Ears ringing, buzzing pain and Tinnitus

[Catcher10]

Wow....I have ringing in my ears most of the day, I am 52 and yea too many concerts back in the day and listening high volume is cars. But I am not sure that is the reason, age probably and maybe something else. But it has not affected my music listening or daily life like what I read here. Sounds really terrible, I think about it and probably should have my hearing tested but not sure...
Hope it gets better for you both

[esteban]

I would need to point out that my tinnitus is not as severe as Dave's. However, it HAS gotten significantly worse and it is now always present and frequently accompanied by headaches, fatigue and insomnia. It all started to go downhill after we moved to the new place, in addition to the circumstances I described in my previous posts (all beyond my control), so I am sure that is not a coincidence.

[djwhog]

Originally Posted by esteban

Wow!

Dave, your post could have been written by me. Almost word for word.

I felt you were describing the last few years of my life.

Almost every single thing you describe, I went through as well.

I am speechless right now, since I thought I was going crazy (my wife thinks I am sometimes), and NOTHING has been able to help.

You have described your ordeal in such a detailed manner that I feel it would be redundant of me to reiterate your points, but let me quickly summarize my own story:

- I am 38. My hearing has always been perfect. I always protect my ears. I wear earplugs to live events. I even wear them to go see movies. My hearing tests are all beyond perfect. I keep copies of them. My ENT always laughs when he sees the results. I even asked if he could raise the threshold of the testing machine to 12khz and had no trouble hearing that. But, like you, I barely use my stereo nowadays. My tinnitus has been really bad lately, with lots of sinus pressure, headaches, fatigue, sleeplessness, you name it. In fact, you DID name it all. I am going, and have been going for quite a while, through the same thing.

- In my case, I moved to a condo in a VERY densely populated area, by the beach, about 7 years ago. I also work from home now (this was not planned), so I am indoors and/or close to computers almost 90% of the time.

- The noise in my condo is unbearable. I can hear the neighbors walking upstairs, the annoying and stupidly pointless beeping sound of the delivery trucks (which, by the way, is illegal in some European countries), the unbelievably loud rumble of the garbage trucks (seriously, do they need to LIFT the damn dumpsters? Can we not think of an alternative in this day and age?), the electric saws used to trim the yards every other damn day, the construction EVERYWHERE around me... We live next door to a HUGE luxury hotel and their noise-level is non-stop, even on holidays and weekends. City officials and condo board members do not give a rat's ass. I have tried,

- I installed impact windows for their noise-suppression capabilities at a significant cost, and they helped, but the construction is rampant and incessant. The noise is impossible to tame, and actual sound-proof windows would cost an additional 30K and, I was told, they would not be infallible. The high frequencies actually travel THROUGH the walls.

The building across the street from us is being renovated. 2 years of noise. They are building another uber-luxury condo tower in the corner. Another 2 years. They just finished another one two building down the street from us (they even built this one IN FRONT OF another tower that had an ocean view... but not anymore!)... It goes and an on...

- I spend 75% of my days wearing noise-cancelling headphones.

Think about that for a second! I own the house outright and pay a TON of money in property taxes... to live like this? It is no life at all.

I cherish the moments were the stars align, the neighbors are gone, and there are no 18-wheelers with exorbitant diesel engines in our door delivering at 11PM, and everything is quiet so that I can finally enjoy my system and get lost in the music...

I want to move, of course, and to the middle of nowhere. Yes, I am a grumpy 38-year old at this point. But it is either that or the marriage.

I thought the main issue in my case was noise-related stress, sound pollution (a real, genuine threat courtesy of modern lifestyles) and the astounding amount of wi-fi and similar signals all around us (I count 26 wi-fi signals around me as of right now). But I never thought of what you described! So I will definitely look into it!

I will write more soon, but I wanted to share this with you. You are most definitely NOT alone in this!

Feel free to PM me and we can talk, this is a BIG dam deal and I was so DAM sick and mean of people Docs etc telling me a noise machine and not think about it etc. would help PURE BS!

I mean there have been times that if I did not have a loving wife, kids and grand kids I would have ended it. Others have said just take more pills, Xanax etc. they can not understand until they live it... screw that for the pills .

I have spoke with and am documenting 100s and 100s of folks with this issue. I don't even mention it and yet today a customer of mine in her 40s she said her and her husband have ringing issues and she had to reschedule are 4pm appointment to go get hearing aids to counter the ringing.

That is and no offense to most docs what they do, they treat the symptom not the cause.

Very very sad

Also I so sad for you and what you are dealing with and I understand it completely since you describe what is as bad or worse then me my friend.

I find it VERY hard to imagine some many folks even in their 40s have hearing issues this bad.

I was mid to late teens at the tail end of the 70s crowd that in the early 70s had more music hifi shops etc. You are hard pressed these days to even find a stereo system in many folks house. back in the day it was like a TV set in popularity right!

Then we also had muscle cars and all cars etc were much louder than present vehicles in general.

So to recap I would think most folks live in less noise these days then back in the 60s-70s etc. Of course except for out WAR HEROES right

So why all the ear and head issues? (Cause and Effect)

Anyway I am not going to let this go and I am feeling much better and may not ever be as good as was even a year ago, but already live is somewhat fun again and I sleep and have less stress.

I urge anyone that can not even imagine the pain, mental drain etc to just imagine 24x7 the constant noise that drives you insane and then you can not even enjoy life, yet alone your nice audio system that is a passion.

It has been to me explaining this to others like all of you AA members trying to explain and or justify your audiophile life style right.. I mean non-audiophile folks think we are all nut jobs.

GOD bless you prayers sent!

[phunge]

Wow, thanks for posting this, really opened my eyes to the dangers. Can you recommend a good meter for taking measurements around the home?

[djwhog]

OK even yesterday dropping of a PC with a 45 year old girl we were suppose to go to get her backup drive setup and she said she and her hubby who also in only 46 were going to the Dr for hearing aids to counter the ringing noise. What the hell!

Not a stereo, gun owner, she said she went to one concert in her lifetime. She works in HR in a very noise free office. Well she and he do live in a rural area and has the same meter I had. Anyway we are testing it next week for her, sure seems very strange that so so many people have these issues. I could understand 70 and up, war vets, folks the run a gun range drag strip and never have protection but this is messed up.

She said this just started this year shortly after moving to the house in the country and keeps getting worse. She never had this issue while living in town with a non AMR metered home.. hmmmm Well I have know her since 2002 as a customer too.

[djwhog]

Originally Posted by phunge

Wow, thanks for posting this, really opened my eyes to the dangers. Can you recommend a good meter for taking measurements around the home?

OK the Trifield 100XE EMF Meter is a decent analog at a good price on Amazon and for a not to expensive digital meter that offers more test look to this model the CORNET® ED-88T 100MHz-8GHz Tri-mode device RF LF ELF Meter Made in USA 2016


You can get into to higher end stuff of which I have too now but these will get the basics tested.

Here are a few books that will wake you up.

[bart]

Dave, thank you for sharing this!
More people should be aware of all these devices that can possibly harm our health.
No microwave oven in our house!
And wi-fi off at night when we go to sleep.

[djwhog]

Yes I have done like I did when I had the kids living at home, I put timers on both my router and WIFI and turn them off at night.

Anything at home you can do to minimize the RF even went all LED bulbs too and that helped, but my main issues was the Smart Meter and I am working to help other in WY as to prevent this nightmare for other too.