Trauma or Everyday Noise (Cracking a Yogurt Pack)?

I am terribly sorry but I seem to freak out about everything lately:

Yesterday, I cracked a yogurt pack and it felt like a gunshot. This is the pack:


I cracked the fourpack in the middle with a lot of power and it was super loud. It sounded like a gushot. I freaked out immediately.

I had someone else measure the crack of the remaining twopack (not so much power needed) with my phone and it was 115 dB. This was considerably lower than what I had experienced.

I am particularly scared because this was at an arm's length from my ear.

My non-tinnitus ear (why just this one) feels weird. I am in panic.

I honestly think that the sound was comparably to the shot of a gun/airgun.

Should I get meds?

 

You are fine.
We've all been there, you're just worrying and overthinking. I've convinced myself many times that I've worsened my T but once I calm down, it's actually the same.
Over the past two months I never really think about my T and only now can I see that most noises don't make it any worse. But it's the panic that makes us think so.
I've had dishes crash next to me, really loud traffic pass by, car sirens (all unexpected of course) but I'm fine.
You are okay. Relax

 

ditto to the above comments

you will be totally fine

you can invest in some nicotinamide riboside as a precaution

 

Hi Miles, try not to worry it’s your anxiety that is causing this. Using phone apps to measure sound is not a great idea as they are not very accurate; especially above 100db because the microphones are not designed for this purpose.

What I will say is it’s incredibly unlikely that splitting those yoghurt pots (I eat those btw) will register a number like that. A gun shot would have around 100,000 times more energy; that yoghurt pot isn’t even close to being in the same league as an explosive pressure wave.

I’d say it was probably more like 90db, maybe 100db. To get my figure you do this calculation:

Gunshot = 140db approx (depending on weapon)
Yoghurt pot = 90db approx (best guess)

The difference between the two is 50db, but because the decibel scale is logarithmic we need to do this:

10*10*10*10*10 = 100,000 times more energy

Try not to ruminate over this as you will only make yourself obsessed and drive yourself mad. I can assure you that you haven’t damaged your ears. Do something else to take you mind off it and I guarantee you will look back at some point and will have forgotten all about this incident. In the early days I had tons of moments like these and the only thing that was detrimental (looking back with clarity) was my obsessional phonophobic behaviour.

 

I guess you were never close to a gunshot. I have, and no offense, but comparing this to a gunshot is absolutely ridiculous. Anyway you should not panic, I am sure you will be fine
I like strawberry yoghurts too by the way

 

I was about 30 yards from a gunshot indoors, and it was insanely loud. I’ve written about this before: I was at a James Bond charity ball and out the blue during dinner they did a stunt show involving terrorists taking a hostage so that James Bond could spring to the rescue and shoot them all. The first shots were fired by surprise as people were eating and I jumped a mile, some dropped their food and all sorts. I can honestly say it shocked me how loud it was and I’m glad I wasn’t sitting where a friend of mine was because he told me his ears starting ringing instantly because they fired the gun right next to him (no permanent T resulted btw). I thought it was pretty reckless to be honest. I knew there was going to be a stunt show but I wasn’t expecting that. I don’t think anybody did; especially during dinner.

So yea, I agree Julien. Comparing yoghurt pots to a gun is ludicrous, but unfortunately that’s precisely what this condition can do to people’s thoughts. When anxiety and fear cripple you it’s a horrible feeling and you will convince yourself that all kinds of sounds are dangerous.

 

Oh I imagine, it must have spoilt your evening

Me I was just next to muskets firing, to be exact. It was during this festival, in Belgium. At one point there were 4 or 5 men dressed in traditional firemen clothes (from the 19th century I guess) parading in the streets. Each of them had a musket and I never imagined they would use them.
Unfortunately, they fired with their muskets, and since misfortune was really with me that day, they fired just when they were at my level, maybe one or two meters from me. I did not see it coming because something else drew my attention at this instant, so I did not protect my ears. The next second, an incredibly loud noise surprised me, it was by far the loudest noise I had ever experienced (still the loudest to this day). It was so loud that I experienced deafness and a very loud tinnitus for one second.

I was so angry. I protected my ears from non dangerous noises earlier in the day and that extremely loud noise happened when I was not protected. I was worried all the rest of the day about this and went to see an ENT in emergency in the evening. She checked my hearing and it was fine. This event did not affect my tinnitus but it scared me as hell.

 

I’m not surprised that’s terrible. What you describe with your ears is what happened to my friend although I’m not sure how long the ringing lasted in his case.

I just did some digging on my phone and found a photo before the gunfire kicked off. As you can see they’ve got automatic guns (with blanks) strapped to them. What entailed after this (with reflective hard flooring) was astronomically loud. James Bond firing with a pistol whilst these guys returned fire at him. It took me weeks to get over it because I couldn’t control my panic emotions.



