hearing loss/hearing aids/tinnitus/the like (it fucking sucks)

I am 23 years old and have had severe-to-profound low-tone hearing loss my entire life (I simply cannot hear bass anything in p much every song ever; I cannot hear heartbeats; I say "what?" constantly when ppl w/ a deep voice talk to me, etc), and over the past few years I've developed Meniere's syndrome which has all but eaten up the hearing in my left ear. I mean I've gotten by because I can hear most of the high frequencies and shit, but it's getting ridiculous and I am getting a pair of hearing aids. I've had a few pairs before, wore them when I was in middle school but hated it bcz I was in middle school; this is the first time I'm serious about it/want it for myself.

I mean there's all sorts of thoughts and insecurities and shit I have about this. Like, the fact that I (ideally) have 50 or 60 more years left during which my already astoundingly bad hearing will do nothing but get worse. It's also really, really upsetting when I try to listen to albums I really liked before my left ear died and suddenly I can't hear all the nice stereo effects/separation that I used to. I think about this one time when I was riding the bus in 10th grade listening to OK Computer and I thought to myself how horrifying it would be if I ever lost the ability to properly listen to music in stereo w/ headphones (lol, I have), and now pretty much I miss entire instruments/parts of songs if I'm not hearing them via speakers

I mean, it's all pretty heavy to contemplate, maybe some people here have similar experiences? My biggest thing w/ hearing aids in the past was how shitty music sounded via them, but talking w/ my audiologist there seem to've been some amazing technological advances since I had my last pair, and I'm really excited abt the idea of being able to hear things "properly" for the first time (also, wireless bluetooth/stereo input dongle!). But it's really not a fun thing to experience in any form, especially when it's well past the point of "minor inconvenience" and it actually impedes on yr life all of the time.

I can relate to sensory loss.
I hope a solution or at least a compromise can be achieved.

I need to take more precaution with my hearing.

Ach Stevie my grandad and my sister in law both have menieres so if you have that I have the greatest sympathy for you. Thats a nasty condition.

I have suffered from tinnitus in some form for much of my life. I had middle ear infections as a kid that many kids do - it burst my eardrums. I've always since had shooshy/bleepy noises in my hearing and just tried to get used to it.

In recent years its got to the point where the tinnitus noises sometimes overpower ambient daytime noise and interfere with my hearing, and thats really sucky. Sigh.

Like the other night I lay in bed thinking "is it raining?". No, it was just the noise in my fucking ears :(

ok computer is acceptable collateral damage

good luck Stevie! I feel u b/c man, that is a bum deal - ayo technology, tho, right?

My hearing is mostly intact, tho I definitely learned my lesson the hard way w/ blasting walkmen over lawnmowers, playing guitar in bands that worshiped at the feet of VU/MBV/J&MC/etc, & twenty years of earplug-free concerts by a lot of noisy bands (Brad Laner, I'm looking @ u - I'm certain that a poorly mixed 1995 Medicine show wreaked particular havoc on my eardrums). I don't have tinnitus or anything, but my hearing is definitely not 100% - probably morelike 70-80%

these days, I'm all about high-quality, custom-fitted earplugs. Well worth the $$ for avid noizemongers!

Oh man! This is so horrible. I'm sorry, Stevie.

I have had low-level tinnitus since I was yr age and one ear is noticeably quieter and gets a v different frequency response to the other ear (like Trayce, I had a lot of ear infections and recurring burst eardrum as a kid, so that may be why) and even that small impairment makes me sad whenever I notice it, so I feel for you :(

(I've often felt like I am not hearing bass on what I know are v bassy records, not 100% sure if I'm missing a chunk of low frequency too or if my hi-fi is just not up to it. tried to learn the bass guitar once and it was like, ok, I totally can't tell if I'm in tune or not, all these notes are just a plunking noise to me. but it was a shitty bass through a small, cheap amp)

anyway sorry to hear about this, it must be really shitty to live with. I'm told hearing aid technology really has come along - fingers crossed that you find something which works for you

It's funny, we happily wear glasses to correct poor eyes but hearing aids are just not done.

