Why Do People Here Go to Drastic Measures to Protect Themselves?

My annual salary sucks (it is lower than my peers' [former classmates from 20 years ago] salary). But my hourly salary is ok. I paid with my 20s and part of my 30s for it. Using my hourly salary (before taxes), an assumption about how long it takes for me to write an average post here, and my post count, I am getting a figure of $151,000. So that works out to about $100,000 after taxes.

You thought I was using subjective figures, but I was actually using objective figures.

Making them aware that the things they think of as safe can actually interfere with their recovery or make their T worse, is in fact priceless.

 

Tinnitus Talk are working on a project "Tinnitus Guide"
This will help newcomers with tinnitus and cover most everyday questions.
love glynis

 

Okay - so why is it that a blender gives me sheer hell on Earth....?
When it comes to ‘sensible’ maybe even ‘life saving’ precautions, @Bill Bauer is the man !!

 

I try to find ways. Unfortunately my tinnitus is reactive. I have seen zero improvement. I try to avoid traffic noise because where I live it's full of motorcycles and that is extremely unfortunate. So walking out is a struggle.

 

Thank you so much @Tinker Bell. You are a very kind person. I wish you are right. Unfortunately I have only experienced increasings and complications so I don't have much hopes.

 

If you find that noise especially annoying and protect your ears yes..

Why? I don't know. But if a specific noise gives me sheer hell on Earth I will protect from it or avoid it, no matter how loud or dangerous it is.

 

The problem I have with Bill Bauer is that his point of view is very one-dimensional. In his opinion, every cause of tinnitus is noise damage that has damaged the hearing system. Therapy is consistent noise avoidance. Unfortunately, only 40% of all people affected are really sure that their tinnitus was caused by acute (20%) or chronic noise (20%). The remaining 60% are in the dark as to the cause.
It makes no sense and is not logical to recommend significantly more noise protection to those affected than to any healthy person.
There are tinnitus sufferers for whom noise was neither the cause nor noise prevention helps or makes sense.

 

When some people, myself included, early in their journey notice that the sound of a blender sounds painfully loud, they think that since they have been using it for decades with no ill effects, it can't possibly be harming them now. When they consider possible reasons for their latest spike, they will likely never think of the blender. It is important to make them aware of the possibility that this could be harmful for some people.

 

I think we have the same kind of tinnitus.

Personally... I think it depends... every tinnitus is different, not all cases are and behave the same.

for example...

My tinnitus doesn't seem to spike to sound.
I have had a lot of terrible incidents in the past two years, and because of certain users and posts in here... I have panicked.
Eventually nothing happened, I lived under a lot of stress and anxiety for a year... Because I was afraid of every sound because of some of the things I read here.

On the other hand, salt and MSG spikes my tinnitus like a sky rocket, and also sometimes I wake in the middle of the night with severe tinnitus that settles down in the morning.
A lot of people here don't have that... go figure.

Right now, I don't any longer protect my hearing at the cinema, airport, parties and some other situations.
Still doing music, wearing headphones...
BUT still protect my hearing at clubs and concerts.

But this is just in my own personal experience.

 

So Dave what is your advice to a young person that this affliction hit him at the most critical point of productivity and creation? Factors that establish a self-sustaining and independent man. I don’t agree or disagree with Bill’s merits because one can see a great prognosis diversity of this demon. Nevertheless people here claim easily the ‘life saving precautions’ protocol of Bill, which I think is not possible to follow, for some of us are not yet on a pension or something and we have to drag our broken selves out at the streets to work. Apparently when a blender is harmful, imagine what a passing motorcycle can do. Not to mention the condemnation for the people that decide to go to eat out at a restaurant or something . It’s very hard for young people who are bad to think that the rest of their 50-60 years of life must be spend in inactivity and solitude. Then suicide follows. I know that you suffer hard and you are also coming from the musicians’ world which indicates a very sensitive brain. I was also an artist (dance and music) and I really know how it feels. But please don’t worship that easily Bill’s protocol, because some of us caught this super early in our life and the candy was taken away before we even tasted it. Personally I try to figure out how to stay alive because my personality can’t take this life saving protocol. It’s not possible and I really need some sympathy, when all my acquaintances of mine with tinnitus do all the opposite of Bills’s claims with no problems at all and I am the crazy weirdo that exaggerates or even the whiner that doesn’t want to get better. So discouraging...

 

It’s up to the individual what advice or opinions they take onboard and how cautious they choose to be. Some try to mitigate as much risk as possible, whilst others have a more nonchalant attitude. The only wrong approach is where ones T, H etc become permanently worse.
There are others on here who dispense advice like they know it all and are regarded as gurus by some, yet walk into 100db+ environments with no ear protection to prove they don’t have hyperacusis anymore.

 

Vermillion, I completely understand how you feel because I used to be exactly like you, and feared everything. It made me worse and ruined my life.

In the end, I knew I had to reboot my life or something bad was going to happen. And That’s exactly what I did; I left this forum for 6 months and started exercising and eating well again. I diverted all my thoughts away from T by writing songs, playing chess and by getting into photography. I literally turned my life around. I always protect my ears and spent £250 on custom plugs and also bought some ear muffs. I use my custom plugs whenever I’m in loud environments, but other than that I don’t use anything.

