Worried I've Made My Tinnitus Worse After Going to a Gun Shooting Range

Hey all,

Long time listener first time poster. I've had tinnitus for a long time. I'm 22 and have had it since early teens. It was always very quiet and hadn't bugged me till February this year when it increased to be very loud and back in my consciousness.

I had been struggling for a few months and finally got the place where even though it was ringing I could also still enjoy life to an extent. I still do and I'm not thinking rash just in a bad place. Shooting had been a favorite hobby of mine and today my family and my father (who also has it decently bad) went to the range.

I told myself that it wouldn't get worse, and I doubled up on in ear plugs and over ear muffs. I felt fine all the time shooting and a bit after. But right now it seems very loud and has been for a few hours. Granted I still hear the same besides my ringing and I had a proper seal the whole time. I don't know if I'm just getting in my head and sort of making my t worse than it is or not.

Figured I'd ask on here if anyone had a similar experience shooting or if someone knows if you can still make t worse even when properly protected. Thanks all.

 

It could be just inside your head and stress - and I hope it goes back to baseline. But to answer your question, yes someone's T can get worse even with proper protection. I hope this isn't the case for you though!

 

Shooting is quite loud, and even with adequate double protection, you can still get worsening of the T, which is known as a T spike.

There is the possibility as @GSC mentioned above that this is anxiety related.

The other is that the noise caused another spike. Most of these will settle down with time, and without additional noise exposure.

For the time being, avoid any further shooting is the obvious, but quite important advice.

 

Yes, you can. See the posts I quoted in the post below
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/learn-from-others-mistakes.29437/

Having said that, I would be worried about a spike only if it were to last for over a month. Most spikes are temporary and temporary spikes can take months to clear.

 

@Iowa54 -- The odds are this is a temporary spike, and you'll likely go back to baseline. -- However -- I hope you're learning something from this experience. What I hope you'll learn is that your ears--for the rest of your life--will be far more vulnerable to acoustic shocks than most other people. So when you think of iffy situations that "it'll probably be alright", think in terms of it being alright for normal people. Not with people who have or have had tinnitus. -- That said, I think you should be find going forward as long as you take reasonable precautions. -- All the Best!

 

I find that whenever I wear muffs/plugs my tinnitus is more prominent. Basically when I exclude outside sounds from my brain then it tends to concentrate more on the ringing, and so when I take off the plugs/muffs I hear the ringing louder for at least a few hours, if not longer. It may just be the reason you're hearing it more. Hopefully it will settle down.

 

I would do anything for it to go back to what it was before February. That spike wasn't brought in by anything that I can think of. I also am thinking this spike from yesterday will go away and if not I guess I have more adjusting to do.

 

Your brain is not concentrating on anything. When you remove some sounds, the remaining sounds can be heard more clearly. That's all.

 

I have noticed this to be true as well.

 

So then why is the tinnitus still perceived as louder after the hearing protection was taken off than before the hearing protection is put in?

 

@Iowa54 totally up to you, but personally I have given up basically everything bigger than .22 rimfire, because it just seems too loud to me, even doubling up. A friend brought an AR over last year, and I didn't want to be closer than about 25' to the muzzle. My wife still has one larger centerfire rifle that we keep around on the off chance we ever have to deal with a larger-than-a-raccoon pest animal, but I don't shoot it. (it's a 7.62x54r gun, so you probably know which one it is, hint it's not a dragunov ) -- I put 4 or 5 rounds through it a couple years ago and even though it didn't seem to cause me any problems, it just felt louder than anything else I do, and since I'm pretty liberal with chainsaws and motorcycles, to me that meant the gun is just too loud.

Depending on what state you're in, silencers may be a good option, if you can afford it. For large weapons you'd still need to use hearing protection, but a silencer can bring a larger gun down into roughly the decibel range a .22 is in (125-140db of impulse noise). Silencers are legal here, but of course you're looking at around $1000 and an 8 month wait while the federalis run your background check to make sure you're not an ISIS-loving spree killer who needs a silencer for some reason.

Personally the reason my wife has guns in the house at all is just general defense of the chicken coop and anxiety about rodents with rabies or distempter, so a .22 with glass on it pretty much has us covered.

