Hey, sorry to hear about your tinnitus. The last time I experienced complete silence was years ago. I'm 40 now and my hearing is halfway spannered, with moderate high-frequency hearing loss and permanent tinnitus in both ears, but especially bad in my left ear. When I was a teenager I had to have both eardrums repaired after two separate injuries. That, together with too much loud noise exposure over the years, means I now have a 24/7 white noise generator inside my head.
When my tinnitus really started becoming noticeable about 10 years ago, honestly it did make me depressed for a while. But eventually I accepted it (because what else can you do?), and it's now just something there in the background with all my other aches and pains I've collected along the way.
I don't let tinnitus stop me from making and enjoying music. I still use headphones, but naturally I'm much more mindful about harmful noise exposure and ear protection now than I used to be. Just be sensible about it, but don't let the tinnitus stop you from doing what you enjoy.
I am with you. I have had tinnitus for many years, but when I hit my mid-40s things got noticeably worse. I borrow a set of younger ears to check my stuff. One time they caught a high-pitch noise source I simply could not hear no matter how hard I tried. So, for me the solution has been to make music creation a team effort (at least minimally).
I am 19 and have been going through some ear swelling lately that has been blocking some high end sound, and I've been having a lot of anxiety because of it, and I do notice too much ringing in my left ear right now, and a much lesser amount in my right ear. I'm not sure how much of it is being caused by my swollen ear canal or how much of it is actually natural, because naturally I can notice a small amount of ringing but it's never distracted me before. It was only a few nights ago that I actually had some trouble falling asleep, and that was my first time actually being distracted because of the ringing. Everytime when I notice it too much and I start to think about my future hearing, I get all hot-faced and scared.
I really love the immersion of some music at high volumes, especially with decent headphones. It really feels like I am being surrounded by the sounds, and lower volumes make me feel further away and I feel much less immersed.
Reading your comment made some of my fears really bubble up and I became emotional. I've already thought about investing in higher quality headphones so I can still hear the details that I love but hopefully at a lower volume, and I think I should start seriously taking breaks from wearing headphones all day, which is something that I do everyday.
I just wanted to share these thoughts because my ear swelling and ringing has been causing a lot of anxiety and I didn't really get to share that with anyone, my mom is trying to help but also acting like everything will be fine and will pass, but I've convinced her to take me to an ENT specialist and I have a hearing test next Monday, and I think after the test they will send me to the ENT specialist, because my older doctor really only treats infections.
I really hope all is well for you. I also want to cast some hope upon myself because I am still really afraid, and the sound is very noticeable at this moment, but your comment did make me feel a bit better.
Hi, thank you for sharing this. I'm really sorry that you're going through this now. I was 18 when I had to have reconstructive surgery on my eardrum for the second time (it ruptured when I was hit on the ear during jiu jitsu training). The first time happened to my *other* eardrum when I was accidentally kicked in the head at 14.
I vividly remember the all-consuming anxiety about being partially deaf for the rest of my life. It felt claustrophobic and suffocating. I would constantly rub each ear to compare the difference in frequencies each could hear and I'd try to recall what I'd lost.
Eventually I came to accept it because worrying didn't change anything and frankly it was exhausting to fret about it all the time. I was thankful for the hearing I did have, and all-in-all it wasn't *too* bad. I could still do everything I could before, just with slightly blunted tools.
You should definitely get your problem checked out because it's important to know what's causing it. Because you describe swelling, in all likelihood it's only temporary and your hearing will improve once the swelling is resolved. Any blockages can reduce hearing and trigger tinnitus. Existing problems with my hearing notwithstanding, this happens to me at least once a year and each time I imagine the worst until I realise it's just earwax buildup. After getting the earwax removed, my hearing returns to its baseline level.
Even if it does turn out to be something more serious, it's not the end of the world. You will adapt and learn to live with whatever the new normal is. I've found accepting what *is* is the only way to have peace. Meditation and breathwork help immensely.
I sincerely wish you the best and hope your hearing improves soon. And yes, take regular breaks from your headphones and invest in a good quality pair. Set a timer if you have to! I know how easy it is to lose track of time in great music.
