Poll: How Often Do You Wear Earplugs?

[geg1992]

Also, how has your tinnitus progressed?

 

[RicoS]

when I use earplugs my T sounds much louder because it is blocking my ears. So I only wear them sometimes

 

[geg1992]

when I use earplugs my T sounds much louder because it is blocking my ears. So I only wear them sometimes

Thanks for your input. I accidentally selected every time I leave the house! It's actually only loud events at the moment. It's jnteresting that 80% of people so far either never wear them or only do in loud situations. How has yours progressed if you don't mind me asking?

 

[Sharpfire]

I've always worn earplugs in loud situations (clubs, loud bars, etc) long before I got tinnitus in order to prevent hearing loss/tinnitus. Since I ended up getting tinnitus anyway, my use of earplugs has been increased to include traffic, trains, and most things above standard volume.

 

[RicoS]

Thanks for your input. I accidentally selected every time I leave the house! It's actually only loud events at the moment. It's jnteresting that 80% of people so far either never wear them or only do in loud situations. How has yours progressed if you don't mind me asking?

My T is the same as it was 6 months after onset (before that it was extremely loud).... I was habituated but for some reason since 1.5 week it realy bothers me again....I could sleep with it without masking and I could not care less. But all of a sudden I hate it again....so perhaps I must habituat again....realy weird

I have mild T I guess because it is easly masked with the slidest sound...but now for some reason my mind keeps searching for it everywhere. It was just from one day to another that I went from habituated to the scary reaction and irritation I had in the beginning.

All does thoughts of ... "It will never be silent again!"... "Why me?" .... "What if it becomes louder?" ... "Will this spike remain (always went away after 10 seconds) ;-) ?"...

I know it is a state of mind thing now so I will overcome it again, but still....you feel what you feel and now I feel bothered by it.

The thing that irritates me the most at the moment is that I sometimes do not know if it's my T I am hearing of imagine it or it a sound for some device what I am focused on at that moment.
One thing is for sure when you do that.... your to busy with your T

Normaly I mask it a little with bird sounds or something through my phone, but I just want silence for 10 seconds so I fight T .....but T will always win ...

Perhaps after a few weeks I'm back to being habituated again and this is just a fase or something. I just had a major depression and my focus was on that...but that is going away now so my mind has to jump on something else I guess and that is T.

 

[Beth]

I have never worn ear plugs because I don't go anywhere too noisy. I know some people wear them in all sorts of situations where it's not even that loud but I think over protecting your ears can be a bad thing as hyperacusis could develop so I just avoid really loud noises and carry on as normal otherwise.

 

[Legin]

I find ear plugs affect my balance problem

 

[UserID]

I lived many years following my military enlistment with tinnitus without knowledge enough to know the simplest truths about my condition. It was many years later, after it got to be the most prominent inner trait of my life, that I began to reach for everything and anything in search of a cure.

The noise in my head began in 1972 and rose to the height of torment around 1993-95 at which time I was willing to fly anywhere in the world to ask whatever guru sat on a mountain top for the magic words or lifestyle, and spent thousands of dollars for various devices including a Neuromonics unit.

Today, T is still with me, but I am, to a greater degree habituated as I continue to listen to mitigating sounds on a daily basis. Some days are surprisingly low level while others can rage. Medications probably play a small part in the ups and downs, as does the very intense stress of my job.
David

 

[erik]

I only wear plugs in very loud situations. I do freelance camera work for televised sporting events such as hockey, basketball and american football and those arenas can get extremely loud so I do wear them. Otherwise, I try not to over protect. I have mild hyperacusis in addition to my noise.

 

[Chelles]

There should be an option "only when my ear is twitching ".

 

[Zimichael]

There should be an option for something like: "When I leave the house but not when walking in the woods, or in my car with windows closed, or in a quiet part of town, or sitting at an outdoor bench talking to a friend who is aware not to yell or sneeze in my ear, etc., etc., etc."

The "when I leave the house" option takes no account of actual "need for use", or "in cautionary preparation for potential loud sounds" situations for earplugs.

Thus I have not answered the questionnaire...However, whenever I leave the house I DO have three types of earplugs in my pocket - always. 6dB + "impact" plugs; 25 dB etymotics; pull baffle plugs with maybe 35 dB protection...Ready for anything except getting run over by a fire truck or ambulance at close range.

