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Tinnitus and hearing loss


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If it's of any consolation, I've had permanent tinnitus on both ears since 2003 and can't hear anything above 4 Khz on my left ear (I can listen to The Beatles in mono and still hear the Hi-Hat on the right...).

I agree with the suggestions above. My doctor gave me good advice on the subject (mostly headphone related).

Do not stop making music.

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I've had permanent tinnitus since I was 20 or so. It freaked me out at first but you get used to it. The funny thing about tinnitus is, the more you stress out about it, the more it pollutes your life and the more you hear it and it bothers you. As you start going into a phase of "oh well, that's the way it is, may as well accept it, move on and live with it", you start forgetting it and hear it less and less.

 

Unfortunately tinnitus indicates hearing loss and there's not much you can do about it as far as I can tell. I'm not a doctor, but I've seen a few doctors about mine and none could do anything about it. I took some medication for a while which didn't do anything other than make me sick so I stopped it. I think the best way to deal with tinnitus is to accept it, learn to live with it, relax about it, and before you know it, you'll spend days without even noticing it or thinking about it.

 

Obviously there are many forms and levels of tinnitus, but personally, this has never hindered my music production or mixing skills. You know how an experimented professional mixer can get a MUCH better mix using merely a decent pair of headphones or reference monitors than a beginner could get out of the top of the line professional reference monitor models.

 

Do not despair.

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As someone who's had it nonstop since the 80s... everything David says above! You can read about the root biological cause, and with some critical thinking realize there's nothing current medicine can do to physically 'fix' it. Rather it is all about accomodation and mental attitude. it does not get in the way of my joy of music or ability to discern good from bad sounds.

 

EDIT: Atlas is right... check it out with a real specialist as there are some things that cause tinnitus symptoms that can be treated (and need to be treated). (Mine was likely from playing guitar when the only purpose of the PA was to amplify vocals, hence loud guitar amps :D )

Edited by Akitru
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I maintain that no one should take it lightly without at least consulting a specialist Dr to ensure there isn't a critical condition behind it...

Besides medication it does exist other kind of Tx.

Some GP Dr don't always have the competency or care about referring to a specialist for further investigation, which they should do.

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I maintain that no one should take it lightly without at least consulting a specialist Dr to ensure there isn't a critical condition behind it...

Completely agree. All I can do is share my own personal experience, but everyone's unique and we may or may not be perceiving the same thing which may or may not be there for the same reasons, so consult a specialist.

 

In my experience, and what my specialist explained to me was, that when you have tinnitus for example at, say, 10 kHz, that's because the cells on the basilar membrane that are responsible for detecting that 10kHz frequency or frequency range are starting to die or decrease in sensitivity. Now my non-specialist understanding is that because your brain notices it can no longer hear when 10kHz is present, it just starts sending the signal that 10kHz is always present.

 

For me, personally, this understanding led to realizing that the sensation of hearing that 10kHz is only an illusion created by my brain, it's not real. And once I accepted that, I stopped giving it so much attention, and in that process just stopped hearing it. Just now while typing this I realized I wasn't hearing it at all, so I started focusing and for sure, if I focus in then it's right there and I can hear it. But as soon as I resume working and at least with normal background noise, I'm no longer hearing it.

 

Now at night when it's true silence around, then it's much easier to hear.. but still I can manage to not pay attention to it.

 

If it really stresses you out or scare you, meditation, also, can help.

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Hi,

Since November 2020 I have hearing loss and tinnitus in my left ear, I stopped everything and now I want to come back and I'm very scared.

Some people here suffer from hearing loss?

I don't know what the reason for my hearing loss maybe NIHL

 

Thanks!

 

Hi there, I'm really sorry that it causes so much anxiety for you. I really feel for you and I guess everyone that has hearing loss/tinnitus will go through that stage. In my case the tinnitus started six years ago when I was suffering from a severe burnout. At that time I was doing music production courses for media composition. It freaked me out, just like you. I did a hearing test and all was then (still) fine. I went to a physical therapist to see if it had a mechanical cause. It didn't. My GP doctor told me I had to learn to live with it. Well that took a while.

 

There's already a lot of advise offered in the comments. But accepting that it's there and that it's phantom noise really helped me. Increased stress levels means increased tinnitus for me too. So I really had to take care of myself, which doesn't come naturally for me. Since I started meditating I seem to become a little better in accepting things I cannot change. It did however stop me from pursuing my musical dreams and I wish I hadn't done that. You can never know what the future hold. So it's better to pursue your dreams now, than rather wait until things get worse... if they do at all. So pursue your dreams and continue (speaking to myself too here).

 

Take care,

 

Erik

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I've had permanent tinnitus since I was 20 or so. It freaked me out at first but you get used to it. The funny thing about tinnitus is, the more you stress out about it, the more it pollutes your life and the more you hear it and it bothers you. As you start going into a phase of "oh well, that's the way it is, may as well accept it, move on and live with it", you start forgetting it and hear it less and less.