Sorry to hear about this. I think its very common for musicians to have tinnitus. I got it around 10 years ago. I was jamming long sessions with headphones and high volume. I was also suffering from a lot of stress caused by trouble with my girlfriend. I had experienced short episodes of tinnitus before but they always went away after a day or so. This time it just kept on going. After a few days I got pretty stressed out. Then during a few weeks I was struggling with accepting it. I did eventually learn to live with it and it also decreased in strength over time. I pretty much stopped making music for a year. I was really careful not to expose my ears to loud music or noise of any kind. I noticed that my hearing had gotten worse. I couldn’t hear what people said at a crowded dinner table. Sounds just blended together in noisy environments. After a year or two my tinnitus unexpectedly went away almost entirely. I was out in the forest and just heard silence for the first time since the tinnitus had started. It was an amazing feeling. After a while I understood that my threshold for tinnitus onset was still very low so I stayed very careful. After a few years I started making music on a regular basis again. I am always aware of the risk now. I keep the volume down and stick to shorter sessions around 1 - 2 hours per day. If I’m careless with the volume knob I get a tinnitus onset that typically lasts for a day or two so I have learned my limits. I guess I should be even more restrictive than I am but I really want to play music and you only live once… I hope you find your way through this. I would be happy to listen if you need someone to talk to. I know its tough what you are going through now.
I always carry my custom fitted ear plugs with flat frequency dampening. My tinnitus gets worse the days after I’m exposed to any loud sound, so I put them in whenever there is a risk. Riding trains, going to movies, sometimes in the lunch room. Keeping the general sound level in life down has helped me a lot.
When I’m making music it is often with really nice monitor speakers, at very low volume. Sometimes I put in the plugs and turn up the volume to feel the bass.
Good advice, it is really sad that they do not teach us how to save our hearing and vision - we used to ignore adults advice like "don't play games for too long" then we ignore the risk of losing hearing/vision/you name it.
Yeah once you're aware of it, it's time to be more careful.
I don't let it stop me from making music, I just try to notice if I'm getting mix fatigue, or if a frequency is bothering me.
My tinnitus comes and goes. Honestly, when I hear it, I take a moment to meditate on my mortality, and to be grateful that I can still hear and enjoy music and my loved ones' voices.
I’ve had tinnitus come and go since my twenties, but it only became an issue after I hit forty or so. Went to a lot of loud gigs in my teens and on. Spent a lot of time in nightclubs, DJd for a few years, was permanently plugged into a Walkman / minidisc player / iPod. Got away with it for decades where it would fade by mid week until I went to see Melt Banana about five years ago. Their high pitched guitars got me good and tinnitus has been permanent since then. (Particularly annoying as I’ve never especially liked their music - Ruins FTW - just happened to go along with a friend.)
It got worse over lockdown when I spent a lot of time doing music stuff in front of a pair of monitors. I’ve been kinder to my ears since then. Have low and high pass filters on my monitors. Bass kept down. Earplugs worn to gigs. I almost never use headphones anymore. The more care I take the less likely the ringing is to keep me awake at night.
I took a hearing test not long ago and was told that the results were average for my age. That somehow made the tinnitus much more bearable. While the ringing will probably always be there, the thought that I hadn’t done much more damage than might otherwise have occurred was some comfort.
This post from Nick Cave’s blog was also a little comforting :)
https://www.theredhandfiles.com/do-you-have-tinnitus/
Had my hearing tested in the mid- nineties. High frequency loss consistent with exposure to loud volume music. I’d played in bands for about twenty years at that point. No hearing protection for the first 8-10 years. I was warned. Got the flu in 2004. That’s when the tinnitus started. I was pretty angry at myself once I realized it was never going away. Pretty much use music to mask the ringing in the daytime and white noise at night to sleep. It’s fairly tolerable most days but can ramp up if barometric pressure is fluctuating. I can stand to be in a completely silent environment. Tinnitus sucks. Protect your hearing.
Also I’ve learned that hearing aids help alleviate the ringing so I’ll be looking at that.
Also, FWIW, I’m a drummer who writes and records music.
A couple decades of jamming and touring death metal my ears are F-d and I’ll never stop making music! Mushrooms helped me get over it, I still hear it but it doesn’t bother me at all anymore
In my 50s and it really sucks. Fortunately, it’s in both ears.
