5 years ago i started suffering from tinnitus in my left ear (from DJing) and at the same time noticed that certain sounds in my everyday life were beginning to hurt my ears, such as washing dishes, my young son's voice etc.
i put this down to the tinnitus and stopped making music for a few months to give my ears a rest.
the tinnitus receded somewhat to the point i hardly noticed it, and i stopped noticing the sounds that had been hurting my ears.
although the tinnitus never went away, i learned to handle it by ignoring it, and i only noticed it in very quiet situations.
i did a bit of research on the web, and realised that i was pretty much doing the right thing under the circumstances.
then about a year ago, i noticed the problem with certain sounds gradually coming back. the tinnitus was still in check, but i was beginning to worry that my hearing had become damaged and things were just getting worse and worse by the day. gigs were becoming difficult, i was having to wear earplugs alot of the time, i was wearing earmuffs for any task that created even the slightest of harsh sounds, phone conversations were becoming painful, and i noticed that certain peoples voices, usually female voices, were hurting my ears so bad, that i had to put my earplugs in when talking to some people.
so i took 6 months out of the studio, presuming it was the fast attack, high mid frequency sounds that i was using for percussive sounds that was causing the problem. again the problem receded somewhat, but this time it didnt go away altogether, and i became very depressed thinking that my music career was over.
then about one month ago an amazing thing happened, i was on the phone to one of my best friends who is also a musician, and he told me that he'd been suffering from something very similar. now this guy is only 24 and i'd been assuming that because i was alot older, it was just general wear and tear from years of loud music environments. i was shocked when he told me he was considering giving up music at 24 to save his hearing, and that he was going to see a specialist the next day to be checked out.
i told him that i was very worried because that morning when i went to the toilet, the sound of my own piss hitting the water in the toilet was hurting my ears, and that i really thought it was all over for me.
then later that day the same friend sent me a link to a blog which he'd found on the internet (which is at the bottom of this post ) and when i read it i couldnt believe it, this was the first line of the blog;
' It was when going to the toilet became difficult that I knew I really had to do something about it '
i knew instantly that this guy was suffering from the same thing as me.
it's well worth reading this blog !!!
it turns out the condition is called hyperacusis, and that there is a very large psychological element to it. basically you become afraid of sound !
and the worst thing you can do is wear ear muffs and ear plugs, because you become more and more insular and more and more afraid of sound.
it appears that you need to be re-taught to like sound, by having up to a years worth of psychotherapy.
when i read this, i thought 'no way' i cant take a year out of music, i'd already lost over 6 months, and i'm a great believer in self healing, i never go to the doctors for anything.
so my answer was to go down to the kitchen and have a good old clatter around with the pots and pans, telling myself it wasnt hurting, and i couldnt believe it, it didnt hurt !
these same sounds, even at much less intensity would have had me running out of the kitchen in pain covering my ears.
(it had got to the point that just two glasses clinking together would have sounded like the big-bang going off in my head)
in the meantime my friend had gone to the specialist, and hadnt really been given any answers, and he came back depressed.
then when i told him what i'd done in the kitchen, he immedeately went to his kitchen and did exactly the same thing.
we both realise that our problems havent gone away completely, but i'd say we're 95% cured.
just to round off the story, both me and my friend played a gig together on friday night, and at the end of the gig, be both realised we'd gone through the whole night without wearing earplugs, and hadn't noticed any hearing problems, it was like we'd forgotten we'd ever had a problem.
weird
you must read this blog;
http://chrissingletonmusic.blogspot.com ... ed-up.html
