Tinnitus Forum - Mytinnitus

First, a big thanks to Thomas for setting up this forum. I found great relief from some of the stories. My story is as follows:

About 10 months ago I went to a very noisy nightclub. I have been clubbing and going to concerts all my life without ever experiencing any problems. I do recall of having a mild tinnitus sometimes after a night out but it always went away by the next morning. However, I have noted that as I get older my ears have become a bit more sensitive to loud noises and that is why I do not anymore go to loud places, at least that much. By the way I am 35 years old.

The club was super loud, perhaps the loudest I have ever been to. It was almost impossible to talk to anyone (why do they make places like that is another good question). I was there maybe 3 hours or so but didn’t notice any pain in my ears and the music did not feel uncomfortable – just loud. When I left the place I immediately noted (although being a bit drunk) that my ears were really ringing. When I got back to my hotel and went to bed, the ringing was really loud – I barely could hear any external noises such as running water. I remember thinking to myself that this is probably not a good thing but there is nothing I can do at the moment except for try to sleep and see what happens. The following morning (after maybe 6-7 hours of sleep) I woke up and immediately jumped up to check my ears. The loud ringing was definitely gone and I thought that great. But when I put my head back on the pillow I immediately noted that something was terribly wrong: There was a very notable kind of an electric hissing sound in both of my ears. This then marked the beginning of a journey which I never want to experience again. First I thought that it will disappear within few days or weeks and everyone told me the same but it did not go away. To make matters worse I was at that time involved in a big work project which I simply could not just abandon. I ended up really burning myself mentally and spend so many sleepless nights my ears ringing which I do not want to remember.

My tinnitus consisted of the constant electric hissing and also several overlapping sounds and beeps in both of my ears. I went to see an ENT who gave me some standard set of pills used in real hearing damage accidents, some pills to get to sleep and also sent me to a hearing test. The test came back normal although hearing the lowest/highest sounds was quite difficult due to the tinnitus sound. But it was normal anyhow. My ENT (who seemed to know what she was talking about) said that in most cases tinnitus without hearing loss will disappear over time but this can take several months up to one year. I have now had my tinnitus for 10 months and I can let you know the following:

I am mentally lot better than in the beginning when I virtually though that my life was over and that I cannot concentrate or sleep ever again. Nowadays I sleep just fine and sometimes I do not even hear anything when going to bed. I have an office job where I sit in a pretty silent environment doing things which require thinking and focus. In the beginning this was a bit difficult but now I do lot better. My tinnitus was also quite loud hissing or crickets after doing sports up until months 7-8 but that has also almost completely disappeared. It used to be the loudest in the mornings right after waking up but that has also decreased quite a bit. But it took me over 4 months before I saw any relief. Now after 10 months I feel that I am back in control of my life.

It is difficult to say the overall decrease since my tinnitus varied from day one. But I would say that the constant hissing sound in my ears has dropped maybe 60 % on an average. But then there are times when it is almost non-existent especially when I am totally relaxed and not stressed. Sometimes I get a bit louder ring or hiss to my left ear but once I calm down and stay still, it usually goes away within 5-10 minutes. After my exposure I did develop a mild hyperacusis in my ears but that has also improved and does not bother me anymore.

I tried the normal set of do-it-yourself medication such as B12 vitamin, zinc, magnesium and paracetamol but did not note any actual improvement. Non-alcoholic beer and chamomile tea seemed to calm it down. I cannot really say anything about coffee, tea or alcohol expect that an excess consumption of alcohol increases my tinnitus a bit but this does not surprise me since that fires up all systems in the body anyway. My tinnitus is definitely the loudest if I am stressed and tired or generally not feeling ok.

My ENT told me that I should protect my ears in the future for example when going to a concert or when doing anything that creates loud noises – which I will try to avoid for the rest of my life. I have air travelled several times after the event but that does not do anything. Generally tinnitus should not get worse over a longer period of time but instead in most cases it decreases if not disappears altogether. But it can get worse if one is exposed to loud (other than normal) noise. I have read about people having tinnitus up to few years and then getting rid of it completely, so I am hopeful that this will disappear over time but I am mentally now prepared that it may not do that. If that then is the case, I will simply live with this and have it part of my everyday life.

Last edited by HH (10-07-2014 14:27:06)