- Nov 8, 2025
- 1
- Tinnitus Since
- 07/2022
- Cause of Tinnitus
- Loud music - concert
Introduction
First time poster, frequent lurker in the past. Like many others, I struggled with tinnitus and hyperacusis but now largely view myself as being able to live a normal life with minimal impact to my day to day activities and well-being. Because I've found a lot of help in reading the posts here, I wanted to give back what I could by sharing my own personal story with tinnitus. I hope I can give a sense of hope and optimism to anybody out there, even for a brief moment.
Initial Onset
My tinnitus was caused by loud noise exposure from an outdoor rave in the summer of 2022, for an estimated duration of 3 hours. I was initially wearing foam earplugs with an NRR of 30 decibels for the first hour, and took them out for the last two hours. I remember feeling intermittent bouts of discomfort in my ears, which must've indicated the music was really loud. I was also under the influence of a quarter ounce of mushrooms, just to provide the full context.
Ironically, I had a concern about the possibility of getting tinnitus before going to the concert which is why I brought earplugs. This paranoia was largely due to the fact that I experienced brief tinnitus 7 years before this from being in a loud bar, which disappeared after a night's rest. I remember worrying about whether I might develop tinnitus once I got back from home from the rave, and tried to listen for any indicative sounds. I was able to hear soft wind noises, only when I plugged my ears. I was worried, but went to bed optimistic that it would go away like last time.
The sound didn't go away. It started fairly quiet and didn't change in volume or tone. I tried to live my life normally, even attending an event where I was exposed to ~80dB of music for an hour and a half less than a week after the rave, which in retrospect likely hindered my recovery. Over the next few weeks my tinnitus worsened and I started to develop hyperacusis. I remember my tinnitus being particularly bad when I would sleep on one side - it evolved into multiple tones, and would grow so loud to the point that I would feel pain in the ear that was resting on the pillow and woke me up from sleep. The sound of dishes clanking against each other became unbearable, and caused lingering swelling and pain for hours. As an avid gym-goer, I began to watch out for people re-racking the squat bar so that I could move far away to avoid the noise. I quickly started relying on earplugs, and wore them during most of my day-to-day life.
Visits to the ENT were not helpful. Hearing tests and pressure tests came back normal, and the advice I received was to try and manage in ways that I found helpful for me. I felt confused because I thought that maybe at least the feelings of swelling were one thing that could be objectively measured and treated. I went on a brief bout of prednisone, but found it to have no positive or negative effect.
This was a stressful and dark period in my life. I regretted going to the rave and for taking out my hearing protection. I didn't understand why I was the only one that developed tinnitus when everyone else in my group also didn't use hearing protection. My tendency to obsess over details made me hyperaware of my tinnitus and I visited this forum frequently to read as much information as I could, trying to improve my understanding of my condition and learn about potential cures. I tried a lot of things that anecdotally worked for others, like drinking ACV or taking magnesium supplements among many other things. None of them had a noticeable effect on my tinnitus, positive or negative.
Learning to Live with Tinnitus
I consider myself lucky that my tinnitus did not worsen to the point of me being unable to live my day to day life. To give an idea of the severity, I was able to take my mind off of it during conversations and when intensely focused on a task. My tinnitus would really roar in quiet rooms, but was rarely noticeable when I would take a shower. As for my hyperacusis, I continued being dependent on earplugs - at the gym, walking about in normal traffic, on flights, etc. My condition stabilized and became predictable for the most part. Loud noises would cause spikes in my tinnitus and discomfort in my ears for a few hours, and would eventually return to baseline. Weed would worsen my tinnitus, but only for the duration that I was high.
One thing that I was really concerned about was whether my tinnitus would go away or not. I remember reading about what constitutes a chronic condition, which was defined as lasting longer than 3 months. I passed that threshold eventually, and had to learn how to come to terms with the fact that I might have to live with this condition for the rest of my life. That didn't come particularly naturally to me.
Habituation
Luckily for me, I seem to have a finite amount of emotion available to spend on anything. After a few years of living with tinnitus, I started worrying about it less and less. I remember reading a post on Tinnitus Talk that talked about how it's not really the sound that's the problem, but rather our reaction to the sound. I remember reading it and thinking how unhelpful that was - if you had someone playing some loud high-pitched sounds right next to you all the time, how could you not be annoyed and stressed by it? But to my own surprise I found my negative reactions gradually lessening over time, which allowed me to experience my symptoms without feeling the need to prevent or treat them. In quiet environments, I would let my tinnitus roar and change in tone longer without trying to distract myself with music. I would occasionally go to the gym without earplugs with the full understanding that loud noises would cause temporary spikes in my tinnitus. Even those spikes gradually lessened in severity, as my reaction to the spikes became more muted over time.