Best, Zimichael

 

[marqualler]

I answered this:

Only in loud situations such as concerts, bars, some loud restaurants

For me, I get a literal feeling of pain in my tinnitus ear (left ear) if I am sitting in a loud setting like a sporting event (like the one I went to last night) if I'm not wearing plugs. My tinnitus is more noticeable with plugs but it certainly beats the potential of further noise damage and the actual pain I feel there.

 

[Vikram]

With my 'T', it has been the same low to medium annoying tone and volume (except for only 1 spike I had) for 2 months. Nothing I do spikes/reduces my T.

 

[Blair14]

I have never worn ear plugs because I don't go anywhere too noisy. I used to be able to use a lawnmower until last spring, however ear muffs make my T louder, I also developed H last fall from something.

 

[Brianna]

Also, how has your tinnitus progressed?

I'm the odd-woman out again. "Never" had to be selected because I can't wear them. Deafness has its
bright side to it. It will produce a small skewed result in your polling.

I need my cochlear implant to allow sounds to diminish the T by allowing outside sounds in my wee
brain. I understand the need to wear good earplugs (32dB) at concerts for all who can hear.

My T has gotten worse. I'm taking small steps to change my lifestyle to attack it with realistic expectations
since T has many unknowns.

 

[Martin69]

My T is the same as it was 6 months after onset (before that it was extremely loud).... I was habituated but for some reason since 1.5 week it realy bothers me again....I could sleep with it without masking and I could not care less. But all of a sudden I hate it again....so perhaps I must habituat again....realy weird

I have mild T I guess because it is easly masked with the slidest sound...but now for some reason my mind keeps searching for it everywhere. It was just from one day to another that I went from habituated to the scary reaction and irritation I had in the beginning.

All does thoughts of ... "It will never be silent again!"... "Why me?" .... "What if it becomes louder?" ... "Will this spike remain (always went away after 10 seconds) ;-) ?"...

I know it is a state of mind thing now so I will overcome it again, but still....you feel what you feel and now I feel bothered by it.

The thing that irritates me the most at the moment is that I sometimes do not know if it's my T I am hearing of imagine it or it a sound for some device what I am focused on at that moment.
One thing is for sure when you do that.... your to busy with your T

Normaly I mask it a little with bird sounds or something through my phone, but I just want silence for 10 seconds so I fight T .....but T will always win ...

Perhaps after a few weeks I'm back to being habituated again and this is just a fase or something. I just had a major depression and my focus was on that...but that is going away now so my mind has to jump on something else I guess and that is T.

Hey Rico,
Absolutely the same here.
I am not habituated yet - although I do everything (more or less) I did before T.
Even if I do not hear my T (seldom), I am busy with it. We give it too much attention it doesn't deserve.
I guess this is the normal way with a chronic illness or affliction. We want to have it fixed, but we cannot.
We are still on our way learning to live with it.
And one day, we will have silence again. As you know, life is not perfect.

 

[Martin69]

My T is a brain thing.
It does not react on noise.
So I only wear ear plugs where I would have done it anyway, even without T.

 

[linearb]

Hey Rico,
Absolutely the same here.
I am not habituated yet - although I do everything (more or less) I did before T.
Even if I do not hear my T (seldom), I am busy with it. We give it too much attention it doesn't deserve.
I guess this is the normal way with a chronic illness or affliction. We want to have it fixed, but we cannot.

Yup, I agree, and that's why one thing I've started looking at lately is joining some support groups for chronic pain, to try to understand how other people who are afflicted with terrible things, go about trying to maximize the enjoyment they can get from life.

 

[David King]

I usually wear them in loud surroundings, but I've f'ed up a few times recently... I won't make that mistake again...

 

[RicoS]

Hey Rico,
Absolutely the same here.
I am not habituated yet - although I do everything (more or less) I did before T.
Even if I do not hear my T (seldom), I am busy with it. We give it too much attention it doesn't deserve.
I guess this is the normal way with a chronic illness or affliction. We want to have it fixed, but we cannot.
We are still on our way learning to live with it.
And one day, we will have silence again. As you know, life is not perfect.

