Tinnitus from Using Headphones at Loud Volume When Playing Games with My Friends

Hey there! I'm new here. I'm a 20-year-old male.

I don't know where to start actually, I got ringing in my left ear during my birthday (January 8), and it's stressing me out. I just want to share my experience here!

I think I got tinnitus due to playing games for hours with my friends all day. I'm not into music or anything, I just always talk to my friends via headphones. My family member noticed that the volume of the headphones was really loud but I did not do anything to lessen the volume. Today I regret my decision.

I found Tinnitus Talk and I thought I could share my story with you.


Day 1:

I start hearing ringing in my left ear and I think it will go away after some time. But I notice that it is still there when I am going to sleep.

Observations:

• Fullness of ear
• Clogged ear sensation
• Earache
• Ringing sound

Day 2:

I start to research about this experience and find that it could be tinnitus. I start to panic as I learn more about this condition. It makes me depressed and I cannot function with my daily routine at all. I start crying all day.


Day 3:

I go to an ENT doctor who tells me this could take to 2 weeks to heal. He checks my ears and it seems he does not find any problem. The problem is he does not perform any hearing test at all and proceeds to irrigate my ears. After the check up, nothing's changed, I still hear ringing in my ear.


Day 4:

My ear lightens and the fullness fades. My ringing is more quiet than on the first day.


Day 5:

I can hear my tinnitus a little bit less, especially in quiet spaces. A little improvement means a lot.


Day 6:

My tinnitus is sometimes less intrusive. I lie my affected ear on the pillow. I see big improvements (sometimes it doesn't bother me).


Day 7:

I hear a new high-pitched ringing tone, hoping it's not permanent. It bothers me. I'm starting to lose hope but I still have faith in God the He will heal me. I don't know what to do right now. The future scares me. But sometimes the tinnitus gets quieter. I think this is a spike.


I'll continue this at some time. Thanks for reading.

Hoping and praying for our healing. God Bless us all!

 

You're still pretty early in. Protect your ears and be patient. I'm at 4 months and mine went through a lot of different sounds and volumes before it started really improving.

 

Time to ditch the headphones. You've been warned.

 

You need to stop using all types of headphones even at low volume, otherwise your tinnitus is at risk of getting worse. The tinnitus will probably reduce over time but this doesn't mean it has gone completely away. I assure you that it hasn't! If you continue to listen to audio through headphones, headsets, earbuds, bone conduction or noise-cancelling headphones even at low volume, the tinnitus will probably get worse. Heed the warning and stop using any type of headphones.

Go to my started threads and read: New to Tinnitus, What to Do? Will My Tinnitus Get Worse? Can I Habituate To Variable Tinnitus? Hyperacusis, As I See It.

You also need to be careful of loud sounds especially at concerts and nightclubs. Wearing hearing protection helps but if the noise is too loud, it can cause your tinnitus to spike and may increase it to a new, permanent level.

Noise-induced tinnitus is not something to take lightly so be careful.

Best of luck,
Michael

 

The most important approach now, as @Michael Leigh has said, is to stop using headphones and other such listening devices, protect your hearing, and avoid noisy environments whenever possible.

I would add that for your emotional well-being, do not pay attention to the tinnitus or listen for improvements or setbacks. This accomplishes nothing and can impede recovery. The chances are very good that you will improve and it will either clear up completely, or your mind will adjust itself to ignore the tinnitus, which is essentially the same as not having it.

Tinnitus is not new, hundreds of millions of people in the world have it, and the overwhelming majority of them are not suffering from distress or other problems, due to it.

 

Right, because the vast majority have mild tinnitus, like I had for about 20 years.