Lifelong Noise Junkie: Tinnitus and Hyperacusis Have Significantly Improved

Hey guys.
Longtime lurker, first time poster.

My story is like so many of you who are experiencing acoustic trauma-induced tinnitus.

Music has always been a passion of mine, and I’ve been playing in bands since before I was old enough to drive. Usually punk bands. Always loud. I’ve also been to 20+ concerts since I was 18, but I (almost) always made sure to wear earplugs.

I’m 27 years old now, and I guess all of the accumulated noise exposure has started to add up. Prior to this current episode, my longest bout with tinnitus was about three days, after neglecting to wear earplugs to a crust punk show in a crowded dive bar. But even then, it never rose to the severity of what I’m experiencing now.

What pushed my ears over the edge was, no joke, Prince’s 1999. Out of all the punk and metal I listen to, I finally got got by 80s pop.

I usually listen to music in my car at a fairly reasonable volume, since my sound system is decent at low levels. But this time, I pushed it was past reasonable. The following day, I decided to take a drive with my windows rolled down, to drown out the ringing. Terrible idea; I had no idea how bad high wind speeds could be for your hearing. After that, I developed a really nasty case of hyperacusis alongside some threshold shift.

When this first started, I could hear the ringing over almost everything. I could even hear it outside. Luckily, over the course of the last few months, things have subsided noticeably. My hyperacusis is almost entirely cleared up. I can even listen to music again, albeit at an incredibly reduced volume. Still, I don’t consider this a success story, because I don’t think I can truly be happy unless I’m completely cured.

I guess I just wanted to share my story so that other people who might be in the beginning stages of noise trauma might see this. Those first couple months are so scary. There’s no promise that this will go away, but even if you don’t see any improvements right away, please don’t give up hope.

I like to think that instances of full recoveries are underreported. Hopefully, one day, I’ll be able to write that success story.

 

Hi, I'm glad things have settled down for you.

Did you do anything to manage the hypercausis? I'm really trying to find the right balance of ear-protection/over-protection.

I'm similar in that I don't think my hypercausis was as bad in the first few weeks of the tinnitus. I also drove with the windows down and didn't think much of car noise and wind. Over a month in, the hypercausis started to ramp up and was feeding my tinnitus. Meaning if I came back from a long freeway drive (even with the windows up) I'd notice a spike in my tinnitus afterwards.

I don't think mines is as bad as yours though. I could still listen to music at low volumes but any sort of clanking of dishes really bothers me.

I've been wearing ear protection anytime I'm near a busy road. The regular car is fine but you start to notice that loud mufflers and motorcycles are not an uncommon thing. Do you think this is being way to cautious?

Did your improvement creep in slowly or was there a sudden big improvement one day?

 

When you say a few month,s do you mean 2, 3, 4? Thanks!

 

It’ll be 5 months next Monday.