Tinnitus Spike After a Party in a Bar

Hi all

I haven’t posted in awhile for several reasons - all in all things have been OK. I’m used to the tinnitus, three years in. Have a more limited life but things are manageable. Get a bit down occasionally as there are lots of things that I can’t do anymore, but other than that I’ve been ok and busy with being a mum.

The other night I went to a party, first one in a bar in three years. Since then it’s been scarily loud.

- I sat in the terrace, which had been my plan, unfortunately it closed early and had to go to main bar area. Was going to leave but bumped into the host who got chatting to me and introduced me to people.
- Stayed for 15 minutes with foam plugs. Then left as it was measuring 98 decibels.

One week in and I’m having the mother of all spikes. I am feeling anxious and panicked. I have a family, a job, and don’t know how to move forward.

This is not psychological - I’ve had lots of random noise exposure with no consequence. Maybe it was the plugs, I get ETD as well... maybe it’s the anxiety. I’m already on meds which ironically I was going to decrease this month.

Any similar experiences? Obviously I am very mad at myself and could kick myself...

 

https://www.buzzfeed.com/joycecohen/noise-kills-when-everyday-sound-becomes-torture

It is my understanding that most of those spikes turn out to be temporary. Nevertheless, I hope you will learn from this mistake.

 

Hey @Candy

Sorry to hear you're having a hard time. If it helps, I was at a stag doo at the beginning of the month, so I know how it can be when you still want to socialise but have to contend with tinnitus.

For context, I've had T for over two years and I too am still adapting to living a more limited life. Getting there, but it's not all fun.

Anyway, for this event I started drinking at 12pm and I got home about 9pm - lots of pubs, lots of noise: however, I use custom ear plugs and take breaks, usual routine. Really good night, glad I went, but it's not something I do regularly now.

Anyway, had a spike for over a week (which for me usually means deafening white noise, pulsatile sounds, changing tones, etc) and I just want to let you know it totally passed and I'm fine. You will be too, but it's horrible at the time.

I've had lots of spikes - some of the worst ones for no real reason, others I've posted about on here - but they all have passed and I'm back to being in a similar position to what you described at the start of your post.

Nowadays if I get a spike, I just try to be a bit kinder to myself, don't beat myself up too much and try to offset any anxiety until I really need to worry, i.e. leave it a few weeks and if anything from the spike still lingers then reassess the situation at the point. Easier said than done sometimes, but it's a coping strategy.

I bet in a week or two you'll be back to feeling better. Just try not to beat yourself up too much in the meantime.

Take care.

 

It is my understanding that most of those spikes turn out to be temporary. Nevertheless, I hope you will learn from this mistake.[/QUOTE]
Does noise impact everybody in a similar way if you have tinnitus, like get a spike? What if tinnitus is not noise induced should they also be more careful with louder sounds? I just dont understand my tinnitus very well yet and I'm curious about it.

 

@Candy

Sorry for the bad situation, as you wore earplugs and still spiked. This experience shows that even years later us T folks remain at risk to spike even with reasonable precautions.

There is a good chance this will improve, but it will take months and maybe even longer. The important thing is to protect from any further damage.

I have had improvement with daily omega-3, and consider trying that to reduce inflammation.

Really hope that you feel better soon!

 

Everyone is different. It seems to me to be sensible to assume that you are one of the sensitive people and then when, inevitably, you get accidentally exposed to noise to learn whether or not this is true. If you are lucky and you are able to avoid this accidental noise exposure, then eventually you might want to gradually and slowly experiment with noise. You might want to try brief 10 minute exposure with protection first. I am talking about places with moderate noise like noisy restaurants. You will probably want to avoid concerts and other loud events for the rest of your life. The bottom line is that you will want to "play it by ear"...

You might want to identify others on this site who got T as a result of the same type of trauma as you, and see whether any of them had shared getting a secondary trauma and regretting being exposed to loud noise.

 

I can completely empathise with your experience. In the first two or three years after getting tinnitus I tried to follow the advice of the BTA that you had to continue going to social events, shouldn't avoid noisy places and that wearing earplugs you should be fine. I've since realised that this is really bad advice from an organisation whose staff mostly don't have tinnitus themselves.

I would stress that there is light at the end of the tunnel for you. Most of the noise-related spikes I suffered from did eventually clear up after several weeks of pain. It seems like you did all the right things when attending this event - trying to avoid enclosed noise, wearing earplugs and checking the noise level but it's a reminder that even doing all these things can't guarantee that our tinnitus won't worsen. My own view now is that the best protection of all is avoidance.

 

Did you talk loudly with the ear plugs in? I’m guessing if it was 98db you would have been. Maybe some occlusion effect?

 

Thanks all for taking the time to reply and your kind words.

I wasn’t talking that much so not much occlusion I don’t think.
I thought I was being cautious, in fact I thought that I am generally over cautious compared with other people with tinnitus I know and as David C pointed out I also took on board the BTA message of socialising while being sensible.

I will wait and see, the sound seems more intense, no new tones. I am of course focusing on it more and attaching more negative emotions to it more than I normally do. It’s generally just annoying but not scary any longer and I seem able to filter it out for parts of the day which I can’t do at the moment. It’s never been mild apart from the odd day FYI.

I am a bit traumatised too as I wasn’t intending to subject myself to that kind of noise, which I haven’t in three years.

