Thats hard to answer @GG_Ear If necessary, wear musician plugs for a while until you become more comfortable around it. I wore plugs for a long time while frying food for instance as the sizzling was a real challenge to say the least.
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I don't know what you should do but in my case overprotection made everything much much worse! Take care.
I wear earplugs anywhere I go outside the house. Inside the house, where I can better control the environment, I do not wear them most of the time. I do not wear them to sleep in either. This system has worked well for me for the last three years. I get ample time with normal sounds and protection from loud noises when I'm in the world.
@MindOverMatter @eagerUser @twa Thank you for your replies. For now I have not been wearing earplugs at home. Only going out in public. I'll continue and see how it goes.
What is more important @GG_Ear , other than protect necessarily/when needed, is to slowly introduce positive sounds to learn your brain/auditory system to focus on that rather then you t and so forth. This is trail and error. Positive soundscapes can take time to find and get fully comfortable with.
I do, only because you never know when you might drop a dish.
@MindOverMatter Thank you for the helpful comment. I spend a few hours at my friends house this evening for a quiet dinner. I survived despite the beeping noise and painful moments....now my ear is achy/sore... But I think my mental health benefited. Even though I feel sad when future plans like travel are mentioned and I feel like there's so much I can't do right now. Reduction in freedom is just awful.
@MindOverMatter Do you have any examples of positive soundscapes that you found effective or that you enjoyed? Right now I can listen to low-level ambient noise at home without any issues and can listen to digital audio on low levels (not through headphones!)... also quiet nature is fine, as long as I don't come across a barking dog or a screaming kid...
@GG_Ear Exactly the things you mentioned. This is just personal preference, and frequency sensitive. So use these background sounds to distract your brain and recalibrate it. This take a lot of time and effort, and ups and downs, but over time things will slowly get better.
@GG_Ear I find myself in everything you say 3-4 yrs back. It does take a lot to get out of home, and socialize. You will be on constant alert for "danger" (sound), for now. And you will feel a lot of fatigue afterwards. But unless you overdo it, there are many upsides with it.
I always protect when doing the dishes and vacuum cleaning as these are noises out of my control.
I would protect, because in hindsight I think not protecting enough is what caused my pain H to spread into my face. I feel I should have paid more attention to ear fullness/fluttering than I did.