How bad is the tinnitus?

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maomao
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Post by maomao » Wed Oct 01, 2008 5:53 pm

if your ear condition really gets bad, you might want to watch "It all went Pete Tong". Not curing the cause, but helping you accept it as Robert advised.

Only watched it a few weeks back, and without spoiling the end, it would give hope back to anyone deeply into music, and with a serious (if not irreversible) ear condition.


There's a quite hilarious/scary incarnation of coke as well in this flick..

Oh, and while we're at it, go see "Berlin calling" ft Paul Kalkbrenner and your favourite DAW!
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"one good thing about music is when it hits you feel no pain"

iivanov
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Post by iivanov » Wed Oct 01, 2008 10:52 pm

fishmonkey wrote:
iivanov wrote:if anyone has some advice for me it is appreciated. I have noticed my tinnitus around february this year and simultaneously seemed to have acquired chronic nasal congestion
as far as your nose goes, nasal/sinus rinsing is definitely worth a try... basically you wash out your nasal passages/sinuses with an isotonic solution... something like this:

http://www.neilmed.com/aus/index.php
well I put water and sea salt solution in my nose every morning because I heard that works. I don't really feel any noticeable change.

Robert makes a good point not to think about it or to condition yourself into accepting it. I would say it doesn't really bother me that much, the only thing i'm worried about is that it could be a condition that NEEDS treatment in order for it not to get worse. It doesn't seem like that is the case reading over most posts here, but i saw some, also in other tinnitus threads that say you should find out the possible idiosyncracies of your condition from a doctor. but all doctors do is telll you to put steroids up your nose and come back in a month.

littlepig
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Post by littlepig » Thu Oct 02, 2008 8:04 am

I find under normal conditions find it slowly comes and goes. But exposure to loud music makes it worse. The absolute worst it got was when I played in an orchestra and the other flutist played the piccolo. I had tinnitus on that side for a week afterwards.

JAMM
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Post by JAMM » Mon Oct 06, 2008 9:07 pm

i now have tinnitus for a few years. Two different tones in two ears.
I think i got it from producing music with a 130 DB headphone and playing live/DJing live on big PA systems.

In the beginning the T. was very irritating and difficult and i had to learn to cope and deal with it. Not easy but after i accepted the Tinnitus, my life is back to normal. A little bit handicapted because i have to use earplugs when i am producing or play live or when i have a beer in a crowded bar or cafe. Also cannot turn up the music on my carstereo


Avoid stress
Avoid to much alcohol or sigarets
Avoid loud volumes and use earplugs!

JAMM
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Post by JAMM » Mon Oct 06, 2008 9:08 pm

forgot...don,t use your ipod to much

sparklepuff
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Post by sparklepuff » Mon Oct 06, 2008 9:43 pm

I believe stress has elevated the tinnitus in my right ear tremendously. I couldn't sleep last night the ringing was so bad. I'm about to have a goddamned breakdown.
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duluxdog
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Post by duluxdog » Mon Oct 06, 2008 10:08 pm

One thing to be clear about: DON'T use cotton buds/q-tips to clean out the ear. All you will do is push the wax deeper into the ear.

I have also had the experience of hearing a high pitch from a very young age, maybe like 6-7, particularly when going asleep at night. I also get these cycles of intense high pitched tones which soon 'fade' out to nothing of the course of 30-60 seconds. My dad has bad tinnitus from a single incident caused at a Black Sabbath concert. He stuck his head into a PA speaker cone and it got worse ever since. He recently had his ears waxed and he says this has helped a little. Though he does seem to have reduced hearing now.

Lux Libra
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Post by Lux Libra » Mon Oct 06, 2008 10:16 pm

duluxdog wrote:He stuck his head into a PA speaker cone and it got worse ever since.
Your dad is a badass! 8O

craftycurate
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Post by craftycurate » Mon Oct 06, 2008 11:49 pm

My own tinnitus is like a white noise, but my hearing is pretty good across the range - it's like a noise on top of the normal hearing, but certain midrange sounds can jar a bit sometimes.

I was advised not to wear earplugs when I'm sleeping to block out noise, because they block out ambient noise and the brain ends up "listening to itself" like a sensing device whose sensitivity is too high and it ends up confusing signal with noise.

Advice was to play ambient sounds in the room - like rainfall or traffic hum or whatever to get the brain listening to external sounds. Did this for a couple of years and not sure if it made much difference.

I'm also a lot more careful now when trying out new synths esp. the weirder Reaktor ensembles ... they can suddenly punch out really loud sounds e.g. Weedwacker, and some of the granular synths. I always turn the volume down before playing the first notes with a new synth.
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Mike Goodwin
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Post by Mike Goodwin » Tue Oct 07, 2008 1:48 am

I have had it since my early teens. How bad is it? I hate it more than most things wrong with me. I can still mix fine and DJ'ing is no problem. But when my stress get's hi it gets louder and drives me crazy.

Frederik654
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Re: How bad is the tinnitus?

Post by Frederik654 » Wed Jul 22, 2009 10:34 pm

Old thread but ..