This was a drastic change from my behavior during the initial onset, when I was hyperaware of any change that would worsen my condition. I believe this marked the start of habituation for me, which started about 6 months ago. Now, my hyperacusis has now improved to the point where I no longer feel the need to wear earplugs in the gym or when walking about in normal traffic, but is not fully recovered either. I still wear earplugs on flights, and car horns are still cause lingering discomfort for me. I still have periods when my tinnitus is loud, but I no longer pay attention to the details of what I'm hearing and it does not elicit a stress response.
On Relating to Others
One thing that was particularly surprising to me was the lack of empathy and support that I received. A friend of mine who had tinnitus for as long as he could remember told me he didn't understand why I was struggling, and told me to just ignore it. My own partner grew tired of having to be careful not to make loud noises around me, and told me that me sharing what I was going through was adding stress to their life.
I attribute this to a natural difficulty in being able to sympathize with the struggles of others, especially when we haven't directly experienced it. I actually found myself guilty of this too - a friend of mine talked about struggling with eczema and I couldn't understand how an itchy skin condition could be that big of a deal because I was ignorant of how severe the condition could get. When another friend confided in me that he was experiencing brain fog and forgetfulness, I laughed it off by saying I'm like that too sometimes. I quickly realized I was failing to give the same sort of support I hoped to receive, not out of malice but due to ignorance. While I found it challenging to share what I was going through with the closest people in my life, I found meaningful comfort in reading the stories of others in this forum.
Ending Thoughts
I remember really disliking reading posts like this where the author did not experience a total cure from tinnitus. I just couldn't imagine experiencing peace as long as I had tinnitus, and those stories made me more worried that I might have to live with it for the rest of my life. But now I can truly say that my remaining tinnitus and hyperacusis are no longer serious stress factors in my life - I'm more bummed about the fact that I went out on a walk on a rainy day today and that my shoes need time to dry!
I understand not everyone will or is able to experience the same journey of improvement that I did and only offer my personal story as one other data point in the sea of anecdotes out there. My heart really aches for everybody who is struggling with tinnitus. While I can't promise things will get better, I'd like to offer my understanding and sincere best wishes for the future. Any questions or comments are welcome - I'll stick around for a while.
First time poster, frequent lurker in the past. Like many others, I struggled with tinnitus and hyperacusis but now largely view myself as being able to live a normal life with minimal impact to my day to day activities and well-being. Because I've found a lot of help in reading the posts here, I wanted to give back what I could by sharing my own personal story with tinnitus. I hope I can give a sense of hope and optimism to anybody out there, even for a brief moment.
Initial Onset
My tinnitus was caused by loud noise exposure from an outdoor rave in the summer of 2022, for an estimated duration of 3 hours. I was initially wearing foam earplugs with an NRR of 30 decibels for the first hour, and took them out for the last two hours. I remember feeling intermittent bouts of discomfort in my ears, which must've indicated the music was really loud. I was also under the influence of a quarter ounce of mushrooms, just to provide the full context.
Ironically, I had a concern about the possibility of getting tinnitus before going to the concert which is why I brought earplugs. This paranoia was largely due to the fact that I experienced brief tinnitus 7 years before this from being in a loud bar, which disappeared after a night's rest. I remember worrying about whether I might develop tinnitus once I got back from home from the rave, and tried to listen for any indicative sounds. I was able to hear soft wind noises, only when I plugged my ears. I was worried, but went to bed optimistic that it would go away like last time.
The sound didn't go away. It started fairly quiet and didn't change in volume or tone. I tried to live my life normally, even attending an event where I was exposed to ~80dB of music for an hour and a half less than a week after the rave, which in retrospect likely hindered my recovery. Over the next few weeks my tinnitus worsened and I started to develop hyperacusis. I remember my tinnitus being particularly bad when I would sleep on one side - it evolved into multiple tones, and would grow so loud to the point that I would feel pain in the ear that was resting on the pillow and woke me up from sleep. The sound of dishes clanking against each other became unbearable, and caused lingering swelling and pain for hours. As an avid gym-goer, I began to watch out for people re-racking the squat bar so that I could move far away to avoid the noise. I quickly started relying on earplugs, and wore them during most of my day-to-day life.
Visits to the ENT were not helpful. Hearing tests and pressure tests came back normal, and the advice I received was to try and manage in ways that I found helpful for me. I felt confused because I thought that maybe at least the feelings of swelling were one thing that could be objectively measured and treated. I went on a brief bout of prednisone, but found it to have no positive or negative effect.
