Who or What Do You Blame for Your Hearing Loss, Tinnitus, or Other Challenging Thing?

[Filip]

Ahh well let me start it off by saying honestly I would blame lot people for my hearing loss and tinnitus. To be more specific some individuals I would have to blame are my parents, lovers, associates, and even friends. I honestly thought if I needed to get through life than it would have to be with the use of music, but at the end I would've have blamed my-self if I knew it would end like this at the end which is now.

 

[Mario martz]

Here is my list....
Aerosmith, lana del rey, daft punk, justice, the cure, phoenix, die antwoord, MGMT, snoop dog, M.I.A., major lazer neon indian, grimes, crystal castles, britney spears, garbage, and the other 100 acts i have seen live, mostly FRONT ROW lol

Coachella, Lollapalooza, FYF, funfunfun fest and others festivals and punk gigs.

Apple because of their earphones, and for the invention of ipod.

My ex, he used to scream loud when we had fights on the phone lol.

and my dad, because the first times i had ringing after concerts i was worriend and he told me it was normal.

lol just kidding this is nobodies fault, not mine, not theirs, shit happens.
maybe people i know goes to concerts and go to gigs every weekend and still.... no tinnitus.

 

[volsung37]

There is no point blaming anyone or anything. Shit just happens to good people and bad. There are so many random variables affecting us each day any combination of which could have caused our disease. Perhaps on a different day or different place the same variables would not have caused tinnitus.

 

[Sam Bridge]

My main gripe is why isn't the danger of loud music given more awareness? I had never heard of tinnitus when i first started going to gigs, only when the ringing didn't stop. I still see many people at gigs with no ear protection even now. For something thats meant to be fun it can sure can come with an unpleasant consequence!

 

[Alue]

My coworker that blasted my ears and damaged my hearing. It seems a lot of people don't know the cause and look for something to blame, it's a little different when you absolutely know the cause and it's someone else being an idiot. There was nothing I could do to avoid it.

 

[Karel]

My main gripe is why isn't the danger of loud music given more awareness? I had never heard of tinnitus when i first started going to gigs, only when the ringing didn't stop. I still see many people at gigs with no ear protection even now. For something thats meant to be fun it can sure can come with an unpleasant consequence!

This. T is a chronic and potentially life devastating illness, and H even more so. And they can be caused by being in the wrong place for one evening or sometimes even just one time. I had no idea the human hearing was so fragile before I got this condition. If I had known that even ten seconds of excessive sound could already do permanent damage, this never would have happened to me, and I expect that's true for more people here. They should be teaching this stuff in schools.

 

[Vaba]

I wish I knew

 

[fishbone]

Ahh well let me start it off by saying honestly I would blame lot people for my hearing loss and tinnitus. To be more specific some individuals I would have to blame are my parents, lovers, associates, and even friends. I honestly thought if I needed to get through life than it would have to be with the use of music, but at the end I would've have blamed my-self if I knew it would end like this at the end which is now.

Lack of education on, how loud sounds can cause this horror. I am sure, that most of us had no clue, that loud sounds could cause this. I have not seen, any commercials or ads that educate the public, on the dangers of loud sounds.

 

[glynis]

Menieres Disease

 

[hartje5]

My cardiologist for putting me on drugs that I in hindsight did not really need but made my very very mild T. turn into what I have today.

 

[GregCA]

My main gripe is why isn't the danger of loud music given more awareness? I had never heard of tinnitus when i first started going to gigs, only when the ringing didn't stop. I still see many people at gigs with no ear protection even now. For something thats meant to be fun it can sure can come with an unpleasant consequence!

I saw a video not so long ago about T and teenagers. The interviewer was going around interviewing teenagers who were listening to music very loud in the street. After being warned about the devastating dangers of listening to music loudly (as they were), they were asked if they were going to do something about it.
Surprisingly (or maybe unsurprisingly), they looked at the interviewer, laughed, and said "no".

My reading on this is that people think that T is the little ringing you get after a loud party. We've all been there, you come home and ears feel a little sore, and by the time you wake up the next morning you're fine. It's also something that "won't happen to me" (because "I've been to countless parties and I'm fine"). There is no measurement that tells you how close to getting chronic T you are so you don't feel getting close to the danger. That's unlike the typical doctor's advice that "hey watch that cholesterol level, it's getting high" you get from your yearly physical, where you think you have time to react and correct course.

So going around an telling teenagers and young adults that they should be careful with their ears doesn't work, because their risk assessment is such that they don't think it will happen to them, and they don't think it's a big deal if it does.

What needs to happen is a massive and dramatic campaign that shows the huge amount of suffering that T brings. Just like the shocking campaigns about tobacco or AIDS, etc - where you see the ugly truth in front of you.

I got my T (and HL) from a disease.

