Tinnitus Sufferer Living on Very Loud Street! Anyone Else?

[lennanenna]

Hello all!

I first developed the dreaded Tinnitus in September whilst working in an extremely loud bar/club. It was the kind of place you had to constantly shout, and sometimes I'd be honestly shocked at the volume - this is coming from someone who, prior to T, was nonchalant about loud noises and addicted to very loud club music.

I came home after a night working about 5 hours in the club and noticed the ringing, but assumed it was temporary. Had a day off the following day and noticed it was still there. Worried a little, googled 'ringing in my ears', and learned about Tinnitus for the very first time. I put it to the back of my mind, hoping the ringing would fade, but unfortunately it's been here since.

The first few weeks were hellish, and I was a bit of a wreck. I quit my job in anger, feeling irritated that management had never even thought to supply staff with ear protection! (says a lot about such establishments today..) Saw a hearing specialist who confirmed only slight hearing loss in one ear, but rekconed the T was likely permanent. This sent me off into a bit of a depression.

I very quickly acclimatised however, and learned to just ignore it, and I even went days at a time without thinking about it once. I thought I was over it and felt back to my normal self. Its volume was relatively quiet then.

At the start of this month I moved to a different city and I am currently living with my boyfriend in his parent's flat. I am extremely broke and us sharing the rent - plus his laid-back parents giving us a good deal - is all I can afford. However, the flat is situated above a main road in this city, and the noise is filling me with constant stress.

I wear ear muffs constantly, and plugs to sleep, but can still hear the traffic. I'm constantly tense, and I feel like T has got louder and more intense. I'm just worried that the road might be making it worse. It's not so loud that we can't hear each other speak or hear the TV, but it's loud enough to stress me out and to be heard over earplugs.

Does anyone else live on a loud street? Does it spike your tinnitus? What do you do to alleviate the aggravation? If I am to live here for another 6 months which was the original plan, do you think this could cause lasting damage? I just hope the protection I'm wearing will suffice and that I adjust soon!

Thanks in advance.

Also just wanted to say reading some of your stories on here has helped a lot!

 

[tomm]

Hi lennanenna,
I live next to a noisy road in London, a few floors up, about 2 minutes from a fire station and where there are lots of police cars and ambulances as well. As long at the noise isn't hurting your ears it should be ok.

Your anxiety though isn't going to help you sleep or relax, which isn't going to help your T.

Can you get a fan in your room? The soft whoosh of the air stops the traffic noise from being so bothersome. Get plenty of sleep. Sleeping pill if needed - but take a moment to have a few deep breaths and de-stress.

 

[MichaelM]

Hi there.
please dont over-protect your ears. It might bring you different kind of problems.
Stress levels down, absolutely, as mentioned above. One of the worst T boosters there is - stress.

I dont think the road will make your tinnitus worse. it can give you stress though, i know that from my own experience. I have started to listen to sounds and noises that i didnt previously even notice. some weird way of hyperacusis i guess.

You can listen to white noise at night. I have found those sounds useful.
Your T is relatively new. That´s a good thing. It might disappear for good. You need to give it some time

 

[lennanenna]

Thanks for replying guys.

tomm - I'm glad I'm not the only tinnitus sufferer who has to put up with sirens all day! We also have a hospital and police station near us! I can hear anywhere between 5 and 15 sirens per day. It worries me sometimes as even with earplugs in I find it extremely loud.

I have actually heard about over-protection causing hyperacusis. I don't feel physical pain when I hear the noise, though I do feel a sort of mental strain, like everytime a truck goes past I feel a slight panic or tensing of the body & chest. Perhaps I'm just worrying too much about it and it's causing a stress reaction everytime I hear the perceived cause of the increased T?

Thinking of buying a fan, or at least a small set of speakers through which I can play relaxing sounds. I find white noise a litle bothersome actually, and find it aggravates the ringing, though I love the sound of running water. The shower is one of the few places where I my T is completely masked! I would stay in the shower all day if I could

 

[tomm]

Get a sound meter for your phone. If it's 80-85dB or over constantly I'd get some double glazed windows or sound proofing to shut the noise out - even without T that noise constantly would make me stressy too!

That tensing sounds like anxiety. My H has reduced quite a bit but made me quite easily 'shockable' for loud sounds - a door slamming or car horn will make me leap out of my skin, even if it's not too bad.

I don't like white noise either - this mountain stream video kept me sane during the first month of my T. I was in bed constantly listening to this with a fan and.

