MEGA TINNITUS

I mentioned my "Mega T" in a response in a post and feel that member "Mark" got some good preventative info. I want everyone to know there is T beyond T. It's big, it's horrible and scary and you don't want it.
I'm talking about folks like me who diddle with loud music and should know better.

After about an hour of loud music a few years ago, I had to walk out and leave my musician friends on their own. I was sitting at the organ and just couldn't take it anymore. Marshall stacks, miked drums and LOTS of monitors were eating through my plugs and protective headset. I thought I was doubly protected. I tried to lie to myself that night and thought I could get away with it. I should have known better. One thing I've learned for sure, if my T settles down, It can come right back where it left off, even years later. I KNEW this, but playing music at this place sounded like too much fun. I'd been living with T already for a couple decades, trying to be careful.

It was just too damn loud. I waved goodbye, and took off with my headgear still on.
When I left, I stood outside hearing my ears ringing like never before. It was way worse than any after-concert damage I ever had. I knew I was in trouble. I drove home, quiet and spooky and my wife knew something was wrong. I could hardly hear her talk. I woke up to the worst morning of my life. I was half dizzy, my usual high pitched T had sunk down in frequencies to an annoying whistle or trumpet like sound and LOUD as hell in each ear, BUT the two separate sounds were NOT in tune. It was maddening and LOUD. So loud. I wanted to run or scream or cry... a 35 year old man. Then the worst part, my girl and wife were talking, and I started talking and all sounds were distorted as if I'd truly blown my eardrums out. Now I'm thinking, "Was it worth it, for a few loud songs?"

I thought it would settle down during the day. It didn't. I was scared, real scared. I'd NEVER heard anything like this. For the first time I was also experiencing the throbbing that comes with this kind of damage and found that stuffing cotton in my ears took away some of the throbbing. People at work noticed this change in my personality. I was quiet and scared and anxious. I had hope that it would settle down, though. So for months I wore my cotton and continued to hear the 'evil horns' in my head and everyone's voice sounded like a monster movie. And my ears throbbed. It went on for two years. Very slowly it all went back down to my normal hiss and squeal. Voices sounded clear again, but I still can't sit in an acoustic music setting without my cotton. And sometimes now just pulling masking tape off a spool it too much!!

If you want to experience a taste of Mega T (and I don't think you do), go in a music store, talk into a mike going through a distortion pedal, then have a guy with a trumpet on your left and a bugle on the right and tell them to blow different out of tune notes and not stop, then have a guy poke your eardrums with the tips of drumsticks.
That's MEGA T.

 

I had experienced Mega T couple of years back after going to the concert. It lasted for 4 months.. I would never ever go to loud events in my life..no matter what the event is.
Every one with T..one thing we should avoid is loud noise. Coffee or alcohol only makes it worst for few minutes/hours, but loud noise will make it worst for months or years!

 

That must have been TERRIBLE to go through. It makes my low T seem like nothing. I have never been keen on going to concerts anyway - I think it's ironic that music lovers go considering their are so many people screaming their heads off you can't hear the music properly anyway - but I used to listen to my headphones a lot. Now I have not used them in about a month, though I don't think I will ever be able to stop using them for things like traveling (music stops me from feeling ill) or running. Mega T sounds nightmarish - loud music for a few hours is NOT worth it

 

I can't even imagine how big your panic was when you had that Mega T.... I guess you appreciate and can handle your present T much easier when your Mega T faded away!

 

And I knew better!!
It's a wonder I didn't blow my fool head off.

 

IWLM
I'm reading this account (again) and I'm very appreciative you are taking time to look out for us newbies (I'm one year old). I don't ever want to experience anything like MEGA T! I'm a little pale and sweaty just reading about it, don't want to experience it. However, last summer the family and I (plus future son-in-law) drove a van out to Sandusky, OH (an overnight, caffeine filled trip); my ears (my whole head) screamed like never before (for a day and a half). That is nothing like what you experienced; I could NOT imagine two years of what you went through!

Thanx again for looking out for us!

Mark

 

I scared myself this morning lol i was sitting on my deck with my mom and friend and this REALLY high pitch ring was in the air like sooo loud and i covered my ears to make sure it wasnt me but then my mom and friend were like nooo we hear it toooo!!!! We dont know what it was maybe one of the neighbors but thankgod cause i was like noooo mega t!!!!!!

