My Tinnitus horror story

[jestermgee]

I have recently started to notice a high-pitch ringing in my left ear (to explain it would be like that high-pitch sound from old CRT monitors when you switch them on. It started after a fucking ACDC concert last year where I was stuck in the stands and the sound was just terrible and so "loud" I had my fingers in my ears (more distorted loud than anything). Apparently it's the design of the stands at the oval and many complained of the same issue in that area of the venu.

The shit thing is my friends and I saw ear plugs being sold and laughed that off for the people that couldn't handle it!!! How I WISH I had of had some but of course i'm not "old", I can handle it.

I have attended hundreds of concerts and events in my years including Pantera in early 2000 in a tiny theater which I thought then would blow my ears... never an issue until now and I normally do take care of volume and wear headphones and ear plugs when working with machinery.

Take care of your ears kids, you only get one set and time seems to be a bitch to them.

[fishmonkey]

loud sound damages the extremely delicate hair cells in your inner ear. this damage is cumulative over time and so being exposed to loud stuff for many years will eventually catch up with you. unfortunately, unlike some other animals, our hair cells cannot regenerate...

when i used to play acoustic drums i would wear industrial ear muffs. some people thought it was pretty funny, but i'm glad i did now!

[Pasha]

Hi Pasha,

I have tinnitus for 10 years. Maybe the result off playing in bands with high volume guitars and amplifiers and also using headphones with loud volumes for hours and hours. In the beginning it was like hell and i also quit making music which ware sad times because i love making music. Also i am a video-editor so i was in editing suites for sometimes 10 hours a day and i was afraid i had to quit my job.
The doctors said....sorry there's no cure....just learn to live with it.

Yeah right, easier said than done. But after a while i slowly learned to cope with it.
How difficult this may seem...i had to learn just to ignore it and make it less important.
How you do that...is different for everybody with tinnitus.

Nowedays i still make and produce music and use earplugs when i play live or go to concerts.
Also i,m still a professional video-editor;) I use headphones again but not on high volumes.
I still have all my hearing frequencies so no damage in that sense.
When i go to sleep i use my ipad with easy relaxing music or radio on it to mask the tinnitus but thats okay.
Also try to relax and avoid stress.

I also know a few people who have tinnitus and it also became easier for them when they learned to cope with it.
After 10 years i still have bad days and good days but overall life is good.

Hope this story helps.

JAMM

Hi JAMM,

A lot of hope in your words, so thank you.
I lived with my first Tinnitus for about 20 years It was a 'presence' but then, eventually it went away.
(it's physiologically possible, it's your brain compensating and giving you a new 'Zero db' calibration)
However this time it's even harder. As you say "i still have bad days and good days but overall life is good."
I can say that some days are worse than other and that I cannot cope with it, with sleep deprivation. I'm doing all I can to make progresses it'll take time...

Cheers & Thanks
Pasha

[störgeräusche]

ginko bilboa really helped me soothe my tinnitus.

[stringtapper]

Magnetic Pulses to the Brain Deliver Long-lasting Relief for Tinnitus Patients

[Pasha]

Magnetic Pulses to the Brain Deliver Long-lasting Relief for Tinnitus Patients

Wow! Sound cool. I'll check in my country.

[JAMM]

Hi Pasha,

Yes some days are worse than other days.
I also know a few people with tinnitus and they all have the same experiences.
Just today..i had a good day but a bad evening and how that works?....i don,t know but on the bad days i try to seek distraction....
Jump on a bike or go on a walk on the beach, read a book...just to concentrate on other things.
Not saying that is the solution because thats to easy but it helps for me.

You wrote "i had it for 20 years and it went away"
So now it,s back but maybe it can go away again...

All the people i know with (serious)tinnitus had big problems with it but all of them found a way to cope and live with it.
It,s part off our life now which sucks sometimes but life is still good overall.
So there,s always hope and i hope you also find some way to deal with it or find a cure.

Wish you all the best!

Jamm

[Pasha]

Hi Pasha,

Yes some days are worse than other days.
I also know a few people with tinnitus and they all have the same experiences.
Just today..i had a good day but a bad evening and how that works?....i don,t know but on the bad days i try to seek distraction....
Jump on a bike or go on a walk on the beach, read a book...just to concentrate on other things.
Not saying that is the solution because thats to easy but it helps for me.

You wrote "i had it for 20 years and it went away"
So now it,s back but maybe it can go away again...

All the people i know with (serious)tinnitus had big problems with it but all of them found a way to cope and live with it.
It,s part off our life now which sucks sometimes but life is still good overall.
So there,s always hope and i hope you also find some way to deal with it or find a cure.

Wish you all the best!

