Hi msghorr,

I had the same problem than you.
My ears were ringing after a Rolling Stones show.

I had it for several months (I went to doctors) but it has disappeared.
Not totally, but I can say it has disappeared. I hear a little something if I concentrate on, but it does not bother me (and I don't want to concentrate on it).
As an example, I hear a little "shee.." in my ears now because I am thinking about it. But it is so little, that maybe I had it before but I did not notice it. If I don't think about it, I do not listen it.

At the beginning, when the sound was strong, I thought I would become crazy because it was a real torture and I thought I had it for all my life. Only people who suffer of such thing knows what I am talking about. This period was very long (3 months), enough long to feel desesperate. But now it is gone.

My advices:

1) Try to forgot this problem (easy to say, much more difficult to do).
It is in your mind, your brain has the capabilities to filter this noise (what doctors say).

2) I have listen to slow music (relaxation music like Raiki) at very low volume.
It helps me a lot (talk about that to your doctor first, maybe it is not a good advice for you).

2bis) Go to the countryside (or by the sea), to feel the fresh air in your ear.

3) Keep quite, be patient.

Strangely, for me it has strongly disappeared the day I was the most depressed, the day I thought my life has been destroyed due to this noise and there were nothing to do, except to accept it.

I understand your worries. Like me you will wear ear plugs from times to times.

I think the key is in relaxation (to stop the noise) and in the protection of your ears (for no more damage).

Good luck but I am certain you will be fine in the future.

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Title5Take1
Pete Townshend has had tinnitus for years. I assumed it was from the loud Who concerts. I later read him say it was from listening full blast to music at home on his headphones while swigging from a whiskey bottle.

I heard it was from when Keith Moon put an explosive charge in his bassdrum when they played on the smothers brothers show in 1967.

video: [www.youtube.com]

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mighty stork

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Title5Take1
Pete Townshend has had tinnitus for years. I assumed it was from the loud Who concerts. I later read him say it was from listening full blast to music at home on his headphones while swigging from a whiskey bottle.

I heard it was from when Keith Moon put an explosive charge in his bassdrum when they played on the smothers brothers show in 1967.

video: [www.youtube.com]

Pete last year told about that story on LETTERMAN. I should've remembered.

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Title5Take1

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mighty stork

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Title5Take1
Pete Townshend has had tinnitus for years. I assumed it was from the loud Who concerts. I later read him say it was from listening full blast to music at home on his headphones while swigging from a whiskey bottle.

I heard it was from when Keith Moon put an explosive charge in his bassdrum when they played on the smothers brothers show in 1967.

video: [www.youtube.com]

Pete last year told about that story on LETTERMAN. I should've remembered.

That Keith Moon was one crazy SOB!

Tinnitus and hearing loss are such complex phenomena, far too complex to base your knowledge on a quick google search. To say that only prolonged exposure to loud noise can cause T or hearing loss is, to use the writers own words, utter bollocks. One acoustical trauma can be enough, and it can be a firecracker, a Stones or a Spice Girls show, a night club visit, or even a child screaming very loudly in your ear. And speaking purely of tinnitus: besides loud noises an infection can cause it, so can an accident or blow to the head, medication can give you T, you can get it after a period of prolonged stress and some people jst get it with no reason at all. I'm probably forgetting a few causes.

Like the many ways to get T and the hundreds of different sounds people can hear, there's different ways people react after getting it. Some shrug their shoulders and go on living, for them it's just a mild annoyance, for other it feels their live is devestated. I was closer to the latter group when I got T late 2011. I couldn't sleep more than 1-2 hours a night for over half a year. I couldn't concentrate. I couldn't read or write. Worst of all: I wasn't functioning as the father I used to be. I tried all sorts of therapies - nothing helped.

