Spike After Pub

[Ross McLauchlan]

Hi Bill,

I'm fully aware that I have tinnitus, I'm not recklessly endangering my ears by exposing myself to overly loud environments. Far from it. Hence why my tinnitus is retreating, not exacerbating.

My point is to learn some lessons from my past setbacks and to proceed with optimism despite the obvious restrictions tinnitus can place on a person.

You're a very active member here Bill, I personally aim to avoid devoting as much time to this type of environment as I would a loud pub. I wish you well and appreciate the kind intentions behind your comment.

Take care,

Ross

 

[Tinker Bell]

Ultimately, whether or not you suffer from T is determined by the volume of T.

Not true. Whether or not you suffer depends on your response.

There are TT members with screaming loud tinnitus who post positive threads encouraging others. And on the flip side there are members with quiet tinnitus who are struggling.

Tinnitus severity cannot be measured by volume alone.

 

[Bill Bauer]

Whether or not you suffer depends on your response.

Your response is determined by the volume. Surely, for almost every person reporting being able to ignore their T, there exists a T volume that would bring them to their knees...

 

[Bill Bauer]

Different people have a different response to the same T volume. But what I tried to say is that everyone's ability to ignore T depends on the volume - the louder the volume, the harder it is to ignore.

 

[Sean]

Incase anyone goes through a similar thing, I started this thread over 4 weeks ago due to a pretty bad spike caused by staying in a really loud pub for too long with loud music and people shouting in my ear all night. Daft, I know, but I don't regret it because I'd quite like to maintain some sort of a life despite the ringing in my head.

So first off, I'm doing much better. Initially I was really down and more than a little scared, because despite having had tinnitus for 4 months at that point, it never really depressed me. I've always hated it, but could see light at the end of the tunnel - this time was different. For some reason, it really affected my mood and my sleep was again non-existent. I suppose I didn't realise just how bad a level my tinnitus could reach.

Anyway, after the initial depression and a visit to the doctor, I was given a course of prednisolone, 60mg taper over two weeks. Turns out my Doctor has tinnitus and was quite open to helping me out after I suggested it may be beneficial. For those interested, it didn't really do much for me but I was desperate and would have taken anything if I thought it would drop the volume. Plus the side effects were a bit weird and I didn't even finish the whole course.

Aware that I had to challenge my way of thinking, I buried myself in activities. I wrote, recorded and mastered two EPs, spent countless hours in the gym, went swimming, continued to go into my work, hung out with my baby nephew, had lunch with friends, etc - all of which was lovely and I've continued to do so as often as possible.

Four weeks later, my tinnitus isn't half as bad or at least my reaction to it has diminished. Yes, the spike subsided to a large degree, but I still hear it - but more importantly, I've tried to maintain a positive focus. Really the whole situation forced me to change my attitude. For around 5 months I have heard the ringing in my ears and in that time I've had two pretty major set backs - but you know what? Fuck it. There's still loads to look forward to in life and i'm naive/positive enough to envisage a life without the worry of tinnitus; either in the form of habituation or spontaneous recovery. Granted, I'm not there yet but its a process and I believe mindset is half the battle.

There are people who've had tinnitus for 30 years and seem to be leading happy lives - I also bet their resolve and determination is very strong. These are the stories I cling to. @Sarah Russett pulled together a bunch of success stories as part of her own journey to success - I've saved these to my phone, laptop, etc, so that anytime I need a tinnitus related pick-me-up, I read over them. I guess my reasoning for this is that its equally viable to focus on things getting better as it is to focus on them getting worse: I want to get better, so I choose to focus on this outcome.

The site is a great resource for anyone new to tinnitus. There's loads of useful information and some very compassionate and well informed members who very often provide some much needed insight, context and hope to those in the midst of anxiety. However, it's also quite a scary place if you go too deep. I literally just viewed a poll which weighed up tinnitus against being put in a medically induced coma and another asking people to guess when a cure will be found - in between all of this, we still need to live.

My girlfriend gets back from New Zealand in 10 months and I want my focus to be on her and enjoying our lives as best we can, tinnitus or no tinnitus. This is just my personal approach, not intended to offend. I truly understand this struggle and I still very much have tinnitus - I'm just trying really hard not to suffer from it.

I've learned a few lessons, I hope to be better prepared to deal with T over the next 10 months.

Take care,

Ross.

I am glad your T has subsides bit . I am sure with time it will subside even more .
All the best .

 

[Krish230]

Different people have a different response to the same T volume. But what I tried to say is that everyone's ability to ignore T depends on the volume - the louder the volume, the harder it is to ignore.

