Why Is Tinnitus Not More Common? Loud Bars, Concerts, Restaurants...

[Sash]

Yes I read those stats around 20% have tinnitus but so very few people are on forums as they somehow deal with it or its a very mild form. I guess they deal with it as its not giving them pain and they are able to ignore it. I am surprised its as high as 20 percent that seems a staggering number. If I guessed would have picked 5%.

In the UK one good thing has happened in the last 10 years half of all nightclub have shutdown as many young people are not visiting nightclubs anymore for a number of reasons. Actually on a weekend many places are still relatively quite - most people may attend a club once a week or month as oppose 10 years ago when it was twice or more a week. More likely to get ear issues from a small dingy nightclub where sound bounces off the wall with poor quality sound system playing music at 120 decibels.

Most of the damage is cumulative hence reducing the chances of getting Tinnitus if you are infrequent visitor to nightclubs Not that you can't get Tinnitus after attending only club in your life.

Though increasing use of headphones as probably countered the gains from visiting the nightclubs less frequently.

Looking back I actually didn't go out that often to nightclubs / festivals but every day I would either play music in the gym or on headphones while running or in the car (perhaps around 80 decibels). I suppose there was never a day where I had no loud sound and gradually this has caused damage. If I introduce say a no loud sound day (i,e above decibels) then maybe I would have been okayish. Today has been the worst ever for Tinnitus and Hyperacusis

 

[MRItechssuck]

Some of you younger sufferers should do something like this... The ATA and BTA do a lousy job of promoting how devastating tinnitus can be.

10 Lawmakers Accept Teen's 'Eye-Opening' Challenge to Spend a Day in His Wheelchair

https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/lawmakers-accept-teens-challenge-to-spend-day-in-wheelchairs/[/URL]

 

[Jaysterk]

20% just seems SO low considering all the loud activities that most people partake in.

20% is rather high. Imagine if 20% of everyone you know had cancer.

 

[D#8]

I have a friend who has had tinnitus since he was 8 due to firing a cap gun next to his year yet he constantly uses headphones, goes out to clubs and DJs with no issues. (he's 23).

Is your friend on the forum? I'd be curious to compare notes because I had a cap gun fired in my ear when I was 7.

 

[serendipity1996]

Is your friend on the forum? I'd be curious to compare notes because I had a cap gun fired in my ear when I was 7.

No he's not because he he has no issues with noise in any way - regularly goes to clubs, DJs and music festivals.

 

[Jack Straw]

Tinnitus is supposed to be in the 10%-20% range of everyone in the population.

I was talking with a pharmaceutical company owner who is working on a hearing restoration drug. She was telling me that this 10%-20% number is going to get significantly worse over the next couple of decades because our everyday environment keeps getting louder. More people are using in ear headphones constantly at unsafe levels and not protecting their ears in loud environments.

Eventually when tinnitus because an issue among 30%-40% of the population, I think it will be taken more seriously and cures will be more funded.

 

[kamil1364]

I can't understand it at all, really.

My hearing is a bit better than friends of my age who played in the same bands I used to play.

They have not even slight sign of tinnitus, yet here I am with my reactive tinnitus/whatever-you-call-it

And there is no silver lining to it, really. I'd rather be completely deaf in my 60s than have tinnitus now at 18. It basically broke my life. All my future plans feel now like a song of the past, they just doesn't matter.

If there is anything good to it, it just made me understand how happy I was in the past. Coming out of the band rehearsal, really happy that I improved my playing. Or riding the bike with my earphones in, with the smile on my face and the sunset in the background.

It all feels so distant now, to the point it is almost unreal. Why I was designed so poorly... I really used to blame myself, but now I see people abusing their ears even more for way longer than I did, with no sign of tinnitus. I'd really like to know reasoning behind it, but I don't believe I am going to make it far enough to ever get an answer.

 

[GoatSheep]

Some of you younger sufferers should do something like this... The ATA and BTA do a lousy job of promoting how devastating tinnitus can be.

10 Lawmakers Accept Teen's 'Eye-Opening' Challenge to Spend a Day in His Wheelchair

https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/lawmakers-accept-teens-challenge-to-spend-day-in-wheelchairs/[/URL]

I think the problem with this is replicating the experience of tinnitus in a safe way. In the case of the article you cited, the act alone of using the wheelchair doesn't really present a likelihood of injury to the participant.

If you were to try and simulate severe tinnitus to someone you'd have to play unsafe levels of the noises directly into their ear that would end up damaging their hearing. So how can the hellishness of it truly be conveyed safely?

Simulating tinnitus with headphones on in general doesn't really give an accurate depiction of it. If people were to go around for an entire day even with low volume noises through headphones they are going to be presented with all kinds of issues due to the headphones (communicating with others with headphones on, laying in bed for sleep with them on etc) that really have nothing to do with the actual experience of tinnitus. So it would present issues that weren't in context to the actual disability and detract from what was trying to be conveyed.

I suppose hearing aid white noise generator type devices could give a more accurate experience. Idk, I mean a HUGE part of the tinnitus experience for many is the effect on being able to sleep. So you'd have to make sure a sleep simulation was part of the experience and so you'd have to have devices that couldn't fall off or anything. In the case of the wheelchair above, even if they participated for an entire day, at the point of going to bed the simulation ends when they get out of the chair. Because unlike the person who needs the wheelchair, they still have the ability to use their legs or whatever the case may be.