 

[Sam Bridge]

I saw a video not so long ago about T and teenagers. The interviewer was going around interviewing teenagers who were listening to music very loud in the street. After being warned about the devastating dangers of listening to music loudly (as they were), they were asked if they were going to do something about it.
Surprisingly (or maybe unsurprisingly), they looked at the interviewer, laughed, and said "no".

My reading on this is that people think that T is the little ringing you get after a loud party. We've all been there, you come home and ears feel a little sore, and by the time you wake up the next morning you're fine. It's also something that "won't happen to me" (because "I've been to countless parties and I'm fine"). There is no measurement that tells you how close to getting chronic T you are so you don't feel getting close to the danger. That's unlike the typical doctor's advice that "hey watch that cholesterol level, it's getting high" you get from your yearly physical, where you think you have time to react and correct course.

So going around an telling teenagers and young adults that they should be careful with their ears doesn't work, because their risk assessment is such that they don't think it will happen to them, and they don't think it's a big deal if it does.

What needs to happen is a massive and dramatic campaign that shows the huge amount of suffering that T brings. Just like the shocking campaigns about tobacco or AIDS, etc - where you see the ugly truth in front of you.

I got my T (and HL) from a disease.

At least those people had a warning which they may regret not listening to in years to come. The other thing is the level lf chronic t you can get. Some people on here have ir really bad but i think for alot of people its little more than an annoyance. But none the less an avoidable annoyance if there was a campaign for awareness. At least there should be tinnitus warnings in venues.

 

[Mario martz]

What needs to happen is a massive and dramatic campaign that shows the huge amount of suffering that T brings. Just like the shocking campaigns about tobacco or AIDS, etc - where you see the ugly truth in front of you.

Yes, back in the 90s when i was a kid we would even get classes about aids and how it can destroy your life.
and now its pretty treatable condition lol.

This is gonna sound very very evil from me, and i actually dont wish that more people have tinnitus and go through this, BUT i also believe that if there are more and more cases (and trust me this is gonna happen very very soon)
then finally scientist and the goverment are gonna start to do something about it.

so, for me awaraness is just for my relatives and friends.

there was this guy i know on facebook and he posted a video of some club in europe where they don play loud music, they give you earphones and you can tune what the dj is playing, and also this is a brilliant idea cause you can manage the volume.
all of the people commenting in the status were like "thats awful, we love noise, whats a club without the noise, party poopers" and i actually comment on it and said it was a brilliant idea, and that tinnitus and hearing loss is now more common amog young people and millenialls of course they trashed my comment hahaha.

i hope they get at least one month of tinnitus so they would know what im talking about.

so for me, NOT AWARENESS, just raise money to find studies to treat it.

 

[Sound Wave]

Sennheiser HD 700 audiophile grade headphones, which I listened once for two long and too loud...

 

[Allancook]

Kicked unconscious by three guys. Started then and has never stopped MRI showed no middle ear damage. ??? Guess this shit just happens to some people after a major head trauma. Gonna have to live with it unless some treatment works

 

[walkthroughwalls]

I saw a video not so long ago about T and teenagers. The interviewer was going around interviewing teenagers who were listening to music very loud in the street. After being warned about the devastating dangers of listening to music loudly (as they were), they were asked if they were going to do something about it.
Surprisingly (or maybe unsurprisingly), they looked at the interviewer, laughed, and said "no".

My reading on this is that people think that T is the little ringing you get after a loud party. We've all been there, you come home and ears feel a little sore, and by the time you wake up the next morning you're fine. It's also something that "won't happen to me" (because "I've been to countless parties and I'm fine"). There is no measurement that tells you how close to getting chronic T you are so you don't feel getting close to the danger. That's unlike the typical doctor's advice that "hey watch that cholesterol level, it's getting high" you get from your yearly physical, where you think you have time to react and correct course.

So going around an telling teenagers and young adults that they should be careful with their ears doesn't work, because their risk assessment is such that they don't think it will happen to them, and they don't think it's a big deal if it does.

What needs to happen is a massive and dramatic campaign that shows the huge amount of suffering that T brings. Just like the shocking campaigns about tobacco or AIDS, etc - where you see the ugly truth in front of you.

I got my T (and HL) from a disease.

I agree, may I sum it up as 'careless human beings'?

Then it's one thing to mess up your own hearing, it's another to mess up someone else's. It's way too `accepted' to have harmful decibel levels in clubs and venues. It's not considered a big deal if someone starts playing drums before someone else has had a chance to put their plugs in, probably because the damage is usually in the long term, but it's irresponsible and should be viewed as such. It should be viewed as blowing an air horn near someone. Or blowing cigarette smoke into someone's face. Or drunk driving.

