I've been wearing hearing protection all day and all night for about 6 months.
Tinnitus Talk Support Forum
Overprotection can lead to TTTS, because you're essentually telling your brain that all sounds hurt. If your T is reactive in relation to TTTS, then sure. If not, I don't see the connection
@danielthor I firmly believe that sound deprivation over time can cause sensitivity to sound, not just TTTS. I'm a living example of that. For me, it was not primarily about TTTS. Over-protection increased my auditory threshold, making everything much louder. This made me vulnerable, and set me up for my setback from that 2 hour conversation which would not have been a problem 2 months prior.
I'm curious @Foamearplugssuck, can you tell us about your progression? Has the tinnitus been deteriorating seemingly without cause, or is it due to spikes? Have you had any acoustic traumas or setbacks from loud noises after the initial onset?
@Stacken77 It does make everything seem louder for sure. That's true. But I feel like that's fairly easy to override, to vean yourself out of. Not sure about a permanent decrease in treshold. Are you 100% sure your setback from that 2-hour conversation is related to it? No loud sounds in between that could have worsened your condition?
Good question, @danielthor, I'll probably do a full write-up of my progression in a thread someplace. My H crept back in beginning of Feb and my T became hyper-reactive; no unusual noise exposures. I was pretty stable though throughout Feb but shit hit the fan in Mar after a semi-loud noise and finally after that 2 hour conversation. It's indeed weird.
So rest assured @danielthor that I do know the dangers of noise exposure, I believe it's a fine line, ridiculous fine indeed. My TTTS is only in my right ear, but my "H" is bilateral; I believe it's a brain problem. I also believe neither silence or noise exposure are a "silver bullet" that solves our issues; we have to be very careful with both. Sorry if my claims comes off as dogmatic, it's all speculation.
@Stacken77 Could the setback from the 2-hour long conversation not be related to the semi-loud noise in Mar?
But yeah, a brain-issue for sure
But yeah, a brain-issue for sure
@danielthor Could very well be related, but I still believe I would have been more resilient to both of these occasions had I not deprived myself of sound. And the fact still remains that I became very sensitive a month before, not due to a trauma, but most likely due to sound deprivation. That's just how I see it based on my, quite peculiar, case.
@Stacken77 thank you so much for sharing your progression. I had mild H symptoms, so I cut out all sounds then returned home to my parents. I was exposed to a smoke detector while wearing earplugs about two weeks ago.
I started wearing hearing protection constantly. over the past few days, my T has gotten exponentially worse--it's like a 90s call center that is blasting kraftwerk in my head. And I keep having doorbell hallucinations. I guess I'll keep protecting my ears, but I'm not sure what else to do.
@Foamearplugssuck Did you start protecting 24/7 before or after the smoke detector incident? How many days was it between the smoke detector incident and the exponential worsening of your T? Do you think the worsening can be related to the incident, just delayed?
@Foamearplugssuck In my case; when I started to practice sound deprivation in Feb, I also remember my T worsening, i.e. getting louder and with more tones for a week. Maybe coincidence, maybe not. I'm not sure.
@Stacken77 I started protecting 24/7 after the smoke detector incident, which was the 12th. I had a worsening on the 16th, and then Monday-today things have been getting worse every day.
@Stacken77 After the smoke detector incident I had some pain in my ear a few hours later, but then it subsided. It's entirely possible that this is all a delayed reaction to it I guess, but it's all been occurring after I started protecting my ears all the time too. hard to say.
@Foamearplugssuck I'm very sorry to hear that. It could very well be something delayed, but it's odd that it is getting progressively worse despite the protection. I see similarities between what I experienced in Feb and what you seem to experience.
@Foamearplugssuck I think we should be very careful to draw conclusions though since no two cases are the same, but I believe odd things can happen in the auditory system once we use hearing protection literally 24/7. I'd be very careful if I were you, but if you feel comfortable, try to just take in the ambient sound for some minutes every day.
@Foamearplugssuck Do you spike easily(meaning, T stays increased for some time after noise exposure)?
My reactivity went way down once I stopped using plugs so much. My tinnitus however is constantly shrill now so not really a great trade off lol
@Wrfortiscue Hold up, are you insinuating that the spiking/reactivity you've referred to has been improving due to a reduction in hearing protection? If so, then that's some real good improvements in my book.