Yeah, it's p bullshit bcz health insurance will cover glasses but not hearing aids, which are a few grand each. Luckily NJ has some sort of labor/workforce program that is paying for mine entirely :D rly excited abt this

It's clear how much you love music, that's why it really sucks.
I'm glad there is some hope on the horizon. I just found out that I qualify for financial assistance from the drug company that manufactures my interferon, so I'll have a ten dollar monthly copay instead of a six hundred dollar copay. That is going to help.

man, stevie, i didn't know about this! :/

i seem to have developed a mild ringing in my left ear, it's been there for about three days now. it just kind of...happened? (i've worn headphones practically every day of my life since 4th grade so i guess i had this coming, but still)

i also had lots of ear infections as a kid - i remember having one really painful one, getting over it, and then a week later getting another one

I didn't know about this, Stevie. :( *hugs*

I just got a call this morning that they've FINALLY arrived. In beautiful Chestnut Brown, and they come with a wireless dongle that is A) Bluetooth compatible B) has an 1/8" input for iPod/whatever the fuck else. So psyched!

It actually wasn't even a phone call, they came to my room and signed to me.

whoa @ those technological advancements!

right?! Makes me 10x more excited abt these than my last pair, which I think I got at some point in the early 00's

Holy fuck these things are amazing. I need to get them readjusted bcz speech is muffled, but I'm really overwhelmed w/r/t music because suddenly I'm hearing all these things I've never ever heard before (apparently "Losing My Edge" has a rly cool bass line in it?). It's kind of staggering. Also, apparently you can stream music via Bluetooth from an iPhone, so these things essentially turn into Bluetooth-enabled wireless in-ear headphones at the touch of a button.

Basically I'm trying to figure out where to start going back and re-listening to everything I've ever heard in my life

That is really great! I'm happy for you.

that's awesome!

my dad is dealing with the same issues, but i don't think he's considered using aids yet. decades of music-listening has apparently caught up to him, and his hearing's been going over the past couple years, and he has a bad case of tinnitus. which drives him crazy.

do these miracle aids have a brand name? pardon if i missed it, i couldn't find any proper nouns here regarding them. and do insurance companies mostly not help out? i'm hoping maybe the family could gather our funds for father's day or something. i think he's also having a lot of trouble not hearing music like he used to, and it blows.

Not hearing music like I ought to was one of the things that always really bugged me about HA's, but technology's caught up apparently! These sound great. The ones I have are Widex Clear's, the BTE model, and they actually also have a tinnitus setting, too\. They were something like $3500 each, and insurance mostly does not help out at all, but mine were covered entirely through a program from the state's Dept of Workforce (in NJ; not sure if other states have similar programs). Definitely look into it to see if you can get assistance from the state.

Nice one mate.

Can nyone recommend a good place and make for earplugs - suitable for clubs/concerts that won;t block too much music but still protect my ears?

I'm so glad you found a solution, Stevie. I didn't see this thread until just now, and your initial description of your problem broke my heart. It's a cautionary tale for all music lovers.

Congrats on the hearing aids -- the thought of rehearing so much music sort-of for the first time is really cool.

Sounds really positive, Stevie! I'm glad you're being reunited with music.

dog latin, a lot of musicians I know use Etymotic ER-20s, which have quite a flat frequency curve (i.e. they quieten all frequency ranges almost evenly, so you don't get a muffled sound, and you can still understand e.g. people talking). They're about £15 per pair iirc and come in 2 or 3 sizes for smaller/wider ear canals. Etymotic also do custom-made ones if you're really serious and want to spend more (custom-made = better fit = better soundproofing).

Think there's been a thread before; if you search for "etymotic" you'll probably find something.

Having said that, as a non-musician I don't mind a bit of muffling - I find it reassuring that it is actually doing something. So at gigs I wear Hearos foam earplugs, which are a lot quieter and kill more high frequencies, but still have a better frequency curve (and are softer and easier to get in/out) than the foam ones you get from Boots etc.