It's weird how in primary school there was a project day about buses. Yes, buses. Apparently, they're valuable objects and their owners don't like to see them destroyed. That wasn't really new information to me.
Then in high school there was a long talk and a project about sex ed, which was of no use to me.
And then up to working as a professional musician, there is absolutely no information on hearing damage! Even worse, the one's with ear plugs are usually seen as being unnecessarily overly careful and the one's who play without them are experiencing the real thing.

 

[linearb]

blame is pointless. The world is dangerous and unhealthy.

 

[Alue]

blame is pointless. The world is dangerous and unhealthy.

That's a lot easier to say (and reconcile with) when you only have yourself to blame.

 

[linearb]

That's a lot easier to say (and reconcile with) when you only have yourself to blame.

I'm not entirely sure I agree, but I also wouldn't know because my history is complicated, and it's easy to cast blame on myself for some things, and on others for other things. Ultimately it has overall been easier for me personally to forgive others than to forgive myself.

The bottom line, for me, is that blame/anger/regret are all volatile and toxic emotions which overall are to my detriment the more I allow myself to experience and wallow in them. The world is not moral or fair or just, the world simply is. If we create arbitrary expectations of fairness, we will be disappointed over and over again.

 

[walkthroughwalls]

blame is pointless. The world is dangerous and unhealthy.

Yeah, you're right. I'm usually in a 'okay now move on from here'-state, but maybe the question can be mentally re-framed as 'What caused your tinnitus and what can you do to avoid this happening to others for the future?'

 

[linearb]

Yeah, you're right. I'm usually in a 'okay now move on from here'-state, but maybe the question can be mentally re-framed as 'What caused your tinnitus and what can you do to avoid this happening to others for the future?'

Ah. Hard to say, some combination of genetics, noise exposure, various medications, possibly other non prescribed drugs, childhood ear infections, premature birth, the alignment of the stars, etc.

I adamantly discourage people from taking drugs unless they must, and encourage earplug use. I know that a number of my friends have gotten stricter about bringing earplugs to shows (and wearing them) as a result of my experience. On the other hand, predisposition to tinnitus appears to probably be strongly motivated by genetics, so it may be that I am "merely" helping them avoid hearing loss later in life, and not tinnitus per se.

As for the alignment of the stars, I generally encourage people to sleep with their bodies aligned along the magnetic N/S parallel. (Kidding)

 

[walkthroughwalls]

Ah. Hard to say, some combination of genetics, noise exposure, various medications, possibly other non prescribed drugs, childhood ear infections, premature birth, the alignment of the stars, etc.

I adamantly discourage people from taking drugs unless they must, and encourage earplug use. I know that a number of my friends have gotten stricter about bringing earplugs to shows (and wearing them) as a result of my experience. On the other hand, predisposition to tinnitus appears to probably be strongly motivated by genetics, so it may be that I am "merely" helping them avoid hearing loss later in life, and not tinnitus per se.

As for the alignment of the stars, I generally encourage people to sleep with their bodies aligned along the magnetic N/S parallel. (Kidding)

Sounds like a lot of bad luck..., but good work warning others I have also warned others, mainly by example, but I don't think it had much of an effect.

I will now move my bed... Should my head be to the South or to the North? I may have been sleeping upside down

Actually, some people will once in a while suggest alternative medicine. Then I'd have to tell them that acupuncture, or whatever else, hasn't successfully treated anyone. I hope that they'll give up believing in supernatural things at some point.

 

[Alue]

I'm not entirely sure I agree, but I also wouldn't know because my history is complicated, and it's easy to cast blame on myself for some things, and on others for other things. Ultimately it has overall been easier for me personally to forgive others than to forgive myself.

The bottom line, for me, is that blame/anger/regret are all volatile and toxic emotions which overall are to my detriment the more I allow myself to experience and wallow in them. The world is not moral or fair or just, the world simply is. If we create arbitrary expectations of fairness, we will be disappointed over and over again.

I recall having this conversation with you before and you said you're tinnitus got much worse after a concert and you could have blamed the band. That's a bit different than being attacked or permanently injured from gross negligence.
I can agree with you that it is not helpful to you to dwell on the wrong that has been done to you, but unless you have been hit by a drunk driver or something like that and have had your life permanently changed, it's easy to say blame is pointless.
I have had three things happen to me that are incurable and have a big impact on my quality of life on a daily basis. Tinnitus being the most recent. The other happened two years ago and is partly my fault, the third happened when I was a teenager and was entirely someone else's doing.
Shall we say it's pointless to blame drunk drivers for destroying lives because shit happens and the world is a dangerous place?

 

[linearb]

I recall having this conversation with you before and you said you're tinnitus got much worse after a concert and you could have blamed the band.

