Loud Music at Work — Now In a Panicked State

So I made a stupid mistake, an error of judgement not sure whether anything has happened yet in terms of a spike but maybe I will be okay.

So in the town hall they were doing a Chinese New Year concert. I walked down the stairs into the customer service office and it wasn't too bad. Then went back up to the office to get my things to leave to go home. At this point I've got earplugs and muffs on. Walk back down the stairs thinking it will be okay. Open the door and as I did the music hit me and it was concert loud. I ran to the other door and went outside. I was probably expose to it for a few seconds. I wasn't directly next to the celebration as that was further down the hallway but it was still loud.

Needless to say I am now in a panicked state freaking out my tinnitus will worsen but im just hoping double protection helped save me for those split seconds out the door.

I keep blaming myself for being so stupid. I should have walked through the library. I am an idiot and miscalculated the noise.

 

I know exactly how you feel because I am very clumsy and always get into noise accidents also. I will tell you how I try to manage such situations.

What I do to calm down is to tell to myself that it is not possible to avoid everything all the time. Such accidents just do happen. You need to try and relax the best you can as anxiety and stress may also spike your T.

What I also tell to myself in such cases: Blaming yourself for what happened only makes things worse as it won't turn back time and change the situation. The only thing that those thoughts are good for is to do harm to you. So try to stop that and even if something happened to your ears, the best thing you can to is to try to learn from what happened to you. Try to think twice next time to make better decisions. But do not get overly anxious also ... it is not easy to find the balance between healthy awareness and paranoia. This is what I am struggling with also.

This case is a very good example: People might think that wearing double protection to a mall is over the top. Yet, it saved you from this acoustic incident, which makes wearing them legitimate again. Yet you shouldn't double protect all the time, which again raises the risk of acoustic incidents. Not wearing protection while you think you should again leads to paranoia and avoidance. It's hard to find the balance, maybe the veterans have some tips for that. From my side, I can tell that I am trying to gradually reduce hearing protection - and my T clearly started from acoustic incidents.

If you wore double protection and the exposure was just really short and a bit away from you AND you are not yet experiencing a spike as of yet, I think anxiety might be the problem to address here. Do your ears feel full?

 

I kept telling myself noise happens and it's going to happen there is nothing you can do about it. All the anxiety did was cause me to cry and get down on myself over it all. It's something I need to work on. My therapist keep telling me I need to let go of the whole 'blaming myself.' It's something I do a lot and we are working on it. I was wearing it because I wasn't sure over the noise which i think in the end saved me but also because they are doing construction across the street with GIANT jackhammers that make all the surrounding buildings move so I'm resorted to at times walking around the library with double protection because it can get a little loud due to it. But in saying that they take a lot of breaks so we don't all go stir crazy which is good and if its super bad they send me to another library. I always make sure to bring my muffs everywhere with me now.

I can't tell if I have a spike or not, my ears are always louder when I get home from work because it's night so I won't be able to tell till tomorrow if anything. No they don't feel full and there is no muffled hearing.

 

OK, that is a good reason for double protection in my opinion.

In my opinion, this is a very good sign. Now just don't over-analyse your tinnitus to imply a spike

So you also try to reduce protection? Do you normally just have your earmuffs with you for dangerous situations? Where/when do you use plugs or double protection?

 

I am now convinced I can hear a new sound in one of my ears but that could also be TMJ playing up since I've been clenching all night from anxiety. I also don't know if it was there yesterday. My ears have been all over the place lately so who knows.

I wear my earplugs all the time when out and at work. I just carry the muffs for double protection like I know there is construction going on across the street so it's a must and if I head into the city they are building a new rail so I wear them there. No reduction, however my therapist does want to ween me off them at work.

 

May I ask what plugs you are wearing? Do you understand people talking to you, even quietly?

I tried Earpeace musician eraplugs, they work great as I can still hear people, but they are irritating my ears after 1 hour already.

3M 1100 or soft foam plugs are very comfortable, but with those I often miss words or don't understand people talking quietly. That leads to awkward Situations at work.

 

My therapist has never dictated how to treat my tinnitus. They dont bat an eye when I show up each time double protected. I dont think yours should, either. They will never understand what you are going through or your threshold to sound. Not even an ENT. Only you. Please be careful.

 

I think its the howard laserlite ones there pink and yellow. I can understand people talking most of the time. If not i just get them to repeat what they say which they have no issue doing.

 

I'm seeing a therapist that specialises in Tinnitus. I have no issues walking around with my plugs or muffs. I know they wont because ive already experienced it so Im well aware, I know there will be a very high chance i wont take my plugs off ever and im okay with that. I can genuinely look past the bs now that some of these ENT and specialists give.