When A Hobby of Fixing Old Computers Meant to Calm You Down Bites Back on Your Tinnitus

[Tonny]

Hello!

We spoke some months ago. It was a good session.

I have been trying to live as normal as possible, and I have a hobby fixing old computers (I am an engineer of electronics).

However two weeks ago, one capacitor blew on one of my projects while sitting close to it. It was a small 1000uF 16v capacitor. Did not think too much of it until my tinnitus spiked a week ago. Ticking, cracking, fullness in my ears and the high frequency hissing is a bit louder.

I have not found one single occurrence where someone damaged their ears from such an incident though. It was surprising, but I would not say it was extreme. No muffled hearing or ear pain afterwards. It was like someone slammed a hammer once on the table.

Now, I am sort of reset back to where I was 1.5 years ago. It's so darn hard to try to live normal, because it's almost impossible to avoid small accidents (slamming doors is my usual mishaps).

Should I start wearing earplugs all the time, even indoors, I wonder...

 

[Dr. Nagler]

Hello @Tonny -

Thank you for the feedback on our Skype session. I am glad to hear that you found it to be helpful.

As far as the increase in the loudness of your tinnitus, I do not see how a noise incident two weeks ago could cause a spike that began one week ago. So something else must have been the culprit - or possibly it just happened on its own.

It is important to understand that actual injury from noise exposure is a function both of dB level and length of time of exposure. A single brief incident of the magnitude you describe above may have startled you, but it could not have actually damaged your auditory system. The same goes for the "small accidents" indoors to which you refer above.

Regarding wearing earplugs all the time, I believe it would do more harm than good and would definitely predispose you to hyperacusis because you would be denying your auditory system the wide range of sounds it yearns for. Sound actually nourishes the auditory system; it is only the extremes that ought to be avoided. Dr. Jack Vernon (1922-2910) used to suggest using ear protection whenever the sound level in the environment was such that you would have to raise your own voice in order to be heard by a person standing next to you. He also stressed the importance of not using ear protection at other times. So indoors that would mean to use ear protecting when vacuuming or using a blender. That sort of thing. And outdoors it would mean when using a power mower or leaf blower.

Hope this helps.

May the coming year bring quieter days to you and to all.

Stephen M. Nagler, M.D.

 

[Dr. Nagler]

I'd like to add two important facts to my post above ...

An increase in the loudness of your tinnitus does not necessarily imply that there has been some sort of damage to your auditory system. Moreover, if you have indeed incurred damage to your auditory system, that does not necessarily result in an increase in tinnitus loudness.

All too often I see folks with tinnitus attempt to do anything and everything they can to avoid an increase in the loudness of their tinnitus. I understand that approach all too well - especially since early on in my own tinnitus odyssey I was one of them. But as I have come to see it, when you go out of your way to avoid an increase in the loudness of your tinnitus, you are giving your tinnitus far too much power over your life than it deserves, which is ZERO! So my approach is to take the proper precautions to avoid damaging your auditory system. But beyond that allow your tinnitus to do what it wants to do ... because you really don't have much say in it anyway.

Stephen M. Nagler, M.D.