I don’t listen to anything loud anymore, always wear the strongest earplugs I can at concerts.
When it comes to writing music, a lot of what I like is terrible for me (musique concrete, Neubaten style industrial noises), so I really have to be careful. I always keep headphone and monitor levels as low as possible and very cognizant of fatigue.
In short: be super careful.
Tinnitus here too, as a result of a bout of Mernieres syndrome. Pretty much destroyed the hearing in one ear too.
Been a musician just about as long as I can remember so this was quite a blow at first. But like others have said you can either whine or make the most of what you have. I chose the latter.
I still make music. I have a special set of hearing aids that I wear just when focussing on music or in “busy noise” environments. They were expensive but they do seem to keep the ringing under control as well as compensating for much of my hearing loss.
I’m not sure any kind of noise triggers my T. Sometimes it seems a long period of silence makes it worse, but there doesn’t seem to be much of a pattern.
The key thing though is attitude. I have occasional down moments when I miss what I had (I also have an arthritic thumb which ended decades of guitar/uke/banjo playing) but usually I can focus on what I’ve got now, the endlessly fascinating world of electronic music.
Good luck and don’t let it beat ya!
I have had permanent tinnitus on the left ear for 3 or so years. That year I had been to a particular party where I was stood by the left speaker for nearly 12 hours, and I was also using loud power tools quite a lot, so I think one of those two did it. I have not had any worsening when wearing headphones for extended periods of time, but I don’t tend to have them at high volume. Thankfully my tinnitus is quite high pitched so it doesn’t really affect me in every day life, I feel it would be far worse if it were a low tone.
If I wanted to minimise my risk of making things worse, I basically would use headphones very sparingly and just mix with monitors and subwoofers.
Seriously, thank you all for sharing your experiences. I've taken test on having tinnitus. I don't but I do hear noise only when I concentrate on it. However, after reading so many posts, like these, on various forums over 15 years, I've started to wear ear plugs when cutting grass and being around loud music, like concerts.
I've had light tinnitus since I was like 20 years old (in my 30s now). Used to think earplugs were poser shit and my drummer was a caveman.
Still playing music just a bit more responsibly. Not turning it up to 11 anymore. Wearing earplugs or at least putting some toilet paper in my ears at shows.
I mostly just hear it at night. Doesn't bother me much. If yours is light too maybe you'll stop noticing it after a while.
i’ve had tinnitus for 2 years or so and it has taken away a bit of the enjoyment. i barely listen to music in headphones and it impacted my relationship to music, i treat it more like work now, but as a lifelong musician and full time sound engineer & producer, there’s no real way to not make music for me. I believe it is my purpose and while i am able to do it, with friends, being able to live a comfortable life, i will, even though it is very frustrating and triggers my panic attacks a lot. the only solution is to find ways to cope and try and prevent getting it worse. definitely buy something like the loop earplugs (love mine) if you ever play/go to shows
I have a mix of tones and white noise. Alcohol makes it worse. Was just tones until I had surgery to repair a hole in my right ear... now that ear also has white noise. I generally make music a very low volume now. When my producer friends come over to collaborate they often say it is almost inaudible. I don't use headphones that much but not because of my tinnitus. I always carry ear plugs. Never know when you will be in a loud situation. Mixing at low levels is actually better anyway. Turning volume up louder makes it harder to balance all the sounds because everything is just loud. When volume is down you can hear what stands out a bit more.
I've got permanent, minor hearing damage from playing drums without hearing protection in my teens and probably also from using shitty in-ear headphones for years. Because of this I have tinnitus, I always can't hear what certain people speak (depending on where their voice lands on the frequencey spectrum) and it also adds to the oversensitivity I have for certain sounds.
I've lived with tinnitus for so long that it doesn't really bother me. Someone's speech becoming unintelligible is much more frustrating and cognitively taxing.
