It Seems to Be Softer in Quiet Places. Why?

Yesterday I went to a big supermarket and my tinnitus became bad. Wide ambient noise, music, the wind, the car engine...My left ear does not like sound anymore. It reacts and boost my ringing.

When I have a "good" day I try to stay at home. Doing some little things at home seems to be a good way to keep it softer (not complete silence).

Have I some hyperacusis? I think that's why my tinnitus is difficult to mask.

Thanks

 

One word : Stress! Your mental stress is a lot higher and on alert outside and less alert inside.

It's a natural thing, you are just trying to protect your ears and your mind/stress levels are possibly increasing outside.

 

Hope you are right. Thanks

 

I don't think it is stress. I think that now that our ears have been compromised, it takes less to hurt our ears. It makes sense to listen to your body and to protect your ears from all of the noises that cause spikes for you. Give your body a chance to heal.

 

Some people, like myself, have T that super imposes itself over white noise. People call it reactive and I have yet to find out what it means. Perhaps it is hyperacusis.

 

I was just mentioning that in a hearing aid thread, as I have the same type of tinnitus. I spoke with a hyperacusis specialist and she said it was not hyperacusis but rather reactive tinnitus. You may have hyperacusis if you are sensitive to sound and have pain, but from what I've been told the type of tinnitus that gets louder with sound is just tinnitus. That said, it's possible the treatment for reactive tinnitus and hyperacusis is similar, but I haven't found one!! Latest recommendation is a pair of hearing aids with chimes.

BTW, I'm in pretty quiet room with light ambient noise and can barely hear mine at the moment, but two days ago I was ready to jump off a building because I went to a store and the tinnitus spiked and wouldn't stop all day. It fluctuates like crazy.

 

Bill I don't see how it takes less to hurt our ears. Where do you get your information from? Now sure, some folks that have hyperacusis "MIGHT" get pain from, everyday normal sounds that people hear. That is understandable. If someone does NOT have hyperacusis, then everyday sounds will not always be hurting their ears. Not all sounds are equal, but not all sounds are bad either.

Stress can make tinnitus, a living hell and it has A LOT to do with it. I been at this for 30 years Bill, so my experience speaks for itself. There are known spots that people with tinnitus should avoid, like bars, pubs, loud events, concerts. A supermarket with some music should not be all that loud.

OP - if you do have hyperacusis, then even normal sounds can be harsh. I know this firsthand because I had hyperacusis for 4+ years in my early stages/years of tinnitus. Getting that issue resolved will make it a lot easier, compared to having both tinnitus + hyperacusis.

Do not train your mind to fear all noises. This simply leads to isolation and tinnitus can limit you.

 

The source of my information are the stories shared by the people on this forum. I gave my answer to a very similar question in the following post:
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/just-started-with-low-whooshing-sound.26038/#post-299687
At the link you will find links to testimonies of people being hurt by things like the sound of a neighbour using a lawn mower, or hurt by the sound of music played at a mall. Healthy people don't pay attention to those sounds. Those sounds won't cause any problems for a healthy person. Those testimonies imply that those sounds can cause serious problems for patients like us. This means that we ARE more vulnerable than healthy people. If we just follow the guidelines that ensure that a healthy person's hearing is not damaged, there is a relatively high chance that we will regret it.

It also leads to giving your body a chance to heal, and hopefully it will lead to T fading. All of those people whom I quoted will disagree with the advice you gave above.

I developed T in my Other formerly healthy ear, after two glass plates clinked close to my ear. Whereas volume of T is subjective, a New T Tone in a formerly T-free ear is Objective. It is ok to be scared of scary things. In our case, it is IMPORTANT to respect noise and to ensure that you are not exposed to possibly even moderate noise.

 

Bill I think I'll stick with what I said. Fearing every noise is not healthy and can lead to an isolated and limited life. I can have a few other vets chime in and they will agree with me. Not every sound is horrible and destructive to tinnitus. Not every sound is an ambulance sound, lawn mower sound ,concert sound or pub sound. Based on that thread that you used, church sounds, bar sounds are not everyday places that I go to or a person with tinnitus hangs out at everyday. A church can have sounds (because of signing/instruments ) of 80 db to possibly 90+ db when they are singing. Bars can be from 80-85B to 90+Dbs. These are not everyday sounds that I listen to.

Now, for those that have hyperacusis, even normal sounds can be quite harsh for them.

