Researcher/Reporter

I'm a reporter in the Greensboro, N.C. area and I'm working on an article about tinnitus. I'm hoping to educate young people about the dangers of loud music and sounds, and I was wondering if someone here would be willing to share their story and experience with tinnitus with me?

 

hello It is good to see that people are trying to get tinnitus to media. By what time do you need the experience? Im a young person and got mine from loud music, but I am very tired at the moment so I could write smth to you in a couple of days

 

Hi! That would be absolutely perfect and I'm excited to hear your story! Do you think you'd have time before next Tuesday or so?

 

sure ill get it to you by the weekend in case I forget, dont hesitate to PM me what do you need more specifically?

 

Just your story -- how long you've had tinnitus, how you got it, what it's like living with it and any sort of psychological or emotional repercussions you've experienced. Have you had any luck with treatments? Do you have any advice or warnings for others?

Thanks so much! I really appreciate the help!

 

hello Caroline, I am what you call a catastrophic tinnitus case, with tinnitus very loud and sound as a dental drill, 24/7, 365 that can be heard over any environmental noise, and cannot be masked by medical prosthetic devices. Think of it like sharp chronic pain that is drug resistant.
It started after a fire alarm exposure. What happens is one loses high frequency hearing too suddenly and the brain fails to compensate and begins to make up its own sounds in the area it lost - that is what I learned over the 3 years since I've had this blight.
I just woke up in the morning and it was there. I began losing my sleep, my sanity and with it all my friends, my job, my kids, everything held dear to me and eventually landed in a mental ward-only to find that nobody can help me. I was not crazy like every other patient on the ward, I just had a loud debilitating noise in my head that robbed me of sleep, relaxation, meaningful concentration, and most joy in life.
This existence for me is basically a day to day survival and hope for cure and fighting the urge to pick up a shotgun to my head.
The American Tinnitus Association (ATA) says-

***50 million people in the United States experience tinnitus to some degree.1 Of these, about 16 million have it severe enough tinnitus to seek medical attention and about two million patients are so seriously debilitated that they cannot function on a "normal," day-to-day basis.
Noise is the leading cause of tinnitus and our world has gotten progressively noisier. Noise is in abundance not only in recreational situations like concerts and sporting events, but many face extreme noise on-the-job. Firefighters are one of the many emergency service personnel at risk for developing tinnitus.

http://www.ata.org/for-patients/faqs

Here is one example of a tinnitus suicide published in the media.
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/SAN-JOSE-Body-found-floating-off-Richmond-IDd-2621350.php

I'd be happy to help in any way I can.

 

I saw your post yesterday, but decided not to reply as others have already volunteered. In any event, my "story" is not really interesting. As a reporter you are probably looking for something "up close and personal". Something other people can relate to. However, there are perhaps a few pieces of more non-personal background information that might be helpful. To understand why most people end up with tinnitus, we have to look at noise levels in a modern society and compare it with what our ears were originally designed to do (ie. from an evolutionary point-of-view). There is noise when we travel by car, train, subway, and airplane. There is noise when we walk down a busy street, go to the shopping mall, cinema, restaurant, and so on. Our ears were not designed for that. Not long ago, there was a story about a football game where the "noise record" was broken (at 137 decibels):

http://www.kcchiefs.com/news/articl...Decibels/798bbf41-68f5-4d4c-aef4-aeb2528246d0

Compare 137 decibels with a loud AC/DC concert which would typically be rated at about 115 decibels. How many of the people at that football stadium were wearing earplugs, do you think? Not many, if you ask me. And why is that? Well, it all starts with awareness. And if doctors/health officials are not pushing the agenda, then you can be sure that organizers at such events are not going to take any action, either. Which is a shame. It would be so easy and inexpensive to make it mandatory to hand out earplugs at concerts or other loud events. Soon the "iPod generation" will be 10 years old. And soon, hearing loss/tinnitus will not just be a problem for the individual, but also for society. If you ask me.

Should you have questions about tinnitus or the like, I can probably answer those, or point you in the right direction.

 

Great comparisons by attheedge.....i'm the pioneer of iPod generation, i'm old school, the cd/cassette walkman generation (I don't know whether i should laugh or cry). The awareness isn't much improved in 16 y btw, it's quite hard to explain my 7 year younger brother (23) to wear ear protection in Foo Fighters concert. Basically before the band starts the Dave Grohl himself should yell to the mic, that everybody, especial in front, should put their earplugs in. Maybe that would help.

 

My story with T isn't that interesting. Basically I had a cold, and while I had it I had this pain in my ears. I remember thinking, "I've had a lot of earache lately" but dismissed it, thinking, "Well I have a cold, what should I expect?" Then, as my cold was actually leaving, I heard a ringing in my ear (found out later that I have fluid in my ear).

What I can tell you is how awful T is to deal with. You think you are going mad. There is this fear inside you, thinking, "What if this doesn't get better? What is wrong with me?" It's the anxiety more than anything else that makes it difficult. I know that plenty of others besides myself stop eating (I kept on feeling like I was going to be sick), I struggled to sleep (the masking noise that covered my T annoyed me) and was overly-anxious. I got through it and feel a lot better about T, but I think that a lot of people with T suffer setbacks, and I have days where all I want to do is sleep because I don't want to be awake listening to the noise.

