I’m in Real Trouble Now. It Has Just Become Too Much.

[Rust]

I'm really reaching out for any help/advice/personal experience from people here.

I (absolutely stupidly) kicked my bedroom door in anger 19 days ago (unrelated to tinnitus). The actual door cracked under the pressure of the kick and the door swung into the bedroom resulting with the handle banging against the wall, creating a huge bang.

The bedroom also was completely empty (since I'm redecorating it), and the echo from the bang was just as painful as the noise created by the pressure of the door handle hitting the wall.

As soon as this happened my tinnitus immediately shot up for several seconds, and only receded to a level that is much higher than my baseline.

As of now 19 days later it is still bad. This new level of tinnitus is intruding into areas of life that it previously didn't, and I feel truly and completely hopeless and constantly upset. I will not lie about the fact that now every day the only salvation I feel I have is by forfeiting my life. I will not do this though, as I can't upset my loved ones like that, plus I still am hanging onto a thread of hope that it may subside.

Usually, whenever my tinnitus spikes from a loud noise (car horn, door slam etc), it takes no longer than a week to recover. I am on day 19 now with no recovery, and with every day that passes I am extremely worried that this will be a permanent increase.

Sure, the door bang was loud, but I don't understand how it could have been loud enough to cause such a surge in my tinnitus? It was no gun shot by any means. I really thought that I would have recovered now by this.

The only glimmer of hope I perhaps have noticed is that maybe the pitch of the tinnitus has slightly lowered since the first week. However, this is really just me grabbing at straws, as there is not much of a tangible difference that I can tell. I may be trying to convince myself this, because it means that if there has been a change then that could mean that it has more potential to improve.

I am also incredibly angry with myself for doing something so stupid. I have gone to great lengths over the past year to protect my ears whenever I go anywhere too loud, and I have unpicked all my hard work with one stupid, self inflicted momentary lapse in my temper.

Right now, I feel no optimism for the future, plus I don't feel like I will be able to do any of the activities that I love to do (landscape photography, camping, travel, relaxing, and generally just being!). I am also angry at feeling like it has all been taken away from me. I'm only 29, have a wonderful life and had such optimism for the future.

I keep telling myself to give it 3 months to have a full chance to recover. It's just that I feel no hope that it will improve, given that my ear usually would have recovered by now. Plus, right now I am in agony and am a truly awful person for my partner to be around.

Has anyone experienced something like this loud bang or can offer any type of help/advice?

Thank you so much in advance all.

R

 

[Bobby B]

One bang like that isn't enough to cause much damage - I'd say wear ear protection for the next 3 months whenever you are outside and the ears will heal fine.
I had a very loud steel door slam on me a right a few seconds after I removed my ear plugs - and my T went up for a week and ears felt clogged but eventually it did improve.

The older you get the slower those ears heal so you cannot compare with how long it took to improve years ago.

Also - as a prevention measure - there are studies that show that the following items protect hair cells from future noise damage:

- NAC with L-Carnitine
-Hydrogen (added to water or inhaled)
-LLLT therapy
-Heat Shock proteins

In addition to wearing my x5a ear muffs pretty much all the time when outside , I am using all the above everyday - no more regrets !
Its hard to treat past noise induced T but there are a several good options for future prevention .

 

[Pb1]

Ah man, I feel your frustration! My tinnitus had pretty much gone away after a couple of months. (It was caused by taking a few ibuprofen, aspirin - and I now know paracetamol tablets).

I had abit of pain last week and somebody persuaded me to try a paracetamol tablet. I thought it was just the ibuprofen or aspirin that had caused it.

The tinnitus has shot up from nothing to a really high pitched wine that I can hear over traffic!

I to have given it till June then that's it for me. I can't endure this and the other problems I've got now. It's too much.

I would think you'll be ok mate. External things like noise from kicking a door won't have actually done any damage to you're nervous system.

 

[dan]

One bang like that isn't enough to cause much damage - I'd say wear ear protection for the next 3 months whenever you are outside and the ears will heal fine.
I had a very loud steel door slam on me a right a few seconds after I removed my ear plugs - and my T went up for a week and ears felt clogged but eventually it did improve.

