Long Time Sufferer... — Tinnitus Got Worse After a Loud Concert

I first noticed the hissing in my ears in late 2014. It was devastating at first. At first you think this is temporary, a simple cleaning of the ears wax and it'll go away. Nope.

Then, I thought it was related to having earphones on almost on a daily basis talking to my wife while we were in a long distance relationship for a while. I've had hearing tests done, although its been a while since I've had another one, but no hearing loss.

Needless to say, I ended in the emergency room at one point and I thought it was related to sinuses, they always bothered me. I was put on strong Sudafed that simply dried me out but nothing, still had the hissing sounds.

I finally made it to an ENT, only to find that there is no cure. You would think I would been total devastated and and depressed but in fact, by this time it had been several months and I had learned how to cope with it. Through some neck massages, from my wife and staying active I learned how to live it.

Until recently, I went to a concert about a month ago, and it was LOUD. I changed the table because it was close to the stage and still it felt loud to the point where I felt nauseous and very uncomfortable. Of course, I also had a few drinks that night. I went to sleep fine but I woke up sweating and I could not get over how loud the ringing in my ear was. I changed rooms went to a more noisy room and even turned on music and somehow I got some sleep. Since then, It has been on and off, I coped with headphones and tinnitus masking sounds and just when I thought I had turned the corner I fell back into my own trap. One day I sought the sound out and I though it was louder, especially in my left ear, and so it began all over again. Currently, I take lorazepam to get me through day only when I really needed it. Obviously, with anxiety under control I feel like I go back the days of when I didn't even know I had it. At night, I try sound masking but sometimes that hurts more and it just seems its gotten louder, especially in the morning. I don't know whats going on but This time it is much more difficult and the previous methods I used do not seem to work. The current COVID-19 situation does not help either not working and just being home a lot.

In any event, I just thought I'd share my story and I welcome any tips or suggestions that anyone might have, and hopefully my story helps someone too.

 

I hope you will stop going to concerts and will be easy on your ears.

Check out
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/thread...eone-else-who-has-tinnitus.26850/#post-307822

 

Ya man you basically shot yourself in the foot/ears just like I did by going to a concert with pre-existing tinnitus. Did you wear earplugs?

Definitely uncommon sense that concerts are so deadly to the ears, especially to noobies like me who had no musical background and had only seen them on TV.

It's criminal that the organizers get away with it. There should be warning signs right on the tickets to wear f*cking peltors because the racket these morons produce will literally deafen you and cause life ruining cochlear disorders. They're so much worse than the tobacco companies imo.

 

No ear plugs, stupid on my part ! Although, I wore them for a long time every time I went to a loud place but I thought I was better and I learned to live with it, so in the last couple of years I haven't wore them. Even though I had not been to anything nearly as loud as that concert. Obviously, not knowing where you T comes from you do make some mistakes. I am starting to think that the cause of my T is definitely from loud places over the years and wearing earphones on a daily basis for almost a year, working for two loud manufacturing companies. I am due for hearing tests and check ups, cause it has been a while. With regards to the loud places, it is definitely criminal. I agree with you @Tweedleman . Thank you @Bill Bauer.

 

We shall overcome and get through this terrible condition. Tinnitus made me realize how powerful our minds can be.

 

Do you think our mind can really make it that much worse?

 

Yes it can @Tara Lyons as I have explained in my posts sent to you. It is good that all your tests at ENT came back normal. This probably means as I suspected, your tinnitus is noise induced and caused by headphones. Headphones are one of the most common causes of noise induced tinnitus, and many people in this forum got their tinnitus using them at too high a volume, without realizing it including me.

The good news is, this type of tinnitus usually improves with time and I've explained this in my posts so please read them. Tinnitus is intrinsically linked to our mental and emotional wellbeing and cannot be separated from them. Therefore, it is good to try and have a positive mental attitude to life and tinnitus. This takes time to acquire and isn't achieved overnight. This doesn't mean that you must never feel negative about life and the way tinnitus makes you feel. On the contrary but everything has to be kept in balance so try not to make negativity become all consuming.
The way to achieve a positive mindset is to do so slowly by engaging in things that you like to do. You are in the early stages of tinnitus and it will play havoc with your emotions but with time this will improve. Continue taking the medication you have been prescribed and read my posts perhaps more than once as this will help to reinforce positive thinking.

All the best
Michael

 

No. Perhaps extreme stress can make the actual tinnitus get louder, and stress in general can make it harder to cope. However, obsessing on mental state is, ironically, just more stress. Tinnitus is caused by a physical abnormality in the inner ear. Mental health is often used as a bludgeon to victim blame when we don't improve.