I now prefer something like soft talking plus a fan to get to sleep and listen to Scott Manley playing Kerbal Space Program. If I want to listen I can, if not it just fades into the background. Because it's voice it seems to keep my attention away from the T better than just noise but doesn't keep me awake like music. Some people listen to BBC Radio 4 or the BBC World Service.

 

[billie48]

I just came back from a vacation in Hong Kong. What a noisy place! The main roads are filled with cars, buses and trucks and the traffic noise can go deep into the night. My T was soaring on this trip as I could hear it even above the jet noise in the 12 hours trans-Pacific flight. So to tell you the truth, I found the road noise not so unacceptable because it kind of masked my high pitch dog whistle T to a certain degree. LOL. It is amazing how people can live in such noisy condition. I walked by guys who were breaking apart pavement with powerful drills. I had to cover my ears but the guys working there were not wearing ear protection as I thought they would. They and the people living there must have a different threshold for noise tolerance. I guess they are used to it. May be that is why your boyfriend and his parents are not so affected. I guess if the road noise is not going to damage your hearing, you may stand a good chance to get used to it as long as you don't consider the noise a threat. The human body can learn to accept and adapt to new condition if we don't painfully resist it.

 

[LeQuack]

Wasn't there some research that people in these densely populated places in Asia and India actually have lower prevalence of tinnitus, regardless of how loud they usually are?

 

[tomm]

I remember seeing research a long while ago that if you live around loud noise your tolerance goes up and you adapt to it physically.

 

[lennanenna]

Thanks all!

I've got a decibel meter and it generally varies between about 35-75 decibels depending on the time of day. Do you guys reckon that would be okay? Thankfully it gets quieter after midnight when the buses stop, and so hopefully there's not too much damage done while I sleep. I was considering double glazing but had a guy round to estimate a quote, and it turns out to be a very very large expense. Neither my boyfriend's parents nor I can really afford to cough up unfortunately! Oh what I'd do for more money!

tomm thanks for the lovely video, it's really helping me just now! Even when the volume's low there's something about the water noise that seems to really balance out my T.

billie48, I think you're right about that, my boyfriend literally never notices the sound anymore. He's been here for about four years and his hearing's still sharp! It's a nice thought that we can adapt to a new situation as long as we don't resist it, and I definitely see a lot of truth in that. Something I can keep reminding myself!

To be honest the noise - although a bit of a nuisance - didn't bother me quite so much until my T volume increased. I attributed this to the traffic (when it could have been a variety of reasons) and it became a source of panic. I guess I will adapt if I stop seeing it as something dangerous and just accepted it as background noise.

 

[tomm]

Glad it's helped lennanenna!

75dB is fine. You won't get damaged from that. Forget about the road noise now and focus on taking a deep breath and getting on with your day instead of tensing up. Have a nice cup of tea

 

[object16]

hi, i place a CD called restful rain, which is very helpful, or you can buy a white noise generator called
Ecotones Sound + Sleep, it has "adaptive sound" where if there is louder street noise, it will jack up the white noise
temporarily. you should never use hearing protectors when sleeping, it will throw your hearing out of whack and you will end up worse, I speak from bad experience.
Ecotones Sound + Sleep Machine, Model ASM1002

 

[BobDigi]

I'd actually enjoy living somewhere noisey. It's a free masker.

 

[billie48]

I think it is all relative. Some people resist changes. Some people like changes. Some like it quiet. Some like it noisy. It is all relative to your last living environment you are used to. Don't believe me? This is a real life story.

Vancouver is full of new immigrants. Some immigrants who used to live in noisy cities in Asia can find Vancouver too quiet and too lacked of people walking around that they feel scared. One immigrant couple didn't want to buy a single detached home in Vancouver even though they have the finance to buy one. Instead they wanted to buy into a condo because they felt more used to the noisier environment and they felt safer with people around them. Friends tried to persuade them to change their mind because a single detached home with land ownership will appreciate much more than a condo. They didn't listen. So they bought the condo. A few years later when they get more used to quieter Canadian living, they found the condo too noisy & too many people walking around their front door. So they bought into a single detached home in a quiet neighborhood. LOL. Then they went back to visit their motherland, the noisy Asian metropolis that they came from. After a few days, they couldn't stand the horrendous noises and sea of people around them, and wanted to come back to Canada in a hurry. Amazing how human brains function at times.