PS, during my digging I found some other Ball photos and must say I much preferred meeting Eddie the Eagle.

 

These surprise stunts are also dangerous for another reason as well...there could have been an off duty cop (or someone in the crowd who is carrying a gun) and if the stunt was realistic enough, they could get involved...

I think something similar happened in real life not that long ago (forgot where I read it)

Either way it is really sad that because of tinnitus people are reduced to having anxiety attacks over things like opening a yogurt...

 

Thank you so much for all your replies! This forum is my only hope in this situation.

I realize that when writing this incident down and showing you a picture of the yogurt package it seems to be crazy. But I (think and hope) I am not. The cracking was really loud! I do still think in the 100/110/120 db range.

I panicked for half an hour or so with heart pounding and sweating but forced myself to sleep for a few hours.

But I am really worried now because of a new symptom after this: While laying down my heart was pounding and I heard my pulse in my ears when turning towards the pillow. This symptom has not subsided the morning after, with the regular T a bit louder. I seem to have it only when laying down. It's been more 12 hours after. Still there. Sometimes also a throbbing/cracking in the formerly non-T ear as if sth. were moving even if not laying down.

Did I make myself have pulsatile T now? Even if it is not the noise but my reaction to it, now I have caused another problem with my ears and it kills me.

I hate and blame myself which is the worst part of this. I immediately looked up all threads for pulsatile T on here and maybe that was exactly the wrong thing to do, but I did and now I cannot unthink it. What if it is going to be pulsatile T as a permanent new condition and this new sound/sensation also permanent?

Please help!

 

It's okay, it's just all the stress and panic that's caused your body to react like this. You'll be okay.
The best thing you can do to help yourself is to stop worrying. Relax, it's going to be okay.
We've all been there.

 

No you didn’t

This is really common in terms of the feelings of guilt. I promise you that you will forget all about this, but if you don’t seek help, you will simply move on from one problem to another. After a while you get stuck in a vicious circle and the pattern of behaviour it creates becomes harder and harder to break.

Stop thinking about it now and distract yourself with other activities. The more you dwell on it the more you will feed it. What you are feeling is anxiety.

 

You realize that throughout the course of your life you will start living normally again and things will happen daily that will be much worse than opening a pack of yogurt. Yesterday i dropped a glass cup into my marbled sink and the sound was ridiculous. The day before that I dropped a crockpot on the floor, or the shower curtain fell down while i was brushing my teeth and it knocked my perfume bottle from 6 feet above on to the marble floor. These things happen, and you can't prevent every accident. The only thing you can control are your feelings and emotions afterwards, if you panic or throw a fit it will only make things worse. Try to be calm and take deep breaths, everything will be ok.

 

How you doing @MilesD?

 

@Ed209,
or should I say the next James bond,
lovely photo's.
Shame they didn't think of peoples hearing with the gun.
love glynis

 

Cheers, Glynis. I think that’s an understatement about them not caring about people’s hearing. I’m surprised no one had significant hearing loss, but maybe they did? It’s not like I would hear about it. All I can say is that I was extremely lucky. I was only a few months into my severe T and I think if I was sitting on one of the other tables it might have finished me off. They opened fire right next to people with pistols and automatics, and from where I was sitting it was one of the loudest things I’ve ever heard. Imagine what it must have been like sitting 5 feet away like some people were. I was tucked up the far corner which was sheer luck!

 

Do you have hyperacusis ? It will magnify the sound much louder.

 

It’s pretty much what you predicted: after the stress and worry about the yogurt pack, there was a passing ambulance while I was in my car, a door slam, helicopter flying over me etc.

It’s a vicious circle.

I read your suggestion for someone else in a post to use ear plugs or muffs temporarily. Again, I am too anxious to do that. I fear damage from putting something in the ear, pressure, problems when putting plugs in or out, plus I think that would decrease my tolerance for sound.

I keep all my windows shut because I am afraid of loud sounds from a street with low to moderate traffic and today I hear the garbage trucks coming into our street and I literally run from one part of the house to the other.

I suspected that I was doing harm by sleeping on my side so last night I tried to sleep straight on my back.

Now again I am desperate and so worried because now I have a loud high-pitch fluttering/unstable kind of tone in the other ear and I cannot deal with this any longer. The other ear was silent and now this. I have/had a similar high-pitch morse code in my ear with T but the new one is louder.

Could this new tone be from the incidents yogurt pack, ambulance, door slam, helicopter described above? Hearing damage would explain the loudness and new tone.

And then, of course, the constant self-blame: If it's not from the sounds or damage then I am doing this to myself.