If "not blocking too much music" is your top priority, though, the ER-20s are probably a better bet. (Though I think Hearos also do some non-foam ones with a flatter frequency curve, but I haven't tried those.)

thanks! just ordered some ER-20s and they were nowt too pricey too. Been meaning to get round to that for a while.

I'm on what is probably my 4th pair of ER-20's and I absolutely swear by them (I actually keep them in my bag/carry them with me at all times). There really is nothing like them (it's kind of mind-blowing the first time you wear them!), and at $20 it's an incredible value. I've ranted to great length on other threads how foolish it is for people regularly attending concerts not to use them.

pro-tip: if you wear a carabiner on your belt loop, don't hang the little earplug case from it (at least, not with the tiny metal chain provided) because it WILL get caught in a park bench or on a seat or whatever somewhere and you WILL lose them.

They were something like $3500 each

yeesh! thanks for the info. it doesn't seem like maryland offers any coverage for adults, and he isn't a government employee, so this probably isn't a possibility.

it's absolutely weird that insurance doesn't cover them. of all the things to not deem worthy? in this day and age?

Yeah, they are a pretty penny. Mine were through NJ's Dept of Vocational Rehabilitation; MD's equivalent seems to be http://www.dors.state.md.us/dors . I would highly recommend giving them a call and asking if there are any HA programs. And yeah, don't even get me started on insurance coverage. It's really frustrating.

zach, is he a veteran? If so, try the VA.

I am now the proud owner of a set of hearing aids. It began for me 126 days ago with tinnitus starting suddenly one night, a few days after a medication change. I went to the ENT, got an audiogram and my hearing is mostly fine, just so high frequency hearing loss. Regardless, I was approved for hearing aids. I got the kind that I can have play random fractal tones in my ears, in hopes that it helps the tinnitus, but I’m not too hopeful about that. Mostly, I’ve just come to accept it. It’s very annoying though.

But these are very interesting devices, I definitely hear differently than before. I’m assume my hearing loss will only get worse as I age, so might as well get started using them.

i'm reading David Lodge's novel Deaf Sentence. about a guy losing his hearing. its very interesting.

good luck with your hearing aids!

i have tinnitus and as of about 6 months ago now have a new and improved tinnitus diagnosed as pulsatile tinnitus. so, along with the ringing that i always have, i now hear my pulsing heartbeat in one ear. sometimes its louder than other times. my telltale head.

Best of luck Jeff! I've been putting off getting my hearing checked for a while now; I feel like I've lost maybe 50% of the hearing in one ear. It was quite odd, I actually felt it go. I was sitting with my family and could hear this weird sound; I kept asking them what it was and they said there was nothing, but it was like a muffled murmur echo while they were talking. I thought it was coming from next door. By evening, that had stopped, but then I noticed while putting an airpod in I could hardly hear the little sound it makes when you stick it in your ear.

(UK) I'm waiting for hearing aids, after some loss in hearing that is "not that abnormal but a bit early". It seems highly related to having gone to loads of gigs in my youth(ish). Wrote for music magazines so went to lots of gigs and never gave a thought to any kind of hearing protection in those days (If someone had suggested it, I'd have probably ignored ... standing next to speakers at My Bloody Valentine gigs seemed like fun). Strangely, I only really noticed anything was wrong when a phone system at work was changed to a digital one and I found myself having to ask people multiple times what their names were. The hearing specialist seemed surprised I hadn't had issues in group settings (ie. the pub) and I did find myself wondering if ... I just stop listening to people and zone out. I've mostly stopped listening to music from an MP3 player or similar - it has to be so loud to counteract the noise around me (eg. the bus).

I am having surgery next week to fix the hearing loss in my left ear. They’re gonna put a prosthetic bone in to replace one of those tiny ones that apparently got damaged after an ear infection. The doc said it should get a lot but not all of the hearing back so I think a hearing aid is in my future. Better than nothing. It’s very disorienting hearing out of only one ear

good luck heez!

I’ve had hearing aids for over 5 years now and it was easily the single most beneficial decision I’ve made in my life. get your hearing checked and try some hearing aids!

