In a Loud Bar for 10 Minutes — Tinnitus Now Spiked — Is This Permanent?

Hi!

I’m trying not to get really panicky. I was in a wine bar, normal level of bar conversation, not really loud and a single guy on a guitar started playing music, it was amplified and loud but you didn’t have to shout to talk. I was only there 5-10 minutes and left because I was worried about sound exposure. I didn’t have earplugs on because I wasn’t expecting the music.

Now I feel like the ringing in my head has spiked. Different from louder pitches that come and go in my right ear. Those do not bother me at all. I’m trying not to flip out and think I would have permanently made it worse. I am so angry, I didn’t run out as soon as the music started.

Do you think it will calm down or is this permanent? I’m really scared.

 

Hello @secc,

Much comfort to your soul, yo. I think you will be able to handle this. Truth is no one can tell you if it did or did not cause any ounce of damage...but if you are describing the scene accurately it doesn't seem that being in there for such a short time would do much harm. Unless you were very close to a speaker or something. If you say the increase in T comes and goes that would be a positive thing, cause if it can go maybe it will stay gone.

Anywho, tinnitus is hard to deal with and we do not always know the things that make it worse or not. If you can hear the sounds in your head and ears and tolerate it, and still manage to find the peace to relax, chill out, read something, watch something, think, pray, be and exist...then I think you will be alright. Truth is we do have to accept some increases in our T, which is not fun...and we have to live a new way with the new sounds that we got. We of course always hope that it doesn't get worse, and keep getting worse, but for many it will and does. But your wine bar, solo guitar guy scenario doesn't sound too terrible.

I hope you enjoy life even amidst the struggles...and get good sleep.

 

Thank you for your kind reply. How do people handle their mistakes like this? I feel so stupid and angry. I saw him setting up and should have left right away but I went quickly to actually meet a chiropractor at this meet and greet that I was hoping could help me, but now I’ve made it worse. I’m so, so upset.

 

Hi @secc -- Sorry to hear about your spike, and how upsetting it is for you. Truth is, there's a learning curve to this whole tinnitus thing, and most of us make mistakes at one time or another. The thing is to learn from our mistakes, so we can better protect ourselves going forward. AND, not be too hard on ourselves for making them.

I have to agree with this assessment. Of course I could be wrong, but my best take is this spike will begin fading soon. I think part of this whole tinnitus learning curve is to learn to be patient with ourselves. Most of us are doing the best we can, but I don't know of anybody who's perfected it all.

All the Best...

 

Thank you for your support. My husband is sick of having to tell me it will get better. I thought I learned to be careful. I made the mistake of over exposure in a club I was in for 30 minutes a month ago. I had my custom ear plugs in for that and I only went to support my brother for his work event, to make a quick appearance. Tonight was different, I wasn’t expecting the music tonight, so I didn’t have any ear protection. I’m so, so distressed I didn’t run out as soon as it started. I can’t believe I wasn’t more paranoid after working the last month to calm my tinnitus, which I was finally doing I think. I really hate myself for not running out. I’m only a few hours out from exposure. The incident a month ago and change in tinnitus were new to me. I guess I’m still learning how truly careful I have to be.

 

It is hard to not be hard on yourself for thinking you should've seen it coming or reacted differently...but there is just no way we can navigate this perfectly. I have felt the same stupid and upset way myself, so many times, as probably most of us have. For all the dozens of times I kicked myself afterwards for not avoiding some incident, probably only a handful made my T significantly worse. Unfortunately one of those times was recently and I'm having trouble adjusting. Hindsight is 20/20. Sad thing is we have to live with our tinnitus 24/7. Hang in there!

 

You will be fine, I think sometimes we get so worked up that stress levels cause our tinnitus to spike along with our 100% focus on it after a loud event. You were only 10 minutes there, all will be okay.

 

I barely slept last night. Maybe a little from 4:30-6:30 am. The tinnitus is all different now. I have a louder ringing in my head the is consistent and a higher pitch in my right ear. I’m so scared. I laid in bed with anxiety through the roof last night. My pulse was fast, I feel tightness in my jaw and I had a little fullness in my right ear/ jaw area. Maybe I’m reading these posts too much. I’m really scared. I don’t know what to do. I just spent the night trying to sleep and not go into full panic attack. I’m out of town with my kids at my parents on the other side of the country. I don’t know what to do.

 

Everything feels different. I’m scared, but I barely slept...maybe if I get sleep it’ll be ok. It’s my son’s birthday today. I’m going to just try to focus on that. Pray to God. Take a bunch of CBD and try to stay positive. I don’t know if should go to urgent care. Ringing in head is louder than it was yesterday but I also was basically in panic attack mode all night.

It’s like I feel this lower level ringing/laser sound in my head as much as I hear it. It’s constant. Have others had this after a sound exposure unprotected and then it subsided?

The pitch in my ear seems to get better with getting up, but still there if I focus/plug my ear. I have mild, mild pain in my right ear. I’ve notices that a little the last week after traveling, but seems the most it’s been right now. What’s hard to cope with is the constant ring/feeling in my head. It’s what I was struggling with the last month and finally got it to calm down until I stupidly stayed in the bar for 10 minutes after the music started.

 

Take some high doses of NAC and Magnesium and try to get good sleep, so hopefully this spike will fade. Lack of sleep is known to make spike Tinnitus or make it temporarily worse, so that can be in play for you as well. Give your ears some time to rest.

 

Thank you for your kind response. The ringing that is substantially worse is in my head...persistent buzz. Is that what you think will subside with rest?

What is NAC? Thank you so much for your time and support.