My initial onset is a lot more complex than the worsening I had in 2010, and comes down to bad medical practices as much as it comes down to anything. Tinnitus was far from the worst thing that resulted from all of that. I did spend a lot of time being angry about it. I can still get angry about it if I am not diligent about how I conceptualize and interact with my conscious experience of life.

Shall we say it's pointless to blame drunk drivers for destroying lives because shit happens and the world is a dangerous place?

I'd say that blame is fine insofar as it's a tool to understand and reduce the amount of drunk drivers on the road, and pointless when it's just something that a victim of an accident holds in their head as a weight which keeps them in a state of worse suffering than they might otherwise be in.

I don't really understand the fixation with drunk drivers, per se. I've been the victim of two serious crashes that were entirely the other driver's fault; in both cases, the driver was sober. If someone cannot operate a vehicle safely, I personally care little if they are drunk, overtired, texting or simply inattentive. That said, we all have moments of inattention; Zen masters with decades of experience no doubt still have moments of inattention, and probably occasionally cause car accidents.

 

[LadyDi]

@Filip: Just wonder, what is your reason for asking the question?

Blame, at least when it comes to tinnitus, can be toxic, not very helpful and keep you from moving on.

I got my tinnitus from taking a long-distance flight when I had a severe head cold/sinus infection (which, by the way, you should NEVER do). I can't really blame myself, since I thought it was OK. Originally, I blamed my ENT, because I saw him right before I left on my trip re. my infection. He knew I was traveling, and he never said anything about flight risk. I spent a lot of time and energy feeling horribly angry at him about this but finally realized, what's the point? Of course, he's no longer my doctor, but I am done with the anger. The only person it hurt was myself.

 

[MarmiteKFC]

I blame my fucking dance class. They kept playing loud music and drums, and it caused me mild tinnitus . I am also 14 which sucks. The dance class should been careful! Good news is since I am young and it's been nearly a week since I was exposed to loud music or at dance. It might fade or go away! Also the doctor st the hospital said it will go away in a couple of weeks. Which gives me a lot of hope and I also pray to god that it will go. Sorry for the cursing, I am just angry, but I know that if I am calm and ignore it, my brain won't give a flying fuck!

 

[Vaba]

I agree, may I sum it up as 'careless human beings'?

Then it's one thing to mess up your own hearing, it's another to mess up someone else's. It's way too `accepted' to have harmful decibel levels in clubs and venues. It's not considered a big deal if someone starts playing drums before someone else has had a chance to put their plugs in, probably because the damage is usually in the long term, but it's irresponsible and should be viewed as such. It should be viewed as blowing an air horn near someone. Or blowing cigarette smoke into someone's face. Or drunk driving.

It's weird how in primary school there was a project day about buses. Yes, buses. Apparently, they're valuable objects and their owners don't like to see them destroyed. That wasn't really new information to me.
Then in high school there was a long talk and a project about sex ed, which was of no use to me.
And then up to working as a professional musician, there is absolutely no information on hearing damage! Even worse, the one's with ear plugs are usually seen as being unnecessarily overly careful and the one's who play without them are experiencing the real thing.

Lack of education on, how loud sounds can cause this horror. I am sure, that most of us had no clue, that loud sounds could cause this. I have not seen, any commercials or ads that educate the public, on the dangers of loud sounds.

I've seen fucking HUNDREDS of adds relating to how fireworks can blow off fingers (around the 4th of July), or how STDs can moderately reduce your QOL, or how people do drugs while pregnant, or how the Army will pay for your college tuition, but NOT ONCE have I seen an ad telling you that ONE exposure to drugs or loud noise can destroy your hearing forever.

 

[suze]

My Rhumatologist for putting me on Plaquinel then upping the dose without knowing that after increasing the dose you are supposed to titrate back down! She says Plaquinel, a quinine drug, cannot cause tinnitus.

 

[Dave AUS]

1. My countries government and associated health department for absolutely no awareness of tinnitus to the public
2. The ENTs who see new patients weekly being damaged by recreational noise but don't do anything proactive
3. Musicians that are aware enough of the dangers to protect their own ears with molded earplugs but don't pass on the dangers to their fans but instead point the speakers at the audience's head
4. Music venues sound levels being self regulated - what a joke!

 

[Sam Bridge]

1. My countries government and associated health department for absolutely no awareness of tinnitus to the public
2. The ENTs who see new patients weekly being damaged by recreational noise but don't do anything proactive
3. Musicians that are aware enough of the dangers to protect their own ears with molded earplugs but don't pass on the dangers to their fans but instead point the speakers at the audience's head
4. Music venues sound levels being self regulated - what a joke!

Number 3 is my biggest gripe now, followed by 1 and 4..

All it would take is for a band member to shout out at a gig to tell the audience to wear ear plugs. Ah well, thats why number 2 will keep happening.

Im going to a concert next week, i will try and have a look round to get an idea of how many people are wearing protection.