Good luck with all your treatments folks. I've recently started wearing hearing aids after a test found I had moderate hearing loss. Like djh it's likely to be down to exposure to loud music over the years - at least in part. While I started wearing ear plugs in my 20s (I'm 43 now), some damage had probably been done before that - and there was the odd time I'd forget to take any hearing protection and end up regretting it - a Melt Banana show in 2006 was particularly painful. Heavy headphone use from a young age probably didn't help either. There may also be genetic factors.

I can have slight ringing at times, but it's never really bothered me. The main issue has been struggling to make out individual voices in loud situations, eg pubs. I've also found picking out detail in echo-y rooms quite tricky, which can be difficult when I'm teaching. This has been an issue for several years and it could be pretty frustrating because it could be difficult to fully engage in conversations and I'd worry that people would think I wasn't really paying attention. I'd been putting off getting tested for years, but the turning point was when I realised my wife could hear high frequencies that I couldn't e.g. my Casio watch beeping. That was pretty freaky.

So I've been wearing them for the past few months. Like glasses or dental braces, they can take a bit of getting used to and there have been times when I found it too uncomfortable. Wearing glasses with them takes a bit of adjusting too. It's been a journey, but I'm mostly pretty comfortable with them and the benefits in terms of hearing are immediately noticeable. I can hear that Casio! And bird song sounds amazing now - so much richer and detailed. I can adjust the settings via a phone app to suit particular situations, e.g. if I'm in a noisy space, I can narrow the focus on speech and reduce background sounds. Sometimes they're too good: my mum was visiting at Christmas time and the sound of her rustling the wrapping paper was doing my nut in. I had to discreetly turn them off haha!

What brand/model do you have? I’m trialing the Widex Moment 440s.

I've got Phonak L70. Not a cheap option, but I've got finance so it's affordable. They're very discreet and they connect to my phone so I can adjust the settings. I've found that really helpful.

The Widex seems to work great as a hearing aid, but my main issues are that it is mediocre for Bluetooth streaming. I seem to be getting a lot of interference, from my watch, other wifi devices, etc. The L/R sync isn’t great and it breaks up a lot. Maybe I’m asking a lot from a hearing aid, but it would be nice if it was better at that.

This is probably a dumb question, but when you go to a concert, do you just remove the hearing aids and wear earplugs as usual?

I haven’t been to a show in years, but I would just remove them. Since I only have high frequency loss, mine are pretty open and wouldn’t do well in protecting me from that loud of a noise.

I really wish I had worn ear plugs at that Ghost show I went to in 2004. The absolute worst my ears have felt after a concert. Young and dumb.

I really wish I had worn ear plugs at that Ghost show I went to in 2004. The absolute worst my ears have felt after a concert. Young and dumb.

Now I’m old and can’t help but double post.

Depends on the concert. For Sunn 0))) the other week I took them out and put in ear plugs. Lost some of the harsh frequencies that kicked in towards the end, but it's all about the low end with them anyway.
Jazz/small club gigs, I just leave my hearing aids in most of the time. Might turn the volume down a little but it's been good with them in.

pulsatile tinnitus. so, along with the ringing that i always have, i now hear my pulsing heartbeat in one ear.

hmmm this might be what happened to me in my left ear after a particularly brutal Gary Numan show, probably 6-8 years ago now?

Picked mine up today. Found it strangely fascinating though I also feel a bit weird and self-conscious. Typing on my keyboard sounds too loud at the moment and the clock in the hospital room sounded too intrusive. Currently testing whether music sounds different and am definitely hearing things I've never heard before.

A Notwist song sounded too busy for me, today.

Also, I'm prone to doing big sad sighs and they suddenly sound a bit epic.

My perception of the world around me did shift when I started using them. Not good or bad, but different. Most alarmingly was my own voice sounds different to me now.

I feel like I'm having to turn my down quite often ... like the world is too loud.

Was away on holiday [for most of my first couple of weeks of having them] and found wearing hearing aids fairly normal but at home and more "real life", I'm finding the adjustment weirder, I think mostly related to using the phone and finding them loud or perhaps just different.