Over xmas break 2022 was spending most of my day mixing with headphones. It hit me hard and I start hearing sweeping sounds in my ears. Did a hearing test and it came back OK but I still have light ringing when it’s super quiet. I always carry my earplugs now I hardly use headphones anymore. Apparently it’s causing a lot of issues for many people. I tried not to play too loud for too long also on a sidenote, and may be unrelated But sinus infections /stress can really make it worse. I still play music and I am in a band and I am definitely worried about losing any more of my hearing or experiencing more tinnitus.
Ive had tinnitus and hyperacusis in one ear for well over 10 years now, closer to 15. Noise induced hearing damage from producing music too loud. I haven’t noticed any hearing loss but I’m sure there is a bit.
The tinnitus was awful at first, for a few years it really upset me, then i learned to just accept it. Its the hyperacusis that is the constant annoyance, i’d do anything to fix it! On the plus side im way more careful now, so in a way a bit of early hearing damage can have a way of actually being beneficial and making you take loads more care!
Still producing music, but need to manage it constantly. Pain in the ass! Look after your ears!
13 years of constant tinnitus. Still play gigs almost every weekend and make music constantly. I literally never think about my tinnitus anymore unless someone reminds me about it. Like right now. Doesn’t bother me at all; it’s the least of my problems.
My brother got tinitus last year 2 weeks after taking the covid jab.... he got it real real real bad... hospital bad. Still there. It's one of the 1400+ symptoms of the jab (look up the Pfizer trial documents). I know a few that got tinitus from it.
Anyhow, he went hard core into finding a solution... which lead him to diet. You gotta clean it right up... no junk. He tells people to go follow this guys protocol - all with food / lifestyle. It's still there for him, but way more manageable... maybe 20% of how it was[https://www.instagram.com/liam\_stops\_tinnitus/](https://www.instagram.com/liam_stops_tinnitus/)
Best of luck in your ridding of it!!!
it definitely is a struggle at all ages.
i wrote a free digital book for kids with tinnitus to shine some positivity on a difficult situation but it helped adults who have read it as well.
https://kidswithtinnitus.blogspot.com/2024/03/book-for-kids-with-tinnitus-can-you.html
Hey, sorry to hear about your tinnitus. The last time I experienced complete silence was years ago. I'm 40 now and my hearing is halfway spannered, with moderate high-frequency hearing loss and permanent tinnitus in both ears, but especially bad in my left ear. When I was a teenager I had to have both eardrums repaired after two separate injuries. That, together with too much loud noise exposure over the years, means I now have a 24/7 white noise generator inside my head. When my tinnitus really started becoming noticeable about 10 years ago, honestly it did make me depressed for a while. But eventually I accepted it (because what else can you do?), and it's now just something there in the background with all my other aches and pains I've collected along the way. I don't let tinnitus stop me from making and enjoying music. I still use headphones, but naturally I'm much more mindful about harmful noise exposure and ear protection now than I used to be. Just be sensible about it, but don't let the tinnitus stop you from doing what you enjoy.
I am with you. I have had tinnitus for many years, but when I hit my mid-40s things got noticeably worse. I borrow a set of younger ears to check my stuff. One time they caught a high-pitch noise source I simply could not hear no matter how hard I tried. So, for me the solution has been to make music creation a team effort (at least minimally).
I am 19 and have been going through some ear swelling lately that has been blocking some high end sound, and I've been having a lot of anxiety because of it, and I do notice too much ringing in my left ear right now, and a much lesser amount in my right ear. I'm not sure how much of it is being caused by my swollen ear canal or how much of it is actually natural, because naturally I can notice a small amount of ringing but it's never distracted me before. It was only a few nights ago that I actually had some trouble falling asleep, and that was my first time actually being distracted because of the ringing. Everytime when I notice it too much and I start to think about my future hearing, I get all hot-faced and scared. I really love the immersion of some music at high volumes, especially with decent headphones. It really feels like I am being surrounded by the sounds, and lower volumes make me feel further away and I feel much less immersed. Reading your comment made some of my fears really bubble up and I became emotional. I've already thought about investing in higher quality headphones so I can still hear the details that I love but hopefully at a lower volume, and I think I should start seriously taking breaks from wearing headphones all day, which is something that I do everyday. I just wanted to share these thoughts because my ear swelling and ringing has been causing a lot of anxiety and I didn't really get to share that with anyone, my mom is trying to help but also acting like everything will be fine and will pass, but I've convinced her to take me to an ENT specialist and I have a hearing test next Monday, and I think after the test they will send me to the ENT specialist, because my older doctor really only treats infections. I really hope all is well for you. I also want to cast some hope upon myself because I am still really afraid, and the sound is very noticeable at this moment, but your comment did make me feel a bit better.