T is a terrible thing to have to go through. The good news is most people deal with it and live good lives with it. But it is a struggle at the beginning. It would be good if the message would get out to more people, and that pubs/bars/concerts etc would keep the volume down or sell mandatory plugs. I never knew that you could have a constant ringing in your ears, and even though mine has been caused by a cold, a lot of people suffer because of loud music. The volume of everyday noise should definitely go down - I mean, I have been in bars where there is loud music; why does it need to be that loud?

 

I feel like for bars/restaurants or movie theatres to get quieter then everyone in the world would have to have chronic T which is never gonna happen cause not everyone gets T even if they expose there ears to the same loudness as someone who ends up getting it. My dad abuses his ears so bad to the point where i have no idea how he doesnt have T.. We were both jaming to prob 120 db for 45 minutes and i ended up with T that rang so loud for 2 days then stopped.. But didnt stop..its only to the point where i plug my ears and i can hear it now (thankgod) and his ears just rang for 30 mins then stopped and this happened to him everytime he plays and has done this his whole life and it always goes away. He thinks cause i was facing the amp with my drums and he was on the side of it that it had something to do with it but we usually play loudly and my ears always rang and went away where this time just that extra 10 to 15 db gave me chronic T. What it comes down to is that people dont care about T cause they dont have it. You tell someone to start caring about there ears they will say i dont care... Clubbers dont care.. People in bands dont care until it happens to them which is just a random group of people and not near enough to where i believe can cause awareness and make people care. Sounds kinda harsh but i wish more people would get T.. The ones that abuse there ears soo bad constantly so then things will change volume wise everywhere you go. People like loud. They hear a song they like and the first thing they do is crank it up! I hate when they do that now only cause of T, but before i had it i did the same thing as most of us probably. I just think saying that restaurants and bars need to be quieter is wishful thinking.. People are loud they talk loud they like loud and unless more people had T its always gonna be like that unless the government created like a law that restaurants/bars cant go over 85 db in music. But then they would loose money cause people would stop going cause they want it louder. The first thing my dad does when hes at a bar is ask the bartender to turn up the music... Its so annoying like why?! They just dont "understand"

 

I almost forgot to write. I see you got many helpful answers already but I promised sso Ill write anyway.
I belong the Ipodists generation. I listen to my Mp3 (well its almost the same as Ipod) every day for 2-3 hours on max. volume for around 7-8 years. I never went to concerts, occasionally went to bars and clubs but I think the most important thing must have been the music. I ssuppose I must have good ears, as I never experienced any problems. I alsso always used cheap plugs, which are not able to play music that loud. Anyway, in October 2013 I stopped listening to my Mp3 and threw it away. I didnt know about tinnitus but I knew it could cause hearing loss. Of course my parents had warned me frequently about it but I never cared. I always thought I would wear hearing aids and never really thought what it means. In Nov 2013 sort of randomly, after a long stressful period I started hearing a faint ring and it hasnt left. In the beginning I hoped it would go away, but it hasnt. I went through a period of anxiety and stress,s but Id say I have habituated more or less. I suppose a genetic background of depresssion also plays role in the anxiety, as the ringing doesn't really bother me and I dont notice it unless i Think about it. I dont really go out anymore, because I dont want to it to get louder. I could wear plugs of course, but nobody makes custom made (eg. the ones that are made speficially after your earcanal) but nobody makes them here. I dont see this as a loss really, I just go to the theatre, art exhibitions and restaurants more. I have measured by hearing twice and its good or very good, so no hearing losss. I cant help but think though that if I had turned down the Mp3 50% I would have no tinnitus. I really appreciate you writing an article about it, because this is an issue that needs to be discussed. Doctors ssay already now that in 10-20 years when my generation hits middle age we will have a lot more people with hearing issues due to looud mussic, which has become a rule. You cant go out at night without having to listen to blaring loud music, because people dont think. Therefore i hope that in 20 years there will be music limitationss and fines for the ones who dont follow them
If you need any technical information (eg. what tinnitus is etc). you can ask us about it or post your article here Will be happy to help.I hope you will write down the stories anomymously and wont mention location All the best!

 

@ Stina. Let alone on night, even on daytime, some entertaining/restaurants are thinkin that when their awful taste of music is high volume enough, it will bring more customers. Worst places are tourism magnets, i remember in Turkey- tourism citys with great beaches- the balkan cheese disco music were every step you took, even at breakfast. For example, they had a few really nice old pirate ships, with 3 decks of cannons, sailing around the beaches, that you could buy the ticket to and get some nice ride with a great view on the mountains. I immediately refused when i heard what kind of pumpin disco they had on the deck. I noticed it quite far away. The old thing was literally covered with speakers. And i wasnt suffering from H on that time. Apparently they thought that the vacation is only something where high volume pumpin cheese music is preset. I guess the hearing loss awereness and public education/enlightment is correlated with each other.

 

Was your story ever published?

 

Here you go...

www.elonpendulum.com/article/2014/07/sacred-silence-tinnitus-noise-never-stops

@Dr. Gans lent a hand for article as well...

(as did a member of the forum whom I will not name...).