 

Unfortunately tinnitus indicates hearing loss and there's not much you can do about it as far as I can tell. I'm not a doctor, but I've seen a few doctors about mine and none could do anything about it. I took some medication for a while which didn't do anything other than make me sick so I stopped it. I think the best way to deal with tinnitus is to accept it, learn to live with it, relax about it, and before you know it, you'll spend days without even noticing it or thinking about it.

 

Obviously there are many forms and levels of tinnitus, but personally, this has never hindered my music production or mixing skills. You know how an experimented professional mixer can get a MUCH better mix using merely a decent pair of headphones or reference monitors than a beginner could get out of the top of the line professional reference monitor models.

 

Do not despair.

Thank you, David! I met with over 10 ENT and no one knows what happened in my ears, when I take steroids my hearing is improve in 10-20dB no one knows why.

About NIHL the cure is in developing and coming soon (5-10 years), you have tinnitus without hearing loss? my tinnitus is annoying but is not my problem my problem is the hearing loss

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I agree with Atlas. Find a good audiologist and take their advice. I've been mixing with hearing aids for the past 11 years. I have significant hearing loss in both ears, 20db@2k, 50db@4k, 70db@8k. Partly due to heredity, my age (72) and my past.

How good is your mixing? I'm interested to hear

 

30 dB is quite a lot indeed and 3kHz is further down, where intelligibility and articulation is detected. So that is indeed more of an issue.

 

Well I found my audiometry test, looks like mine is 11.5 dB at 4kHz. So it's a bit more, and further down than I remembered.

LOL 11.5db is not a noticeable hearing loss, 15db+ is noticeable hearing loss

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My mixes are fine. My HA's allow me to hear those frequencies well enough to mix and I always compare them with reference tracks. My clients are always happy with my mixes and are repeat clients. I see my audiologist every 6 months for a check up and to get my HA's cleaned and checked to ensure that I'm hearing the best that I can.
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My mixes are fine. My HA's allow me to hear those frequencies well enough to mix and I always compare them with reference tracks. My clients are always happy with my mixes and are repeat clients. I see my audiologist every 6 months for a check up and to get my HA's cleaned and checked to ensure that I'm hearing the best that I can.

Thanks! All the best man, I hope hearing loss cure will come soon and you forget your hearing aid.

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Thanks, Aviorrok! I doubt that there will be a cure for hearing loss but it would be great if there is. But I doubt that it will happen in my lifetime. Both my grandparents and an uncle on my mother's side of the family had severe hearing loss. And my mother did, too but she never did anything about it. I'm convinced that a major part of my hearing loss is inherited.
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Thanks, Aviorrok! I doubt that there will be a cure for hearing loss but it would be great if there is. But I doubt that it will happen in my lifetime. Both my grandparents and an uncle on my mother's side of the family had severe hearing loss. And my mother did, too but she never did anything about it. I'm convinced that a major part of my hearing loss is inherited.

I’m sure hearing loss cure is coming in next 5-10 years look at FX322 and OTO-413, OTO 6XX and more

Hearing loss cure is coming just wait 10 years that’s all :)

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  • 3 weeks later...

My experience with audiologists has been uneven, and generally not very favorable. They find what they expect to find, based on age and noise exposure history, and seem primarily interested in selling their exclusive brand of hearing aids. They were interested in doing that fifteen years ago when my hearing deficit was less than it is now, and even now it doesn't warrant hearing aids, IMO. While I agree that seeing an ENT is prudent to rule out an unusual organic cause, I'd urge you to be deliberate and cautious about buying anything from anybody until you're fully informed about your condition and alternative treatments to address it. For what you get the cost of some hearing aids is beyond obscene. You can acquire reliable devices with 90% of the best aids' capabilities for 25% of their cost. They may not be personalized to the same degree as the best, but reputable products are designed to accommodate the frequency profiles typical of most hearing loss, and will therefore be beneficial to most people. Of course, there are scammers and true-believers in all professions, but assistive hearing devices are prime real estate for the former. Caveat emptor, in all caps.

 

I've tried a variety of things to lessen my tinnitus. Stress and muscle tension are definitely major factors in my case, and any strategy that reduces them will help. The only supplement that has ever made a difference has been lipoflavonoids. I'd estimate that it reduces my tinnitus by 40-50%. Among my peers, I'd say about half who've tried them realize a similar magnitude of benefit; the other half do not. If I knew why, I'd be a richer man. My tinnitus is much like David N's, not pronounced and at a high enough frequency that it doesn't present a great problem in audio processing. It's always there, and if I attend to it, I'll notice it; otherwise, it's lost in whatever else my ears pick up, and I don't. Our brains are very plastic, and will accommodate sensory anomalies to an impressive degree, in many cases without our even being aware of it.

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