Earplugs in the Shower (the Occlusion Effect): Don't Do It!

#61
#63
Tara Lyons said:
Should I be wearing ear plugs all the time to protect my ears?
Click to expand...
You will want to minimize the time when you wear earplugs. Having said that, you need to stabilize. What has worked for me is to protect my ears whenever I knew I might be around the kind of noises that didn't feel right to my ears. (Of course the best thing to do is to stay away from the noises.)

After 3-6 months, you will want to make sure that you gradually expose yourself to some noises (i.e., you want to gradually increase the volume on your TV/pc until you are able to be around moderate volume level).
Tara Lyons said:
This person used pink noise.
Click to expand...
You should experiment and attempt to figure out what works for you. If you experiment and give yourself a spike, if I were you, I would try with a lower volume the next day.

You don't want to force yourself to be around pink noise, despite your body sending you all of the signals that it can to get away from it, just because someone said it had worked for them. My suggestion is to experiment while making sure to listen to the signals from your own body. I believe that the discomfort due to hyperacusis and louder tinnitus are examples of those signals.
Tara Lyons said:
So many different views, I don't know what to do!
Click to expand...
It makes sense to perform experiments to see what works for you. At the same time, when you do an experiment, don't expose yourself to an hour of pink noise. Start with one minute and see how you feel. If after a couple of hours it feels like there was no bad reaction, then try being around the pink noise of that original volume for another 5 minutes. Wait to see whether this does anything, and then try 15 minutes, etc. You will want to wait until the next morning after experimenting with longer exposures, say longer than 30 minutes.

Keep in mind that the above advice is based on what had worked for me and what I read worked for a number of others. I don't have a medical background, but I do have other degrees and I have a good memory that I use to remember relevant posts on this forum. There are certainly others who advise that one expose oneself to noise and if one feels worse, to assume that it is due to one's stress - so the solution is to continue the exposure and to not worry about how one feels. Over the years I have had multiple debates with those people. My best argument are a significant number of posts of people who had learned the hard way to be careful about noise.

I hope the above is helpful and that now it is a little more clear to you what seems to be the sensible way to approach this.
 
#64
Bill Bauer said:
You will want to minimize the time when you wear earplugs. Having said that, you need to stabilize. What has worked for me is to protect my ears whenever I knew I might be around the kind of noises that didn't feel right to my ears. (Of course the best thing to do is to stay away from the noises.)

After 3-6 months, you will want to make sure that you gradually expose yourself to some noises (i.e., you want to gradually increase the volume on your TV/pc until you are able to be around moderate volume level).

You should experiment and attempt to figure out what works for you. If you experiment and give yourself a spike, if I were you, I would try with a lower volume the next day.

You don't want to force yourself to be around pink noise, despite your body sending you all of the signals that it can to get away from it, just because someone said it had worked for them. My suggestion is to experiment while making sure to listen to the signals from your own body. I believe that the discomfort due to hyperacusis and louder tinnitus are examples of those signals.

It makes sense to perform experiments to see what works for you. At the same time, when you do an experiment, don't expose yourself to an hour of pink noise. Start with one minute and see how you feel. If after a couple of hours it feels like there was no bad reaction, then try being around the pink noise of that original volume for another 5 minutes. Wait to see whether this does anything, and then try 15 minutes, etc. You will want to wait until the next morning after experimenting with longer exposures, say longer than 30 minutes.

Keep in mind that the above advice is based on what had worked for me and what I read worked for a number of others. I don't have a medical background, but I do have other degrees and I have a good memory that I use to remember relevant posts on this forum. There are certainly others who advise that one expose oneself to noise and if one feels worse, to assume that it is due to one's stress - so the solution is to continue the exposure and to not worry about how one feels. Over the years I have had multiple debates with those people. My best argument are a significant number of posts of people who had learned the hard way to be careful about noise.

I hope the above is helpful and that now it is a little more clear to you what seems to be the sensible way to approach this.
Click to expand...
Thank you for your help. I really appreciate the detailed responses from you and everyone else on the forum. I'm going to try to stay away from artificial sounds for a while and see how I do.
I hope everything gets better and it just takes some time...
 