What did help me in the end, besides the factor time, time, time and time again, was informing myself about the psychological and physiological mechanisms concerning T. In the beginning your brain focuses on the sound, making it louder. It's a normal reaction, it has a function: the sound is someting new, it's an intrusion, maybe it's dangerous. Think of reacting to a car horn while crossing the street. But after a while your brain starts filtering out the sound. Objectively and subjectively the sound becomes less. This ability of the brain to adjust is called brain plasticity and it's predominantly an unconscious process. But you can help, advance this process just by knowing this. Then there comes a time you don't hear or think about your T for a minute, then half an hour, then an hour, etc. etc. You're on the right track and things wil get better.

Some practical advice:
- Use sound enrichment to take your ears/brain away from the sound. Unless you live on Times Square, keep your window open all the time. Be outside as much as possible. There'a lots of apps with relaxing sounds specially for T. The trick is to never have the level of the sound get above the sound of your T: if you can't hear your T, you can't get used to it.
- Do the things you normally do/enjoy. Sports are good, even if they make the T temporarily worse.
- This sounds paradoxical but besides getting you mind away from the T, you have to inform yourself about the mechanisms: read the Jastreboff-theory (http://www.tinnitus.org/home/frame/THC1.htm) Write an abstract and read it before sleep. It has helped me, I know it has helped others.
- Stay away from the web. Google is your black hole. If you can't, look for succes stories. I copy/pasted them and reread them over and over.
- If needed, get professional help.

Remember, the vast majority of people learn to live with T after a while. I've taken up my live again and feel better than ever. A year ago I would never have believed it. The sound is there but I don't react to it anymore. It has become neutral. Be patient, it will get better and you will be ok. Good luck.

----------------------------
"Music is the frozen tapioca in the ice chest of history."

"Shit!... No shit, awright!"



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2018-07-06 16:58 by Greg.

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owlbynite

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Bliss
owlbynite, that sounds like Menière's syndrome.

That's never been mentioned to me. What do you know about it?

owlbynite, I would caution you to be careful about where you get your information from. The symptoms you described and the course of actions your doctors took sound nothing at all like Meniere's disease. They do sound like labrynthitis. Both of those ear diseases are completely different from one another as well as completely different from noise-induced ear damage, even though all three can have symptoms of hearing loss and tinnitus. Comparing your situation to someone's with noise-induced damage, which is the case with the original poster, is to badly confuse things. Again, these topics are my career, I know what I'm talking about.

If you want to get accurate information about hearing loss and tinnitus, I would encourage anyone to seek out the best otologist (Ear, Nose, Throat physician) and/or the best audiologist you can find. In my opinion, its best to go straight to a specialist if you can. Practioners who aren't specialists in this area often have only a basic understanding of these problems, I've found and I've seen thousands of patients.

Alfonz, getting a hearing test is a good idea because it will let you know in a specific way, how much damage your ears have sustained. You will then have a baseline against which to measure any further change in hearing. It can help you know, in the future with subsequent hearing tests, whether you are doing a good job with your hearing protection. But you are correct, it will not do anything to undo damage that is already done, nor will it change the recommendations, which are to be diligent about protecting your hearing from here on out.

Greg's comments on managing chronic tinnitus are good and accurate. Most of my patients are able to self-manage their tinnitus after about 3 to 6 months of using suggestions like he has offered. For those that still are bothered by tinnitus after 3 to 6 months, there are tinnitus treatment programs available, but again its imperative to see a tinnitus specialist if you choose to undergo formal tinnitus treatment.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2013-05-28 18:52 by Shug.

>>>>The symptoms you described and the course of actions your doctors took sound nothing at all like Meniere's disease. They do sound like labrynthitis.

YES!!! Sorry, that is what I meant, I got it mixed up.

I'm reading Jo Wood's new memoir, and this from page 107:

JO WOOD: "Ronnie—and even more so, Keith—would listen intently to the same song over and over...On the rare occasions that I'd put headphones on to listen to other music, theirs was so loud I couldn't actually hear it—and there was no point in asking them if they could turn it down a bit. The volume level was another non-negotiable. It's a wonder I can still hear, really."

Ears are pretty sore but no ringing from the Philly 1 show.... No protection

I have tix to Philly 2 and am worried about making it worse even with plugs. Any thoughts?