Choosing Your Career When You've Got Tinnitus?

[Marty]

Hello everyone.

I wonder if any of you out there allowed your tinnitus to affect you choice of career or what you wanted to do in your life? Also, do you have any advices or anything you could tell me that would help me with this matter, as I am and have been thinking as a maniac about this for a very long time.

Well here's my problem:

I've for a very long time wanted to work with music, in some way. Be it a hobby or professionally. I've had many ideas how to do this, and now after being done with Upper Secondary School I was actually going to take the first step towards this dream of mine. But the tinnitus had other plans for me. Instead I postponed this idea(since I'm not sure what to do I'd rather not call it gave up on this idea, as of now I'm still thinking I'll follow this dream).

I wont go in to detail on how or what exactly, but I've played guitar for some time(although, I took a break when I got the tinnitus, but I'm back in the right track now!) and maybe I can do something of this some day. I've checked and as long as I play my guitar unplugged it's not too high volume for practicing, so I can do this without any harm to my ears and to my hearing. Not sure if I should some day proper educate on music, but it's an alternative.

I've also been thinking of becoming a luthier(a person who builds musical string instruments). Now I'm quite sure there would be a too loud environment(power tools in workshops etc.), but I'm sure there are way of protecting your ears(?).

I've had a few other ideas as well, but this is something I'd really want to do. But I'm having many doubts, if any of these will be possible to do due to the tinnitus. I can live with it as it is now, but don't want to make it worse.

Now apart from this I don't really have any dream, as far as career goes. I guess if any of these wouldn't be possible my only other idea would be studying biology and studying about tinnitus. Not because of interest though, mainly to work with finding a cure, but my dreams are within music.

I, of course, know there's a economically problem here as well, it's not really money in making music, and it may be hard to do these stuff. But I'm only asking for advice regarding the tinnitus, since this, after all, is a tinnitus forum.

So right now I really don't know what to do. There isn't any hurry though, I do have a lot of time to think since I probably wont do any proper education, no matter what it is, within a few years(at least not what it looks like at the moment!). So what do you people out there think? Any advices for me? Is it possible to work with what I said at first or does one maybe have to rethink my future because of this condition? Have thought about this for a long time without knowing what to do.

What have you people out there done? Do any of you play music? Do you let tinnitus come in the way for your dreams? Please do tell me your stories, I'm very interested to read them.

Thanks for reading!

 

[Karen]

Hi, Marty,
I don't want your well thought-out, and thought-provoking, post to get lost amid the other threads on this forum, so I'll comment here.

I think you should follow your dreams, and NOT let the tinnitus change the course of your life. You have your whole future ahead of you, and I believe that, with all the research going on right now, there will be a cure for tinnitus within your lifetime --- hopefully in the not-too-distant future! Live your life, and don't let tinnitus get the best of you! You've got a great future ahead of you.

There are several other people on this forum who are musicians, who are more qualified to comment on your various music related choices. Does anyone want to comment on Marty's possible career choices (above)?

 

[Fish]

In short - do NOT turn your tinnitus into any deciding factor when choosing your future career. If you'd like to be a luthier, you can wear earbuds while using loud equipment. You should do this even if you had no T! If you'd like to be a musician, it is even easier. There are dozens of professional musicians and actors with both tinnitus and hearing loss (because they did not protect their ears); Did they give up? No, they keep on going not letting tinnitus ruin their careers. The partial list of those people is on wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tinnitus#Notable_individuals

I have aspirations to become a worldwide famous musician even though there's WHEEEE in my both ears haha!

You need to remember, tinnitus is mainly in your head. The sound itself is not going to kill you. Your fear of it, however, can make your life quite miserable. Just take good care of yourself, protect your hearing and carry on with your life

 

[Marty]

Thank you both very much for replying. I think this is my biggest problem with my tinnitus. Fear. It scares me of doing stuff and by doing so it's controlling my life, sort of, be it these big choices in life, or be it with more simple day to day activities. But I'm slowly being less and less scared of everyday sounds.

It feels very nice to have a few other people's thoughts on this. My thoughts seem to have started going in an endless circle.

