I believe there are quite a few musicians who are active while suffering from chronic conditions such as severe tinnitus or hearing loss, but are there any musicians on this site who are active while suffering from such conditions?

If there are, I would like to hear about the lifestyle changes you make to prevent your illness from getting worse, as well as your work-related experiences.

 

As a young person, I suffered a trauma from the explosion of a New Year's Eve firecracker near my left ear and since then it has been roaring and whistling in my left ear.

Most of the time I don't think about it and don't notice it that much, but there are times when I notice it louder, I think it's the stress.
I have already tried several tinnitus masks and also listened to a CD with white noise specially made for tinnitus sufferers.
The tinnitus masker can be adjusted so that it masks the noise in your ear.

I went to the ear doctor and had a hearing test and some high frequencies simply disappeared, so I got two hearing aids, one on the left and one on the right, which amplify sounds using a battery, but they are unsuitable for making music, since then I have been making less and less high-pitched music. As a sound designer, this means that the presets I make are often darker or deeper.

I can only warn everyone to celebrate New Year's Eve in crowds, better stay at home, if a firecracker explodes next to your ears, hearing damage is likely.

 

Yep, I do have it (tinnitus) Partially it's due to going to loud gigs and festivals as a teen without earplugs, partially it's due to playing next to drummers without protection. My left ear is worse, it's really audible. You learn to live with it. It's especially noticeable if you listen to soft music, watch a drama movie or show, or if you start paying attention to it.

There are several things people have tried to find a solution (masks, magnets, etc.) but as far as I know, there isn't a cure. All I can say is, take care of your hearing, protect it at all costs. I use in-ear monitors or earplugs for everything now, every gig, every rehearsal.

 

I have significant hearing loss in my left ear, moderate hearing loss in my right ear. I also have tinnitus, but I never really let that bother me. I just seem to zone it out. I'm definitely lucky that I don't seem bothered by the tinnitus unless it's properly screaming at me.
I wear a behind-the-ear hearing aid on both sides. A lot of the time I don't wear them when I'm composing something, but will when I'm starting to mix / master.

The most frustrating thing for me is that I can't wear headphones with the hearing aids. It just causes feedback. Apparently open-backed headphones may work better than the closed ones I have, but I don't want to buy a pair to find out. I need to find a pair to try first.

When listening to music on the go, I use airpods because they have my audiogram uploaded and correct the frequencies I'm deficient in.

I should also say that I have a reverse curve; Missing lower frequencies. This is less common and is a genetic thing rather than the normal age-related loss of higher frequencies. My hearing loss definitely got worse after having covid, but it's not that surprising as I have long-lasting neurological issues since then also.

 

My tinnitus worsened to noxoacusis on the pandemic, that is pain from sound. Is like someone playing with your inner ear like it was a vodoo doll whenever some loudness or frequencies hit you. Do not recommend 0/10. Got like 2 years that were a nightmare and I thought very seriously to put myself out of the way. My 5 years old son was the only reason to move forward. I'm better now, it just toned down to hyperacuisis and I only experience pain from time to time. I have my house full of ear protective material, in the kitchen, on the car, in my room. I still can make music at lower volumes and that improved my mixing skills for some reason. I had done everything possible to get better, so here is my two cents:

• No alcohol (or anything that messes with your equilibrium. Off the table)
• Check med always for their ototoxicity.
• Healthy diet
• Regular workout
• Cognitive behavioral therapy to learn how to put the sound off-focus.
  
• Melatonin (to go to sleep again fast if you wake up in the middle of the night and the tinnitus gets in the way) so you can achieve a good sleep discipline. This is super important as we people with tinnitus our brain cannot go into idle mode, is always on focus mode, that cause stress which leads to more cortisol on your bloodstream, if you don't sleep well you will enter into a retrofeedback downward spiral of mental exhaustion and brain fog.
• There is ginko biloba or Taurin that you can take but there is no enough evidence to support that they work. I've use them for a very long time but now I don't and I feel the same.

 

11 years with tinnitus, so what i do to forget that? Compose music.easy. (with lower volume)

 

I got tinnitus 10 minutes after taking the second Covid shot. I feel like such an idiot for even contemplating doing it in the first case and am so sorry I did that to myself.

It's loud in both ears but I put it in it's own container and it usually doesn't bug me as I can point my focus in other directions. I've meditated for for over 40 years and that has been my savior.

Same thing happened to me but in my right ear when I was about 22 and I was functionally deaf for about two weeks on that side.

We balance each other out, .

 

I worked out that my tinnitus was caused by my high blood pressure.

 

I suspect that's me as well. Started 6 months ago. So far for me it's annoying but not debilitating.

 

Tinnitus is not my friend but has become a constant and sometimes (very) annoying companion for the last 7 or 8 years.
Terrible (actually frightening) when it first appeared, but I have learned to ignore it most of the time.
Constant both 'sides' but frequencies shift and differ from each other on each.
Nowadays I can mostly ignore it, but when there is a change it becomes annoying.
After drinking alcohol it is worse on waking.
When in a place of silence, the tones will noticably ramp up like the old fashioned 'auto level control' on a cheap tape machine. So I have to introduce other noise (TV, music, people talking) to push it into the background again.
When the tones are noticable, I hate it, the rest of the time I have come to ignore it..
Medical hearing tests report that my hearing is within the average for a person of my age.. ie in my 60s
I think of it as my personal noisefloor which has become stupidly higher as I get older.

If I was a tape deck I would need new heads, new guides and new rollers. And, judging by the length of this post, a new stop button.

 

Last edited: Feb 15, 2025 at 10:59 PM