Depressed and Frustrated After "Toughing Out" a Situation with Loud Noise

5 years ago, I had an incident at a dentist's office that left me with hearing damage and severe tinnitus. Over the years, I'd reached the point where I could almost ignore it if I was not in a quiet room and didn't think about it, but a really stupid "freak" incident at work last week caused more hearing damage, and now my tinnitus has "exploded." It's so loud now that the sound of the rainfall video I normally listen to at night to drown out the tinnitus doesn't help. I can hear the tinnitus over the sound of the rain.

I went to see my doctor yesterday because of the intermittent pain in my ears, and he gave me a steroid pack.

I can't believe I'm going through this again.

In both the incident at the dentist's office and the incident at work last week, I tried to "tough out" a situation with loud noise. I can only shake my head at my stupidity.

 

What happened at work? Unfortunately, it's so hard to avoid loud noises in normal life situations. Many incidents have contributed to my worsening tinnitus. But these days, I will remove myself or avoid loud noises where possible. Unexpected things do happen, but it's hard, and I try not to dwell on them. I'm sorry to hear about your troubles, but hopefully, they will settle a bit, and you'll adjust again.

 

Hi. Thanks for replying.

I was interviewing a client in my office. She had her young child with her (maybe three years old), and whenever the client stopped paying attention to her, the child would let out an extremely loud, piercing, high-pitched scream like you can't even imagine. I did not know it was possible for a human being to make such a loud noise. She kept doing this every few minutes over about 45 minutes and then started screaming continuously, at which point I had to end the interview.

Anyway, in the past 30 minutes, the hearing in my left ear has changed. It's like I have water in my ear, but there is no water in my ear. I don't know what that indicates, but it can't be good.

 

I had the exact same scenario with the MRI scan. Congratulations on toughing it out the first time and coping with it.

It’s early days. It may settle back down for you. Don’t blame yourself; I blamed myself for the MRI incident.

 

It sounds like classic acoustic trauma; the same boring advice applies to you, I’m afraid. Take it easy for a little while and certainly avoid louder environments, carry some earplugs with you for when things get uncomfortable.

Intermittent pain, new tones, and raised tinnitus volume often accompany an acoustic trauma. They regress back to their baseline in time for a good amount of people.

 

This has happened to many of us. What I'm going to say now is not false hope; it's a fact: tinnitus does change how it presents itself. Meaning it can go up and down, and in my case, every time it has gone up it has later gone down. Of course, the opposite is true too. Just look at this as a temporary thing. Tinnitus has taught me the real world and the impermanence of life. Every day is a new day, and as you discovered, even short-term events can have a big effect on our lives. You learned an important lesson from this too: make very, very sure we don't expose ourselves to sounds or events that may spike our tinnitus. What worked pre-tinnitus is not what works now. Don't be afraid to tell someone that you have a hearing problem and that a particular sound cannot be tolerated.

I've had to change how I mask my tinnitus many times over the years. Get yourself a box fan to set by the head of your bed and an inexpensive sound machine that has different sounds at different frequencies. Nearly always you can find one that helps. As our tinnitus changes, we have to be able to adapt to the changes. You don't have to tough it out, that's not an option but more of a last resort. As events change, we have to meet them where they are and change how we operate.

I find the sound of running water or a waterfall to have a complex variety of sounds. For now, I get by with a sound machine that has that sound, and it works very well, but if I had to, I would not hesitate to build or buy a smallish waterfall to put in my place.

 

I carry discreet earplugs that I put in when in similar situations. They are really cheap but probably reduce the harshness of kids screaming, dogs barking, or noisy restaurants by 15 decibels.

Alpine Party Plugs. They are transparent and barely visible. They have been a lifesaver for me.

 

Rest and stay in quiet as long as possible in hopes of calming your tinnitus. If your tinnitus reacts to sounds, stay at loudness levels that don't make it react. Quiet is the best way to prevent tinnitus from worsening.

 

If you could cover it with rain videos, it probably wasn't that bad to begin with. I'm sorry, it's more intrusive now. Look up "Dale Snale" on YouTube and find a high-frequency masking video that you can use until things settle.

 

After this kind of trauma, can the tinnitus be worse for weeks before returning back to baseline?

 

I'm currently dealing with a situation where my tinnitus has increased in volume and is still loud 15 days after an acoustic trauma. I hope that it will return to baseline soon. I've read about people who have waited for 3-4 weeks or even months for improvement. In my case, it has been 2 weeks already. I'm hoping for the best.

 

Absolutely. It tends to take a few months at least, as opposed to a couple of weeks. I know this sounds impossible, but try to continue as usual (while being sensible).

The reductions are usually so gradual that you don’t recognize them over a short period of time.

 

That’s what happened to me, too. It’s been more than ten weeks since I had the spike after being exposed to loud music. I had muffled hearing twice (like water in my ears).

I hope yours will go away soon, given that you were not exposed to that loud screaming baby sound for a prolonged period.

 

I'm concerned about whether my tinnitus, which has increased in volume and has a new high-pitched sound after a noise trauma, can return to its previous level.

It seems strange to me because logically, I would expect a noise trauma to create a completely new tinnitus sound.

Previously, my tinnitus was silent in normal daily life, but now I hear a high-pitched, continuously changing tone all day long. I understand that it's only been 17 days since the trauma, but I find it hard to imagine that this new sound will disappear or become less noticeable in the coming weeks. It would seem almost like a miracle to me.

I know that spikes in tinnitus can happen, but I wonder if a spike due to a noise trauma is different from a spike caused by other reasons.

 

Any update? I am suffering the same. It has been 17 days for me too.

 

I have a similar issue after an MRI scan. It has been six weeks and counting. I can hear it pretty much over everything, whereas prior to the scan, I forgot about tinnitus most of the time and lived a normal life. The tone seems to have changed from a piercing high-pitched ring to more of a white noise hiss. It is still intrusive, but maybe a little less so than the ring. I am not sure that's a sign of progress. I am a little hopeful, but it has been a very rough few weeks.

 

@CMIH, I guess you recovered then?