Now on a day to day basis I am more affected by what I miss out on. I mean, I don’t:
Go to concerts
Attend Christmas carol services
Watch West End shows although I live in the area
Go to Shrek's World
Go to the shows at Lego Land
Have a drink in the pub in the evening
Go to fireworks shows
Go to the school fair
Accompany my kids on school trips due to the screeching
Take the kids to the library
Attend the work Christmas party
Stay at an event for very long even if I’ve organised it

For some reason I wanted to get dressed up and hang out with my colleagues, feel part of the gang etc. I have to endure stories of exciting weekends and infinite Facebook posts... Yes even at my age I get envious at my friends’ exciting social lives, girls' holiday to Ibiza and frustrated when I have to turn stuff down.

Sorry for the rant - I will carry on avoiding and being grateful for what I can do and hope for the best. And for a better treatment to be found, always x

 

Since my night out involving 15 mins of exposure to loud music with protection, after 3 years since the onset, living an ok life I’m back to square one.

My colleague, brother go out with no protection and have no issues with their preexisting tinnitus.

Me on the contrary, I go out, worrying before I even go and then it snowballs into disaster.

Anyhow one month later:
Been off work
Been to A&E, mental health team - 6 hours
Crying non stop (broke down in front of loads of people)
Not slept due to crazy sounds
Back to sleeping
Tinnitus still crazy high hear it everywhere even after sleeping again. Today it’s like a drill.

Everyone wants me to take the Valium to be able to function (I have 2 young kids). My husband’s bosses know about this mess (it’s crazy). I can’t take anything as I’m scared I’ll make it worse.

This is a nightmare, never ever did I think I could relapse so soon. But it is louder and aggressive and to the front of my mind not the back.
I’ve had spikes that went down maybe because I was more relaxed about the cause.

I also had a mild cold and have bit of fluid in ears, but nothing to warrant this.

Is it my attention loop that’s messed up again? How on earth did I end up in this situation?

Seriously don’t know how to get out of this mess. When I have an optimistic moment I then realise it’s actually louder so how can I habituate when I was never fully habituated before. I was on the up and with natural masking and distraction it was ok. Now though...

Anyhow back in therapy to address the guilt and self hatred I’m feeling.

Any words of wisdom?

 

Sorry to hear about your tribulations. It must be hard for your family as well to see your suffering and the impact on them as well

I wouldn't be too harsh on yourself as we have all done it where we have been caught out by excessive sounds especially seems unfair when you have been ultra cautious in the past.

I am not sure on the side effects on Valium but I always try to avoid any drugs if I can. Perhaps the anxiety is making it worse and maybe try relaxing or meditation. Going back to work may help as it will take your mind off it depending on the severity of your tinnitus. Hopefully it is a mind over matter.

How loud is your Tinnitus and do you suffer from pain as well ?

 

Sorry for the suffering. My word of wisdom is that looking back, you spiked from a loud noise exposure, while protected, but this was less than a month ago. Spikes take months to go down, so all you can do at this point is to avoid further exposure, and wait for it to get better. While this will be a total test of your patience, there is no quick fix here other than to wait it out. In the meantime, eat well, sleep as best you can, and hope it improves.

My spike is over 8 months old at this point, and while I am getting some really good days, it still is working its way through, so hang in there!

 

Ok I'll jump in, I was at a wedding a year ago and my tinnitus spiked for a few weeks then went back to normal.

 

@coffee_girl all your life? When did you realise you have tinnitus? Do you have hearing loss?

 

@Candy You have to think about how you will deal with this. As a long time sufferer and several relapses I found the medications are helpful.

 

Thank you guys x

 

I never knew I had tinnitus, it was there for as long as I could remember,... But a concert made it loud enough for me to notice it. Previous to that I always thought I heard something but I felt it was my imagination. Now my T is permanent and I know it has a name

 

@Candy I just wanted to say how deeply saddened I am to hear of your latest struggles. I know we both got tinnitus around the same time, and I remember those pits of despair too well.... I am so sorry that you are back there.
I don't have any experience with spikes, as I don't really get them, but surely it will settle. It's hard to think that a few minutes in a noisy pub WITH earplugs could do that much damage.

Objectively, I think we know if the tinnitus has increased or not. Sometimes I think it's louder, but then I know that's because I'm just paying attention to it. If it did get louder, I'm sure I'd know for sure.
So I don't think it's necessarily you just paying attention to it, you know deep down if it's louder or not.

You've learnt to live a semi-normal life again once, I'm sure you'll get there again.... but I also think the spike will go down.

I personally don't think a short course of Valium could hurt, benzos definitely have their place in helping people through a crisis. I know you are smart enough to be able to use them with caution and only when needed.
It's so hard with the kids, we HAVE to function and not let them see us down. It's so hard....

Lots of love to you Candy, I am thinking of you and hoping things improve soon.

Sam xx

 

I agree with Digital Doc. I don't think you should assume that this is a permanent spike. Temporary spikes can take over 3 months to go away. Give it more time.

 

I am so sorry Candy.
I am trying to work something out here.
Did I meet you up at the Expo in Birmingham last year?
Sorry if I’ve got that wrong.

Do you do, or have you tried practicing any meditation.
I know it’s not all that easy with Tinnitus, but believe me, it can be done.

Personally I am very wary of drugs, especially benzos, but I am not that knowledgable on that side of things.

Best wishes babe
Dave x
Jazzer

 

Yes we did x

 

In exactly the same boat as this.

Went on a stag do. Pub, meal, pub.

Now with spiking t, can’t sleep or eat and want to die.

Had plugs in. Pub garden was by road so took some road noise exposure for 20 mins initially. Walked to restaurant along said road (timed at 5 mins with noises 85-94). In restaurant 2,5 hours then back to pub for further hour or so (again walk along road). Pub with music (80-85).

Back home, huge spike, ringing etc. Thought would be ok with plugs. This was not the case.

I’m in hell.

 

Did your spike die down?