Hyperacusis, Ear Fullness and Tinnitus After Exposed to Giant Amps at an After-Hours Gig

[FearsforEars]

Me: early 40s, song writer, musician.

I was at an after-hours gig and two guys showed up with giant amps at 1am and played really loud for half an hour. I stupidly hung out without earplugs. Anyways, probably my fault as I knew better but also feel like they should have warned us and not played that loud.


So just over 1 month in now from sound exposure. I thought I was gone several times.

Symptoms:

Getting fullness in my ears that comes and goes as my main symptom. almost like some water in my ears or like I came down a hill and ears need to pop. Seems to go away I think for a second if I shake my head. Hate it.

It feels like maybe some muscle or nerve or something overreacts, or maybe even my focus or touching the ear. I'm not sure if it is 100% from sounds. Sometimes I am sitting there and am sure it is gone, or mostly gone, and am so relieved.

Sometimes my own voice sounds loud or pingy when in a hallway or something.

Getting some tinnitus that comes and goes but it isn't the worst thing.

When I didn't know better at the start, when I would go to this group with loud people in a very loud echoey room I felt sore after about 2 hours, and also when sitting beside someone loud at a board game I felt sore after a couple hours.

Treatment so far:

I had a week of steroids, been resting my ears, wearing earplugs when out now to even those events. With earplugs I have an increase in symptoms after.

I had a hearing test and I have a typical notch at 6000 Hz down to 25 dB as seen in many musician's my age. So not bad but some typical hearing loss there.

I have seen an ENT, he just told me I may or might not get better.

Now I am suffering from some pretty bad anxiety and depression about all this. I already didn't sleep that well and had anxiety often. I also have some jaw issues (from which I at times had similar ear symptoms that would come and go - especially the sound sensitivity).

So ya, here I am, going to try some pink noise on my own speakers.

I have taken comfort in my research showing up to 40% of musicians report some hyperacusis. I have taken comfort in that Neil Young had it bad and still made music and recovered carefully, that many have had it bad. Some important thing is hope guys, it really is.

I'm shattered as a person as I was just working on an album, worked so hard on music. I know it could be worse like not socializing and being able to talk to people would be worse.

Anyways people. The more I dug, the more I thought they should someday be able to help with this, to do something to help the nerves.

I had this hope for several weeks that maybe this will all go away. I have read people saying it took a few weeks after a concert to go away, but at one month now, it is gone. I'm feeling like it isn't going away. I am in shock that this little moment in my life might be so bad.

I'm looking at writing and visual art, new career choices, fancy ear protection. It's hard to take all in as I have another health problem that is really nailing me from day to day so I feel like WHY ME.

Thanks for reading. I read lots of your stories and I really wish the best for you all.

 

[Monkee Man]

Hey @FearsforEars, welcome to the forums. I can totally relate to what you're going through. I'm a musician/music fanatic as well, and tinnitus/hyperacusis hit me like a freight train last November. My situation started with very low level tinnitus after a super loud concert, which I did not take seriously at all as I've had my ears ring after shows plenty of times in the past and it had always faded after a day or two. I hardly noticed it outside of a quiet room, and foolishly continued living as normal (more shows, headphones, loud music, etc). I would Google "ringing in ears after concert" and basically read what I wanted to hear, thinking "Hell if Neil Young has it, Lars Ulrich, Pete Townshend, Liam Gallagher, Clapton, etc all have it and keep goin' on, so will I!"

It wasn't until about three weeks had passed that I grew concerned that it hadn't faded and scheduled an appointment with an ENT, who rather nonchalantly advised I could continue life as normal as long as I wear hearing protection at loud events moving forward. It took one loud band rehearsal and five minutes of a loud show (with plugs in) to throw me into full-blown hyperacusis and mild hearing loss, as well as making the tinnitus level skyrocket.

The bad news? I still have the tinnitus, as well as hyperacusis and the hearing loss which has all but shattered my passion for music and threw my life and mental state into a complete tailspin. The good news? It seems you are not having many issues with tinnitus, and hyperacusis does fade for many people with time. I am in a better mental state now vs. December, and outside of a couple spikes the tinnitus and hyperacusis are a bit better, but this whole thing has very much changed my life in ways I never could've imagined. I would strongly advise that you avoid loud noises as much as possible for the next few months and properly protect your ears whenever you're somewhere loud noises could occur. I would also advise forgetting about headphones/earbuds for now as they can and will worsen your hyperacusis and possibly increase the mild tinnitus while you're in this acute stage. Don't make the same mistake I did by pressing on and living life as normal, as it will mess up your chances of recovering. Live as quietly as possible for the next few months (though not completely depriving yourself of sound) and look into gentle sound therapies to ease your way out of the hyperacusis. If you play your cards right, you just may make a recovery and be able to live your life normally again. Best of luck to you my friend!

 

[FearsforEars]

Hi @Monkee Man.

Thanks for the encouraging advice. I think I have to come to terms with the long term outlook of this and take it easy as you said.

Man, are you in the shape to start working on some acoustic songs or some very mellow stuff? That is what I am thinking of getting into.

 

[Monkee Man]

Man, are you in the shape to start working on some acoustic songs or some very mellow stuff? That is what I am thinking of getting into.

That's what I've been thinking of getting into as well. I was a bass player and wannabe drummer before this whole mess but both instruments have unfortunately been gathering dust in the past few months. I have picked up my acoustic guitar here and there though, and have toyed with the idea of writing and recording a sort of mini concept album about tinnitus and hyperacusis at some point in the near future to exorcise some demons and reintroduce myself to making music in some capacity.

 

[FearsforEars]

@Monkee Man, I see Neil Young made his Harvest Moon album because he had this and couldn't be around loud noises.

I see the pink noise as a promising and rational thing to train your system to accept sound again. I wonder if lightly playing a nylon string guitar would be similar?

There is absolutely nothing wrong with soft gentle music, and there is so many things that are great without loud drums and bands like song writing, lyrics, ambient music.

It seems lots of people with tinnitus and hyperacusis need some background music to block out and retrain, maybe this can be your specialty.

In the meantime take up some visual art, poetry, writing, graphics. You need a creative outlet man. You're obviously talented, I could tell just by your elegant post that it instantly vibrated and gave me hope while being realistic. So many crude answers online and shitty outlooks, yours was the best.

Myself I have been quietly strumming an acoustic and the decibels are so low, I don't feel anything bad at all from it. It must be like pink noise I figure. As we know the guitar does so much for our soul, it must help retrain the brain as it is completely tied to the nervous system. I don't see any research but I'm thinking as I know it is the human voice tones in the guitar that make us love it, I bet it is very effective to bring our tolerance up if we start really quiet. A nylon guitar played softly with fingers is not going to hurt us I don't think, maybe someone else but whatever I have this isn't going to send me in a tailspin.

P.S. I found all the answers I need here in this kid's video. He seems to have all the best doctors and advice. Part of it is discussing the extreme cases. People on here are a very small sample of hyperacusis. The more people I talk to with tinnitus around me, and when I ask them questions, the more I find they probably have a mild tinnitus.

I'm seeing that the worst cases of hyperacusis may have had some sort of illness or cancer, and some have had noise exposure, but also that some of them may be so bad because they overprotect and fear noise.

Please check this kid's video, it gives hope.