Tinnitus After a Door Slam — Looking for Similar Experiences

[poop]

I have had tinnitus for six months now after slamming a door close to my ear. I am hoping there is a chance it will go away.

I also wonder if anyone else has experienced tinnitus caused by a door slamming. I would have thought it was not loud enough to cause this if it had not happened to me.

 

[Sodlin]

I have had tinnitus for six months now after slamming a door close to my ear. I am hoping there is a chance it will go away.

I also wonder if anyone else has experienced tinnitus caused by a door slamming. I would have thought it was not loud enough to cause this if it had not happened to me.

Did you get tinnitus immediately after the incident, and how close were your ears to it?

 

[SueX]

Sorry to hear about that. I hope it proves to be only temporary, although six months is a long time for a single incident. It is possible that something else is going on, and the door slam may have been just a coincidence. Are you undergoing any scans or other investigations?

 

[Slant_McCoy]

I developed tinnitus from gunfire indoors, and it happened 50 years ago. At the time, I was so overwhelmed that I had to see a doctor because the constant noise was driving me crazy. The doctor prescribed Valium, which turned me into a zombie.

It took five years to get used to the loud, high-pitched ringing in my left ear. Over time, my hearing ability declined, and I eventually developed hypersensitivity to noise.

I worked as a carpenter and builder my entire life, but it reached a point where I could not even pound a nail without wearing ear protection. This caused numerous problems on the job.

Tinnitus has been a lifelong, torturous experience, and no one else I know has it, so they do not understand the problem. It can make you irritable and short-tempered, and I believe it also creates psychological issues.

Once tinnitus is there—whether from a door slam, gunfire, or another loud noise—it is there to stay. Living with that constant ringing in your ears is a relentless challenge. I studied Chinese medicine, naturopathic medicine, and herbology, but I have yet to find anything that helps.

 

[poop]

Did you get tinnitus immediately after the incident, and how close were your ears to it?

Yes, the tinnitus started immediately afterward. My ear was about one foot away from the door.

 

[Sodlin]

Yes, the tinnitus started immediately afterward. My ear was about one foot away from the door.

Do you still have tinnitus from it, or was it just a spike? It is very strange, since it does not sound like an extremely loud incident.

 

[ECP]

I'm so sorry you got tinnitus from a slamming door. That incident certainly could be the cause of your tinnitus, even though most door slams don't seem like they would be loud enough to inflict damage. It depends on so many factors, such as the materials used to make the door and the door frame, the size of the room you were in, the acoustics of that room, how hard the door was slammed, and how close you were to the door at the moment it slammed. (The fact that you were only a foot away from the door when it happened tells me that yes, the sound was horribly loud for you, and not so loud for people at the other side of the room. What terrible luck.)

It's also possible that you had previous exposures to loud noises that made your ears somewhat vulnerable to injury and that the door slam was just the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back.

We may never know all the reasons why you got tinnitus from that incident, but what matters more is that you're looking for ways to heal.

Since you asked, I can't think of anybody on this website who said they got tinnitus from a slamming door. The closest example I can recall is this person who wrote about a storage bench that had a hinged lid that got slammed down very hard:

Hearing Loss/Worsened Tinnitus from Bench Slamming Shut: I Need Support!

Hey Everyone, I am brand new to Tinnitus Talk. I have read some posts and found support over the last couple of days. I was exposed to a loud sound Friday night, a bench slamming shut. Since then I’ve had increased bilateral ringing and I felt a bit nauseous and slightly off-balance. I went...

www.tinnitustalk.com

Are you seeking treatment now from any doctors or audiologists or mental health therapists? I really hope that your tinnitus dies down, or that you find ways to manage your symptoms if it does not.

EDIT: I typed the words "slammed" and "door" into the search engine of this website, and it pulled up several more instances of people experiencing ear issues from that type of sound. So it's definitely a triggering event for some people.