But every now and then I'll think something like "The Microphones in 2020"! I've only heard that a bit deaf ... and feel a bit of joy as to what I might discover.

Even though I'm only wearing them to compensate for a small bit of hearing loss, I do (for the most part) slightly miss them when I take them off ... in a way that I hadn't really anticipated.

Isn’t that weird? It’s like you don’t know what you are missing, but you miss it when it’s gone.

I ended up trialing a new device, now using a ReSound RU961. It has much better Bluetooth connectivity than the Widex ones. And just generally a nicer app and more options for tinnitus relief (which still don’t relieve very much, but at least there are options). Of course these are a couple of hundred bucks more.

"It’s like you don’t know what you are missing, but you miss it when it’s gone."

Yeah, that. I wasn't absolutely certain that I needed them (and maybe don't * need * them much of the time). I'd kind of imagined wearing them occasionally without really noticing that I needed to wear them a lot (to get used to them).

my hearing loss is pretty severe, but I wear mine all waking hours (unless it’s a day off work and I’m just drinking coffee in the morning or something). the difference in QOL is insane

remembering to bring my earplugs to watch basketball at the bar tonight, places are so loud nowadays

I'm really terrible at wearing mine consistently. Watching TV or a movie and long car trips is pretty much it, and even then I sometimes forget.

lots of interesting stuff in this (well i thought so):
https://thequietus.com/interviews/lola-de-la-mata-oceans-on-azimuth-tinnitus-interview/

"It’s like you don’t know what you are missing, but you miss it when it’s gone."

Thirded! Really notice the difference when I'm taking them out before bed and the TV is on. I went on a sound walk/site specific improv thing last week and it was really magical to hear the sounds of the musicians and the environment. I'm sure there are details I would have missed before. I had my 6 month check up the other week and everything is going well. I'm pretty much used to them now and only really feel discomfort when I'm tired or under the weather.

hey I just wanna thank the posters on this thread who talked about their hearing aids - my hearing loss began (or I noticed it) in '09 and I went kinda nuts and then learned to cope and then after reading several of these "my hearing aid whips ass" posts here, I hit up my audiologist -- my hearing had declined further, not surprising both given my line of work & given (this per audiologist, I haven't "researched") increasing evidence that hearing loss is degenerative & at least partly genetic. today I got my shiny new hearing aids and while there'll be some adjustment I spent much of today in wonder at the pleasure of hearing more of the natural world, hearing things more clearly. the one weird are so far is music -- it is clearer, but my tinnitus seems to creep up if I'm listening (thru speakers) with the hearing aids in -- but this is just day 1 and I'm sure my brain will figure it all out. anyway thank you. minus this thread I probably wouldn't even have thought of this for another ten years.

That’s awesome. Glad they have helped out.

Sadly, my tinnitus seems to be worse recently. I got the hearing aids in hope of making it better. While they have improved a lot of hearing things, my ears are still buzzing, for 290 straight days now.

mine is constant. Not even sure how long it has been like this. I don't remember a beginning. Every day all day it sounds like the day after an extremely loud show.

Mine is a perpetual high F#. I compare it to a tuning tone every once in a while, and it's always the same, and always present. Thankfully often ignorable, and while I know I have a few frequencies missing, I seem to be able to make out soft sounds pretty easily. My mom says hers went away when she quit caffeine but I'm not sure that's even possible to test.

JCLC, that's great to hear (no pun intended?). I feel like I'm encountering more and more musicians referencing hearing loss and hearing aids, which is a good thing. Like, I recall Springsteen mentioning in passing that he now wears hearing aids around the house, which goes in tandem with confessions (from him and others) of using hair dye and the like. I saw Pearl Jam a couple of weeks ago. They're all around or a little over 60, and they're all grey ... except Vedder, who also now conspicuously wears a hat. That's just the passage of time for you, but hearing? I can only imagine the damage done to countless musicians and other lifers from decades playing and going to shows.

What's the Jon Langford quote? "If it's too quiet, you're too old!"