Setback After Daughter Slapped Me on My Ear Twice!

Ugh so my daughter - who is not yet 2 - slapped me in my ear twice and now the nice buzzing has turned into a higher frequency - not louder but different.

Is it screwed up for good now?!?!

My hyperacusis is worse.

Maybe because I've been so anxious about it and clenching my jaw - and a full ear feeling that had faded.

I am so down right now. My earplug was in when the slap occured, so that's good.

Just so stressed about it right now as it had been fading nicely.

 

Stress has been proven to increase our perception of tinnitus making it seem worse. Also, clenching your jaw can definitely aggravate TMJ issues causing tinnitus and hyperacusis to temporarily get worse due to inflammation. If I am having TMJ issues, my ears start to become very sensitive to sound.

I would suggest trying to relax and distract yourself from thinking about it.

 

it wasnt exactly on my ear but near my jaw. i agree that my reaction to it is prob worse than the actual slap. for the record.... we have made up and all is well.

 

yep my tmj has been really bad lately. i just made myself a mouthguard. i'll be trying it out tonight. i've heard it's a huge help.

 

I hope you heal and start feeling better :/ I know it's hard to remain calm, but try to distract your mind because anxiety can make it worse. I hope you go back down to your baseline within a few months or couple of weeks, I'm sure it will good luck!

 

I am going to the dentist soon for this very same reason. I hope a mouth guard will help me too.

 

The question is, how hard can a 2 year old slap?

 

shes strong and i heard a ringing after those little hands!

 

for the record I also imbibed in some buffalo wings this weekend. Two times. very salty and salt always causes a spike..... im sorry i'm not giving up my wings. theyre effing delicious.

 

it should. I dont think I grind my teeth, but I definitely clench the crap out of my jaw. so much that my teeth hurt.

 

this happened on thurs should i go on Pred or is it too late

 

I really hope you get better soon hon, salty foods are always the culprit for me

 

I had TMJ for years - this may help you to address it.....x

** How to cure stress.

How to stop teeth grinding. (Bruxism.)
Bruxism results from stress held in the mouth.
It is a fighting response to tension and anxiety.
It feeds both of these aspects.
Unfortunately, I have to tell you that relaxation of mind and body is not possible with that response.
So you have to address this sooner or later.
It is relatively easy to correct this problem, however.
Given that we have Tinnitus, relaxation and meditation are still possible.
——————————————————-

** How to approach deep relaxation.

Sit quietly in your chair,
Assume the demeanour of a baby.
With your lips closed, allow your jaw to hang comfortably loose, your teeth apart.
Allow the inside of your mouth to relax and go quite quite soft.
Allow your throat to soften.
Become aware that your tongue is now floating in water.
Just continue with your gentle breathing

*(As a habit for life, try to become aware of where your tongue is - it should always be floating gently in water, never pushed up against the roof of your mouth.
Check on your tongue, to start with, several times a day.
Become a ‘Soft Mouth - Jaw Hanger.’
It will very soon become a habit, so much so that you will not clench your teeth even when sleeping!
Teeth should close only when eating!)

I had TMJ for years, until I saw an amazing psychotherapist who taught me to be a
“SM-JH” in just one session. I stayed with her for a couple of years to learn meditation also.
I promise you, I have not ‘shut my gob’ once in 26 years!

(....bet that didn’t surprise you....?)

Best wishes
Dave x
Jazzer



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In my opinion the slap with plug in couldn’t damage your ears !

Now it just too recent you so afraid of it getting worse that you overreact (we all do !)

Prednisone will work ( or not )for damaged ears ,but you didn’t damage anything !!

It will go back to baseline !

Jeremy

 

I remember that in the Bible, Jesus on the cross says:
"Please forgive them because what they did, they don't understand".

For a two year old kid, she does not know that is very serious to slap a T person's face.
But, you need to avoid another slap in the face in the future.
All I can say is -- "ALL MOMS IN THE WORLD ARE GREAT ! they sacrifice a lot for their kids".

May God bless you and recover soon !

 

thanks for the tips!!! i agree about the tounge!! very helpful!!

 

thanks Jeremy!! I really hope I didnt!!

 

And I never even liked salty foods until I got pregnant with her! bahaha.

 

I remember when I was in church and I had my ear plug in my worst ear (left ear) and a friend of mine (he loves being a goofball and hes 60) comes and slaps me hard in the left ear with the ear plug in. I was able to control my emotions. I was super pissed but I knew that he was just being a clown as usual....

I was also in the gym today and I am very popular and know all the athletes in there. I was in the bathroom and a new friend that I had just made about 3 weeks ago, starts using the automatic dryer that is in the bathroom.

I had one ear plug in the left ear but my right ear has been in a bit of pain. That dryer measured at 98 db and I was exposed to it for about 1 minute max.

