|
|
Post by odyssey76 on Sept 10, 2014 16:24:35 GMT -6
I've had tinnitus at low levels for a few years now but it has started to get louder recently and it's friggin' annoying. I'm a prime candidate having major ear infections, surgeries, etc. as a child and playing in insanely loud rock bands without ear protection throughout my 20's and early 30's.
I see lots of talk about remedies all over the internet but there's so much shit it's hard to sort through it all.
Anyone hear have any remedies, methods that have worked for them? I'd love to hear 1st account tales from any of you guys who have gone through it and what works and doesn't work.
Thanks!
|
|
|
|
Post by svart on Sept 12, 2014 7:30:44 GMT -6
Sorry dude, but I don't know of any. I have a touch of it myself, and the only thing that has slightly helped is to start making everything else quieter. I'll wear earplugs to shows, to mow the lawn, etc. Anytime I might experience loud sounds, I'll wear earplugs. I don't think it helps heal the scar tissue that causes the tinnitus, but it seems to make me more sensitive to sound when I'm not using the ear plugs.
It sounds like you (like me) have hearing-loss induced tinnitus, which is not the same as other causes. It means you have dead hair cells in the ear(due to the excessive sound levels and subsequent scar tissues) and the brain is essentially making up for the loss in sound level by "turning up the gain".. which brings up the noise level. Some people, like you, experience it as increasing over time. Nobody knows for sure if it is actually getting worse for those who have this problem, or if their ability to focus on it just gets better, fooling them into thinking it's getting worse.
Something that might help is to get your ears professionally cleaned all the way to the ear drum. If there is any buildup of wax at all, it'll make everything less sensitive and your ear's SNR will be worse.
|
|
|
|
Post by odyssey76 on Sept 13, 2014 3:42:55 GMT -6
Hey svart thanks for responding. I know this is a fairly common problem for a lot of people in this industry and there's been a lot of talk and research going into the causes and remedies for tinnitus.
I work in commercial construction so there's a lot of noise every day but I, like you, have been wearing earplugs for a number of years. I even wear earplugs when I put my headphones on when I'm tracking - non critical listening activities. I monitor at very low volumes and generally avoid high SPL's at all costs.
I guess time will tell how bad it'll get but I'm going to try a couple different remedies and do some research and hopefully find something that helps!
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Sept 13, 2014 18:31:59 GMT -6
What musicians and other hardcore "hearers" mostly not want to hear, is, that many people have very good success at least living better with tinnitus if they reduce stress alot. And not only stress due to noise.
A guitarist i played with for a few years, who had really huge problems with loud tinnitus profited alot from stress management learning in a psychosomatic clinicum, after he tried everything else for years.
Overall high stress levels can result in an over-sensible nervous system, where most commonly hearing is the first sense involved into the symptoms...and if the problem is a tinnitus, it normally gets worse over time, because the tinnitus itself induces even more stress (spiral).
Just my few cents as somebody who had to learn to reduce stress the hard way for serious health reasons...
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Sept 13, 2014 21:05:19 GMT -6
While I was in the process of starting up Exponential Audio, I did some DSP work for a company called Neuromonics. They have a technology that has provided some relief for tinnitus sufferers. This particular work was targeted toward returning soldiers (spending your days next to a cannon isn't really great for the ears), so I don't know if it's directly available through your health care provider. In the course of things, I've spoken to a number of hearing therapists who aren't really aware of developments in the field. So persistence on your part is critical.
The therapy is based on careful desensitization to the frequencies you hear as ringing. These frequencies are really nulls. You can't hear them at all, so your brain makes them up--24/7. I don't want to go into it in depth, since a home-brew version of the therapy can do as much harm as good. I would urge you to keep pushing your providers until somebody studies up on available therapies.
Tinnitus never goes away. Period. It is the result of permanent damage. Any available therapy is designed to help you live with it--to make the effects less painful and distracting. I will never understand why people get pleasure out of concerts where levels routinely exceed 100 dBA. It's perverse. It took millions of years of evolution for our hearing systems to reach this level of development and we just throw it away. Plugs help, but it's even better to send a message by staying home until they turn it down.
|
|
