Hearing damage, Hyperacusis !

[Roy Koch]

'4 Use earplugs whenever your ears are exposed to loud sounds, gigs etc, BUT do not use em all the time.. '

Any source or clarification on the last part? Seems kind of odd.

[mekha]

Sorry about that.. it was late.. and english is not my primary language, anyways...

Let me elaborate: As pretty much this topic sums it up, do not wear earplugs all the time, use them only when you are exposing your ears to loud sounds; That means, if you go to the market to buy some veggies you dont have to wear em, if you -write here your fav activity which isnt exposed to loud sounds- dont wear em.

My point is, do not get paranoid about making music or about listening to sounds; (hyperacousis) Your ears can tolerate loud sounds depending on exposure time, that's how hear damage occurs. You could listen to say a moderated volume beat for 1 week and get the same hear damage from listening to a absolute raping 100db beat for 5 secs. The key is taking breaks of loud exposure.. because hair cells excitation is somewhat exponential.. So as long as you rest your ears you'll be fine. (That's not an excuse to rape your ears with loud sounds, my suggestion is, breaks from time to time and moderate/discrete volume)

As for the source of this, my doctor is the best god damn ear specialist where I live and he has been more than happy to explain all these phenomems to me.

He has told me lots about this stuff, and he has treated a couple of opera singers. The last thing he told me was that in his monthly magazine they covered tinnitus quite a bit, supposedly some guys did some research and they said in the future they could get the over-excitation of the hair cells to cease with medication, lets all hope for this

[Roy Koch]

Ah, thanks for explaining. I thought that you meant that you shouldn't use earplugs at every party/gig. It already seemed quite odd

[oblioblioblio]

regards the possibility of wax build up and sinus problems.

I recently had well over 6 months where I couldn't really write much music, I had a lot going on medically and one of the problems I was having was that my ear felt like it was clicking, when I was yawning It would often emit a burst of static like sound and it was horrible.

In the past I've had a small period where strong midrange sounds would hurt my ear, but this passed as I started being more careful listening to music and stopped playing so many gigs (I was finding gigs with bands to be the worst for hurting my ears so stopped working them).

I now am extremely careful, I don't always wear earplugs, but I've cut down on going out and normally tend to stand at the back of gigs and when people want to talk to me - I stop them and ask that they speak to me away from the dancefloor (people shouting in your ears is a killer !).

Anyway - to get back to the point, I was frightened I'd buggered my hearing so went to see the doc on numerous occasions and researched the problem online.

It seems it's caused by a blockage of cattar or whatever - let's just call it 'gunk' in your inner ear, in tubes called the euchasian tubes (probably bad spelling).

The crackling and whatnot is the fluid moving around.

I've since started doing regular menthol inhalations and this has sorted the problem out, my ear still clicks when I move it, but it's doesn't feel uncomfortable or emit bursts of static/crackle.

+1 on this issue. my ears have been playing up for quite a while now, mild infections and general annoying stuff but slowly getting better.

Recently the issue has been in one ear... a build up of fluid in the eustachian tube... (related to smoking I believe) . I saw the doctor who just ignored me and gave me a false diagnosis (pretty annoying).

Anyways I've read up about it more and think there's not too much that can be done other than wait it out. Been huffing away on some menthol and avoiding tobacco etc. Hopefully will be ok.

[MagpieIndustries]

I don't know much about psychotherapy, and nothing about hyperacusis, but even so I'm pretty sceptical that banging some pots and pans in your kitchen for a few minutes is an adequate replacement for a year of therapy.

[steevio]

I don't know much about psychotherapy, and nothing about hyperacusis, but even so I'm pretty sceptical that banging some pots and pans in your kitchen for a few minutes is an adequate replacement for a year of therapy.

maybe you should start a thread about being a sceptic and lacking knowledge.

why bother making comments like that ?

the facts are that i cured myself this way.

another example - tinnitus is a common problem and topic of conversation amongst my musician friends, and almost everyone has a different way of dealing with it, and whichever trick you use, it always amounts to visualising it away.
the people who cant do this, are absolutely debilitated by it, they constantly go to doctors and specialists, use white noise machines etc, it drives them crazy.

i could list hundreds of examples of people who use self-help methods to cure themselves of all manner of ailments and psychological problems.
but whats the point.....

i posted this thread to give hope to anyone suffering from this dis-ease, in the way that i was given hope by the guy who posted the original blog about hyperacusis.
by pointlessly posting narrow-minded uniformed views and effectively calling me a liar, you do nothing to help anyone.

[hydrogen]

regards the possibility of wax build up and sinus problems.

I recently had well over 6 months where I couldn't really write much music, I had a lot going on medically and one of the problems I was having was that my ear felt like it was clicking, when I was yawning It would often emit a burst of static like sound and it was horrible.

In the past I've had a small period where strong midrange sounds would hurt my ear, but this passed as I started being more careful listening to music and stopped playing so many gigs (I was finding gigs with bands to be the worst for hurting my ears so stopped working them).

I now am extremely careful, I don't always wear earplugs, but I've cut down on going out and normally tend to stand at the back of gigs and when people want to talk to me - I stop them and ask that they speak to me away from the dancefloor (people shouting in your ears is a killer !).

Anyway - to get back to the point, I was frightened I'd buggered my hearing so went to see the doc on numerous occasions and researched the problem online.

It seems it's caused by a blockage of cattar or whatever - let's just call it 'gunk' in your inner ear, in tubes called the euchasian tubes (probably bad spelling).

The crackling and whatnot is the fluid moving around.

I've since started doing regular menthol inhalations and this has sorted the problem out, my ear still clicks when I move it, but it's doesn't feel uncomfortable or emit bursts of static/crackle.

+1 on this issue. my ears have been playing up for quite a while now, mild infections and general annoying stuff but slowly getting better.

Recently the issue has been in one ear... a build up of fluid in the eustachian tube... (related to smoking I believe) . I saw the doctor who just ignored me and gave me a false diagnosis (pretty annoying).

Anyways I've read up about it more and think there's not too much that can be done other than wait it out. Been huffing away on some menthol and avoiding tobacco etc. Hopefully will be ok.

Yes, wow... this is exacly happened to me 7 years ago after a month long cold after quitting cigarettes for the first time. i too have seen many doctors with no real answers. Many ignored the issue... just a real pain in the ass.... It hasn't really improved but i decided i wouldn't worry about it and the less i think about it the less of a real problem it is for me.

[AVX23]

Good to see there is still talk about this - I think it's important for people to discuss these issues - particularly as we know doctors, can be so flippant about the problem, so good to keep the chat going here and sharing the knowledge.

Steevio - been too long mate - I'm glad to hear you are on the mend bruv, was vexed for you on this one - I actually discussed your problem with a venerable scholar about this today and he was very interested to hear about it, although he was not in a position to offer any advice.

Just to report on my situation - my problem has completely sorted itself out,

frequent deep inhalations with menthol crystals (be carefull with these little suckers folks, can cause severe skin irritation and is pretty toxic in general I think, so use in tiny measures and don't get it on your skin directly) and prescribed nasal sprays were the key - the doctor specifically advised prescribed nasal sprays as the shop bought ones can often be innefective.

Interesting to hear people using spectrum analysis to filter out harmful frequencies, just been to see russel haswell play live - hahaha, think he just rolled that theory up and smoked it

oblioblioblio and hydrogen - hope you guys are similarly on the mend, and hope you good in general.

Jah bless.

P