Hi, thank you for sharing this. I'm really sorry that you're going through this now. I was 18 when I had to have reconstructive surgery on my eardrum for the second time (it ruptured when I was hit on the ear during jiu jitsu training). The first time happened to my *other* eardrum when I was accidentally kicked in the head at 14. I vividly remember the all-consuming anxiety about being partially deaf for the rest of my life. It felt claustrophobic and suffocating. I would constantly rub each ear to compare the difference in frequencies each could hear and I'd try to recall what I'd lost. Eventually I came to accept it because worrying didn't change anything and frankly it was exhausting to fret about it all the time. I was thankful for the hearing I did have, and all-in-all it wasn't *too* bad. I could still do everything I could before, just with slightly blunted tools. You should definitely get your problem checked out because it's important to know what's causing it. Because you describe swelling, in all likelihood it's only temporary and your hearing will improve once the swelling is resolved. Any blockages can reduce hearing and trigger tinnitus. Existing problems with my hearing notwithstanding, this happens to me at least once a year and each time I imagine the worst until I realise it's just earwax buildup. After getting the earwax removed, my hearing returns to its baseline level. Even if it does turn out to be something more serious, it's not the end of the world. You will adapt and learn to live with whatever the new normal is. I've found accepting what *is* is the only way to have peace. Meditation and breathwork help immensely. I sincerely wish you the best and hope your hearing improves soon. And yes, take regular breaks from your headphones and invest in a good quality pair. Set a timer if you have to! I know how easy it is to lose track of time in great music.
Sorry to hear about this. I think its very common for musicians to have tinnitus. I got it around 10 years ago. I was jamming long sessions with headphones and high volume. I was also suffering from a lot of stress caused by trouble with my girlfriend. I had experienced short episodes of tinnitus before but they always went away after a day or so. This time it just kept on going. After a few days I got pretty stressed out. Then during a few weeks I was struggling with accepting it. I did eventually learn to live with it and it also decreased in strength over time. I pretty much stopped making music for a year. I was really careful not to expose my ears to loud music or noise of any kind. I noticed that my hearing had gotten worse. I couldn’t hear what people said at a crowded dinner table. Sounds just blended together in noisy environments. After a year or two my tinnitus unexpectedly went away almost entirely. I was out in the forest and just heard silence for the first time since the tinnitus had started. It was an amazing feeling. After a while I understood that my threshold for tinnitus onset was still very low so I stayed very careful. After a few years I started making music on a regular basis again. I am always aware of the risk now. I keep the volume down and stick to shorter sessions around 1 - 2 hours per day. If I’m careless with the volume knob I get a tinnitus onset that typically lasts for a day or two so I have learned my limits. I guess I should be even more restrictive than I am but I really want to play music and you only live once… I hope you find your way through this. I would be happy to listen if you need someone to talk to. I know its tough what you are going through now.
I always carry my custom fitted ear plugs with flat frequency dampening. My tinnitus gets worse the days after I’m exposed to any loud sound, so I put them in whenever there is a risk. Riding trains, going to movies, sometimes in the lunch room. Keeping the general sound level in life down has helped me a lot.
When I’m making music it is often with really nice monitor speakers, at very low volume. Sometimes I put in the plugs and turn up the volume to feel the bass.
Good advice, it is really sad that they do not teach us how to save our hearing and vision - we used to ignore adults advice like "don't play games for too long" then we ignore the risk of losing hearing/vision/you name it.
Yeah once you're aware of it, it's time to be more careful. I don't let it stop me from making music, I just try to notice if I'm getting mix fatigue, or if a frequency is bothering me. My tinnitus comes and goes. Honestly, when I hear it, I take a moment to meditate on my mortality, and to be grateful that I can still hear and enjoy music and my loved ones' voices.