#65
Bill Bauer said:
You will want to minimize the time when you wear earplugs. Having said that, you need to stabilize. What has worked for me is to protect my ears whenever I knew I might be around the kind of noises that didn't feel right to my ears. (Of course the best thing to do is to stay away from the noises.)

After 3-6 months, you will want to make sure that you gradually expose yourself to some noises (i.e., you want to gradually increase the volume on your TV/pc until you are able to be around moderate volume level).

You should experiment and attempt to figure out what works for you. If you experiment and give yourself a spike, if I were you, I would try with a lower volume the next day.

You don't want to force yourself to be around pink noise, despite your body sending you all of the signals that it can to get away from it, just because someone said it had worked for them. My suggestion is to experiment while making sure to listen to the signals from your own body. I believe that the discomfort due to hyperacusis and louder tinnitus are examples of those signals.

It makes sense to perform experiments to see what works for you. At the same time, when you do an experiment, don't expose yourself to an hour of pink noise. Start with one minute and see how you feel. If after a couple of hours it feels like there was no bad reaction, then try being around the pink noise of that original volume for another 5 minutes. Wait to see whether this does anything, and then try 15 minutes, etc. You will want to wait until the next morning after experimenting with longer exposures, say longer than 30 minutes.

Keep in mind that the above advice is based on what had worked for me and what I read worked for a number of others. I don't have a medical background, but I do have other degrees and I have a good memory that I use to remember relevant posts on this forum. There are certainly others who advise that one expose oneself to noise and if one feels worse, to assume that it is due to one's stress - so the solution is to continue the exposure and to not worry about how one feels. Over the years I have had multiple debates with those people. My best argument are a significant number of posts of people who had learned the hard way to be careful about noise.

I hope the above is helpful and that now it is a little more clear to you what seems to be the sensible way to approach this.
Click to expand...
I can't stand any of this. My ears flip out whenever I'm around any insane amount of noise now. I'm terrified I won't even be able to spend time with family or friends. This whole thing is just awful.
 
#66
Tara Lyons said:
I can't stand any of this. My ears flip out whenever I'm around any insane amount of noise now. I'm terrified I won't even be able to spend time with family or friends. This whole thing is just awful.
Click to expand...
Hi Tara, I think it's good not to expose yourself to too much noise for the time being, you will be able to tolerate more noise as whatever heals. :huganimation:
 
#68
Tara Lyons said:
I'm terrified I won't even be able to spend time with family or friends.
Click to expand...
Hopefully if you wear earplugs (or even muffs over earplugs to add 5 more dB of protection) and ask them to try to not be loud, it will work out. Having said this, in the worst case scenario you will miss these things this year and possibly next year, but you ought to be over your hyperacusis after that.
 
#69
Bill Bauer said:
Hopefully if you wear earplugs (or even muffs over earplugs to add 5 more dB of protection) and ask them to try to not be loud, it will work out. Having said this, in the worst case scenario you will miss these things this year and possibly next year, but you ought to be over your hyperacusis after that.
Click to expand...
YEARS????? Omg.
 
#73
#74
@Tara Lyons When I first developed tinnitus which was from loud noise, I also experienced sensitivity to sharp and loud sounds. All sounds were louder as I also had acoustic shock disorder. At the hospital where I worked, the ice machines and even elevators became over bearing.

I knew there was a condition called hyperacusis and I also knew of a condition called misophonia. I decided that I needed to avoid loud noises, but not all noise even with ASD. I knew that I needed to make a decision on treatment. I decided that I needed to use defender headphones only around loud noise. I also decided to use very soft - below whisper pink sound - brook or rain - ten feet from my head to start with for two hours a day and all night. I knew that I needed to do this for hyperacusis and not to develop misophonia, which I knew was happening.

Treatment or the length of daily therapy that another may need depends on factors that can't be determined by conversation on a message board.

To answer your question, I only used hearing protection when I was in a loud noise area that I could not avoid. Busy highway noise bothered me.

Over protection lowers the auditory threshold. I was was the threshold of developing misophonia. I knew that I needed to quickly realize that I could not use ear protection, unless around loud noise. I took magnesium - it helps to maintain auditory threshold as the stress of tinnitus could deplete magnesium. Magnesium is good for stress, hypertension and anxiety, but should not be taken at the same time with medications. I took 1/3 tablet three times a day. 1/3 was taken one hour before sleep.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misophonia
 
#75
Greg Sacramento said:
@Tara Lyons When I first developed tinnitus which was from loud noise, I also experienced sensitivity to sharp and loud sounds. All sounds were louder as I also had acoustic shock disorder. At the hospital where I worked, the ice machines and even elevators became over bearing.

