Anybody else have this? God, it is EXCRUCIATING. It suddenly hit me about 3 weeks ago that I was constantly hearing a high-pitched whistling/ringing. Initially I thought that something was wrong with my monitor, and then after a few reboots and a walk outside, I realized that I might have tinnitus. I went to an audiologist, and he basically told me that there's no cure and that I have to learn to live with it. I called an ear/nose/throat doctor to get another look, and they didn't even want to see me after I explained to them my situation.

I've been in bands and have gone to shows for so many years, and have only started wearing earplugs recently, but this hit me so fast. I have good days and bad days with it, and swearing off caffeine and alcohol have slightly helped, but I feel like it's not enough. This is driving me nuts. Anyone have any tips on how to deal with this?

A couple people I know who have it have had it subside greatly within a couple of years.

Get a pair of sensaphonics for when you go to shows, etc.

www.sensaphonics.com

Wow, that's awful. I wish you the best.

My dad has it and it drove him nuts, at first.
But he has learned to live with it.
Does suck.
Sorry.

I think we've all had the ringing in the ears after shows, but it subsides for me by the next day. My friend had problems after a particularly rawkus Mooney Suzuki show a couple years back and was pretty freaked out after a couple days of ringing/muted hearing. Thankfully, it subsided eventually.
I can't imagine having that go on all the time.

Our collective "good luck" is probably cold comfort, but I think we all really sympathize with this problem.
It's one of the hazards of being a musician/music fan and we all realize it's something we flirt with if we're not careful.
Wear your earplugs, kids. Please.

Yeah, it's really annoying and oftentimes brings on headaches more often than usual but you can sorta get used to it.

I have it as well and I'm pretty sure it's either from a Nine Inch Nails concert at Drexel back on 7/14/90 where I stood right next to the SL speaker stack or at the Skinny Puppy show at the Troc on 6/12/92.

Strangely enough, it wasn't until 96 or 97 when I finally wised up and started wearing ear protection.

Good luck with learning to cope with it.

i occasionally have ringing, but not full-on tinnitus. i'll just be sitting reading in silence and then i hear this sudden buzz or ring. it slowly subsides, though. i've been wearing earplugs since last summer at every show.

well, after taking a moment to think back and find what might've been the culprit, it doesn't seem so surprising after all. I just wish there would have been some symptoms to warn me before having 24 hours of nonstop ringing. The inconclusive list:

always listening to headphones at the loudest possible volume as a kid
throwing fireworks from the car as a teenager, and having salutes go off IN the car
countless hardcore shows (almost all unprotected)
driving with the windows open (who knew? audiologist told me this was a no-no)
lightning bolt (unprotected, right next to speakers)
Sonic Youth
Sonic Youth AND Lightning Bolt AND Black Dice
practicing in a refrigerator-sized room with musicians who insist on being as loud as possible
countless noise bands that create music specifically designed to give the listener tinnitus

Get those sensaphonics buddy. Insurance ought to cover a good chunk of them.

seriously?! my windows are hardly ever closed in warm weather.

Yeah, I've had it for a little while, but it's not noticeable if there's always some low background noise (preferrably music, of course). It really wouldn't be much of a problem at all if my girlfriend wasn't so insistent on complete silence when going to sleep and often while she's working.

I started wearing earplugs to shows (though not always) even before I knew I had it, but apparently that wasn't enough. I think that constantly listening to headphones, often for 8 hours a day while working, is just as much if not more to blame. I try to keep the volume low now, but it's hard to do.

Apparently, it's not a smart thing to do with people who have "sensitive ears".

I forgot one obvious item from that list: MINDFLAYER. Holy hell were they loud!

I stopped playing altogether about 7 years ago and the ringing didn't subside for about 4-5 years, and even now it's still there.

Sensaphonics earplugs are absolutely the way to go. They're pricey (about $150), but you'll never play without them again. They're awesome.

That's terrible; I'm sorry.

Bob Mould has a notorious case of tinnitus, and he's mentioned that he cannot sleep without having some sort of ambient noise to cancel out the ringing sound. Are you able to sleep at all?

I need to start wearing earplugs.

Yeah, I remember reading about that and hoping that it would never happen to me. William Shatner also has tinnitus, and has considered suicide because of it.

My sleep schedule in the past few weeks has been so F'd up because of this, but I'm forcing myself to get into a regular schedule. One day I would get like 2 hours of sleep and the next I would pass out right after work and sleep until morning again. But strict diet and excercise are helping me to adjust. I can tell right away in the morning if it's going to be a good day or a bad day, and the bad mornings make me want to van gogh the shit out of my inner ears.

fuck
i turn on a fan when i go to sleep all year 'round because complete silence freaks me out.

that might help with your sleeping.

i've had times where my ears would ring for days after dj'ing at a club with a slammin' soundsystem and the monitor fucking right next to me, blaring away in my face for 2 hours straight. luckily it always goes away.

a popular drum and bass artist, Optical, also had it, but in time it went away. he couldn't produce for close to a year because of it, and had to cut his dj'ing schedule.

whenever someone switches with me at the DJ booth i notice that they listen to the headphones about 5 times louder than i do. i feel bad for them.

isn't that what drove roger miller to stop playing music the first time?

i'm genuinely concerned for my own hearing, after having played drums and gone to shows for several years already and never taken any precautionary measures...

I have ears of iron!

I should probably have tinnitus by now because I've been listening to music way to loud on headphones for long periods everyday for about 15 years - but I don't.

I did actually go deaf in one ear for about 3 weeks and that, strangely enough, wasn't a very nice experience.

is this some sort of cut on me for missing the ozzfest battle of the bands?


come to think of it, i've blown out like 4 pairs of headphones in the last 2 years and god only knows how many pairs of car speakers. This window thing has me pretty screwed, too.

look you little bastard, i was the first to admit that that was, in hindsight, a bad idea. i was just lamenting that i'm probably in little to no danger of this terrible, questionably audible fate as i don't go see as many shows as i should.