I know life is not perfect my friend ...but I just need a brake for 10 seconds....just to know how it felt to have silence again. Now it is the same change of winning the lottery.... and I do not even play the lottery...so my chances are zero
I know this will pass and things will be better again...but I live in the now and not in what will be. And now I hate my T ... I do not want to because I could deal with it...but my mind makes me think otherwise at the moment.

 

[jeannie]

I wear earplugs every time I blowdry my hair, so that would be every day just about.and I always carry my custom made plugs with me,or if m


Mow the grass I wear plugs and the headphone kind too.

 

[James Brown]

Normally I use a Bilson Viking at work, when I have to go to noisy places. It's the kind of phones the guys who do manouvers at the airports use. I try as much as I can avoid the use of it because after I use it my T gets louder. Outside the work I just use it when I have to take a plain and I have to walk along the runway with the reactors working and a lot of plains passing close. On the street sometimes I have to cover my ears with sirens, car alarms, etc.
At shopping centers and restaurants sometimes can be a little hard, but I never use protection. I had to stop going to movies, concerts and so on.

 

[Sailboardman]

I use 35db cancelling, ear defenders when I use power tools, lawn equipment, power washers, banging hammers around the house and stuff like that.

I avoid loud bars, gave up concerts and anywhere I know, it could get really loud. Doubt I'll every witness a fireworks display again.

Guess I should thought of all this stuff, before I blew out my right ear and got the madman T! (Hind site is truly 20/20)

Anyway, when are they gonna get off their asses and get us a cure? Screw 10 years of clinical trials, I'll volunteer to take anything reasonable, to get this racket out of my head. Even if it means I'll grow another head in 20 years! who cares?

(But wait a minute! then I run the risk of having T in 4 ears, instead of 2........Hmmmmmm? let my think about this some more.) };-)

Sailboardman

 

[SteveToHeal]

Got some really good ones made before i left the UK.
ACS PRO17 for Musicians.
Pricey. Over 150 pounds.
But mood so low and depressed at the mo, haven't even bothered to try them out with BIG sound.
Waiting on RTG to arrive and then hopefully some relief, some hope and then maybe i'll get back in the studio. Here is hoping!
But would only use them for that.

 

[Christian78]

Also, how has your tinnitus progressed?

i took voxra medicine and i got it in september 2013

i took lyrica of iboprofen and it went up for 200% march 2014

i took corticosteroid and ibuprofen 30% au feb 2015

Got some really good ones made before i left the UK.
ACS PRO17 for Musicians.
Pricey. Over 150 pounds.
But mood so low and depressed at the mo, haven't even bothered to try them out with BIG sound.
Waiting on RTG to arrive and then hopefully some relief, some hope and then maybe i'll get back in the studio. Here is hoping!
But would only use them for that.

what is rtg

My T is a brain thing.
It does not react on noise.
So I only wear ear plugs where I would have done it anyway, even without T.

God bless ya, how is it brain thing?

 

[amandine]

Hi Christian how are you?

what is rtg

Confused christian - you know this means retigabene........or Trobalt.

God bless ya, how is it brain thing?

Think he means that his ears do not react to anything - it doesnt get worse or better with noise........believe this is what he meant.

Hope that helps...........

 

[Christian78]

Hi Christian how are you?



Confused christian - you know this means retigabene........or Trobalt.



Think he means that his ears do not react to anything - it doesnt get worse or better with noise........believe this is what he meant.

Hope that helps...........

Well yes rtg i forgot i write is as trobalt

 

[gary]

Also, how has your tinnitus progressed?

Been the same for 3 years, over 65-70% of the time it's like I am standing next to a jet engine

 

[MarioT]

Mine is the same as Martin69's case. Loud environments don't bother me at all, neither does a siren of a firetruck etc. The louder the better, better chance of masking my T. It is near to silence that makes me go bananas! Thatfor I rarely use earplugs.

 

[pactribe]

I've always worn earplugs in loud situations (clubs, loud bars, etc) long before I got tinnitus in order to prevent hearing loss/tinnitus. Since I ended up getting tinnitus anyway, my use of earplugs has been increased to include traffic, trains, and most things above standard volume.

My story as well. Have been wearing ear plugs in clubs through the ridiculing days, long before it was considered 'cool'.

Still got tinnitus.

Now always have a pair of good filters in my pocket.