Bill, your sort of posts here are so negative to the point that it'll scare people that are new to T to their wits' end. While I appreciate your justified concerns about high volume levels, you express it in a very unconstructive way that seems to have the sole purpose of trying to scare others on this forum as much as possible.

Please think about using more helpful and constructive language/advice to express your concerns, rather than simply terrify people with worst possible scenarios in this sort of situation.

 

[Bill Bauer]

Bill, your sort of posts here are so negative to the point that it'll scare people that are new to T to their wits' end.

It is ok to be scared of scary things. In fact, I believe that it is healthy to be scared of scary things and unhealthy to ignore scary things. It is never a good idea to deny reality. The way I see it, one way in which you can deny reality is to pretend that you can maintain the same lifestyle as that of healthy people and not risk making your T worse.

Please think about using more helpful and constructive language

If my posts end up making someone think twice before endangering themselves, then the language in the post had ended up being constructive.

 

[Sean]

I agree with bill . I have tried to expose my self with loud noises and I went through HELL.
All he is saying be careful with some what loud noises . You can still go to restaurants , mall, long drives , park , go for long walk ..

Trust me I really really miss going to live music events ..music is my passion but I rather have quieter T versus getting permanent or even temporary spike .

I hope there is cure in the future and I can enjoy loud places .

 

[MiaX]

But I don't get it: I am pretty sure there are a lot of people who still go out with their T, but just aren't on this forum.

How is this possible?

I personally start going out again and T seems a bit worse, so I need to be more careful (more breaks, not staying longer than 1,5 hours etc.), but I just don't what to miss this kind of thing.

 

[Ross McLauchlan]

I know that personally I was reacting more to sound out of the fear of making the ringing any worse. It was almost self fulfilling, in that if I expected my ears to get sore they probably would. Actually, I've found my ears aren't as brittle as my mind had me believe.

For example, I spoke with a colleague who also has tinnitus - for the past 4 years I might add - who rides his motorbike to work everyday and has done since its onset. I almost said, "bad idea, that'll get worse" but clearly for him it isn't getting worse so why would I bother? His mentality is totally different - in fact, he moaned at me the day after because that was the first night in months that he'd heard his tinnitus. I find that curious.

Before this gets off topic, I'm not advocating that people hop on a motorbike and I never mentioned that people attend gigs - all I'm saying is that for me, personally, sensible noise exposure, i.e not gigs or pubs, is helping me turn down the gain setting in my brain. Not only that, I've less time to obsess over the noise - which is just as damaging as anything else.

So I swim, hit the gym, play golf, go walks, make music (on active monitors under 70db), I still box, do jiu jitsu, run - there is still loads to do that I enjoy. If I'm somewhere too loud I leave, simple as, but my mindset is stuck firmly in seeing the positives regardless.

If I listened to every bad experience I'd be avoiding all of the above, but by slowly getting back into things I can do these activities and its getting better day by day - there is a massive mental component to this, for me at least.

 

[MiaX]

I know that personally I was reacting more to sound out of the fear of making the ringing any worse. It was almost self fulfilling, in that if I expected my ears to get sore they probably would. Actually, I've found my ears aren't as brittle as my mind had me believe.

For example, I spoke with a colleague who also has tinnitus - for the past 4 years I might add - who rides his motorbike to work everyday and has done since its onset. I almost said, "bad idea, that'll get worse" but clearly for him it isn't getting worse so why would I bother? His mentality is totally different - in fact, he moaned at me the day after because that was the first night in months that he'd heard his tinnitus. I find that curious.

Before this gets off topic, I'm not advocating that people hop on a motorbike and I never mentioned that people attend gigs - all I'm saying is that for me, personally, sensible noise exposure, i.e not gigs or pubs, is helping me turn down the gain setting in my brain. Not only that, I've less time to obsess over the noise - which is just as damaging as anything else.

So I swim, hit the gym, play golf, go walks, make music (on active monitors under 70db), I still box, do jiu jitsu, run - there is still loads to do that I enjoy. If I'm somewhere too loud I leave, simple as, but my mindset is stuck firmly in seeing the positives regardless.

If I listened to every bad experience I'd be avoiding all of the above, but by slowly getting back into things I can do these activities and its getting better day by day - there is a massive mental component to this, for me at least.

Thank you for this post!

What you say can be true: when I came back that night, I was sooo scared that I made my T worse, that I could not stop listening to it. I even doubt if it is worse or not. I didn't experience fullness in my ears or pain, so it can be something psychological, especially when you think about the people with T who go out and only get a spike for a couple hours/days.