If the primary problem is mild tinnitus that can be habituated to, then of course mental state is paramount.

 

With respect @Zugzug You do not have noise induced tinnitus and @Tara Lyons does and therefore you know nothing about this type of tinnitus. I have had it for many years. Ask any veteran or those seasoned to noise induced tinnitus and they will tell you this type of tinnitus is largely affected by one's mental attitude. Corresponding with negative thinking people and reading their posts can be detrimental to their recovery as they can become negative thinking if they are not careful. I say again, there is nothing wrong in feeling down or negative about the way tinnitus makes one feel when the condition is intrusive and problematic. However, it is of vital importance they do not slip into a negative mindset and believe they will never improve.

Michael

 

To be clear, saying to someone they will "never improve" and saying their disease is not that strongly linked to their mental state are not the same thing. If my post was gloomy, I apologize, for I am going through a very rough time.

I absolutely believe most people with noise-induced tinnitus should be optimistic that it will improve with time. I just think it's more like breaking an arm. If I break my arm, I can be optimistic that it will heal in weeks. But if I get down about my broken arm, I don't think that has a massive impact on the healing rate.

I am suggesting to not obsess on not obsessing. It's all unnecessary since most of the process is the body healing with time.

 

I know you are going through a difficult time and therefore will not duel with you. @Tara Lyons is in the very early stages of tinnitus and understandably her mental and emotional wellbeing will be all over the place. This is normal but want to impress upon her, she will improve that I am certain of but negativity must not be allowed to become all consuming.

Michael

 

I’m hysterical right now. I can not calm down. Or stop crying. Please help me I don’t know what to do.

 

I know how you feel @Tara Lyons as I have been there. Put on some low level relaxing music in the background and keep the level slightly below the tinnitus, don't try to mask it. Avoid quiet rooms during the day by using sound enrichment. At night play nature sounds at low level by the bedside. I used to find going out for a walk helped to take mind away from the tinnitus even for a short while. It is a learning curve and you'll get passed this.

Michael

 

Just throwing this out there to add to @Michael Leigh 's suggestion about sound enrichment. I recently bought https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07RWRJ4XW/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

and love it. Granted, my hyperacusis is such that I can't use it right now, but it would be great for someone without hyperacusis.

 

It is good that you bought the sound machine as it is one of the best ways of treating tinnitus and hyperacusis. I am referring to hyperacusis that was caused by exposure to loud noise. If this type of hyperacusis doesn't improve by itself over time and is left untreated, the condition can become worse and might not improve the longer it is left. In this instance a person is likely, to have difficulty with oversensitivity to sound or certain sounds long term.

Michael

 

Yes I have a white noise machine, I need it to sleep or I’d never be able to sleep! I have sound sensitivity but I am not sure if that’s the same thing as hyperacusis? Would I know if I had hyperacusis?

 

I like to think of it as one either has sound sensitivity or true hyperacusis. If you had hyperacusis, you would definitely know. Take it from someone who has it. Your life, in every single way, changes.

Sound sensitivity, on the other hand, is a very common co-morbidity with tinnitus. The most likely situation is that your tinnitus and sound sensitivity will improve with time.

 

@Michael Leigh -- I fully agree with this. I would add I believe a positive mental attitude is greatly facilitated by eating certain foods, and doing various activities that facilitate brain and neurological health and resilience. I'm always experimenting on myself, and the past few days have been eating 2-4 oz. of chia seeds daily.

To my delight, it seems to have initiated a new layer of calming in my body, with accompanying improved sleep and less intrusive tinnitus. I've heard many times Omega 3's are good for depression and overall brain health. So my thinking was that chia seeds might be helpful since they have some of the highest levels of Omega 3's that come from a plant source. It worked! I've discovered lots of egg yolks can give me a similar calming.

@Tara Lyons -- I'm really sorry to hear what a difficult time you're going through. I would encourage you to look at any number of things that might help you calm down. Being in nature, doing stretching or yoga exercises, try foods that are purported to have calming effects, like chia seeds and oatmeal (which I've seen referred to as a nervine food). Inositol is one of my top supplements for inducing a calm in my body/psyche.

If you have any interest in spiritual or energetic techniques, I described what has worked for me in a couple of different posts. Post 1 Post 2 If you find those interesting, I could share a few more. I would also encourage things like hot baths, some relaxing essential oils, reflexology, etc. There really are a lot of things to try. Though effects can be immediate, the great thing is I've discovered they're generally cumulative as well.

I hope you can find something soon to help you get beyond your current crisis. I'm confident you will!