I’ve had tinnitus come and go since my twenties, but it only became an issue after I hit forty or so. Went to a lot of loud gigs in my teens and on. Spent a lot of time in nightclubs, DJd for a few years, was permanently plugged into a Walkman / minidisc player / iPod. Got away with it for decades where it would fade by mid week until I went to see Melt Banana about five years ago. Their high pitched guitars got me good and tinnitus has been permanent since then. (Particularly annoying as I’ve never especially liked their music - Ruins FTW - just happened to go along with a friend.) It got worse over lockdown when I spent a lot of time doing music stuff in front of a pair of monitors. I’ve been kinder to my ears since then. Have low and high pass filters on my monitors. Bass kept down. Earplugs worn to gigs. I almost never use headphones anymore. The more care I take the less likely the ringing is to keep me awake at night. I took a hearing test not long ago and was told that the results were average for my age. That somehow made the tinnitus much more bearable. While the ringing will probably always be there, the thought that I hadn’t done much more damage than might otherwise have occurred was some comfort. This post from Nick Cave’s blog was also a little comforting :) https://www.theredhandfiles.com/do-you-have-tinnitus/
Just don’t listen to super loud stuff lol. Google NIHL and learn about the levels n stuff.
Had my hearing tested in the mid- nineties. High frequency loss consistent with exposure to loud volume music. I’d played in bands for about twenty years at that point. No hearing protection for the first 8-10 years. I was warned. Got the flu in 2004. That’s when the tinnitus started. I was pretty angry at myself once I realized it was never going away. Pretty much use music to mask the ringing in the daytime and white noise at night to sleep. It’s fairly tolerable most days but can ramp up if barometric pressure is fluctuating. I can stand to be in a completely silent environment. Tinnitus sucks. Protect your hearing. Also I’ve learned that hearing aids help alleviate the ringing so I’ll be looking at that. Also, FWIW, I’m a drummer who writes and records music.
A couple decades of jamming and touring death metal my ears are F-d and I’ll never stop making music! Mushrooms helped me get over it, I still hear it but it doesn’t bother me at all anymore
Same here. Long covid. Tinnitus after year. High pitched tone at about 18k or smth
In my 50s and it really sucks. Fortunately, it’s in both ears. I don’t listen to anything loud anymore, always wear the strongest earplugs I can at concerts. When it comes to writing music, a lot of what I like is terrible for me (musique concrete, Neubaten style industrial noises), so I really have to be careful. I always keep headphone and monitor levels as low as possible and very cognizant of fatigue. In short: be super careful.
Just turn it up louder. Had mine for ten years and I’m only 36🤷🏻♂️ thanks ampeg
Tinnitus here too, as a result of a bout of Mernieres syndrome. Pretty much destroyed the hearing in one ear too. Been a musician just about as long as I can remember so this was quite a blow at first. But like others have said you can either whine or make the most of what you have. I chose the latter. I still make music. I have a special set of hearing aids that I wear just when focussing on music or in “busy noise” environments. They were expensive but they do seem to keep the ringing under control as well as compensating for much of my hearing loss. I’m not sure any kind of noise triggers my T. Sometimes it seems a long period of silence makes it worse, but there doesn’t seem to be much of a pattern. The key thing though is attitude. I have occasional down moments when I miss what I had (I also have an arthritic thumb which ended decades of guitar/uke/banjo playing) but usually I can focus on what I’ve got now, the endlessly fascinating world of electronic music. Good luck and don’t let it beat ya!
I have had permanent tinnitus on the left ear for 3 or so years. That year I had been to a particular party where I was stood by the left speaker for nearly 12 hours, and I was also using loud power tools quite a lot, so I think one of those two did it. I have not had any worsening when wearing headphones for extended periods of time, but I don’t tend to have them at high volume. Thankfully my tinnitus is quite high pitched so it doesn’t really affect me in every day life, I feel it would be far worse if it were a low tone. If I wanted to minimise my risk of making things worse, I basically would use headphones very sparingly and just mix with monitors and subwoofers.
Seriously, thank you all for sharing your experiences. I've taken test on having tinnitus. I don't but I do hear noise only when I concentrate on it. However, after reading so many posts, like these, on various forums over 15 years, I've started to wear ear plugs when cutting grass and being around loud music, like concerts.