Yesterday I was listening to some quiet music when suddenly I heard something went out of phase and my ears were suddenly very tired :?:

I set the source to mono just to hear it was in the music but nope .. no change. This morning I woke up with my right ear acting like when you take a shower and a drop of water is in your ear.. and when you turn your head and the water goes out.. that feeling.

Went to the doctor at work and he looked to my ears but didn't notice anything. Had some visitors this evening and hey, it was gone.. until I went to bed. A clear sinus @ around 484hz (tested in ableton :) )

I'm a dj, producer and every weekend I'm at the clubs but never had any serious troubles. Sure, we all know the times when you need to turn up the monitors and headphone due to a bad dj booth and so on ..

Hopefully it goes away but I'm going to be very carefull and let my ears rest.

Just a reminder.
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stringtapper
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Re: How bad is the tinnitus?

Post by stringtapper » Thu Jul 23, 2009 12:16 am

I didn't take very good care of my ears for a period of about a decade. This included playing bass in bands without ear protection, playing trombone in big bands without protection (lead trombone at that, right in front of the lead trumpet!), going to concerts without protection, and generally listening to music too loud in the car.

I had myself tested in the early 2000s and was relieved that I was still within 90% in both ears. So I had myself some fitted earplugs made and I've used them ever since in any situation that I know is going to be loud. I don't seem to have the same threshold of tolerance for high volumes that I used to. Loud music starts to get on my nerves after a while.

Anyway, after a couple of years of wearing my plugs in band rehearsals that took place inside a very small practice space, I started to experience ringing in my right ear and my hearing seemed to be diminished. I was getting to the point that it was making it hard for me to get to sleep, and it was also starting to get me very depressed since I rely on my ears for all of the work I do.

So I went to the doctor to get it checked out. Turns out there was no permanent damage but in fact I had a clump of earwax that was so compacted that it was causing the ringing and muffling my hearing as well. Apparently it was a combination of regular use of the fitted earplugs combined with the fact that I was cleaning my ears too vigorously with q-tips (basically you're only supposed to push q-tips in so far into your ear and I was jamming them all the way in). So I had an extensive ear cleaning done at the clinic and it was cleared up. And I mean clear. It felt like I had bionic ears, there were so many high frequencies I could hear after the cleaning that it actually took a while for me to get used to it. I was so happy, it was like having a dream about losing an arm and then waking up to be relieved that you have two arms. Since then I have my ears cleaned about once a year.
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Russell Krauch
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Re: How bad is the tinnitus?

Post by Russell Krauch » Thu Jul 23, 2009 12:41 am

I've had it mostly in my right ear for about 4 years now. Compared to some stories I've heard my case isn't that bad. Mostly I avoid loud noise as much as possible. I don't play in a band anymore....I'm 52 so that really isn't as much of a big deal to me as it would have been years ago....I don't listen to loud music at home or walk around all day with earphones of some kind on. Bottom line is by watching myself it han't gotten any worse.

d-track
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Re: How bad is the tinnitus?

Post by d-track » Thu Jul 23, 2009 8:52 am

yeah, here we go:)

dunno exactly when, about 6 yrs ago (28 now) and one gig when i wasnt able to turn down the monitors was enough to get very hardcore tinnitus, and definite hearing loss.
the hearing loss has went away after weeks. and years after the tinnitus reduced.
the tinnitus doesnt annoy me because i have listened a lot or ryoji ikeda and carsten nicolai etc :)
but there is a more serious thing. called hyperacusis.
i got it in both of my ears but with time it went away from my right one.
the left one is still very sensitive to louder mid-range frequencies (no problem with highs and lows) and the sound gets distorted and scratchy in my left ear after minutes of loud sound.
i can live with it, i was lucky that my body gained some self-treatment. but the hyperacusis is still in my left ear so i usually wear pro earplugs (especially designed for musicians to cut frequencies equally) at clubs and during gigs or just turning down the monitors.

many ppl have these problems since techno and electronic music (both clubbing and production)which often hand in hand with the weird and loud sound which is not really designed to hear,, if u get what i mean...naturally.

for example our hero robert henke has similar issues.

and one more thing. the thing is connected with motorcycling in half-helmet so when your ears are getting pitched loud wind noise and air pressure. this also often caused tinnitus butit usually went away in hours after riding. and this togehter with loud music... did the job:)
i am not able to dive anymore because of that. my ears are too sensitive to presure and there is a pain in it below 4-5 m underwater and also when plane landing.

in short: be fucking careful to all your sensors. dont look into the sun etc

cheers
*-*

Zygi
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Re: How bad is the tinnitus?

Post by Zygi » Thu Jul 23, 2009 11:28 am

meh, my ears ring all the time, and i can also hear frequencies a lot above all my friends ( in my age ofc).

maybe i'm not right, but isn't tinnitus concerning only the ringing? if you can't hear some frequencies, it's probably not the tinnitus, but something else that damaged your hearing.

correct me plz, cause i'd love to know how to get over the ringing

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