at early stage tho? I got it at the start of the year, is it still early or did enough time pass to say that my tinnitus is going to be like this forever? How long is early for you?

 

I appreciate you good response Michael and I will try to listen to everything that you said to me. Thanks a lot, I wish you well too <3

 

What is intrusive tinnitus? Is it possible to habituate to that?

 

Intrusive tinnitus is basically when you can hear it over EVERYTHING. It's VERY loud and it can just make life very difficult. I am about 95% habituated to it, it takes a lot of work to get there...But it can be done. All people are different and habituation can be a different process for all. we have to do things that work for us, track them and keep working on it. It will take time but it is possible to reach it...

 

Millions of people worldwide can't even work anymore due to severe tinnitus, let's not sugar-coat this condition when it's severe. Great that you can call yourself basically habituated but so many severe sufferers would like to see their stories being shared more honestly, instead of being used as inspiration for others.

 

I don't sugar coat anything. I been dealing with it for over 31 years. I work on my mindset daily and been doing it for over 20+ years. I have been through so much in my life and I use EVERY lesson to give me strength to deal with my raw afflictions. Its been hell, but I still do my best to HELP people and move forward and accomplish my goals!

I am brutally honest in my posts, and that's why I post it so people can gain value from it and MANY do.....

 

I was talking about your age. If two people have an identical injury, the one who is younger is more likely to recover than the one who is older.

Have you experienced any fading (or other changes for the better, such as the frequency changing to the one that is easier to ignore) compared to how you were three months ago?

 

You make a valid point @Autumnly and so does @fishbone with his 30 plus years experience in noise induced tinnitus. My mere 23 years by comparison and I'm joking here, leaves me in no doubt he understands this condition in its entirety and the way it can affect a person's mental and emotional wellbeing. Whether they have it mild, moderate, severe or very severe. I will be bold and say: only a handful of people in this forum have the ability to understand tinnitus in this way.

Michael

 

Umm, and yes and no, you commented on my last post about hyperacusis, I was pretty much used to it and yes it was fading but it worsened about a week ago as you know from that previous post. And a little update from that, pressure in ears is better and I said that tinnitus changed, I feel like I'm getting used to the new one.

 

How many times did your tinnitus increase during this 30 years? How many times did you habituate? You may have had it for long but if it has been stable all the time with no spikes I see no problem.

 

I probably established a new baseline quite a bit in my 31 years dealing with tinnitus.

 

Since everyone experiences Tinnitus differently, these stories are pretty much pointless, allthough well intentioned.
Two people can get the identical virus/disease, yet one might die and the other might survive.

The truth is, that Tinnitis can get to the point, where the affected individual is completelly debilitated by it, by no fault of their own.

This is not a matter of individual strenght or mental thoughness.
Tinnitus is now the leading cause for disability anongst war vets and those people are no wimps by any means.
There are different forces at play here and what may work for one person may not work for someone else.

Look..Im glad that you found a way to deal with your Tinnitus, but do not assume, that your methods will therefore apply to other people as well.

 

Everyone will have their own ways of coping and adapting. Not one method will work for all....I just encourage people to try find a method that works for them.....

 

Of course I can't disagree with that, but it would be nice if people would also acknowledge, that there are literally millions of people out there, for whom nothing will work.

I noticed, that there are tendencies to propagate the "if I can do it, you can do it" type of rhetoric in the Tinnitus community, but this kind of reasoning does not really apply to Tinnitus and it is rather flawed.

The most important deciding factors here are things like intensity, pitch, genetic make-up, personality and individual brain chemistry.

Another thing to consider is, that this kind of reasoning carries some rather nasty implications along with it.
By logical extension it basically implies, that those whom are unable to cope with their Tinnitus have either sonething wrong with them or their attitude.

This only further traumatizes those whom are the most vulnerable and makes it that much harder for them to be taken seriously by the medical establishment.

 

I listened to a podcast the other day on the topic of tinnitus. The doctor stated that tinnitus tends to get better than worse if the person looks after their ears in the future. He also emphasized the younger the person, the higher the chance it will dramatically fade or even disappear all together. And he also said that although hearing loss occurs often with tinnitus, it isn't always the case particularly with younger people. So basically look after your ears from now on and you'll be fine!

 

I've read about the opposite of what people here have stated, either way it really won't make a difference because nobody's experience is ever replicated. T may get better, or it may get worse, no one can predict the outcome. A lot of it may/may not boil down to: diet, exercise, genetics, how "strong" your ears are, what kind of T you have, quantity of accidental exposures, head phone usage, unwise choices, loud venues etc etc.

Then there is the case of T not getting worse but you get onsets of other problems due to T: hyperacussis, thumping of the ears, crackling noises when you swallow, eye floaters, depression etc

What is a common theme is that younger people have more "resilient ears", which means their T will lower to the point where they won't hear it any more. Does that mean it is gone permanently? It depends on all of the above. All it means is that you go to another concert without ear protection and your T is back (possibly louder than before, possibly permanent).

 

Not sure why he would need to do that when there are tons of the latter on the forums (every day reminding us that these minorities exist) and not enough of the former.

 

Bro, by the time you're 30-40 tinnitus and hearing loss can be cured. I personally say that the real-deal-treatments are out in 10 years, with a few working but not totally perfect ones coming earlier. Since you're young, you probably wont even need them, since you have a good chance for it to fade anyway in the next couple months.

 

I didn't mean just him specifically, but I noticed, that there seems to be a general trend in most of the Tinnitus community to collectively pretend, that all tinnitus could be conquered, as long as people apply themselves.
This could not be further from the truth of course.

We need to think how propagating this myth (whether directly or between the lines) affects those, for whom coping is simply not possible (due to a mix of different factors, which I had already mentioned above).
Again, this is not aimed at anyone specific and no offense was meant to anyone.

 

I hope the man that was talking was educated enough Anyways thanks for telling me this, it gives hope.

 

He was. I will try to try share the link.