My Acoustic Trauma (Jackhammer) Induced Tinnitus Has Got Much Better

[Mymlan]

Hi there,

I got tinnitus back in April 2019. It was bad, really bad, 10/10 bad. My tinnitus played 13 different tones in both ears. I heard noises of whistling, beeping, ringing, drones, humming, you name it! I had hyperacusis. I had tinnitus that kept me awake all nights for a couple of months. I had disoriented hearing. That's why I could hear my tinnitus over every external sound. Not even the shower could mask it. My ears were swollen and hurt badly. I wanted to die. You can read my old threads from back then if you like to know what happened and how much I suffered.

My short back story is that I got tinnitus from a loud noise in a tunnel, it was a 130-140 dB sound from a jackhammer working on concrete. It literally hammered my hearing away. Well I never lost my hearing but I got this so called "hidden" hearing loss.

Time passed... I just gave it time and patience. I protected my hearing by being careful. This part was so hard. I wanted my old life back, I got depressed, my life was ruined. Everything. Tinnitus took my life away. But, it started to get better. The changes were so subtle that I almost didn't notice them, but they did happen.

I was about 3 years in when I really could see a big difference. Both tinnitus and hyperacusis started to disappear more and more. The disoriented hearing totally vanished after about two years. My 13 tinnitus tones disappeared one after another... I still got some left, but today, from 10/10 bad (I would say 12/10 bad), I'm at 1/10. I hardly notice my tinnitus anymore. It's just a faint ringing and a soft hiss/cricket. Some noises still hurt my ears but I protect them if anything gets too loud.

I can finally live a normal life. I work, I hang out with friends and with my adorable daughter. She's the reason why I just kept on moving forward and she made me brave. She's my heart She went with me in the tunnel that day when it all happened, at only 9 months old. But guess what? She hasn't got tinnitus! All these years I worried so bad for her hearing. Today she is five years old. Big girl!

I never worry about my tinnitus, I worry more about my disastrous dating life.

So what I want to say is that I used to be someone with bad tinnitus, but it truly healed. All I really could do was to give it time, patience and to be careful, and I'm still careful. But I live my life fully. I'm finally free. Tinnitus and hyperacusis are not my biggest issues anymore.

What I'm trying to say is that noise-induced tinnitus and hyperacusis can get better with time. Protect your hearing, live healthy and try to just keep on going. It can get better

 

[Kevin Zeller]

Thanks so much for sharing.

I recently got acoustic trauma from shooting guns. I'm on day 31 and it's horrible. I hope I can heal just like you.

 

[Marcuso22]

Could you please give us specific insight on what you did to 'treat' your tinnitus & hyperacusis over those 3 years? You simply said that just by being careful you went from extremely troublesome tinnitus & hyperacusis to nearly no tinnitus & hyperacusis over a 3 year period.

 

[MadeleineHope]

Thanks so much for sharing your recovery story @Mymlan! How amazing it must feel to get your life back after suffering so much for so long. I'm so glad you held on both for yourself & your little girl.

I myself have been struggling with tinnitus & severe hyperacusis for over 9 months now, & I'm wondering whether you would be willing to share some more about your experience & recovery from hyperacusis.

For example, what symptoms did you experience, & how much did they restrict your everyday activities? Were you able to function in the community, or were you essentially homebound? Were you able to tolerate sound from speakers (e.g., phone, TV, music speakers)?

And to what extent/in which circumstances did you protect your ears? And to what extent do you protect now?

Thanks!
Maddy

 

[DeanD]

This is such an incredible story - I am so very very pleased for you!

Thank you for sharing. I know this will give hope to many sufferers out there.

 

[AnthonyMcDonald]

Could you please give us specific insight on what you did to 'treat' your tinnitus & hyperacusis over those 3 years? You simply said that just by being careful you went from extremely troublesome tinnitus & hyperacusis to nearly no tinnitus & hyperacusis over a 3 year period.

This. She didn't do anything, as I understood, just waited and was careful. It was the same for me.