The older you get the slower those ears heal so you cannot compare with how long it took to improve years ago.

Also - as a prevention measure - there are studies that show that the following items protect hair cells from future noise damage:

- NAC with L-Carnitine
-Hydrogen (added to water or inhaled)
-LLLT therapy
-Heat Shock proteins

In addition to wearing my x5a ear muffs pretty much all the time when outside , I am using all the above everyday - no more regrets !
Its hard to treat past noise induced T but there are a several good options for future prevention .

Like this?

 

[Bobby B]

yep - those are the best !
that white line looks weird so I paint over it and having hair on top of your head helps with the looks , muffs or not no question but..who cares at the end of the day its your ears

I bought all sorts of ear muffs some claim 34 db but are way less effective in real life and less comfortable

 

[Eric N]

Hi Rust,

Yah Unfortunately I am going through a similar issue I shouted in anger for only a second or two in my car and for a month now my T has significantly increased and shows no signs of improvement as of yet. I don't understand it, a hearing test showed my hearing has not changed in the last two years. The person I shouted at in the passenger's seat got no issues from my shout. Loud noises do make tinnitus worse but I think it's for some other cause than hearing damage.

Perhaps the sudden anger?

 

[matt89]

The older you get the slower those ears heal so you cannot compare with how long it took to improve years ago.

Where do you get such information? Any evidence that noise damaged hair cells causing T "heal" on its own?

 

[dan]

yep - those are the best !
that white line looks weird so I paint over it and having hair on top of your head helps with the looks , muffs or not no question but..who cares at the end of the day its your ears

I bought all sorts of ear muffs some claim 34 db but are way less effective in real life and less comfortable

Actually I have the exact same model and yes they are the MOST effective of ALL muffs on the market right now, I wear them on flights, if I have to do some housework or opening a vacuum pack lol.
Idk about wearing them all the time outside though- haha would get a lot of weird looks I presume - Im too vain.

 

[Sailboardman]

@Rust,

For what it's worth, read a book called "The Divided Mind," by Dr. John Sarno, or Goggle him. It's about repressed anger in the subconscious mind and how it can create physical conditions in our bodies.

 

[quietatnight]

Rust

I'm sorry about your spike, it's very good chance that you will recover, one door bang is just not enough to cause lasting damage. I bet that your anxiety is messing with your mind more then the sound did.

Those gun muffs look huge, Mine are half that size and work fine. I would be more concerned about the bones in the face picking up noise, headphones can only protect so much. I mean most of them are about the same DB rating. But was we all know it's the pitch that counts.


Good Luck

Louie
Quietatnight

 

[Bobby B]

Where do you get such information? Any evidence that noise damaged hair cells causing T "heal" on its own?

Most noise T improves over months and even dissapears if your lucky . That's because the ears can heal to a certain degree if the damage isn't very extensive , like in this example , And - very important - you protect your ears during this long time .

The body has the ability to heal ears to some degree but you need to be patient it takes a long time but if you ask any ENT he will say that the majority of cases improve over time

. You don't see that posted here much because people on these forums only come back when it gets worse like the OP...so we get the impression that it never gets better which isn't exactly true.

 

[Bobby B]

A lot of people mentioned that their t went from very loud at first to much better over time - with hearing levels improving as well - it may never go back to pre t levels but it improves hence the body is able to heal if not it would never change at all .
My own t went from super loud hiss to a soft wind sound now and hearing got back to where I cannot notice much difference from before but it took months and I also do LLLT and take a bunch of stuff like mentioned here.

 

[Karl28]

I dont really think that did serious damage and it was for what only like less then a second

Maybe if you were slamming the door over and over again like 50 times then it might do damage.

 

[Foncky]

Actually I have the exact same model and yes they are the MOST effective of ALL muffs on the market right now, I wear them on flights, if I have to do some housework or opening a vacuum pack lol.
Idk about wearing them all the time outside though- haha would get a lot of weird looks I presume - Im too vain.

You might check out the Peltor X4A, still good in moderate noise (city traffic for instance) and not too bulky. I don't get too much weird looks with it, as some people think it's just a colorful headphone : http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/...iz-X4A?N=5023508+3294470122+3294857473&rt=rud

 

[Bobby B]

Looks good - but they do only 27 Db which is about half the power reduction of the 31 Db x5a . Even cheap foam ear plugs do much better than that...