 

Nac is a supplement that helps aid with the ear, and so is magnesium, chelated magnesium/magnesium glycinate. I would search both of them on here and do your research. I never had head tinnitus, but sleep and time are your best friends when it comes to Tinnitus. So you don't wanna lose any of those. Just stay calm, don't stress, stress can make it worse as well or shift your perception of it.

 

I've had tinnitus for nearly 20 years. I suffered permanent damage in my youth after attending a loud rave and standing in front of the loud speakers for many hours. We're talking over 120db+ SPL. This was something incredibly dumb to do and I wish there was more awareness for this among young people.

This event made me ultra sensitive to small daily changes in my tinnitus. It had profoundly changed my psychology and ability to deal with background tinnitus. It puts you into a neurotic OCD mindset about tinnitus where you're just end up spending all day listening for it. It seems everyone new to T who has a neurotic/OCD aspect to their nature seems to go through this terrible stage. I remember I would feel like my T was much worse after I vacuumed the house or was exposed to any kind of mild noise like a loud restaurant. While these things do slightly affect your daily T fluctuations your negative reaction to it is all psychological.

Your anger towards yourself for exposing yourself to a bit of noise is completely unfounded and unproductive. You need a pretty loud environment to sustain permanent hear damage. A pistol going off near your ear at 170db can cause instant damage but as the level goes down you need longer and longer exposure times for damage to occur. Now a typical noisy restaurant in the 80-85db level does cause permanent damage eventually but only over long time horizons such as for people who work in these environments day in and day out as a career. After stepping out from such an environment you might notice a threshold shift and a change in your level T but that change should subside quickly.

The key to overcoming T is training your brain to stop the T obsession and learn to move on with your life. Trust me it's possible and lots of us have done it but it takes a conscious effort.

You should read my first post:

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/thread...-myoclonus-—-also-some-words-of-advice.25540/

 

@ZZZK thank you for your long response. I was doing better but cannot catch a break. I’ve been sick and coughing a lot and it making it harder to sleep so I asked ENT and pharmacist for an option that wouldn’t bother my T. They said Musinex. I brought MUsinex DM to the pharmacist and showed him and he researched it and it should be fine. Well after much hesitation I took it 11 pm. Now at 2 am I felt numbness in my hands and had my head ringing off the hook. Apparently this is ‘rare’ side affect after I called a24 hour pharmacist to ask. He said effects should go once drug wears off. I’m up all night googling and terrified. Kids use the cough suppressant drug in it to get high and some have reported T. Mind you they are overdosing. It usually fades but in one case it didn’t. (I’m getting this from forums kids use to talk about drug use.) My T is worse in my head now. Is this going to subside? I’m going crazy. God, I’m going to be paranoid. I should have googled the drugs first. I was trying to trust professionals and not be paranoid and look at where this has got me.

 

Always web search natural treatments and remedies first. If they don't work, then try alternatives.

I hope the spike is temporary. I don't see why it won't be as you haven't used that for a long time.

 

@secc do you have pain in the ears or head? After a few days of my tinnitus spike I can feel it. My pain is like a fire.

 

I have a sensation in my head. Do yours pass?

 

'Guaifenesin (guaiphenesin) and possible risk of tinnitus added to the medicines monitoring scheme'

 

@Ken219 where did you find that? So now what?? I’ve royally screwed myself. Just pray is goes back to baseline. It should subside with it going out of my system?

 

@secc -- Sorry to hear about your reaction to Mucinex. Your experience is not unlike many others on this forum, when they hear things from health professionals like: "It should be fine". I just did a quick search on Guaifenisin, and came up with three separate websites that said it can cause tinnitus.

Unfortunately, we can't fully trust health professionals to have deep insight into literally hundreds of different drugs, and so are often unaware of potential adverse reactions--like--tinnitus to various drugs or medical procedures. -- I hope things get better for you soon!

 

Research if the Mucinex DM ingredients cause tinnitus, then research if guaifenesin causes tinnitus.

Mucinex DM is an over-the-counter medication. It comes in an oral tablet and an oral liquid. It has two active ingredients: guaifenesin and dextromethorphan.

 

I think some of the "permanent" medication induced tinnitus cases are often simply the temporary increase in tinnitus caused by the medication bringing the background T level high enough to become consciously aware of it and then when it subsides people still hear it because now they "tuned" their brain to listen for it. It likely came back down to the same or close to the same baseline but there is simply more conscious attention placed on it and then for the OCD/nervous types it turns into an obsession and BAM they now say "so and so gave me permanent T."

I think a very similar mental cycle occurs with SOME acute noise exposure incidents. That is their T level was raised significantly for a few hours/days/weeks bringing hyper awareness to their T and then when the T subsides back down to the old background level people are now hyper sensitive to the old background level that they were previously unconsciously ignoring.

 

Even fast food restaurants can get really loud. There's a trendy one similar to In N Out that is overcrowded in the later hours of the night because there is a college in walking distance and college kids tend to be night owls. A little earlier I was in and there must've been around a hundred people; wouldn't surprise me if it was more than fire code would allow considering all the tables were occupied and the line was out the door with plenty of people standing to the side inside to avoid the cold. My phone decibel meter was hovering around 98 dB and the mic was giving out and not reading any higher. It might've been up to 105dB or so since they have terrible sound isolation with bare concrete flooring and walls, steel chairs, etc. Far more people are usually hanging around inside than it was probably intended to hold. And the workers were having to shout as loud as they could for people to hear orders. Stayed in there for about half an hour with no earplugs and am experiencing a spike.

 

@whatdidyousay A prime example of how little the public is aware of the dangers of loud noise. The owners of this establishment are exposing customers and employees to harmful levels of sound. Some of them future tinnitus sufferers, I'm afraid. I try to avoid places like this. The acoustics in most modern restaurants are horrible!!