What I'm trying to say is that noise-induced tinnitus and hyperacusis can get better with time

Time passed... I just gave it time and patience. I protected my hearing by being careful

 

[tiniturk]

What an amazing story, very happy for you! Could you please enlighten us as to what you exactly did to get better? Stopped going to concerts, stopped using headphones, wearing protection everywhere, et cetera?

 

[Jupiterman]

Many congratulations on what was clearly a severe case to near complete recovery.

Four years to get there but worth the wait I'm sure.

 

[Mymlan]

Thanks so much for sharing.

I recently got acoustic trauma from shooting guns. I'm on day 31 and it's horrible. I hope I can heal just like you.

I understand what you must be going through right now :/ I hope that you will heal with time. The first months are often the worst. At least they were for me. I hope you stay strong.

Could you please give us specific insight on what you did to 'treat' your tinnitus & hyperacusis over those 3 years? You simply said that just by being careful you went from extremely troublesome tinnitus & hyperacusis to nearly no tinnitus & hyperacusis over a 3 year period.

I didn't really 'treat' my tinnitus and hyperacusis. I gave it plenty of time and tried to rest my ears, especially the first 1-1.5 year. I covered my ears when anything got too loud, and I even used customized earplugs. I work in preschool... hehe.

Thanks so much for sharing your recovery story @Mymlan! How amazing it must feel to get your life back after suffering so much for so long. I'm so glad you held on both for yourself & your little girl.

I myself have been struggling with tinnitus & severe hyperacusis for over 9 months now, & I'm wondering whether you would be willing to share some more about your experience & recovery from hyperacusis.

For example, what symptoms did you experience, & how much did they restrict your everyday activities? Were you able to function in the community, or were you essentially homebound? Were you able to tolerate sound from speakers (e.g., phone, TV, music speakers)?

And to what extent/in which circumstances did you protect your ears? And to what extent do you protect now?

Thanks!
Maddy

The first year was the worst. I had to protect my ears almost all the time. I had to be careful wherever I went - mostly if I went outside my house. Anything felt too loud, my hyperacusis was really bad (8-9/10 bad). Even some people's voices felt very loud, and sometimes I had to leave the room and exclude myself This was horrible and nobody would understand.

So I just protected my hearing when anything felt loud for my ears. I tried not to care about people telling me that I was overprotecting. Many people thought that I was a weirdo.

My best advice is to try and think of it like having a broken leg. You cannot stand on that leg. It must be protected until it'll heal. Ears take forever to heal, this I knew. It's a slow process.

My first months with tinnitus I was basically homebound, yes, and depressed as well. In time I slowly started to introduce things and activities back into my life. But no loud bars and especially no concerts! (I will never go to a concert again, not worth it).

Today I don't have to protect all the time, I just cover my ears if there's a loud sound like sirens, drilling, yelling. Sometimes there can be a loud sudden noise that surprises me but my ears don't really hurt from it. Mostly I'm just fine. In the beginning this was not the case and I got spikes from almost anything. I think my ears got 'stronger' with time as they healed.

What an amazing story, very happy for you! Could you please enlighten us as to what you exactly did to get better? Stopped going to concerts, stopped using headphones, wearing protection everywhere, et cetera?

I didn't go often to concerts before the trauma. But no, no more concerts!

I stopped using headphones for a while, but now I use them at a lower volume, I love music!

The "no headphones ever again" advice is not good for everyone. For me using headphones just doesn't make any difference anymore. However, I did put them away for at least 1-2 years.

Protect your ears until you feel better. The healing is slow and can also be very individual.

 

[hopefuldede]

Simply thank you for returning to give hope and for confirming that the passage of time (and of course being sensible in that time) is the greatest healer.

 

[MadeleineHope]

Thanks so much for sharing @Mymlan! I wonder, did you also experience burning pain in your ears & TTTS symptoms (e.g., ear fullness, sensation of fluttering in the ear(s) )? And how were you with artificial audio - was it a problem for you or were you okay with it?

Congrats again on your recovery - and doing it while raising a small child, too!

 

[Juliane]

@Mymlan, thanks for sharing your success story. You bring hope to a lot of people.

Like you, I had an acoustic trauma on New Year's Eve when some idiots decided to light a firecracker next to me. It is hell.