My point is this, things will happen that we do not expect. How we react to them makes all the difference. I can stress myself out over the dryer in the bathroom (it was quite loud almost 100 db). It is what it is. I feel a bit of a spike already, but that's ok.

If my ears start annoying me, i'll just resort to some soothing sound therapy and it helps me quite a bit. I was thinking to myself, what if that dryer noise messed up my hearing even more. I already have beyond poor hearing, if my ears did get messed up more. I'll man up to it , own it and eventually get a hearing aid.

Life will throw a curveball, it's all about taking thousands of swings and hitting that home run. This is how my mind works

Hope you feel better.....

 

I am pretty sure that the earplug saved you from a lifelong problem. Slaps can be very dangerous. I am glad you had that earplug to protect you!

It could make a difference, but surely our reaction can't lead to permanent T. Keep this in mind and consider the fact that some of the things that happen Do lead to permanent changes in T. This seems to be evidence supporting the hypothesis that there is more to it than stress.

 

It’s been said by a few researchers that noise plus stress seems to be the lethal cocktail.

Josef Rauschecker mentions this at 3:50 into this talk:

Tinnitus: Ringing in the Brain | Josef...

Of course he’s not the only one saying this, but too many on here seem to discount stress without realising the significance of it. It is a VERY important contributing factor.

 

Too bad he doesn't explain the mechanism of how this could possibly work, and how this got established. Many people have T and don't care/assume it is normal. On the other hand, most of us here would prefer to experience silence once in a while. So we are more likely to Care about the volume of our T and report being under a lot of stress and seek medical attention. I am not convinced he is not mixing up correlation with causation. He is seeing a lot of people who are under stress complaining of T, and he might be concluding that stress is an essential component to getting T even if there is no reason to think that.

 

If you look at the data, there is an overwhelming amount of people who acquire tinnitus after a period of stress (like the death of a loved one, fighting in a war, depression, high stress jobs, etc). It is also linked with burnout syndrome.

There is indeed a significantly high enough correlation with stress to see that it is an important contributing factor. Sometimes when we have a spike it can be entirely driven by our stress response, which of course leads us down the rabbit hole. Once we start fearing sounds we are actually conditioning a stress response which I believe is responsible for the majority of spikes on this forum. Too much attention is put into thinking about sound, to the point, that it’s taking over people’s lives.

Of course, dangerous levels of noise will always be a problem and should be avoided or protected against.

 

If you continue watching you’ll see where he explains how the limbic system plays a vital role. The limbic system is driven by our emotions which includes stress.

EDIT: he talks about this from around 9:40 onwards.

 

Initially (in the weeks following the onset) it hasn't occurred to me to stay away from the sounds that used to not bother me (e.g., food processor). It is only after I began getting spikes afterwards, that I was able to eventually figure out that it is a good idea to never be exposed to some sounds. So, in my case, some of my stronger spikes happened in complete absence of stress. My biggest spike (that had derailed my healing) was a result of me pressing a loud phone to my ear and the person on the other end raising her voice to greet me. I winced, but didn't think much of it. I thought - it is just a phone (that I had been using for years prior to this with no problem) - it can't possibly do any serious damage. It is only after I got proven wrong that I began stressing out.

I will check it out tomorrow. Thank you.

 

I’m not trying to be rude here, Bill, but I don’t think you (personally) can disassociate yourself from sound like you are describing here. Your brain is now so obsessed with noise that you are undoubtedly activating your limbic system. You may think you aren’t, but judging from your posts here and going by how you react around sound in general, I’d say you are. The higher processing centres of our brain are inextricably linked with our perception of tinnitus.

 

You have experience talking to me now that I got educated. In the past, when I had no clue, I didn't care about the sounds. Also, even after I got educated, it was gradual - when I learned that being around a food processor wasn't safe, I still thought that a loud phone ought to be ok. It was only After I had negative experiences that I began to take the posts made by others reporting the same thing (serious consequences after being exposed to moderate noises) seriously.

Again, I know a thing or two about T now (having spent 20 months reading and learning from this forum). I know that it makes sense to ignore short run spikes/fluctuations, I know that if a noise hasn't caused ear fullness (or louder T) right away that it is a good sign. I can use all of that to avoid panicking.

 

Learning from here is not the best or most ideal of resources, though. Information is not being disseminated in a clinical setting, so one can come to any conclusions they please. It’s also more likely that one will fall foul to the confirmation bias.

 

We can't use the data we get from this forum to estimate the values of the probability of a permanent spike, but we can use it to establish that the probability is nonzero. And in fact seeing how we get those horror stories on a weekly or even daily basis, we can establish that the probability is non-negligeable. For many of us, that is all we need, as it is so important for us to avoid a spike that it would be worth it to eliminate all activities that have a non-negligeable risk of getting a permanent T spike associated with them.

 

Well, you don't go to war with the army that you wish you had, you go to war with the army that you've got. This is the best and only source of information that we've got, so we should use it instead of throwing the baby out with the bath water.