 

If you had hyperacusis you would be jumping in pain at a door shutting, or shutting just a cupboard (gently), the beeps of a microwave oven, and all kinds of sound. Trust me, you would know

Try to rest your ears and give it time. You will feel better!

 

Also, whenever I put my fingers in my ears I hear this insane rumbling. @Michael Leigh any ideas on this? So bizarre.

 

Thank you, everyone on this site is so supportive, it’s very helpful

 

There is still quite some debate on whether sound sensitivity and hyperacusis are the same/fall under the same flag. Some people experience (ear)pain due to external sounds, for others it temporarily increases their T, and a few people have a combination of both. You'll clearly know it if you have this as well, it makes dealing with T even worse.

I can't tell much about the type that induces pain, but I've had highly increased sensitivity to sound for a long time after acquiring T, to the point I pretty much locked myself up in my own house. My experience in the end is that avoiding sounds completely just made the condition worse, but having regular sounds around slowly helped the body to "learn" to respond normally to sounds again, until eventually the sensitivity faded. This has just been my case though, it doesn't go like this for everyone.

Try to respond rationally to your own condition. It's hard as hell, but slowly learning to distract yourself and thereby ignoring the sound helps to deal with it. I learned this long before I started getting silent periods again, and it already gave a huge improvement to my quality of life.

It goes in baby steps though. First a few seconds of being distracted, weeks later a few minutes, and even later hours or days. Time is actually your friend here: if this condition has taught me anything, it's that a human being is much stronger than I ever expected, given the time to learn to deal with the situation.

Allow yourself to cry and feel weak or bad during the hard times, but find distraction afterwards. You will find ways to cope. Not a cure yet, but it is the first step to enjoying life again. Your body and brain are definitely trying to figure this out, try to give them the time for it.

 

@Tara Lyons

Hyperacusis often accompanies noise induced tinnitus but not always. I believe your oversensitivity to sound is hyperacusis. Some people believe unless a person is experiencing acute pain when hearing sounds or certain sounds it is not hyperacusis. However, I do not think this is the case especially when the oversensitivity to sound, appears when a person develops noise induced tinnitus. Hyperacusis like tinnitus comes in different levels of severity and no two people will experience it the same. I say again that I'm referring to hyperacusis caused by exposure to loud noise.

As I have mentioned in my post: Hyperacusis, As I see it, in the link below. The condition usually improves on its own with time but in some cases, specialist treatment is required to help desensitize the oversensitivity to sound that the auditory system has. Therefore, a person may need to be under the care of an Audiologist that specialises in Tinnitus and Hyperacusis treatment and management. The wearing of white noise generators are usually required and counselling with their therapist is advised. If hyperacusis doesn't improve by itself and is left untreated, the condition can become a long term problem, often manifesting itself by causing spikes in the tinnitus and prolonged oversensitivity to sounds. Some people try to address the problem by wearing earplugs often overusing them. Unfortunately, this practice can lower the loudness threshold of the auditory system which can make the problem worse.

Use your white noise machine or Oasis sound machine to provide sound enrichment throughout the night until morning. Try not to mask the tinnitus by keeping the sound slightly below it. Over time sound enrichment helps to desensitize the auditory system and provides the brain with sound while you sleep, to help prevent it from increasing its background activity and thus increasing the tinnitus too, which can make it louder and more intrusive during waking hours.

Michael.

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/hyperacusis-as-i-see-it.19174/

 

Please try and refrain from putting your fingers into your ears, as this can make your brain focus more on internal sounds within your body and auditory system. Your auditory system may continue to make strange noises for a while but this will eventually subside. The fact that you have tinnitus by continuing to do this, can make your brain focus more on it as you are blocking out external sound with your fingers.

For this reason it's advisable to avoid quiet rooms and surroundings especially at night by using sound enrichment. This helps the brain to be distracted and not focus on sounds within the auditory system. You have had tinnitus for around 3 months and in the very early stages. With time your auditory system will settle down and as you adjust to tinnitus the habituation process will to begin to take effect. This takes time so be patient and concentrate on doing things you enjoy.

Michael

 

I am pleased that you are making progress @Lane and long may this continue.

Michael

 

I’ve always been a highly anxious person. This situation is not good for me or my anxiety. My brain is super aware of the ringing, I feel like I have to go to bed just to escape it. Ironically it does not wake me up often. I need to accept this reality for what it is but it is hard.

I feel like it has gotten worse but my anxiety has also gotten immensely worse. The ears, the lockdown, everything. Could this be a correlation?

I just have so many fears. What if it gets worse? Debilitatingly worse where I can’t even hear external sounds? What if he doesn’t heal and I’m trapped with noise forever? Mainly, what is really causing this? Why are my ears betraying me? Is it my ears or my brain?

