Young Teens with Tinnitus?

Just wondering if there are any young teens like me with tinnitus out there and what’s your story?

I’m 15, almost 16, and developed tinnitus from earbuds. I’m around 2 months in now and my tinnitus varies quiet a bit. It's a 2-4 out of 10, sometimes a 5 (not usually that bad but a 5 is when I can hear it over my usual masking device which is a quiet ceiling fan).

My tinnitus isn’t that bad but it can still be quite scary.

If you are not a teen with tinnitus, do you know anyone who is?

 

I don't currently know any teens with tinnitus, but three friends of mine have had tinnitus since their teens. They've adjusted fine, and live perfectly happy and fine lives now.

 

One of my friends is not a teen anymore, but he's had T for quite a while now: one single tone that he can hear most of the time. He never notices it in his current days, he only got reminded of it because of my tinnitus onset.

 

I'm 22? Lol now I feel old. But have had tinnitus for about 4 months. You're not alone!

 

I’m 21 and I recently got tinnitus in December, I know many who got it around my age so you are not alone.

 

I'm also no longer a teenager, but I'm 23 which is still pretty young. One of the friends I mentioned has had tinnitus since age 10, another since age 15. Like I said, both are perfectly fine and only notice theirs in quiet rooms/when trying to sleep. They go to the movies, restaurants, date, go on holidays on planes etc - their lives are completely normal. As long as you protect your ears from now on, you should be able to live a very happy life too.

 

I'm turning 23 tomorrow and I'm into my third year with tinnitus. Before my current monster, I've actually been able to barely hear a very faint wavering noise in complete silence since I was 12, but it never bothered me.

 

im also no teen but 24 and have had it for a couple of months now. I got it from a perforated eardrum. Mine can be quite loud. Sucks :’(

 

Thanks for the response, hope your tinnitus turns out ok.

 

Sometimes when i think about it while laying down it goes significantly louder, but when I don't think about it, it fades away.

 

Hows your tinnitus been along those 4 months? Any improvements?

 

Thanks for the support.

 

Thanks for the support, I hope mine turns out like theirs.

 

Hope everything gets better for you.

 

I hope your tinnitus gets better, what on a scale of 1 to 10 would you rate yours?

 

thank you, same with you!
I’d say it’s about a 4 usually. Sometimes if I’m having a good day, 2-3. I can hear it over most things like the tv, music etc. And when I’m really tired it’s a 5!
You?

 

@Tommo5

I feel like I have a very weird situation. It was mild at first (like the day I got it, it was only in my left ear) and then I took steroids (like everyone on this site says to do if you catch it in the early days to possibly reverse it), but it made it worse and spread to my head and right ear.

Over the next 2 or so months it changed a lot and I saw some improvements, but I knew something was still wrong. I went to a good ENT in NYC and I had a huge sinus infection the whole time. She gave me antibiotics and steroids. The first day of taking them the tinnitus almost completely disappeared!! I was like cool this is my magic bullet. But after like 3 days it came back back and worse. I even asked the doctor for another round of steroids after to see if the effect would come back but it didn't.

SO I'm back at square one. Not much improvements. Steroids have seemed to be my enemy.

 

I have had tinnitus since i was 13 in 2011.

22 this year and it's a lot worse than it was and I also developed hyperacusis

 

I'm fairly new to tinnitus myself but here's a few things I've learned that might be helpful:

1) Your age is actually a benefit in terms of healing -- younger people seem to have a greater ability to heal. So, that's good!

2) There are medical treatments available that can improve your outcome BUT are time sensitive. In other words, the earlier you do them, the better they work, and if you wait too long, they don't work at all.

3) Young people with tinnitus are sometimes dismissed by their doctors as experiencing something trivial that doesn't rise to the level of needing actual treatment.

As you can see, number 3 can be in conflict with number 2.

If you're not taken seriously by a doctor, you may lose the opportunity to treat your tinnitus in its early stages which is when some of the more common treatments may be effective. Let's say, for example, your tinnitus doesn't just go away (which it might, but let's say it doesn't), and you find a doctor in a year who takes it seriously. The problem is, at that point treatments that might've been effective early on will no longer be effective.

Therefore, without knowing much about your actual circumstances, what I would do if I were you is:

Find an appropriate doctor (ENT who treats tinnitus) who will take it seriously AND... do this as soon as possible!

Good luck.

 

You are very young and also your tinnitus is recent, so there are good chances that you will adapt to it and it may also go away in time.

Be careful with noise. Hyperacusis is way worse than tinnitus.

 

How’s your tinnitus going? Mine's crazy, this morning I woke up and my left ear was a roaring 7. My right ear is the one with hearing loss.

 

When they go to movies do they wear ear plugs? I’ve been having crazy spikes because I did not know much about tinnitus and what causes it to get worse. In this case I have been watching movies, riding dirtbikes (not much), and so on.

 

All over the place. I’m feeling quite sick now as I sleep with the window open to mask my tinnitus and winter's on its way. This morning I woke up with a roaring left ear 6. My right ear's the hearing loss one

 

What would you rate your tinnitus? Have you done anything that has caused it to become worse?

 

Not that I know of.

 

It varies from hour to hour, I swear. So weird.

@Tommo5

 

I am 18, I have had tinnitus for 2 months.

If it's noise induced you are not really going to have much of a social life anymore, since modern social life is fulfilled with loud sounds. You might use earplugs, but I would rather not be at wedding or in the cinema at all than with earplugs. I would look so odd...

 

Don’t mind looking odd wearing hearing protection. I promise people don’t care as much as you think they do. Plus if it means you’re able to go out and enjoy activities that’s worth it!

 

Yeah, I know that, but still it's a bit hard. I don't even care about the sound itself, I may even sit in a completely silent room and have no problems focusing on given task.

I believe this is that (in)famous habituation, the thing is it doesn't really solve the problem of limitations it has put on my life. I am just 18 years old, I recently started DJing and got a little more serious with electronic music production. It felt awesome, I finally found what I was passionate about, and that whole tinnitus BS really has settled me back. It is unhealthy to give up your hobbies you enjoyed so much.

There are people who are stealing money from their parents and buy drugs for that. They become addicted, yet after proper therapy they might be able to get their life 100% back.

And me? Just a bit of loud music, I never had stolen anything, never did harm to anyone, but apparently it's enough to cause so much suffering I can't even put that into words.

 

I got tinnitus when I was about your age in 2015 from listening to music with earbuds too loud. It bothered me for about 2 years but eventually I habituated.

I’m now 19 but am experiencing a 3 month spike in my tinnitus that’s been pretty bothersome to me lately. That started July of this year. Be very careful with your hearing.