Tinnitus from Overusing Headphones at Loud Volumes: 1.5 Weeks In — Too Early to Tell?

Hi, I'm new here due to poor choices. Like a lot of people I overused headphones at sometimes loud volumes over the years. I've always liked loud. If I went too hard, I'd get muffled hearing and some ringing but it would go away. Approx 10 days ago after one of these sessions at the gym I noticed things seemed too loud and things like running water kind of hurt and this was new. This has not yet passed. Basically I know I've screwed up majorly and I'm now completely crippled by anxiety (pre-existing issue that makes this worse).

Over the last 2 days it seems gotten worse, but this may be due to sitting in my room in near silence and stirring up anxiety. Or possibly due to trying things like Magnesium and sleeping all day hoping that would speed up recovery but napping makes it worse. Tinnitus and hyperacusis are both present. It's really bad today as I decided to make myself a witches brew of various supplements and vitamins and drug myself with Melatonin all day and sleep in 2H fragments, which now I'm hearing a new more obnoxious tone that sounds like some kind of digital electric pulsating alarm noise. Hopefully that goes away, it started right after waking up from a 2H sleep.

Banned from my life ATM: Headphones, daytime sleep, anything loud, high sodium food, caffeine, any kind of stimulant, magnesium/calcium smoothie.

Medical help obtained: Family Doctor appt in 4 days, hearing clinic appt in 9 days (maybe sooner, looking around for other clinics that may be faster), walk in clinic visit wasn't helpful, but they did verify it's not earwax or eardrum related.

I'm wondering how bad the prognosis is to still have tinnitus+hyperacusis after 10 days? Am I screwed and should prepare for a new life, or is it too early to tell? I see people saying 48 hours and at 2 weeks is sort of the cutoff for permanent damage.

Is it helpful at all to stay home in silence? Or does all that matters is not getting exposed to any more loud noise?

Should I try to seek out any other medical people besides the hearing clinic and family doctor? I've heard ENT may be helpful but I think you would find them at hearing clinics.

If things improve I will update this to give other data that may help them.

 

I dont have any advice as im new to all of this , only having tinnitus for thr last 3 weeks after giving birth. However please update your post and know that you are not alone x

 

OK, so much to unpack in that post.

So, let's get the bad news out of the way: if this wasn't an incident, but a consistent noise exposure, that's not good.
That does mean the damage may be permanent.

The good/better news: that doesn't mean all your symptoms will be permanent, or that the tinnitus will be permanent, or that it will continue to bother you the way it does now, or that it will always be this loud.

Tinnitus seems to be very different on a case to case basis, so don't despair just yet. If you read through this forum, you'll see plenty of stories of people recovering (or at least tinnitus getting manageable), also in the case of hearing damage.

I'm curious to hear more about what you're hearing. Water running? Could you explain more? I've been told that tinnitus from hearing damage is a consistent tone (like when a grenade goes off in a movie) and that if you hear all kinds of other stuff, there could be more going on (neck, shoulders, nerves, stress, the whole ENT tract).

My T was consistent tone underneath all kinds of weirdness. The consistent tone is gone, the weirdness isn't and is all over the place. It comes, it goes, it's loud, it's soft, it's "oscillating", then spikey... and I haven't figured out any patterns yet.

Anyways, about you.

You've seen a doctor and you have an appointment at a hearing clinic. Very good, see if you can get in earlier, if possible. Ask them about prednison/prednisolon. There is anecdotal evidence that it helps (the only scientific proof is that it helps with severe hearing damage, but not tinnitus). I had a 7-day 60mg/day treatment, I'm not sure if it did anything, but it can't hurt (it makes the kidneys work harder, but if you're health you should be fine).

You'll hear and read all kinds of stories about people going into oxygen tanks and whatnot - you can try all that, but there's no proof it works (and as my ENT put it - dude, trust me, if I thought that stuff was going to cure you, you'd be in a tank right now).

If you do an audiogram and have hearing damage show, then that is another reason to get steroids in there to try and salvage something.

Meanwhile, have a read at my thread, where I explain all the things I've been doing: here's my thread.

My tinnitus was at least triggered by noise, but I've always been fairly careful with sound (having said that, I too have used headphones for a long time now, though I've always been sound sensitive and never have them too loud, for too long) and so there seem to be a lot of other reasons it might be acting up the way it does now.

I'm trying to say the situation isn't entirely comparable, but have a look at the supplement and stuff I've been trying. Maybe they'll help.

Rambly post, but I hope it helps.

Don't despair yet. Tinnitus does get better over time.

 

@HolyKnight94

You are very early in this.

The best person to speak to on this forum is @Michael Leigh.
He has numerous well written, informative articles for people who have acquired noise induced tinnitus and or hyperacusis.

As I have put the @ before Michael's name, he will receive notification and I'm sure he will be in touch with you.

 

@LindaS

You are very kind Linda thank you.
I have only seen your post by chance. I see that you put the @ before my name but I think by putting a full-stop at the end prevented me from receiving an Alert message. Hope you are feeling a little better.

@HolyKnight94

HollyKnight, you need to stop using headphones immediately and I would prefer you not to use them again but if you do, at least wait until the tinnitus and hyperacusis improves which can take a while. Your life isn't over and the prognosis for noise induced tinnitus, which is what you have is usually good for a lot of people. However, in order for this to happen please click on the links below and read my articles. Please take your time and read them thoroughly without skimming.

If you have had a hearing test already and everything is fine then you don't need to see anymore doctors for now. Just click on the links and read my articles.

Take care
Michael

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/new-to-tinnitus-what-to-do.12558/
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/hyperacusis-as-i-see-it.19174/
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/tinnitus-a-personal-view.18668/
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/the-habituation-process.20767/
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/acquiring-a-positive-mindset.23969/
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/tinnitus-and-the-negative-mindset.23705/