May I ask if you took any medication during your recovery period? Any antidepressants or sleeping pills?

Or did you just power through with no meds?

 

[Mymlan]

@Mymlan, thanks for sharing your success story. You bring hope to a lot of people.

Like you, I had an acoustic trauma on New Year's Eve when some idiots decided to light a firecracker next to me. It is hell.

May I ask if you took any medication during your recovery period? Any antidepressants or sleeping pills?

Or did you just power through with no meds?

Oh, how stupid to destroy someone else's life like that! Upsetting!

No, I never took any medication, antidepressants, sleeping pills or such. I did quit alcohol and coffee for the first months, but I don't think that it made any difference at all. The damage was already there. I just focused on healing by giving it time (years).

 

[ErikaS]

Hi there,

I got tinnitus back in April 2019. It was bad, really bad, 10/10 bad. My tinnitus played 13 different tones in both ears. I heard noises of whistling, beeping, ringing, drones, humming, you name it! I had hyperacusis. I had tinnitus that kept me awake all nights for a couple of months. I had disoriented hearing. That's why I could hear my tinnitus over every external sound. Not even the shower could mask it. My ears were swollen and hurt badly. I wanted to die. You can read my old threads from back then if you like to know what happened and how much I suffered.

My short back story is that I got tinnitus from a loud noise in a tunnel, it was a 130-140 dB sound from a jackhammer working on concrete. It literally hammered my hearing away. Well I never lost my hearing but I got this so called "hidden" hearing loss.

Time passed... I just gave it time and patience. I protected my hearing by being careful. This part was so hard. I wanted my old life back, I got depressed, my life was ruined. Everything. Tinnitus took my life away. But, it started to get better. The changes were so subtle that I almost didn't notice them, but they did happen.

I was about 3 years in when I really could see a big difference. Both tinnitus and hyperacusis started to disappear more and more. The disoriented hearing totally vanished after about two years. My 13 tinnitus tones disappeared one after another... I still got some left, but today, from 10/10 bad (I would say 12/10 bad), I'm at 1/10. I hardly notice my tinnitus anymore. It's just a faint ringing and a soft hiss/cricket. Some noises still hurt my ears but I protect them if anything gets too loud.

I can finally live a normal life. I work, I hang out with friends and with my adorable daughter. She's the reason why I just kept on moving forward and she made me brave. She's my heart She went with me in the tunnel that day when it all happened, at only 9 months old. But guess what? She hasn't got tinnitus! All these years I worried so bad for her hearing. Today she is five years old. Big girl!

I never worry about my tinnitus, I worry more about my disastrous dating life.

So what I want to say is that I used to be someone with bad tinnitus, but it truly healed. All I really could do was to give it time, patience and to be careful, and I'm still careful. But I live my life fully. I'm finally free. Tinnitus and hyperacusis are not my biggest issues anymore.

What I'm trying to say is that noise-induced tinnitus and hyperacusis can get better with time. Protect your hearing, live healthy and try to just keep on going. It can get better

Thank you for sharing your story and healing success! It is very helpful to many of us on Tinnitus Talk. Just two questions for you...

1. Was your multi-sound tinnitus reactive to sound, as in did it worsen in reaction to sound in your environment? If so, when did you notice that the tinnitus stopped being so sensitive / reactive to sound?

2. What month was it that you started to slowly return to things such as activities, work, etc? I understand this was with constant ear protection/custom earplugs but just curious when you were able to gradually introduce normal life things.

 

[Nick47]

@Mymlan, thanks for sharing. I really think time is a healer. You can certainly overprotect and make the hyperacusis worse, but avoiding loud noise exposure is equally important. Sound enrichment by everyday sounds seems to be more successful than white noise generators which have worsened some people. Besides the fact that there is no robust evidence for TRT.

 

[Jupiterman]

I think this is one of the best success stories ever posted.

It's a textbook example of how time, quietness and patience eventually pays off.

As @Mymlan says, this was very hard to do but she persevered and reaped the Gold, Silver and Bronze prizes; tinnitus reduced to negligible, back at work and life back.

