Tinnitus from Headphones

I'm a 27-year-old male. I've worn headphones for about a decade.

Usually I don't join communities and such as I'm very introverted, but this experience has changed me quite a bit and I feel like I must set off warning alarms as I'm now well aware with what tinnitus is. I'm alone on this as no one around me understands what I'm going through.

A chain of events probably caused my tinnitus but mostly headphones. A couple of months back I got my ears cleaned out from wax. I may actually regret this now as I believe the method used was microsuction.

Last month I developed tinnitus in my left ear from headphones and another loud noise during the day, a loud amp. While someone was playing the guitar, I went up to the guitar amp out of curiosity and left and went back to listening to music through my headphones at hazardous level without much rest. And yes, I'm now turning them down at very safe levels.

Listening to music, I experienced what I believe to be Acoustic Trauma, my left ear sounded like it was boiling, preventing me from sleep for a day. As days went by, it settled down as the boiling noise got quieter, revealing a low tone that got louder. A couple of weeks go by as the tone actually faded away into nothing. However, an annoying high pitch tone is still present and is showing no signs of going away and I can intensify it a bit with my mouth so I assume I'm hitting dead nerves.

This month I've descended into a spiral of being suicidal with very high depression and anxiety with nightmares, something I have not experienced before concerning myself in this scope as I understood I may live with tinnitus for the rest of my life. I've calmed down quite a bit, having mild breakdowns here and there.

I've noticed hyperacusis in certain sounds as well as I have trouble sleeping an entire night as I wake up in the middle of sleep.

 

Sorry to hear that. Welcome to the place you never wanted to join. But you will find good support here.

 

Exposure to loud noise is one of the most common causes of tinnitus and typically, it is caused by listening to audio through headphones, earbuds, AirPods and headsets at too loud a volume without realizing it, and for too long a duration without giving the ears sufficient rest.

I have written posts on noise induced tinnitus which you will find on my started threads. Please go there and read: Hyperacusis, As I See It, The Habituation Process, How to Habituate to Tinnitus. Click on the links below and read: New to Tinnitus, What to Do? Tinnitus, A Personal View.

I advise that you don't listen to audio through any type of headphones, even at low volume.

All the best,
Michael

New to Tinnitus, What to Do? | Tinnitus Talk Support Forum
Tinnitus, A Personal View | Tinnitus Talk Support Forum

 

I also got mine from loud music through headphones, I have ETD in the ear I have it the worst though so that may be a factor too.

The first few months are hell. My best recommendation for you is to buy a white noise machine or use an Alexa etc to play white noise / background sounds like rain that are near the same frequency as your tinnitus. They will completely mask it. Once you've come to terms with the tinnitus (a little better anyway, I don't believe anybody ever truly comes to terms with/accepts it), you can begin to lower the volume of the background noise so your tinnitus is somewhat audible and that helps you hear it a little and trains you to not be so stressed out by it.

There will be good days and bad days.

 

This sounds a lot like my journey into tinnitus and hyperacusis. I would give the band a rest for the next year or two if I were you, and invest in earplugs rather than headphones. Things will get better, but they may get worse first.

ENT doctors know very little about this kind of tinnitus so I wouldn't spend too much time with them.

Hang in there, there's a lot of support available here. I hope you can find a good general practitioner to help with your sleep and anxiety.

 

To be precise, it's the place I never knew existed, as I was never aware of this phenomenon until it happened. I've never in a million years thought that the human race would be annihilated by loud noises. If my purpose is to spread awareness about this, then so be it.

Thanks, I'll read through these threads.

I'm listening to white noise right now actually, it's giving me very much needed relief. I don't know if I will ever come to terms with my tinnitus. It's a reminder of how foolish I was in allowing this to happen.

This will be hard, I've mostly used headphones for a very long time. It's sad to see them be trashed for life. Also, believe it or not, I'm not actually in a band.

ENT is the last I'd turn to for help, I only visited them for earwax removal. They never stressed about the dangers of noise, they just showed a chart of dB noise levels but never explained how bad loud noise was, and headphones was not on that chart, so I shrugged it off, which was the biggest mistake of my life. Never again. Not sure if this is my fault or just that we're not properly educated about the dangers.

 

Well, that, too. I am convinced if I knew about this condition and this forum, I'd have never joined as an active participant/sufferer.

Good luck, I am also spreading awareness to the best of my limited ability. I am afraid by large the world will remain deaf to our warnings, pun intended.

 

It’s strange, because I can honestly say I was completely at terms with my tinnitus. I would hear it and have absolutely no emotion to it, I could openly talk about it and have it brought to the forefront and still feel no emotion, it would then fade to the background again.

But this spike/worsening has me in the depths again, I’m back to thinking about it being impossible to habituate to this. I know this spike/worsening has brought a different character to my tinnitus, a few more tones and it is definitely louder with a reactive element. But truth be told, I can’t even remember my pre-spiked tinnitus from 5 weeks ago, so I don’t even know how much louder it is at this point.

 

More people are getting tinnitus than ever and this is only accelerating with the noisy society we increasingly are forced to live in.

40 plus years ago there were few personal music players (hence few used headphones); barely anyone had power tools or electric lawnmowever; fewer concert halls; less air travel; less car stereos. Even the TV sets were smaller with smaller loudspeakers.

A tinnitus epidemic along with more hearing loss is coming and probably sooner rather than later.

The upside of this is I'd expect more effort to fund/research cures and treatments.

The COVID-19 vaccination is a good example of a quickly produced treatment that was funded out of pure necessity.

If there is a will, there is a way...

 

You should have your hearing evaluated, at least have a standard hearing test (audiometry) - I hope for your own good that you don't have any hearing impairment to accompany the tinnitus.

I completely disagree with this, even though everyone around is glued to their PMPs, less people will suffer from hearing loss and tinnitus (from NIHL). The main reason is the active noise cancelling, so even though people are exposed to PMPs (and other loud environments - which I disagree about as well), if they will develop any hearing impairment, it will be pretty late (their 30s). The children that are exposed to PMPs from an alarmingly young age (I have seen some 4 or 5 years old) will develop a hearing impairment in their teens - which is of catastrophic consequence.

For the sake of the development of real solutions for NIHL and tinnitus, the more people that will suffer from NIHL and tinnitus, the better - I hope that it becomes an epidemic.

 

Thanks for your concern. I seem to have a mild case and I can hear out of my left ear perfectly fine for now.

It's quite ironic, I originally went to an ENT to get my right ear cleaned out as it was occasionally being blocked by wax, causing temporary impairment. And now, I have a permanent issue with my left ear. Makes me wonder if karma really is a thing.

 

Update:

I'm now hearing some weird stuff in my right ear, and it's more annoying than what's happening in my left ear at the moment. Currently I hear a "sssssss" in my left ear and some weird static noise is perceived to be in my right ear, but I'm not really sure.

Maybe now that I've surfaced tinnitus in my left ear, the tinnitus in the right ear became more consciously present. Or I'm going insane...

 

Fully agree. One of my biggest mistakes was amping up the volume of my earbuds when I was outside (going out for a run, for instance) to drown out the environmental noise. I'm sure my prolonged exposure to loud music in 10-15 years time attributed to my gradual onset of tinnitus.

Active noise-cancelling could have been a life saver for me.

I don't listen to earbuds anymore now that I have tinnitus and hearing loss. Good thing is that it also makes me less isolated from my environment and people around me.