Making Tinnitus Worse and Habituation

[geg1992]

Hi all,
I'm concerned about making tinnitus worse and have not been able to find out an answer regarding noise exposure.

For example, is it more likely that short bursts of say 100decibels will just cause a tempoary rise?

Whereas longer term exposure (say 5 minutes) at 100 decibels will most likely cause a permanent increase?

I just worry as for example a plate smashing, someone laugh or something may make it permanently worse. Or should I follow the normal guideline such as 85db for 8 hours then half the time every 3 decibel increase? Or is it a case of we have to be extra careful, say 4 hours for 85db? Or is it completely random to each person?


Also habituation - I see some people mention that they can no longer hear the tinnitus because your brain no longer worries about it. Others say they have habituated but still hear it, but see it as it no longer bothers them.

So is habituating when it goes away as you're used to it, or is it just getting over it?

Thanks!

 

[Paul201]

Im no expert and wonder about these types of things myself, but I doubt things like a plate smashing, loud laugh etc will have any lasting effect on someones T. Its just not possible to wrap yourself in cotton wool and avoid all loud noise. Avoid building sites, close to motor bikes, loud movies/music etc and hope for the best OR buy some ear plugs and wear them out all the time

As for habituating, I think its just ignoring the T noise, like you would noise in a background eg. if you had a TV with a static hiss and whine in the background you would soon just ignore it

Im trying to figure out if some of the noise im exposed to is safe too, seems the general view is 85 or decibels and lower and even in recovery it should be ok