I knew there was a condition called hyperacusis and I also knew of a condition called misophonia. I decided that I needed to avoid loud noises, but not all noise even with ASD. I knew that I needed to make a decision on treatment. I decided that I needed to use defender headphones only around loud noise. I also decided to use very soft - below whisper pink sound - brook or rain - ten feet from my head to start with for two hours a day and all night. I knew that I needed to do this for hyperacusis and not to develop misophonia, which I knew was happening. Treatment or the length of daily therapy that another may need depends on factors that can't be determined by conversation on a message board.

To answer your question, I only used hearing protection when I was in a loud noise area that I could not avoid. Over protection lowers the auditory threshold. I was was the threshold of developing misophonia. I knew that I needed to quickly realize that I could not use ear protection, unless around loud noise. I took magnesium - it helps to maintain auditory threshold as the stress of tinnitus could deplete magnesium. Magnesium is good for stress, hypertension and anxiety, but should not be taken at the same time with medications. I took 1/3 tablet three times a day. 1/3 was taken one hour before sleep.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misophonia
Click to expand...
Thanks...
This is all so insane, I can't even believe this is my reality, 4 months into it.

Wanting to wake up one day and just have it be completely gone. I say a prayer every night ;(
 
#76
#77
This is so hard omg. My ears are literally screaming, especially my left one. I called my mom crying because it scares me when it gets that loud :( simmering back down a little. Howwww does something like this even exist :(
 
#78
Bill Bauer said:
You will want to minimize the time when you wear earplugs. Having said that, you need to stabilize. What has worked for me is to protect my ears whenever I knew I might be around the kind of noises that didn't feel right to my ears. (Of course the best thing to do is to stay away from the noises.)

After 3-6 months, you will want to make sure that you gradually expose yourself to some noises (i.e., you want to gradually increase the volume on your TV/pc until you are able to be around moderate volume level).

You should experiment and attempt to figure out what works for you. If you experiment and give yourself a spike, if I were you, I would try with a lower volume the next day.

You don't want to force yourself to be around pink noise, despite your body sending you all of the signals that it can to get away from it, just because someone said it had worked for them. My suggestion is to experiment while making sure to listen to the signals from your own body. I believe that the discomfort due to hyperacusis and louder tinnitus are examples of those signals.

It makes sense to perform experiments to see what works for you. At the same time, when you do an experiment, don't expose yourself to an hour of pink noise. Start with one minute and see how you feel. If after a couple of hours it feels like there was no bad reaction, then try being around the pink noise of that original volume for another 5 minutes. Wait to see whether this does anything, and then try 15 minutes, etc. You will want to wait until the next morning after experimenting with longer exposures, say longer than 30 minutes.

Keep in mind that the above advice is based on what had worked for me and what I read worked for a number of others. I don't have a medical background, but I do have other degrees and I have a good memory that I use to remember relevant posts on this forum. There are certainly others who advise that one expose oneself to noise and if one feels worse, to assume that it is due to one's stress - so the solution is to continue the exposure and to not worry about how one feels. Over the years I have had multiple debates with those people. My best argument are a significant number of posts of people who had learned the hard way to be careful about noise.

I hope the above is helpful and that now it is a little more clear to you what seems to be the sensible way to approach this.
Click to expand...
Honestly I feel like this tinnitus is all over the place, I can't tell if it's getting better or worse, if I'm making it better or worse by listening to white noise/tv/music. Everything about this is a fucking nightmare.
 
#79
Tara Lyons said:
Honestly I feel like this tinnitus is all over the place, I can't tell if it's getting better or worse, if I'm making it better or worse by listening to white noise/tv/music. Everything about this is a fucking nightmare.
Click to expand...
Ears take months to heal, so you will want to wait 1-3 months every time you try something to attempt to see whether or not it works. Luckily, your body can heal itself and even overcome things that you do that interfere with recovery, and the simple act of waiting is often all that one needs to do to experience improvement.
 