My philosophy is that we have to retrain our nervous system to not react. Impulse sounds are very unlikely to make tinnitus worse, or to cause SSHL. Unless, you’re at a shooting range or something similar. I weigh the risk of a noise loud enough, suddenly happening, so low, that I don’t worry about it anymore. It’s a vicious cycle, if I worry about that then I’m not over my tinnitus. You can’t have one without the other in my opinion.

We could argue that’s it’s unwise to fly because planes can fall out the sky, but we all still go on holiday (vacation). It’s a risk reward ratio. In tinnitus terms, realising you don’t need protection 24/7 calms everything down and you’re more likely to do well in my opinion. If, however, you’re stuck in a state of fear, and heightened anxiety, awaiting the next loud noise, then tinnitus will rule your life.

Don’t lose hope bud. Try and do something proactive and I promise you that you can turn things around. I did.

 

Thank you for your message @Ed209 . This is truly inspiring. Can I ask you what custom plugs you chose? Just curious.

 

ACS pro, but I ordered them with 3 sets of filters: 10, 17, and 26. I also had solid caps to block them off if I ever needed to.

 

My opinion is that Tinnitus noise never recedes.
We are stuck with it.
My ‘T’ was definitely noise induced.
I would hate it to increase in volume.
How would I cope with that? I simply don’t know.
Any extra damage I incur today will mean louder ‘T’ tomorrow.
Tinnitus is a cumulative predicament.
If a noise creates a feeling of discomfort, I will use ear plugs.
I could not care less what people around me think.
I’m nearly 76; I don’t have to consider peer pressure. I just try to be careful, and will use plugs in noisy situations, restaurants etc....
In the street I rely on fingers for ambulance alarms etc....
Better safe than sorry for me....

 

How many years have been since you got it? When was it since this madman did that thing to you?

 

Low level T since 1990 - no problem.

Incident was in June 2014, a gig where I was the bandleader, and paid a sideman £200 to deafen me and cripple my career and my health.

 

Yes, it’s better to be safe than sorry for sure. But it doesn’t seem to be a view that some around here seem to support.

 

Thank you Ed

 

Gman, I support it and always have. The miscommunication here is that I don’t think this requires continually using earplugs or muffs to live your life. Some of the sounds people are losing their minds over aren’t dangerous; I’m not sure how else I can word this to be any clearer. I’m only looking out for people’s sanity.

The Tinnitus Talk guide should address all this when it’s released.

I’ll make this my last post, for now, as there’s not much more I can add. Take care of yourselves.

 

Who has advocated ear protection ALL the time? Being extra cautious during the first year or two shouldn’t be considered bad advice. I wish I had have been more cautious in retrospect, then my tensor tympanis may not have become disfunctional with this ASD/TTTS affliction.
Luckily my T is a related but different issue and can still be very low.

People have brains and they can pick and choose the advice and opinions that suit them. Having posts about different approaches to ones own and knowing potential risks should be welcomed. Some views are going to be more extreme than others. I’ve been vulnerable and haven’t lost my mind following everything I read, hell, I don’t even own a pair of Peltors (hrm perhaps I should).

I may not agree with everything a certain someone says and certainly haven’t adopted all of his recommendations, but he’s been more helpful than many others here. I had hoped we had seen an end to all of this nonsense but this thread makes it obvious it’s still happening. It’s really disheartening.

 

I stopped listening to Bill when he didn't know what I meant by "scientific method".

 

I agree, it is disheartening at times. Not everybody is going to agree on everything, people have their own opinions/beliefs not just in regards to T but life in general. Having different perspectives on this is or anything in life is always good. The problem is people refuse to see anything other than their own opinions due to their egotistical nature. I think people’s egos are the biggest issue on here and the fact they need to be right all the time, it’s really sad.
I see a lot of preaching at people instead of actually listening to them. Some people are not “built” to deal with T especially the more artistic/sensitive personalities and all the emotional, soul destroying crap that comes with it, it’s sad but true. What works for some people may not work for the next.

I agree that protection is essential in loud environments and as I’m still pretty new to this I’m trying to find a balance. I appreciate all the advice I’ve been given, even though I may not agree with quite a few of their recommendations or that persons attitude and personality I’m still appreciative non the less.

As helpful as this site is and all the lovley, kind hearted people I think it can mess with your psyche at times and it can be easy to get sucked into this whole who’s right and who’s wrong crap.

Anyhooooo I’m waffling now so good day to you all on TT.

 

Well said and so true @Jcb!!!

 

Who had ever advocated anything like that?

Not sure what post of mine you had taken out of context, but it sounds like you are among the "some" referred to in the post below:

It sucks having to repeat myself multiple times. If someone is getting spikes or feels pain or discomfort following exposure to the sounds that ought to be safe, that person ought to listen to his or her body and consider the possibility that these sounds are no longer safe. That's all there is to it.

 

So if I don't get spikes, pain or discomfort from headphones?

 

If I were you, I would introduce headphones into my life very gradually. Wear them for a minute, then for five minutes, then for 10 minutes, then wait a week to see whether this causes a spike, then wear them for 15 minutes a day for a week or two, etc.

 

NO HEADPHONES OR EARBUDS or you are playing with fire, you can make your T go up to SEVERE/EXTREME levels and believe me you dont want that. TRUST ME!!!

 

It sounds like he is willing to risk having to find this out for himself...