One thing that really scared me was the fact that my tinnitus might one day become worse. So what if one has then played all my cards on a future/career that wont be possible? I've always done that though, thinking of the worst case scenario even though it might never happen. That list with famous people with tinnitus kind of is an eye-opener(is that a correct word:O?). It tells you of people who didn't give a darn about the sound and just did what they wanted. I guess I should think the same way...

Please keep posting your thoughts/advices. I really appreciate them!

 

[Fish]

Marty. I don't know how old is your tinnitus (was it in another thread?) but being young, you generally shouldn't consider your tinnitus as a lifelong condition I stay positive myself and hope I will be tinnitus free one day! Just as Karen has said - there are many smart people working on a treatment and I'm sure we will see some results eventually. Even if there is no cure in the nearest future, it really gets better over time anyway. There are (rare but still) spontaneous remissions! Should you give up on your dreams because of tinnitus? I'd feel very silly doing so! You will always regret that you allowed your T to decide on something for you.

 

[Karen]

Amen to Fish's comments above, and don't let fear ruin your life! As with most things in life, the challenges we face are learning experiences, and some day you'll look back on this period and realize how far you've come. I know I've learned a lot since my severe tinnitus began in 2010 --- and, as Fish noted, tinnitus really does get better over time. Mine is much better than it was in 2010; and I believe yours will be better, too, with time. Best wishes, and stay strong!

 

[Marty]

My tinnitus is having a one year anniversary quite soon. At the moment it's about 11.5 months since I got it. I do hope for one day waking up without that sound in my head. But if I can go on until then as if I never had got it, I think I'd be feeling as best and as positive about it as possible.

I can already now, by reading what you two wrote, feel a little more positive to be honest. Just the thought of having a future you can do WHATEVER YOU WANT with brings a smile to my lips. Now I will absolutely not make an impulsive decision about this, as I said I'll wait no matter what with education and think about this more. But just reading that other people in the same situation(who, unlike those I've talked to personally about this, understand the situation and the feeling of a noise you can't shut out), if they wanted, would do these things despite the T.

Hopefully there will be a cure out there quite soon, for all of us, one can dream eh?

Are there any out there who work in a place with a loud environment? How does the tinnitus affect your workplace? And does anyone have any of those customized earplugs? Might need them now, since I might get a temporary job which could require the use of earplugs. The normal kind of earplugs are uncomfortable and makes a kind of preassure change and during this time I can hear yet another sound, which I'm starting to think is becoming a permanent.

 

[Mahdi]

With no serenity life is ruined. 12 years ago when I was inflicted by this excruciating torture, I did never think that i had ruined all different aspects of my life for good. Now, 31 yr old, no quality sleep, no peace, no napping during day, no socializing with others as there's lots of noise in crowded places which I'm sensitive to, no marriage, no higher degree than a bachelor's one, no permanent job, actually I'm between labors if any I can get. People say I have let my T to decide for me, but it's not true. Who would let a torturer to torture them if they could stand up to it?
Now, I don't think of career, marriage or more education. I think of peace. I think of how to let my serene spiritual self part from my noisy physical one to experience just peace. What a dream!? By the way, I don't want to shoot a bullet to my head because I'd probably damage the ears of those who'd want to stop me and make them suffer too.

 

[JasonP]

I don't think I could work in quiet warehouse. I really need some ambient noise. I thought about becoming a truck driver so I could drive down the road, listen to music, get on a CB radio or wear a cell phone headset and talk to people. I think that would really get my mind off T most of the time!

 

[squeek]

I'm in the same situation. I'm wracking my brain trying to figure out an income that can tolerate my random times where my tinnitus is disabling. I'm trying to start a business that can allow me to have 'off' days.

I reckon that silent manufacturing is possible. I'm inspired by this video which shows how plastic can be shaped silently. You could be making casing for music equipment.

Steer clear of the music industry for the long term. Machine learning (artificial intelligence) is at the cusp of making musicians redundant. Classical and folk music is already automatable and sounds very convincing. Other genres will follow soon. For the short term, people who make youtube videos need to licence background music so there's money there. Music for smartphone games is probably another good avenue.