Loud places/noises can affect those that suffer from tinnitus and those that do not suffer from tinnitus. Churches can be loud, bars can be loud, lawnmowers can be loud. If someone that does not have tinnitus remains exposed to loud sounds long enough, they can possibly down the line get tinnitus and they can possibly damage their ears and hearing too.

These are NOT what I meant when I said all noises. These are known loud noises and places that can possibly damage the ears. Overprotecting and fearing simply is not healthy and can make the person feel worst. By doing this we further distance ourselves from living a normal life. We will never be 100% normal, but we can still live a life that is somewhat close to being normal. I can also post multiple links, from people that are living life with everyday noises and seem to be doing fine.

I will not live a limited life just because of tinnitus. This is unhealthy and down the line really helps no one. Sure protect your ears but going overboard will not help people. In your threads you also seem to have a lot of veterans challenge your views.

 

Healthy people will still have no problem with those sounds. And what about music at the mall. Do you think Lex will agree with you or with me?

But those people got a spike after One exposure.

That's nice. I did answer your question below, right?

Now you see why it really takes a lot less to hurt our ears (compared to healthy people), and you see where I got that information (this forum).

First of all, I have a lot of "veterans" like and agree with my posts that have to do with this topic. Second of all, I am not aware of one argument that actually explained why it is not a good idea to try to learn from those stories and not repeat those people's mistakes. People would say stuff like

Well, that provides more information about the speaker than about why we shouldn't learn from the mistakes of others. This is like saying - I won't let Death win - I will continue to break traffic laws because that makes me feel good. What is the difference between this and what you said?!

 

It's reactive tinnitus. From what I gather usually it eventually stops doing that. I have it too.

 

Approaching the year mark, still waiting for mine to stop reacting. I think @BuzzyBee has had reactive tinnitus for a couple years.

My loudness hyperacusis definitely faded away. If the reactive nature goes away, my tinnitus will be very manageable. It’s the constant rising to be louder over everything that is very frustrating and annoying.

 

I'm past the two year mark and still waiting for the reactiveness to go away.

 

Yeah me too. Has yours gotten less reactive then? I guess there's some way to treat it, but I don't know how.

 

I am not really sure. I try not to dwell on it, but I do think either it has decreased a bit or I am getting better at ignoring it.

 

Uff! Im devastated reading here. My T was so low before that rock show. I lived almost 3 years 100% normal. I miss my life so much. Have a healthy 3 years old girl, my own house...I cant believe it

Now I hate music, rockers...that world ruined me.

Bad day today.

 

Hopefully it is only a couple of months or years that got ruined (and not more). There is a good chance that eventually your T will fade again.

Check out the thread below where I summarize everything (24 tips spread over three posts) I learned about managing tinnitus after reading the posts on this forum for the past 11 months
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/thread...itus-recently-this-info-will-be-useful.25741/
I hope you will find at least one of those tips to be useful to you.

 

@Tinker Bell, @threefirefour , @Alue (my reactive T buddies!), I'm sorry your tinnitus is as crappy as mine.

I'm actually at the 19th month mark, so not quite two years. My T is bearable in the quiet, but like @Tinker Bell it increases with sound. Sudden loud noises or trains going by and even ambulances don't really set it off or bother me. It's things like the refrigerator, the air condition, the treadmill and the roar of a lot of people talking that set it off. And then sometimes it goes off "just for fun" in silence.

I've seen four audiologists already, with a fifth on the horizon and all they can tell me is that my hearing loss is conductive only with zero sensory loss, thus there's probably a somatic element involved. Maybe sound or movement is somehow setting off the fusiform cells???? No clue.

 

Have you been properly assessed by an ENT or, better still, an Otologist? If you have conductive loss then you have a potentially reversible condition. @GregCA Has many excellent posts over the years on conductive loss that you should review, if you haven't already.

 

Yes, that's a big question, but so far the three otologists I've spoken with have said that just restoring hearing would not guarantee the tinnitus would go away and might in fact make it worse. Believe me, if just one of the doctors said that restoring hearing would guarantee no more reactive tinnitus, I'd go for it. The scenarios painted have been rather bleak.

 

If reactivity is separate from H, then I think it is a matter of luck. When my T fades the reactivity of T goes down. If your T has never faded then I don't think there is much help.

 

Interestingly my tinnitus wasn't reactive until I had a massive decrease by getting rid of my earwax.

 

I'm close to the two year mark. My tinnitus was non-reactive for over 20 years. Then things changed following some additional acoustic assaults. I'm still hoping it will improve.