If everyone did what @Mymlan did, there would be a lot less posts on this forum.

All of us should take heed of the lessons here. Ears CAN heal, albeit very sloooooooly, if you give them the time (YEARS!) and space to do so.

Like so many of us (me included), the inability to resist life's activities, taking risks here and there, we're only doing more damage and pushing these medals further away into the future.

The more I read your story @Mymlan, the more respect I have. You are an awesome beacon of hope.

You totally deserve your success. Enjoy your life and live well.

 

[jjflyman]

This is a wonderful success story! When people get tinnitus they often think their life is over, and wonder how there can be such a horrible thing as tinnitus, and most had never even heard of it before. Well, the fact is that most acute acoustic trauma induced tinnitus will resolve itself in 6-24 months. It just takes a very long time to fade away.

Protect your ears from loud noise from now on!

 

[MadeleineHope]

@Mymlan, not sure if you're still around, but I forgot to ask, did you ever experience TTTS (Tonic Tensor Tympani Syndrome), & if so, what was your experience with that like?

Cheers,
Maddy

 

[Keith Handy]

This is one of the best accounts I've read on here recently, thank you. I'll be hitting three years in a few months, and improvements have been glacially slow; but whenever I do something I haven't done in several months—go certain places, listen to certain sounds under certain conditions, etc.—I can tell there's a difference. Stories like this helped me through the worst parts in the early months, and hopefully our own stories will help some people in the same way.

 

[WCJohn]

It is so good to hear a story of healing! Makes me believe that we can all do it. For some, with time, for some, with treatment, but, in the end, all us. God, I hope so.

Thank you for posting this @Mymlan.

 

[gameover]

@Mymlan, thank you so much for your story. Lately there has been a dearth of such stories, so yours truly gives hope to new sufferers like me (I am 7 months since the trauma).

Thank you again.

 

[4Grace]

@Mymlan, this is the best string of posts I have read in my life time! Thank you so much for sharing.

 

[Pixelito]

If you're relatively young, you have a good chance of healing from tinnitus. If you're on the wrong side of 40, or close to your 50s, it can actually get worse.

 

[JJJ147]

@Mymlan, can I ask if you had any earache or ear pain? If so, how long did it take to resolve?

So glad to hear that you have recovered well. It gives hope to the rest of us. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Blackbird1016]

Hi there,

I got tinnitus back in April 2019. It was bad, really bad, 10/10 bad. My tinnitus played 13 different tones in both ears. I heard noises of whistling, beeping, ringing, drones, humming, you name it! I had hyperacusis. I had tinnitus that kept me awake all nights for a couple of months. I had disoriented hearing. That's why I could hear my tinnitus over every external sound. Not even the shower could mask it. My ears were swollen and hurt badly. I wanted to die. You can read my old threads from back then if you like to know what happened and how much I suffered.

My short back story is that I got tinnitus from a loud noise in a tunnel, it was a 130-140 dB sound from a jackhammer working on concrete. It literally hammered my hearing away. Well I never lost my hearing but I got this so called "hidden" hearing loss.

Time passed... I just gave it time and patience. I protected my hearing by being careful. This part was so hard. I wanted my old life back, I got depressed, my life was ruined. Everything. Tinnitus took my life away. But, it started to get better. The changes were so subtle that I almost didn't notice them, but they did happen.

I was about 3 years in when I really could see a big difference. Both tinnitus and hyperacusis started to disappear more and more. The disoriented hearing totally vanished after about two years. My 13 tinnitus tones disappeared one after another... I still got some left, but today, from 10/10 bad (I would say 12/10 bad), I'm at 1/10. I hardly notice my tinnitus anymore. It's just a faint ringing and a soft hiss/cricket. Some noises still hurt my ears but I protect them if anything gets too loud.

I can finally live a normal life. I work, I hang out with friends and with my adorable daughter. She's the reason why I just kept on moving forward and she made me brave. She's my heart She went with me in the tunnel that day when it all happened, at only 9 months old. But guess what? She hasn't got tinnitus! All these years I worried so bad for her hearing. Today she is five years old. Big girl!