 

I don't think my so called "Mega T" is the normal course, even degenerative course. Mega T happened to me when I was already missing quite a few hair cells and subjected myself to music at the volume of a battlefield.
But for people who have T and are playing with fire, it may be lurking around the corner.

 

What makes your T "mega T"?? I've never heard such a term for T.

 

It's just a term I made up. Another term might be "T times 1000."

 

Sounds like my every day T.

 

@I who love music
Do you know what happened to the other musicians at that gig?
It must have been seriously loud, like 115dB+...

I often see others play at these volumes without earplugs, and they report no problems...

[rant]
I keep thinking that I'm not built like a 'musician' at all. I hate being in crowded and noisy bars, my voice doesn't cut through background noise, I prefer 'deep conversations' to small talk, I dislike alcohol/smoking/drugs, I have no interest in pop culture, I prefer to push music into new territory but I often have to hold back as it tends to throw others out of their comfort zone, I get frustrated when others don't give a 100% - even if we're playing background music, I'd rather play or practice instead of 'hanging out for hours'... and I like the volume to be half of what it usually is.
[/rant]

 

If you had double protection, surely it would be enough?

 

Not necessarily, and by IWLM's account not empirically.

A completely blocked ear canal (for example: foam earplugs) will lead to a maximum reduction of 29dB or so, because sound also travels through the body. (Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earplug).

A volume level of 116dB (or even higher) is not unheard of in pop/rock. With earplugs it would be down to 88dB which would lead to a maximum exposure time of 4 hours, with completely silence for the rest of the day.
(Source: http://www.dangerousdecibels.org/education/information-center/decibel-exposure-time-guidelines/)
Then take into account city noise, driving noise, someone talking into your ear at a bar, having sensitive ears to begin with etc etc, and you're there.

 

I had small cotton balls shoved way in, foam plugs on top of those, and cordless headphones over my ears. The sound in the air was blocked - of course hehe, but the lower notes and especially the thundering bass guitar went right through my skull. These are the two ways we all hear - Air Conduction and Bone Conduction. Maybe if I would have wrapped my head in foam this wouldn't have happened.
But this phenomenon is why it's so hard to predict safe and dangerous DB levels of music. The bass will sneak up on you, regardless of what levels the gadgets report.

 

Most of those other guys have no tinnitus. Although a few of them have hearing problems. The guy that owns this place and does this every week has absolutely no T or hearing problems at all.
The drumset is all miked up. Behind that are probably 8 or 10 Marshall stacks along with a few other large various amps. There are huge monitors on the ceiling, the walls, and floor. It's a refurbished barn. And it's loud.

 

Yes, my present level of T is nothing compared to this nightmare. Ya I was in panic mode at first and all I had was hope that I would get better, although, at two years it was a little longer than I hoped for. And after this ordeal I have H pretty bad and a higher baseline but still nothing like those two years.
I don't hear my T much anymore though.

 

I have often fantasized about playing in my own isolated see-through igloo.

 

Pete Townsend did it. In rehearsals for a Tommy tour he was in a big plastic box.

 

@IWLM - I really don't like when people say " brave up and live your life "..those people have no idea what Mega T is .
I experienced It and I don't wish that torture on my worst enemy. !!

 

I don't know but I am seriously pissed off with this mysterious and unpredictable condition. I didn't know when I first got it that my life is OVER basically and there is no treatment

 

I am not a "music person", therefore this question is to all those music people out there....why does concerts HAVE to be so loud. With the technology that we have today, why can't the concerts be enjoyed at a lower volume. Isn't it just a matter of acoustics and/or placement of the speakers?

 

i knew

 

Just picking up on this @I who love music - your procedure for saying that if you say to yourself just the emotions and not monitor or say how loud it is on that day or at that moment - that way you said that you have succeeded in not hearing your t and are much better. But in your post from march you said that ''I don't hear my T much anymore though'' so maybe you did nt hear it so it is not the speaking to yourself that helped but the fact that you dont hear it anyway? I am asking as I am trying youir method but dont have much success but then i am living with chronic stress day in and day out.....thank you ever so much if you can respond and explain - thank you and please let me know how your are these days.....thanks

 

IMHO it was probably low T to begin with. If I EVER get one of those RARE low T days, it's heaven....that would be wonderful T mine is high pitch shrill fire alarm screetching 24/7....it would take a superhuman not to notice it.