#80
Bill Bauer said:
Ears take months to heal, so you will want to wait 1-3 months every time you try something to attempt to see whether or not it works. Luckily, your body can heal itself and even overcome things that you do that interfere with recovery, and the simple act of waiting is often all that one needs to do to experience improvement.
Click to expand...
I hate waiting. It's too hard for me. I know I don't have a choice but I can't accept it yet. I keep waking up and wishing it will be gone, then when it's not I get upset and remind myself it's another day of this...
 
#81
Tara Lyons said:
I hate waiting. It's too hard for me. I know I don't have a choice but I can't accept it yet. I keep waking up and wishing it will be gone, then when it's not I get upset and remind myself it's another day of this...
Click to expand...
You are obsessing over your tinnitus too much. You need to distract yourself. Can you get out, do some fun stuff?
 
#87
Tara Lyons said:
I love traveling. So is that off the list for 3 years?
Click to expand...
If you live in Europe, you are in luck. Many of the planes in Europe are made by Airbus and those aircraft are much quieter than Boeing planes. You will want to wear noise cancelling headphones (e.g., Bose Q35) - they work great in reducing the noise inside of an airplane. A small fraction of the users of noise cancelling headphones had reported getting tinnitus or getting a tinnitus spike as a result of those headphones. What I have been doing is wearing good foam earplugs underneath my noise cancelling headphones (that just cancel noise and are not playing any music). The earplugs are there to protect myself from the headphones. You might want to take the earplugs out during take-offs and landings (I haven't done that I ended up being ok), and switch to Peltor muffs. Other things you can do to reduce your noise exposure is getting a seat closer to the front of the plane and away from the windows. But like I said, if you are in an Airbus plane, it is unlikely that you will be bothered by noise.
 
#88
Y'all listen to the ridiculous thing I tried a few months ago when I was trying to figure out how to shower.

I can't shower anymore because it's too loud for my hyperacusis and earplugs don't cut it. So, I had to figure out how I was going to get my very nice 31 dB reduction ear muffs in the shower, but because I have a stronger emotional connection with these babies than a lot of family members, I had to find a way to protect them from getting wet.

So I pulled my hair in a bun, grabbed an old t shirt that has a very high, tight collar, and put the collar on like a head band. I put on the earmuffs then used the body of the t shirt to pull over my head and gathered the extra material in a bun and secured with a hair tie. So now my hair ear muffs were completely covered by the shirt. When I looked in the mirror I considered calling up the producers of star wars and asking for a job in the costume department cause I looked ridiculous and very much like an alien.

I figured if this worked out I would water proof the t shirt and then find a way to wash my hair separately. However, it just didn't work out, I hated it and the shower still just hurt my ears. Constant droning sounds are just one of those things that get me though.

But the reason I was doing all this crazy crap is because I hate taking baths and my skin wasn't handling the transition very well. When you're in the shower you get completely rinsed off, but in the bath you'll always have residues left over from the soaps you use.

I've found though that over the course of two months of nearly scratching myself to death and buying oatmeal soaps, my skin finally just got used to it.

However a huge problem with the tub is I can't be in the bathroom while it runs so I had to rely on my family to run it. But now that they're out of town and I'm home alone I had the idea to face time the bathtub so I set up my phone just right, turned on the tap to the approximate place I knew the temp is good, and then ran like hell. While it fills up I sit in the front room watching it on another device and go up when it's full and turn it off as quick as I can.
 
#90
Bill Bauer said:
If you live in Europe, you are in luck. Many of the planes in Europe are made by Airbus and those aircraft are much quieter than Boeing planes. You will want to wear noise cancelling headphones (e.g., Bose Q35) - they work great in reducing the noise inside of an airplane. A small fraction of the users of noise cancelling headphones had reported getting tinnitus or getting a tinnitus spike as a result of those headphones. What I have been doing is wearing good foam earplugs underneath my noise cancelling headphones (that just cancel noise and are not playing any music). The earplugs are there to protect myself from the headphones. You might want to take the earplugs out during take-offs and landings (I haven't done that I ended up being ok), and switch to Peltor muffs. Other things you can do to reduce your noise exposure is getting a seat closer to the front of the plane and away from the windows. But like I said, if you are in an Airbus plane, it is unlikely that you will be bothered by noise.
Click to expand...
I am in the U.S...
 

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