Loud Music Through AirPods Pro to Cope with My Surroundings — Now Struggling with Tinnitus

[messedupmyears]

Hey I'm new to this forum and I really need some advice, I was being stupid and listening to music too loudly in order to drown out the noise of my surroundings and now I'm pretty sure I have permanent hearing loss and tinnitus.


I'll provide some details for better understanding and insight:

I had a very disruptive environment for my living situation and psychologically felt I needed to blast music in my ears to cope with my surroundings. I used AirPods Pros, so they were plastic and metal Bluetooth in-ear listening devices at the loudest volume, averaging 12 hours a day of this habit for over a year. I somehow didn't realize that the music gradually becoming slightly less loud over time at maximum volume indicated hearing loss... hindsight is everything I guess...

Fast forward to November/December 2020 when the ringing became very noticeable. I was still in that environment so I continued playing music loudly (electronic music with highly variable frequencies at that...). In early-mid January I changed my living arrangement in order to be in a quieter environment, and at the end of January I noticed an improvement even though I still listened to music (at a lower volume). Music is just a part of me, I don't know what else to say about it. It only makes this tougher.

At the end of January I remember enjoying meditating without music, and if that's the case it means I wouldn't have been experiencing tinnitus at that point in time. After a few days I decided to start playing music again and played some songs that I like very loud.

The ringing noise is back and worse than ever, and when I listen to those songs I last played the frequency of the common high note is that of my constant ringing... so it's as if the song specifics (in addition to the loud noise) reactivated my tinnitus.

Needless to say I've stopped listening to music and all noise whatsoever, but it's just getting worse. I can't fall asleep until nearly 5am, and only sleep for a few hours...


An interesting symptom:

The loudness of the ringing has a direct increase when thinking, meaning when thinking a sentence in my head the ringing increases when every syllable is thought.

Also when I push a stressing feeling internally on my forehead the noise increases as well.

That part seams neurological to me, but the source of the ringing is most definitely hearing loss and excessively loud music being blasted in my ear canal at dangerous levels.

It seems my hearing is otherwise ok, it's all relative though so I'm unsure. The inner ear definitely feels muffled if that's an indication of anything.


As for treatment:

Since it's still in the first few months of the debilitating tinnitus itself, I'm likely going to try Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy treatments since it looks like that can help but must be done early on, and the longer you wait on it the less likely it is to help.

I'll be seeing an ENT and Audiologist soon to see if there could be any other underlying issues and how else they can help.


I don't know what else to do, and I would really appreciate some advice from people that know more about this. The loud music was stupid, and won't be done again since the tinnitus could still reappear if I'm able to get it under better control. It'll be minimal noise for awhile, ironic since there'll be noise now all the time.

Are there any other treatment types that should be done as early as possible? I need to do everything I can, I'm still in my 20's and need to be able to hear and think clearly for the rest of my days. This is miserable and I can't continue like this so I need to do everything I possibly can.

Also would appreciate some thoughts on the specifics of this tinnitus as I know there's various types, and what your opinion is on the outlook of this. I also don't know the different parts of the ear that's likely affected in this scenario. It's obviously impossible to know, I'm just very anxious about this. It feels like my life is already over... If I can get the tinnitus under control early on and hopefully have it disappear I'll do everything I can to protect my ears and avoid this situation in the future.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this, I know it is a lot and your responses are greatly appreciated. I pray for the best of luck with everyone's health as well.

 

[Digital Doc]

Classic noise induced tinnitus. No more loud music, and toss the earbuds. The ear fullness goes with the acoustic trauma. Protect from further loud noises, and there is a good chance this will improve over months to years. Ask your ENT about a course of steroids which can be helpful early on.

 

[messedupmyears]

Classic noise induced tinnitus. No more loud music, and toss the earbuds. The ear fullness goes with the acoustic trauma. Protect from further loud noises, and there is a good chance this will improve over months to years. Ask your ENT about a course of steroids which can be helpful early on.

Thanks for the reply, yes I'm definitely avoiding all music probably for a number of months... it'll be a decision that I'll have to make to ensure better health in the future.

Those headphones were probably the stupidest piece of audio equipment I could've possibly been using for my ears from a hardware perspective. Yes they're designed well for the product that it is, but over-ear headphones would be much safer, as well as as in-ear earbuds with more padding. This blast music reverberating off of plastic and metal directly into your ear canals... Who knows about the Bluetooth thing, but the unit itself cannot be considered safe. I figured that they made all products safe but clearly not... I listened to them for about 5,000 hours the last year at 100% volume assuming they're safe to use... Now I'm going deaf...

I'm hoping it goes away, there's a chance it does and there's a chance it doesn't. The biggest thing I learned from this situation is that hearing loss (at least for me) isn't something I thought about until it actually happened, and even so I didn't take seriously until it got worse and now I have to make lifestyle changes to improve it. Hopefully it gets better.

 

[Digital Doc]

I would avoid all music for now, and all earbuds, AirPods, and headphones forevermore. The Bluetooth makes no difference, but 100% volume is damn loud.

I can listen to music at low volume, but only an external speaker without issue, but have to monitor the volume and turn it down constantly.

Hope you get feeling better soon!

 

[ajc]

I would definitely still take a course of Prednisone, even though you're already past the sweet window of opportunity (within 24-48 hours of tinnitus onset), but there's still a chance.

 

[Elvira]

If you have ringing in the ear, not too loud, for 2 1/2 mos, no hearing loss detected from a hearing test, would you go to a NY Knicks Game at Madison Sq Garden? Wouln't that be too loud even with the Eargasm High Fidelity Ear plugs?