 

It was driving me nuts a year ago.
Tonight I was playing my fiddle next to another fiddle with a concertina and a guy pounding a piano.
Lo and behold, I didn't even have to worry about putting cotton in my ears. Although my T is louder tonight because of it, I know in a couple days it'll settle down. But it doesn't bother me.
Previous to this I gave up music altogether because the T was loud. Well, it's still loud. But I only hear it when I'm talking about it, or thinking about. The "method" drove it from my mind.
Now I come to the forum not to look for remedies, but to help others. Good luck.

 

Mine is exactly like that too.....and getting louder

 

That is really kind of you to stay on here to help others.
I just dont understand how you have coped with it all these years if it has been driving you nuts only a year ago.
Mine is driving me nuts all the time every waking moment and i live to sleep - then i get a few hours and i am awake again with it shrieking more than ever and i feel the anxiety rising in me. I havent relaxed for one minute since it started and it just seems to be getting worse. I keep saying - it is only a noise and right not it is annoying me but i will just carry on - but it isnt making much difference i am sorry to say....any ideas for me and others on here in the same boat.
Really it sounds a bit like Dr Nagler used to say on here - he hears it but it doesnt bother him anymore and he is only aware of it 10 percent of the time......so it is a psychological problem eased by using psychological relief methods.....? or do you have noise around you all the time even at night like nagler said to do?

 

I'm 56. I've had T since I was 14 from loud music.
I coped with it by getting into acoustic music instead of loud music. Also, I suffered with migraine headaches for years and I was addicted to pain medicine. And addicted to food, cigarettes and pop. I was constantly trying to "go off" in to some imaginary pleasurable place. A few weeks after I started doing 'the method' I started to feel SO relaxed, like when a noisy machine or applicance turns off. You know the feeling? I was VERY determined to not listen to my T and measure it, or compare it, describe it, basically NOT give it any attention. I was (and still am) very serious about whipping this devil. I still tell myself how I feel when the T is intrusive and so far so good. I'm going head to head with this beast.
I'm going to do something here I haven't done in a year.....
I'll describe my T for you.
There is a tea kettle in my left ear and it's as loud as the music I'm listening to right now. My right ear T is just as loud but it's a higher pitch and I sense a lower frequency there too. Since I started typing this sentence I had one big "whoosh" from side to side.
My T is not gone. I've had it since 1974.
But all day today until I started this post, I did not have to respond to my T feeling, because all day today I simply did not hear it. That's what this method is about. Like if you have a cast on your leg and you're walking around and forget you have a cast on. Or you are farsighted but all day long you forget you have glasses on, or .... well, you get it.
And I'd like to add that before I started doing this I was REALLY stressed. Very panicky. I know what a panic attack is. I've been to doctors and even the emergency room for acute panic. I couldn't get enough air in my lungs it seemed, my heart raced, everything felt unreal. Doctors would stand over me with their fingers at my nose saying, "Focus!" I worried, I had insomnia, I was scared all the time. I heard the F****ing T all the time. Luckily I started to learn about masking. There is one sound here on the generator that took the T away - as long as I was listening to it. But when I turned the masking off, the T appeared. At this same time a year ago I was bugging my doctor about anything she could do to help me. I was talking a lot to people to see if they had T. I was going into bad anxiety mode. Lucky for me, I found this site and someone posted a method that I tried and it's made all the difference.

 

I gave up loud music a long time ago because I have T.
But when I was playing it, it could be VERY intoxicating. At high volume, music demands attention. You want to feel it in your body. You want the people to swim in the sound. When you play a loud guitar it becomes a bomber jet. Drums become a series of explosions. When you sing you hear yourself in the stage floor monitors and the big speakers at the sides of the stage. It's like the voice of God. The music takes off and almost plays itself. People get excited. They reward you with applause. They give you money for doing this. The faster and louder you play, the more they like it. It's crazy.
The technology today has given musicians ear bud monitors to wear onstage. I'm sure you've seen them. But many musicians choose not to wear them. There is a feeling onstage of several hundred watts of sound going through you that is actually exciting. But at the same time, technology has made it possible to hear music "clearer" at concerts at even higher volumes. So the sound keeps pumping up. I don't know where it will ever end.
But when people are going to one or only a few concerts and getting tinnitus, I have to agree - there is something seriously unhealthy about high volume music.