For me it doesn’t go away but it is not noticeable while the sound is playing.
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I’ve lived with tinnitus for so long that I hardly notice it anymore. It’s the product of a lifetime of lots and lots of playing and listening to loud music.
If I had it to do over differently, I wouldn’t.
As the immortal Commander Cody sang:
A whole lotta things that I never done
But I ain’t never had too much fun
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I’ve had tinnitus since an Aerosmith Concert (with Golden Earing as an opener) in 78. Those Marshall stacks man. I felt pain before I heard music. Still, it’s just background noise now. I might try some of this - you never know
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Man, reading this is making me wonder how the hell my hearing is still as good as it is. I can hear the neighbors phone ringing through the wall. We live in an attached house, built in the 60’s with almost 1 meter thick walls. All those concerts through the years, especially the Motörhead ones were so insanely loud, I’ve never worn ear plugs. I always listen on loud when I have my earbuds in. Reading your guy’s stories is really making me reconsider my choices. Might just get different headphones for when listening to music on my phone.
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I have tinnitus but good hearing which is surprising.
Not loud concerts for me but a fair bit of shooting and tool use with inadequate hearing protection.
(Having people shooting .223 next to you with a short barrel and the muzzle level with or just behind your ear level will do that)
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While I am sure the shooting didn’t do me any favors either, or the grenades and training course charges either, I am 100% sure that my tinnitus is due to extremely loud metal concerts in my pre-teens, extremely loud punk, post-punk, darkwave and electro-industrial concerts in my teens and college years, and extremely loud sub-bass at raves in the '90s. And extremely loud clubs the entire time.
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Ah, and by the way, they also have an app. The iOS one works much better than the Android one, but still you can access the sounds on the go.
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I went out and bought myself a pair of Sennheiser headphones. Since also working with a jackhammer atm, they are their weight worth in gold.
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i started having tinnitus three weeks only, but that is so annoying.
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Mine snuck up on me over the years. Most likely from years of playing in pipe bands rather than when playing bass in HS and college. Mine are not real loud, and they are in harmony (major third). I am more comfortable with some sort of noise on, music, radio, TV, just anything at all really. Nothing I’ve tried actually helps. Unfortunately it’s fairly common, mostly in men.
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Have dealt with it for years……. Sounds like a swarm of Cicadas in my head…. 24/7….
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I concur with the millions of cicadas! I too have tinnitus. 20 years in the Navy as a Gun Firecontrolman did it for me. Besides plenty of small arm fire, I was also present on deck next to the 20 MM CIWS live fire as a mount safety observer. I’ve shot plenty of 5"54 but that was from inside the skin of the ship but still plenty loud. Hearing protection was a must! The military only gives 10 percent disability for it, but the way it works, they subtract disability from retired pay if you are under 50%, so it’s a wash.
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My 40% disability rating is for something else, but I also have a 0% disability rating for my hearing loss. The discharge doc did that to document that my hearing loss was service-connected, so if it ever worsend, I could file for an increase in the disability rating and get additional monthly buckeroos.
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Recently found out ( the hard way) that some medications can give you make existing tinnitus worse. I have had tinnitus for years but noticed it got much worse recently after a prescription changed, looked the subject up and there are a whole range of ototoxic medications.
Not as wild and fancy as you might think either: aspirin, ibuprofen, a range of antibiotics, quinine and antidepressants.
THIS IS NOT ADVICE TO STOP TAKING ANY MEDICATIONS YOU ARE ON!
If you think you might be affected, speak to your health provider. I was lucky that I happened to notice the difference and make the connection
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Yeah, I actually check now on any prescription
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I was an Engineman (Motor-Mac) on the old diesel electric powered submarines that went into service at the end of WWII. Also chief engineer on the 57’ Minesweepers that worked the shorelines and bays in the South China Sea. The VA did give me a whopping 10% for tinnitus, but personally, I’d rather have the peace and quiet…. VA also gives me hearing aids every couple years - put ‘em in once for a few days and realized all the bull crap that was being said around me and decided to take ‘em out and live in peace…. Much mre peacefull without them other than the dadburn cicadas!!
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I slept on the other side of the bulkhead from our 2 main gas turbine engines for 4 years on a FFG and I got jack squat from the VA. I get the full cicada chorus all the time.
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Did you get tested through the VA??
If you have time or the inclination, you can file a VA claim. They will send you to an ear doc. In Florida, we have Veterans service offices paid for by the state. They have Veteran service officers that will help you with a claim. I don’t know what I would do without my cicadas, they keep me company!
And don’t forget the DAV (Disabled American Veterans). I’m a life member. Back in the '70s, I was getting my regular checkups and treatments from the excellent VA hospital in Madison, WI. One time, just days after a major set of tests, I received a totally unexpected notice from the regional VA hospital in Milwaukee, WI to come in for the EXACT SAME TESTS. I called and explained the situation and told them that those duplicate tests were 100% medically unnecessary, that they were using me for interns to practice on and blew off the appointment. To my distress, I noticed the following month that they’d reduced my rating to 10%, claiming that I had refused medically necessary treatment, significantly reducing my monthly disability check. I was a broke-ass college student and that put a big dent in my monthly income. No amount of calls and letters to the VA produced any response. Crickets (not the tinnitus kind).
So, I contacted the DAV. I received a post card from them saying that they’d assigned my case to a local field officer. Three months later, I got my 40% rating restored and ALL of my back pay. I used part of that money to pay for a life membership.
The DAV can help you when no one else will.
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