I damaged my left ear at a Micheal Schenker concert in 1980, when I was 18. A wall of Marshalls and Cozy Powell on drums was enough to send me wimpering to the back wall of the (small) venue. Instead of running for toilet paper to stuff in my ears, I just grinned and beared it. Bad idea. I had had ringing in my ears before from other concerts (always further back in larger venues) but this time, it lasted 3 weeks. Since that time, I can’t stand high frequencies in my left ear; sirens, or someone doing a wolf whistle next to me will distort my ear drum like a blown speaker and cause considerable pain. I also have mild tinnitus in the left ear. I usually don’t hear it unless my head is on the pillow at night, and even then it’s mild. It won’t prevent me from falling asleep. But last week, I made it worse when I played a gig and didn’t put my plugs in. Normally I wear plugs all the time, but this was a duo acoustic gig (guitar amp and PA but no drummer) and since my left side was away from the amp, I didn’t bother putting it in. Now, it’s a week later and the tinnitus volume has increased double over what it was before and won’t go away, when normally it would take only a day or two to subside. It’s the sound of what would be the peak of my high frequency hearing, around 12000 hertz. I can’t hear it during the day. This would be considered ‘mild’ tinnitus. Music is my profession so gigs are not going to stop. I will have to be even more vigilant now about wearing my ‘-10 db plugs’ at all times, and I hate them because they dull the sound, which affects how I play. You can be vigilant and careful for years, and all it takes is ‘miss it one time’ and you get more damage.
Anyone have tinnitus and what do you do to cope with it? Drugs? Habituation? Masking? I’m thinking of getting a pillow speaker now so I can listen to music or nature sounds while I go to sleep to mask the noise in my ear.
My brother and I both have chronic tinnitus, there really isn’t a lot you can do about it, you just have to live with it. The kind I get that I hate the most is the thumping.
I have a mild case in my left ear, in the form of a steady high-pitched whine that comes and goes, but I don’t really do anything about it since it’s easily ignored unless I consciously think about it (like seeing this thread made me do!).
I have no idea how I developed it though, as I don’t live a particularly loud life, haven’t been to anything ear-shattering, listen to my iPod at a reasonable volume, etc. Though I am constantly surrounded by the steady hum of computers…
I have a mild case of it in my left ear too. A high-pitched whining sound. It’s mild enough that I only ever hear it when I’m really tired and it’s dead quiet around me, but I can usually tune it out without too much problem. I do take it seriously though, I don’t want it getting worse so I’m careful about loud noises now.
How I got it? I was drilling holes in a brick wall without any ear protectors. I wore down three drill bits doing it, and since I had to get it level my head was right up by the drill the entire time so I could get a good view.
I have terrible tinnitus and hearing loss in both ears.
I’ve tried (with varying degrees of optimism) just about every cure and palliative I can find, with zero success. I’m used to it by now, so I guess habituation is my answer. Wish I had a better one for you.
Oddly, hearing aids helped a lot. Boosting the “signal” of useful audio against the tinnitus noise made a difference.
I’ve had moderate tinnitus for a number of years. I blame a Boo Radleys/Sugar show in 1993 (stood right next to a PA with no ear protection for a good solid 15 minutes), but really it could have been most anytime.
I just try not to overcaffeinate (too much coffee seems to set it off for some reason). Masking does seem to work somewhat, especially the sound of water coming out of a faucet or a shower running. But a fan running works to a limited degree.
Mostly you just have to try and learn to ignore it. :-(
Tinnitus is just a symptom though, and it can have many causes, so there’s a good chance that salt / caffeine won’t affect everybody equally.
Incidentally, my dad also has hearing loss / tinnitus due to “Meniere’s Disease”, a disease characterized by vertigo, tinnitus and hearing loss. In his case, weight loss, stress reduction and avoiding salt, caffeine and alcohol all helped to reduce the day to day of it, although he still has spells where he can’t do much more than lay in bed for days at a time. It can come and go somewhat unexpectedly, but usually the spells have at least a few hours warning before the vertigo kicks in, so he can still function normally (driving, etc) most of the time, he just knows when to avoid activities that might be dangerous. Which is fine, because when the vertigo hits he doesn’t feel like doing much besides laying down and throwing up.