 

Is Ativan and Valium safe to take? Won’t make the ears worse?

 

I'm certainly not a psychologist, but it sounds like you could benefit from CBT. A helpful technique that I was taught years ago is to write down your fears as thought clouds on a piece of paper and stare at them and observe them.

The problem is there's a reason you are afraid. There are, after all, people (particularly on here) who really do have very bad cases. They exist and you know they exist. As someone who is the 1 in 500,000 whose life is in ruins, it would be irresponsible for me to tell you that it can't be you (and disrespectful to the people who need help the most). So telling yourself over and over again that the likelihood is low, etc. will only give you temporary relief. You will always come back to the central question of "I know it's rare, but what if I'm one of the bad ones?"

I recommend floating in the fear. You may become a bad case, you may not.

One of the reasons why I disagree with the philosophy of strict positivity is that it might make you more paranoid. Like there's all this pressure to be calm. What you definitely need to be reassured of is that if you don't have a serious medical problem, anxiety will not be the reason this condition blows up (beyond temporary spikes). Allow yourself to be anxious.

 

I hope that you have read the my articles in the links that I have sent you. There is a good reason for this and I would prefer that you print them and read them often. Doing this will help allay your fears and concerns about tinnitus. They will help reinforce positivity. I will paste them below with additional posts and strongly advise you to print them to paper and not just read them on your phone or computer. They are a form or counselling, similar to what a Tinnitus therapist would advise you. Please keep taking the medication your doctor has prescribed.

This often happens in the early stages of tinnitus and I've mentioned in this in my post: New to tinnitus what to do? People new to tinnitus tend to focus on it more and it's quite natural. Even though you've had it 3 months it's the first time your brain has heard this strange new noise. As time passes your brain will realize the tinnitus is not a threat and will gradually learn to push it further into the background making less noticeable.

Have ever lived near a busy road, train station, airport or know someone that does? At first you/they would notice increased activity of road traffic, trains or aeroplanes overhead, because the brain isn't used to the increased noise. After a while it learns to gradually dismiss these sounds and strangely after while the brain hardly notices them. The brain can learn to dismiss tinnitus in a similar way through habituation. For some people the tinnitus can reduce to a level the brain can comfortably live with it. I have variable tinnitus which can be: completely silent, mild, moderate, severe or very severe. My tinnitus only becomes an annoyance when it reaches severe levels and this is sustained for more than a few days. Sometimes it will reduce on its own accord - if it doesn't I take medication which often reduces it to a more comfortable level or complete silence.

Tinnitus is a common condition and many people learn to live their life quite comfortably with it and to everything that they want to. However, like any medical condition tinnitus affects people different and the severity of it can very a lot between people. People new to tinnitus often improve with time.

Many countries have imposed a lockdowns of some sort due to covid 19 and understandably people are fearful. Many of us have had to change to a new way of life and this can be difficult for some people to accept. This causes stress. As I've previously mentioned, tinnitus is intrinsically linked to our mental and emotional wellbeing. Therefore, any stress anxiety will affect the way tinnitus behaves and this is can be especially noticeable to people new to the condition. However, with time things usually improves.

As I have said above it's not unusual for you or anyone else new to tinnitus to feel this way. My advice is to keep taking the medication you have been prescribed. This will help relax you and you'll begin to feel less fearful with time. It is a process so try not to worry too much.

I advise you not to look up medication affecting tinnitus or asking people about that in the forum, especially on medication that you have been prescribed. This can induced stress and it's easy to convince yourself your tinnitus is adversely affected by medication that you are taking which may not be the case. My blood pressure medicine is listed as: can cause ringing in the ears. I have been taking it for quite some time and haven't noticed an increase in my tinnitus. I would rather take my blood-pressure meds because I don't want to risk having a heart attack, stroke, kidney damage or my early demise from this mortal coil.

All the best
Michael

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/new-to-tinnitus-what-to-do.12558/
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/habituation-and-tinnitus-treatments.38091/
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/tinnitus-and-negative-counselling.26669/
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/can-tinnitus-counselling-help.22366/
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/from-darkness-into-light.22234/
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/the-habituation-process.20767/
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/is-positivity-important.23150/
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/i-would-rather-be-happy-than-right.12084/
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/tinnitus-a-way-forward.12233/
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/medications-and-tinnitus.12365/

 

@Tara Lyons

I agree with @Zugzug suggestion and think you should see a therapist if you are feeling too stressed. If you are able to see an Audiologist that specialises in tinnitus treatment and management that would be good.

Michael