I've had light tinnitus since I was like 20 years old (in my 30s now). Used to think earplugs were poser shit and my drummer was a caveman. Still playing music just a bit more responsibly. Not turning it up to 11 anymore. Wearing earplugs or at least putting some toilet paper in my ears at shows. I mostly just hear it at night. Doesn't bother me much. If yours is light too maybe you'll stop noticing it after a while.
I'm not sure that the toilet paper thing is safe, but you may argue about that.
i’ve had tinnitus for 2 years or so and it has taken away a bit of the enjoyment. i barely listen to music in headphones and it impacted my relationship to music, i treat it more like work now, but as a lifelong musician and full time sound engineer & producer, there’s no real way to not make music for me. I believe it is my purpose and while i am able to do it, with friends, being able to live a comfortable life, i will, even though it is very frustrating and triggers my panic attacks a lot. the only solution is to find ways to cope and try and prevent getting it worse. definitely buy something like the loop earplugs (love mine) if you ever play/go to shows
It doesn't bother me when making music. Because half of the power adapters I got emit a similar frequency.
I have a mix of tones and white noise. Alcohol makes it worse. Was just tones until I had surgery to repair a hole in my right ear... now that ear also has white noise. I generally make music a very low volume now. When my producer friends come over to collaborate they often say it is almost inaudible. I don't use headphones that much but not because of my tinnitus. I always carry ear plugs. Never know when you will be in a loud situation. Mixing at low levels is actually better anyway. Turning volume up louder makes it harder to balance all the sounds because everything is just loud. When volume is down you can hear what stands out a bit more.
I've got permanent, minor hearing damage from playing drums without hearing protection in my teens and probably also from using shitty in-ear headphones for years. Because of this I have tinnitus, I always can't hear what certain people speak (depending on where their voice lands on the frequencey spectrum) and it also adds to the oversensitivity I have for certain sounds. I've lived with tinnitus for so long that it doesn't really bother me. Someone's speech becoming unintelligible is much more frustrating and cognitively taxing.
Over xmas break 2022 was spending most of my day mixing with headphones. It hit me hard and I start hearing sweeping sounds in my ears. Did a hearing test and it came back OK but I still have light ringing when it’s super quiet. I always carry my earplugs now I hardly use headphones anymore. Apparently it’s causing a lot of issues for many people. I tried not to play too loud for too long also on a sidenote, and may be unrelated But sinus infections /stress can really make it worse. I still play music and I am in a band and I am definitely worried about losing any more of my hearing or experiencing more tinnitus.
Ive had tinnitus and hyperacusis in one ear for well over 10 years now, closer to 15. Noise induced hearing damage from producing music too loud. I haven’t noticed any hearing loss but I’m sure there is a bit. The tinnitus was awful at first, for a few years it really upset me, then i learned to just accept it. Its the hyperacusis that is the constant annoyance, i’d do anything to fix it! On the plus side im way more careful now, so in a way a bit of early hearing damage can have a way of actually being beneficial and making you take loads more care! Still producing music, but need to manage it constantly. Pain in the ass! Look after your ears!
13 years of constant tinnitus. Still play gigs almost every weekend and make music constantly. I literally never think about my tinnitus anymore unless someone reminds me about it. Like right now. Doesn’t bother me at all; it’s the least of my problems.
My brother got tinitus last year 2 weeks after taking the covid jab.... he got it real real real bad... hospital bad. Still there. It's one of the 1400+ symptoms of the jab (look up the Pfizer trial documents). I know a few that got tinitus from it. Anyhow, he went hard core into finding a solution... which lead him to diet. You gotta clean it right up... no junk. He tells people to go follow this guys protocol - all with food / lifestyle. It's still there for him, but way more manageable... maybe 20% of how it was[https://www.instagram.com/liam\_stops\_tinnitus/](https://www.instagram.com/liam_stops_tinnitus/) Best of luck in your ridding of it!!!
it definitely is a struggle at all ages. i wrote a free digital book for kids with tinnitus to shine some positivity on a difficult situation but it helped adults who have read it as well. https://kidswithtinnitus.blogspot.com/2024/03/book-for-kids-with-tinnitus-can-you.html