I never worry about my tinnitus, I worry more about my disastrous dating life.

So what I want to say is that I used to be someone with bad tinnitus, but it truly healed. All I really could do was to give it time, patience and to be careful, and I'm still careful. But I live my life fully. I'm finally free. Tinnitus and hyperacusis are not my biggest issues anymore.

What I'm trying to say is that noise-induced tinnitus and hyperacusis can get better with time. Protect your hearing, live healthy and try to just keep on going. It can get better

This was really good to read. Thanks for sharing.

 

[RHL]

If you're relatively young, you have a good chance of healing from tinnitus. If you're on the wrong side of 40, or close to your 50s, it can actually get worse.

I initially got mild tinnitus from a referee whistle, but it got severe from shooting guns at age 64 without enough hearing protection. But I slowly managed to improve it over the past 2.5 years by protecting my ears very carefully with earplugs and noise-canceling AirPods, until just recently when I attended an award ceremony in NYC that was between 80 dB with occasional spikes to 90 dB for a few hours (measured on my Apple Watch app). I actually thought I was fine at those levels, but wow, was I wrong.

Now am having trouble sleeping, super-loud hissing at around 65-70 dB (which I figured out by hissing into my Apple Watch at the equivalent level). I had a sudden regression and now back to where I was 2.5 years ago.

But I've proven to myself that we can still recover even after 50. Just have to start again.

 

[gameover]

I initially got mild tinnitus from a referee whistle, but it got severe from shooting guns at age 64 without enough hearing protection. But I slowly managed to improve it over the past 2.5 years by protecting my ears very carefully with earplugs and noise-canceling AirPods, until just recently when I attended an award ceremony in NYC that was between 80 dB with occasional spikes to 90 dB for a few hours (measured on my Apple Watch app). I actually thought I was fine at those levels, but wow, was I wrong.

Now am having trouble sleeping, super-loud hissing at around 65-70 dB (which I figured out by hissing into my Apple Watch at the equivalent level). I had a sudden regression and now back to where I was 2.5 years ago.

But I've proven to myself that we can still recover even after 50. Just have to start again.

It just proves again and again that damaged ears are susceptible to further damage at below normal "safe" levels. WTF audiologist can get that into their thick skulls?

It does make sense when you think about the structure of the hair cells. Many little cells interconnected. As these connections are broken, it takes less force to damage them further. Less force = lower sound intensity.

Thank you for sharing your experience and the warning for those who improve/heal, at least those who suffered hearing damage (neurological tinnitus, e.g., due to meds might be a different story) - our ears are not back to normal and never will be, unless we invent ways to regenerate the inner ear!

 

[Jupiterman]

But I slowly managed to improve it over the past 2.5 years by protecting my ears very carefully with earplugs and noise-canceling AirPods

Can you describe the improvement?

Was it a reduction in tinnitus volume or your acceptance?

 

[RHL]

Can you describe the improvement?

Was it a reduction in tinnitus volume or your acceptance?

It was a reduction in volume! And since I was already habituating, it made habituation even easier when I realized it was better.

 

[Fields]

I initially got mild tinnitus from a referee whistle, but it got severe from shooting guns at age 64 without enough hearing protection. But I slowly managed to improve it over the past 2.5 years by protecting my ears very carefully with earplugs and noise-canceling AirPods, until just recently when I attended an award ceremony in NYC that was between 80 dB with occasional spikes to 90 dB for a few hours (measured on my Apple Watch app). I actually thought I was fine at those levels, but wow, was I wrong.

Now am having trouble sleeping, super-loud hissing at around 65-70 dB (which I figured out by hissing into my Apple Watch at the equivalent level). I had a sudden regression and now back to where I was 2.5 years ago.

But I've proven to myself that we can still recover even after 50. Just have to start again.

Thanks for your story. I'm going through a bad regression after having healed/habituated for the better part of 4 years. It provides me with some hope that I might habituate a 2nd time, or hold out long enough for something like Susan Shore's device.

The regression was due to an (acoustic) accident that I probably couldn't have prevented – but similar to you, perhaps I had grown a little too optimistic with protecting my hearing.