This was a stressful and dark period in my life. I regretted going to the rave and for taking out my hearing protection. I didn't understand why I was the only one that developed tinnitus when everyone else in my group also didn't use hearing protection. My tendency to obsess over details made me hyperaware of my tinnitus and I visited this forum frequently to read as much information as I could, trying to improve my understanding of my condition and learn about potential cures. I tried a lot of things that anecdotally worked for others, like drinking ACV or taking magnesium supplements among many other things. None of them had a noticeable effect on my tinnitus, positive or negative.
Learning to Live with Tinnitus
I consider myself lucky that my tinnitus did not worsen to the point of me being unable to live my day to day life. To give an idea of the severity, I was able to take my mind off of it during conversations and when intensely focused on a task. My tinnitus would really roar in quiet rooms, but was rarely noticeable when I would take a shower. As for my hyperacusis, I continued being dependent on earplugs - at the gym, walking about in normal traffic, on flights, etc. My condition stabilized and became predictable for the most part. Loud noises would cause spikes in my tinnitus and discomfort in my ears for a few hours, and would eventually return to baseline. Weed would worsen my tinnitus, but only for the duration that I was high.
One thing that I was really concerned about was whether my tinnitus would go away or not. I remember reading about what constitutes a chronic condition, which was defined as lasting longer than 3 months. I passed that threshold eventually, and had to learn how to come to terms with the fact that I might have to live with this condition for the rest of my life. That didn't come particularly naturally to me.
Habituation
Luckily for me, I seem to have a finite amount of emotion available to spend on anything. After a few years of living with tinnitus, I started worrying about it less and less. I remember reading a post on Tinnitus Talk that talked about how it's not really the sound that's the problem, but rather our reaction to the sound. I remember reading it and thinking how unhelpful that was - if you had someone playing some loud high-pitched sounds right next to you all the time, how could you not be annoyed and stressed by it? But to my own surprise I found my negative reactions gradually lessening over time, which allowed me to experience my symptoms without feeling the need to prevent or treat them. In quiet environments, I would let my tinnitus roar and change in tone longer without trying to distract myself with music. I would occasionally go to the gym without earplugs with the full understanding that loud noises would cause temporary spikes in my tinnitus. Even those spikes gradually lessened in severity, as my reaction to the spikes became more muted over time.
This was a drastic change from my behavior during the initial onset, when I was hyperaware of any change that would worsen my condition. I believe this marked the start of habituation for me, which started about 6 months ago. Now, my hyperacusis has now improved to the point where I no longer feel the need to wear earplugs in the gym or when walking about in normal traffic, but is not fully recovered either. I still wear earplugs on flights, and car horns are still cause lingering discomfort for me. I still have periods when my tinnitus is loud, but I no longer pay attention to the details of what I'm hearing and it does not elicit a stress response.
On Relating to Others
One thing that was particularly surprising to me was the lack of empathy and support that I received. A friend of mine who had tinnitus for as long as he could remember told me he didn't understand why I was struggling, and told me to just ignore it. My own partner grew tired of having to be careful not to make loud noises around me, and told me that me sharing what I was going through was adding stress to their life.
I attribute this to a natural difficulty in being able to sympathize with the struggles of others, especially when we haven't directly experienced it. I actually found myself guilty of this too - a friend of mine talked about struggling with eczema and I couldn't understand how an itchy skin condition could be that big of a deal because I was ignorant of how severe the condition could get. When another friend confided in me that he was experiencing brain fog and forgetfulness, I laughed it off by saying I'm like that too sometimes. I quickly realized I was failing to give the same sort of support I hoped to receive, not out of malice but due to ignorance. While I found it challenging to share what I was going through with the closest people in my life, I found meaningful comfort in reading the stories of others in this forum.
Ending Thoughts
I remember really disliking reading posts like this where the author did not experience a total cure from tinnitus. I just couldn't imagine experiencing peace as long as I had tinnitus, and those stories made me more worried that I might have to live with it for the rest of my life. But now I can truly say that my remaining tinnitus and hyperacusis are no longer serious stress factors in my life - I'm more bummed about the fact that I went out on a walk on a rainy day today and that my shoes need time to dry!
I understand not everyone will or is able to experience the same journey of improvement that I did and only offer my personal story as one other data point in the sea of anecdotes out there. My heart really aches for everybody who is struggling with tinnitus. While I can't promise things will get better, I'd like to offer my understanding and sincere best wishes for the future. Any questions or comments are welcome - I'll stick around for a while.