Jamm

Thanks Jamm.
Your suggestion are in line with what I am trying to do.
Reading a book is sometimes painful due to the sound in my ears but using some background music I can ease my discomfort and concentrate on the book. Walking with sound of nature around me helps a lot.
What is hard for me is quitting to play with band and visit concerts and other venues because even if I protect myself with ear plugs and headphones (for Industry Plants, they cut high frequencies)the outcome is that the volume of my inner sound increases.
In any case I enjoy life. Some days are better than others and I am coping with living a 'random life' so that when I wake up after a bad night due to tinnitus. I avoid driving and go public transports. That's it. Every day brings what it brings.

Cheers
Pasha

[Tarekith]

Ear issues are such a difficult thing to go through, so thanks for sharing and opening the conversation.

[annadyne]

Pasha and respondents,

I'm so sorry to hear about this! Thank you for sharing, indeed.

Am also glad to see some of the good posts here to come from it.

I worked for Moog testing/calibrating/repairing their Voyager / XL / Phatty synth line for 5 years. 1.5 yrs in, I began hearing a high frequency that surely lived in the synth during testing.It did not. It was tinnitus ear-worm, aggravated by the headphone tests we were required to do. Reso sine sweeps, waveform, continuity etc, At some point it got so bad I had trouble falling asleep. By only listening briefly for noise floor and during certain crucial steps, then turning headphones down and staying glued to Oscope for rest of time, I was still able to perform my tests properly.
Since my ears (and other kinds of health) are much more important, I eventually quit.
Before then I was anal about my ears, and am now even more, so about wearing hearing protection. Even if concerts are not terribly loud.

Still have crickets from time to time. Especially when tired or stressed out. But it's mostly deal-able. Sometimes 'gone'. And I can sleep.
Going to check out the Ginko Bilobaa (thanks störgeräusche), Magnetic Pulse (thx also to stringtapper) and fishmonkey’s links.

Wishing you days of healing, great music making/hearing and vestibular tranquility ~
Liz

[Pasha]

Pasha and respondents,

I'm so sorry to hear about this! Thank you for sharing, indeed.

Am also glad to see some of the good posts here to come from it.

I worked for Moog testing/calibrating/repairing their Voyager / XL / Phatty synth line for 5 years. 1.5 yrs in, I began hearing a high frequency that surely lived in the synth during testing.It did not. It was tinnitus ear-worm, aggravated by the headphone tests we were required to do. Reso sine sweeps, waveform, continuity etc, At some point it got so bad I had trouble falling asleep. By only listening briefly for noise floor and during certain crucial steps, then turning headphones down and staying glued to Oscope for rest of time, I was still able to perform my tests properly.
Since my ears (and other kinds of health) are much more important, I eventually quit.
Before then I was anal about my ears, and am now even more, so about wearing hearing protection. Even if concerts are not terribly loud.

Still have crickets from time to time. Especially when tired or stressed out. But it's mostly deal-able. Sometimes 'gone'. And I can sleep.
Going to check out the Ginko Bilobaa (thanks störgeräusche), Magnetic Pulse (thx also to stringtapper) and fishmonkey’s links.

Wishing you days of healing, great music making/hearing and vestibular tranquility ~
Liz

I like the vestibular tranquility part.

I wrote to Professor Thanos Tzounopoulos, Ph.D., assistant professor of otolaryngology and neurobiology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine,
to be put in the test of a new drug they are testing. I'm from Europe so no chance but for US based patients maybe it is doable.

This was an old video but it gives you the idea. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMigvtQMIeA
http://www.upmc.com/Services/ear-nose-t ... tment.aspx
http://www.upmc.com/media/NewsReleases/ ... nitus.aspx

And that's the man : http://www.audres.pitt.edu/people/tzounopoulos.php

Latest 2015 news : https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2 ... 121921.htm

I apologize as this might be boring biological materials but the background message is that there are people working on that. A drug treatment could be near.

Best Regards
Pasha

[Pasha]

Ear issues are such a difficult thing to go through, so thanks for sharing and opening the conversation.

Thanks Tarekith, I got so much from this forum.. time to give back. Tinnutus it's an isolating condition. Talking with people helps.
Moreover giving people one strong message about being careful of the best microphones in the world (our years) can help save lives
from troubles and pain.

Best Wishes
Pasha

[Pasha]

loud sound damages the extremely delicate hair cells in your inner ear. this damage is cumulative over time and so being exposed to loud stuff for many years will eventually catch up with you. unfortunately, unlike some other animals, our hair cells cannot regenerate...

when i used to play acoustic drums i would wear industrial ear muffs. some people thought it was pretty funny, but i'm glad i did now!

Savvy man.

[Martin Gifford]

OP, have you tried alternative therapies? I had a muso friend who reckons he was cured of tinnitus with Bowen therapy.

[Martin Gifford]

I got an ear blast today, so I want to put a limiter on the master track. But IIRC, I did this once before and it didn't seem to work - a loud blast got through. Maybe the settings were wrong? I used Ableton's default "Upper ceiling" limiter preset. Is that the best default for the purpose of protecting ears?