Tinnitus Torture

[Bill Bauer]

seeing a band you love, in a space you're physically in, being in the moment

See, all I would be thinking about would be whether I will have to pay for being at this concert for the rest of my life. "Being in the moment" at a loud event is no longer an option now.

Oh well, the members of all of the bands that I love are all dead, anyway.

You must really enjoy music. If you can get into the moment despite the danger of a permanent T spike, it sounds like it would be easy for you to get into the moment if your clothes were to be soaked in gasoline, and the other concertgoers were to light matches all around you.

 

[linearb]

If you can get into the moment despite the danger of a permanent T spike, it sounds like it would be easy for you to get into the moment if your clothes were to be soaked in gasoline, and the other concertgoers were to light matches all around you.

The concerts I go to exposure me to less total noise than a number of other things I'm required to do to maintain my life (mostly, but not entirely, related to small gasoline engines). I've been doing all this stuff with tinnitus for 10 times as long as you've had tinnitus, so -- you make your choices, I will make mine Maybe 80-90 decibels for 90-120 minutes with good earpro is still enough to spike you or mess your ears up, but it does nothing to me based on, IDK, several hundred "experiments" since 2010, so I'm good, thanks.

That said -- if someone else goes to an 85db show with plugs, and comes out still feeling like their ears are blasted, then yes, that person should probably not do that? I'm sure it happens, we're all different, but out of the ~2 dozen people I know in meatspace who have tinnitus and attribute it to concerts -- most of them now use ear protection but none of them have stopped going to shows, and the only person I know to go to a show and really regret it did loud karaoke with no earplugs (and was ultimately fine, despite a pretty nasty spike that threw him off kilter for a couple months).

Your analogy about being immolated is.... interesting, and makes me think you think about this stuff very differently than I do.

 

[Tom Cnyc]

"Being in the moment" at a loud event is no longer an option now.

I'll admit, the first 2-3 shows I wasn't in the moment. I was scared. But reasonably, I know a lot of people with tinnitus b/c of my hobbies. All of them continue life, mostly go to loud events MUCH MORE than I do, and none of them are getting worse.

Statistically, ear protection works. Even with tinnitus patients. Yeah, you can find examples of literally anything on the internet - including people that got worse with earplugs in. But you'll find many more examples of people that were fine in the real world - living their life and not reporting back about it b/c its a non issue to them in their lives

 

[Bill Bauer]

But reasonably, I know a lot of people with tinnitus b/c of my hobbies. All of them continue life, mostly go to loud events MUCH MORE than I do, and none of them are getting worse.

There is some self-selection there. You have a biased sample. When you pursue your hobbies, you have no chance of meeting the people who found out the hard way that concerts (even with earplugs) can do harm to them.

But you'll find many more examples of people that were fine in the real world

I agree. If the risk of being harmed by a concert were to be something like 10%, for every person hurt, you would have 9 who were not. Give what is at stake, it would still be a crazy risk to take.