Why the World Around Us Is So Loud?

Hi everyone! I haven't been in here for a long time, I hope you all are doing okay

I've been doing pretty good with my mild tinnitus. Though recently I've gotten a lot of anxiety because I just moved far away from home to study in a university. That alone is pretty terrifying but it seems having tinnitus and noise sensitive ears makes this worse too. I have lived in a small town all my life and suddenly being in a noisy city all alone is quite overwhelming. On top of that I live near a hospital and I'm pretty terrified of being outside, you never know if an ambulance passes by with the awfully loud sirens ( I can't really avoid this problem because I have to cycle past the hospital to campus every weekday. Loud noises are absolutely horrible and I don't know how I'm going to manage with this. I really don't want to worsen my tinnitus and knowing it could happen at any time when I'm outside makes me terrified. I could deal with the normal traffic but being close to a hospital makes going outside feel like running in a mine field. I wish I could move to a some other part of the city so I wouldn't have to be here. I know it can be noisy anywhere and I literally just moved in this place.

Ugh I wish day to day life wasn't this noisy :// How people with normal ears do this?

I use earplugs every time i go anywhere, normal traffic alone can be too much as itself anyways. I have plugs that reduce about 27 decibels, is that enough protection? I'm gonna dig up some threads about good plugs people here have recommended and do some shopping, but if any of you can recommend some good ones I'd really appreciate it. I hate how big stigma there is to wear ear plugs, I wish someone manufactured ear muffs which looked like a headset so people would think I'm just listening to music I know I shouldn't care about other people because these are my freaking ears and I can protect them however I want to but still there's always that little insecurity factor.

Sorry about ranting, last couple of days have been kinda horrible. I'm just feeling a bit homesick and with this horrible anxiety everything feels insuperable.

 

Whenever I am outside of my home, I wear earplugs. I also carry Peltor muffs with me. If I hear an ambulance siren, or a fire alarm, it will only take a second to slip those Peltor muffs on.

 

@Bill Bauer I have a pair of peltors too, I'm definitely going to start carrying them with me. Thx!

 

I started carrying them around (in a cloth bag), after reading horror stories on this website. It looks like being exposed to a fire alarm is not as uncommon as one might think. In any case, I feel a lot better when I have those muffs with me.