Noise-Induced Hearing Loss and a Ray of Hope

Greetings everyone, I'm a 38-year old dad of 3 and suffer from noise-induced hearing loss. I believe the hearing loss was the result of going to too many heavy metal concerts combined with screaming children at home. My tinnitus began in earnest about 3 months ago when my 5-year old screamed directly into my ear. Three days later I had incredibly loud ringing in that ear and an audiogram at an ENT showed mild hearing loss in that ear.

This was devastating to say the least. Despite the fact that the hearing loss is only mild, I've been suffering from moderate to severe tinnitus. Many times it is so loud that I cannot effectively mask it. Some sounds severely aggravate it.

I recently ended up in the ER due to going nearly 3 days without sleeping due to the T. The doctor had just started me on anxiety meds to help deal with the constant ear screaming and I think maybe my sleep cycles got badly disrupted, or more so than before. I'd have a panic attack every time I started REM sleep and it became a vicious cycle. The doc gave me a sleeping benzo pill which helped for a couple of days but I found I started becoming resistant to it, waking up early and unable to go back to sleep.

I happened upon some video therapy sessions online, which mentioned altering your perception of the tinnitus by focusing on it in a happy, supportive environment. Associating the tinnitus with positive feelings instead of feelings of dread. The reasoning is that the brain cannot filter out sounds it perceives as threatening. I achieved some degree of success reducing the panic response from the T; letting it envelop me in all its screaming glory as I embraced it.

I went to bed last night without the sleeping pill. Bought a headband sleeping headphones thing online; it's really comfortable. I haven't had good success with masking sounds so opted for some ambient new age music and put the volume on the lowest setting so I really have to focus hard to hear it. I'm extra-anxious about new hearing damage right now.

I woke up a few times last night panicking, fearing the endless cycle of T and panic. However, when I heard the barely-audible soothing music, I was able to fall back into a state of calm within seconds. Maybe the calming external presence of the music next to my ear was helpful. And it allowed me to associate the T with a positive experience.

This morning I woke up and pulled off the headphones, and the sensation is difficult to describe. I know the T is still there, and I can still hear it if I think about it. But somehow my brain has pushed it into the background without any conscious effort on my part. It's almost as if the T is gone; but it's not. When I listen to music or some sounds I still notice some ringing static but I assume it's my brain still learning how to adapt.

What a ray of hope! I hope that my journey with T continues down this positive path. God knows it's been devastating thus far to me and my family. I wish all of us hope and healing. Together maybe we can be stronger.

 

Your T will most likely fade (assuming you will be able to prevent your kids from screaming when they are close to your ears). You might want to not use headphones, even at mild volume. Some people's t gets worse after they use headphones, but of course many people end up being ok. @Michael Leigh might be able to do more to persuade you to not take that risk.

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

 

Wow, thank you! This is very helpful. I'll consider ditching the headphones. I've always been a bit worried they'll malfunction and screw up my ear with some inaudible frequency, whether that has any merit or not.

Also, for the record, I always wore shotgun-shooting earplugs at the concerts I went to. And they still didn't save me. Let that be a warning to the rest of you.

 

Yeah, so it seems like my days are better now, somehow my brain can tune out the tinnitus mostly unless I get stressed out. Nights are still hell, though. For some reason once I start to fall asleep, the T comes back full force. Anybody else get that?

 

I used to get that when I had mild T. The best thing to do at this point is to leave it out alone for 6-9 months, protect your ears from loud sounds: concerts, clubs, festivals, loud venues, hair dryer, vaccum cleaner, etc and NO earbuds/earphones ever again. Always carry earplugs when you are going somewhere, if a resturant is too loud then put the earplugs on.
Most likely your T will improve/drop to mild and you will habituate. Do you have bilateral tinnitus? how much hearing loss do you have? (Frequency)

 

Thanks, I do bring earplugs everywhere I go now. I only have tinnitus in my right ear, and the hearing loss is mild but obvious in the 4-6khz range. I appreciate the positive thoughts. It gets pretty discouraging sometimes being unable to sleep.

 

I am always intrigued when I see responses like this regarding headphones. I have spoken to multiple doctors (ENTs and Neurologists) and all of them have said without hesitation that headphones are very safe to use for people who have tinnitus / hearing damage if the volume is kept at a low level. They also added that "low level" means it is at a low volume when you are in a quiet room. If you are in a place where you can't hear the music at a "low level" (aka quite room setting), than you shouldn't increase the volume and it is best to not use them.