Most of the time, he says it’s just a “fullness” in his affected ear, where he can’t hear anything and it feels like pressure, sort of like having water in your ear. He’s fine with it, although he occasionally expresses a willingness to stick an ice pick in his ear if that would clear his hearing.
I scare quoted Meniere’s above because there’s a fair amount of speculation that it’s not even a single cause but one of a range of diseases lumped together because they’re all equally intractable.
I’ve had it in my left ear for 6 or 7 years. It showed up after a really awful ear infection that left scar tissue which made some tube in there too narrow or something. Then it was further aggravated by being hypothyroid. Hypothyroidism can sometimes lead to excess fluid in the inner ear and for me, fluid = RRRRIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGGG.
Anyway. To help with the fluid problem either due to allergies or thyroid, I use a neti pot. It helps a lot when it gets particularly bad. Other than that, I try and avoid loud noises, tell Gary to be quieter way too often, and try to drown it out with background music or podcasts.
It’s called Quietus and claims to offer relief from tinnitus. I’ve got it in my left ear from a Sevendust show a few years ago where I was right on the rail at the stage. It’s only noticeable when it’s quiet at night unless I concentrate on it, but I wouldn’t mind getting rid of it. :-/
Anyway, I’m curious if anyone’s tried this Quietus stuff?
Everyone stop posting. If it discomforts you, go learn the modern neuro-physiological model of tinnitus. Getting upset about it with others is either useless or detrimental.
Anyway, the insane loudness of poprock concerts is really sort of an ongoing bit of cultural craziness. Given that the people making a concert can control the volume to whatever they want, why on earth would they set it to “permanent hearing damage” as a regular option?
And, right, stadiums or whatever where you have a lot of falloff is one thing, but pretty much anywhere there’s amplified music, it’s always way, way too loud.
I just ignore it. Mine is the product of a series of explosions (worse in my left ear, presumably since that one was already punctured once when I was a child), and it’s just one of those things I’ve gotten used to. I’m surprised you think -10 db earplugs are enough. I use these plugsout of habit at every non classical concert, although I remove the yellow flanges altogether so I can trim them down as they make fantastic earbuds. Plus they are more likely to fall out when they still have the yellow end sticking out. At any rate, it’s just good to have a set of earplugs in your car or bag that are reusable/washable (I just use hand sanitizer) and then using them when in doubt, whether at a loud bar or anything else. I find the muffling to be preferable to what music sounds like when it’s melting my brain anyway, and as a heavy metal fan, it’s a kind of trade-off I got used to a while ago.
I have mild tinnitus and it’s pretty easy to ignore. However, a little over a month ago I went to a club and now have ringing in my left ear that matches my pulse. The last doctor I saw said I had the equivalent of a ‘sprained ear’ and that the ringing would likely go away after a few months (when it presumably finishes healing). It’s not as easy to ignore as the more white noise-like tinnitus I already have so I’m hoping he’s right.
Anyway, the idea of hearing nothing but silence when all you should be hearing is silence is a nice dream and nothing more. Come on, science, fix this!
I too have a mild case of it in my left ear. It’s been a decade or more now. I can only hear it when I think about it for the most part and at night when it’s dead silent. Sometimes it does seem to flare up randomly, probably not random but due to some noise. For the most part I just try not to think about it and ignore it, and when I can’t well there just isn’t much I can do.
How did I get this, I think it was somehow related to when I played high school football. One day during practice, the hearing from my left ear just went out and there was bleeding. Got it checked out, said it was just an infection but the ringing never stopped since.
Remember what you read at that website I linked? They talk about how silence is a tense state for the human body, which in terms of evolution still considers it to be a time when a predator might strike. So your brain turns up the gain for things that unconsciously worry you, like tinnitus.