I have the Peltor 101 which do 27 and it's okay for back street moderate noise and inside cars but not subways and planes and Sirenes and loud trucks and bikes and so forth


I am pretty sure no one really cares what you wear maybe they wonder if those big ones are new types of headphones hence the look .. If I am going to wear earmuffs all the time those may be as well the best available

People in my office still think those are fancy wireless Bluetooth headphones

 

[Foncky]

What numbers are you looking at Bobby B ?

X4A Snr = 33dB
X5A Snr = 37 dB

The protection the X4A offers is really impressive for its size (don't be confused by the X1A which has the same width and colour but has a Snr of just 27dB).

Page 3 : http://multimedia.3m.com/mws/media/873583O/3m-peltor-x-series-ear-muffs-datasheet.pdf

The Snr number doesn't tell all the story : at 4000Hz and 8000Hz (where NIHL occurs first), the X4A is as good (even a little bit more effective) as the X5A.

Just saying that if someone does not want to wear big earmuffs in the street because of the looks you get, the X4A is far better than nothing. I often couple it with 3M 1100 earplugs.

But yes, the X5A (or the Optime III, quite comfortable) is the one when you don't care about what others may think.

 

[Bobby B]

I am talking about the NRR = nose reduction rating which is used to subtract from environment noise levels in real situations

On my x5a box the explanation is there. It says 31 is the NRR you get, so if you stay in 92 db place you get 61 db into the ears - that's what Peltor is writing about their product

For the x4a the NRR is 27

But yes - much better than nothing. I use the x5a because I don't like earplugs for too long and with these you don't need plugs


This T / hearing loss thing is a long haul ride and you should do what you think is best for your ears

 

[Sara_Bond]

My own t went from super loud hiss to a soft wind sound now and hearing got back to where I cannot notice much difference from before but it took months and I also do LLLT and take a bunch of stuff like mentioned here.

Hey Bobby,

Do you really think that after a long time T noise induced can go better over time?

 

[Bobby B]

that depends on what you mean by long time and how well you protect your ears during that time

 

[Foncky]

I am talking about the NRR = nose reduction rating which is used to subtract from environment noise levels in real situations

On my x5a box the explanation is there. It says 31 is the NRR you get, so if you stay in 92 db place you get 61 db into the ears - that's what Peltor is writing about their product

For the x4a the NRR is 27

But yes - much better than nothing. I use the x5a because I don't like earplugs for too long and with these you don't need plugs

This T / hearing loss thing is a long haul ride and you should do what you think is best for your ears

Ok ! From what I understand, NRR is the US norm and SNR is the European rating. Go figure...
But I think it's always useful to look at the level of expected attenuation for each frequency, high pitch sounds being the first danger we face.

In the end, yes, it's all personal. When a place seems too loud, protection or not, it probably is too loud

 

[PaulBe]

Blood pressure spike?

 

[Rust]

Hello all, I just want to say thank you all so much for your responses. I haven't been ignoring them and please don't think of me as rude for not yet replying.

I have just been pretty stressed out by this all and not felt up to writing replies.

I will be back to reply shortly though hopefully!
R

 

[jeanoroid]

Ok - just putting this out there (and I acknowledge everyone's T experience is different than mine) but wearing that type of hearing protection for extended periods / in regular sound environments does not seem like a great idea.
To a certainty doing that in the past has made my H worsen - and later I read in several articles etc info that confirmed that. You don't want to lower your threshold as such - and it definitely will screw with habituation..

 

[RB2014]

99.9% of all of these episodes will correct themselves over time. I really don't think you did any damage, but even with extreme hearing damage people can still reach habituation. Try not to agonize over this as you know it makes it worst. You need to not give this any thought and move on. Once you do this is goes back to how it was before.

 

[Rust]

99.9% of all of these episodes will correct themselves over time. I really don't think you did any damage, but even with extreme hearing damage people can still reach habituation. Try not to agonize over this as you know it makes it worst. You need to not give this any thought and move on. Once you do this is goes back to how it was before.

Thank you my friend