I think this is a very safe way to use it seeing that I have had tinnitus for 28 years and when headphones are used this way, it don't cause any problems. Doctors even use headphones / ear buds in their hearing tests. If that wasn't safe, they would be using speakers in the soundproof room instead of earbuds.

Of course this might only work and apply to me and with other people it may cause problems, but this method has worked for me.

 

Same here man. My T is loud as peoples voices. I slept about 5 hours last night, which is actually pretty good because I get 3 hour of sleep per night.

 

I would not trust audiologists/ENTs.

 

I also would not trust audiologists because I had a very bad / traumatizing experience with one. I don't believe they have a good understand of tinnitus. I would on the other hand put more weight into what ENTs and Neurologists have to say seeing that their entire profession is based around this. Not to say that doctors know everything because they don't.

I feel that we will prob continue to disagree on this issue so I agree to disagree on ENTs (I fully agree on audiologists). I do hope you get better sleep in the future though. I'm sorry if I am stating the obvious here, but have you tried using a white noise machine with different settings that can help mask your T?

 

Both my ENT and Audiologist have Tinnitus and still dont know much about it. My Audiologist told me my hearing loss on 4khz is caused by stress/anxiety.
Yes, I use sound oasis machine but my T is so loud that it covers it up. Right now I have the volume on tv on 50 and it is helping me mask it somewhat. I need to have classical music playing on laptop, volume on tv loud, ,and sound oasis machine to help me.
How are you holding up? I see that you had this 28 years and for that I respect you.

 

I am doing okay thanks for asking. Some days better than others. Unfortunately, I have had tinnitus ever since I could remember at a young age. Me and my brother had a lot of ear infections as young children and as a result we have always had tinnitus. My parents were advised to have tubes put in our ears to help with the infections unfortunately, which I believe was the root case. My other brother who is younger who didn't get tubes in his ears, but did have ear infections like me and my other brother, doesn't have tinnitus. I can't say that the tubes were the cause, but it looks that way. What's done is done so there is no reason for me to regret or worry about the past.

I plan on talking about this in my "Introduce Yourself" when I get around to it, but do you sleep on your sides with your ears on the pillow? For me having my ears (especially my left) on the pillow causes my tinnitus to get even louder since it is muffling external sound and I can't sleep to well on my back. I have found that if use a neck pillow that is shaped like a C, I can have my head well supported while also leaving my hear from being muffled allowing externals sounds to still enter them to help mask the tinnitus. I'm not sure if it will help you, but I thought i might as well mention it in case it helps @HearsToHope.

 

Ugh sorry to hear that. I sleep on my side with my good ear on the pillow. I'm in a weird place right now though where some sounds really aggravate the tinnitus, even really quiet sounds like the air conditioning vent in the master bathroom [like 20 feet from my pillow]. Listening to white noise or music helps somewhat but I still get strange "hissing" and "ringing" artifacts from the sounds. Sometimes it'll really piss off the T and it'll just get louder for a while. After that sometimes I just give up and stuff an earplug in.

 

Seeing that it has been less than a year since you have developed tinnitus i am optimistic that it will diminish over time as you heal. Nerves take a very long time to heal. Just be cautious of loud noises and always carry ear plugs and don't hesitate to put them in if it gets too loud. I also suggest getting a phone app that can check decibel levels. These aren't very accurate compared to stand alone ones you can buy, but at least it can give you an idea of how loud something is.

 

Woke up this morning and I can barely hear the T. I've had > 60 Db T for three months and right now if I'm not thinking about it, I can't hear it. Maybe it's just a good day, I'll take it. This all turned around when I stopped being angry and upset at the T.

Last night I turned off my screens early and went to bed on time. I didn't use any masking or sound enrichment. The T wasn't bothering me at all but my new antidepressants were keeping me awake so I eventually had to take a prescription sleeping pill or risk having a bad day. As I drifted off to sleep I remember thinking, "you know, it's really kind of a beautiful sound once you get used to it". Like a little friend always sitting on my shoulder or something.

I'm still in the early stages of this thing so we'll see.

 

I am so happy for you! I'm glad your antidepressant is working you. The mind is a powerful and crazy thing. Keep your current positivity going!

 

How many dB is your hearing loss?

 

So you still use headphones even with T?

 

Can stress/anxiety cause hearing loss? And how many dB is your loss at 4kHz?