 

I get this. However before the spike or whatever you want to call it in February to where I could hear it loud all the time I had never really had a spike that I remember in the past 7 or more years

 

Is it the case that the spike in February hasn't faded yet?

 

I have never experienced that. I also don't recall seeing too many people describe anything like that.

Mine sounds louder when the hearing protection is in, and goes back to normal when the hearing protection is out.

If someone's T sounds louder after the hearing protection is out, perhaps it is hearing protection that makes it louder for that person, after all. Disturbing...

 

You had double protection, you should be fine, it’s probably just anxiety and overthinking it.

 

I would say so. It's been louder since the first week of February It hasn't gone back to where it was before considering before it wasn't in my conscious thinking really anymore.

 

Do you have any idea about what might have caused that spike?

 

FWIW after I wear hearing protection I'm focusing on the sound of the t and it's louder for a while...unless I go to an environment with adequate background noise to mask it. If I'm wearing hearing protection and take it off in a quiet room the t will be loud, though it would be loud in a quiet room anyway.

I've made it a habit to remove hearing protection as quickly as possible, while still being safe, once clear of offending noise so I don't focus on the sound of the t.

Hope that makes sense.

 

Not really, only had a kind of loud noise a few months before that shouldn't have affected me.

 

Yes, me as well. It is quite predictable when I wear the hearing protection during the day. However, I know that the T goes back into the background with the other noise when I take it off so it is all good.

 

I have experienced as well as a few others I have talked to. It always goes back to baseline in 10-15 min.

 

how is your T now? I've been wanting to go to the range again but indoor ones could get very loud.

 

I think the indoor didn't really have an effect it may have just been my nerves making it worse. I did however go to a camping shooting meetup where I was exposed to copious amounts of gunfire (double earpro of course) t seemed worse at night because of lack of sleep but once I got home I was having lower levels of t. Personally I think to stay away from indoor and try to go to outdoor if possible. More space for the sound to dissipate. A .50 caliber rifle I stood pretty close to didn't even spike my t. Just went trapshooting this past weekend too and no spike. Just be careful and work your way up. Make sure earpro is correctly inserted and seated.

 

Hearing protection may give you a false sense of security, i would avoid places like shooting ranges because you never know what can happen. Make sure to insulate yourself well!

 

Proper hearing protection will protect you from further hearing damage.

It’s important to know that your perception of tinnitus is very closely linked with stress, in other words if you go to a range and wear hearing protection (even better if you wear double protection) it is very highly unlikely that you would cause any further damage to your hearing because the very purpose of that hearing protection is to create a physical barrier which significantly reduces the power of the sound waves which will reach the inner ear to such an extent that it falls within acceptable limits. Period.

It is possible and understandable that having been somewhere loud, you have naturally considered this risk and the part of your brain which deals with risk has decided it was a bad idea based on your previous experience. It’s the same part of your brain that would make you anxious about driving again if you experience a car accident. Since tinnitus is very closely linked to stress, this might well cause you to feel like your tinnitus really has worsened, but that is psychological. The answer to this is to remind yourself that hearing protection protected your ears. So relax and fear not. As someone who’s been in your shoes I appreciate it’s not easy to do that - but I can also tell you it’s a scientific fact that how you think about your tinnitus impacts whether you hear it or not. So do whatever you need to do to relax, and know that you are human and do not need to worry about doing whatever you want to do with the appropriate protection

 

I wouldn't trust all this OSHA and NIOSH stuff personally. Many people don't believe the government in many dimensions, why selectively believe them here? Like federal government still says roundup is safe and marijuana is bad. Many industries have taken over regulatory agencies in order to serve their interests. If they told you that it's dangerous to work an 8-hour work day even with protection on then industries would have to spend billions of dollars to lower the sound level of their equipment and throw away existing ones. Everything would collapse. It's easier and cheaper for them to just infiltrate the regulatory agencies. I'm not saying that's the case, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was.

If you absolutely have to shoot, move to a state where suppressors are legal, and combine that would double protection and use subsonic rounds so their won' t be any sonic boom. Also avoid indoor ranges. Preferably be at substantial distance from others so you don't waste your hearing capacity on their rounds too.