I found this site after being utterly fed up and frustrated. A little back story first:
I'm 53, male and I live in England. About a decade ago I noticed after a gig I attended as a punter that the usual "ringing in the ears" was taking longer than usual to go away, then after a few more weeks realised it actually hadn't gone away at all. I also found myself struggling to hear people talk clearly, missing bits of the conversation especially if there was a lot of background noise. I've been in and out of bands quite a lot over the years, mainly rock and metal. Playing on stage was not that much of an issue as it's never really that loud however rehearsals (being in an enclosed space) was much louder so I started wearing earplugs.
Unfortunately I think it's too late. I have professional grade earplugs which I've used for a couple of years but the damage is done. I've got considerable hearing loss in both ears for certain frequencies (around the same as most peoples voices) so struggle to hear conversations sometimes, but it's the tinnitus that sometimes feels like it's driving me absolutely mental. I'm waiting for an appointment to have some hearing aids that I hope will help calm it down some, and I use things like Aerospex bone conductor earphones to "pipe" music into my head quietly when it get's really bad and I've just stopped going to gigs as it's not worth the risk. I use an app called Calm which provides all sorts of 'distraction' noises (running water, rain, fire, white/brown/pink noise) and even bought a pendulum ticking clock for the wall at home simply so there is some background sound when I'm in bed, but sometimes there are times I just want to scream and punch walls I'm so frustrated. I play walking football regularly (or at least usually, as I broke my ankle a few weeks ago in a supposed "non-contact" sport lol!) and even struggle to hear the whistle sometimes, though getting out in the open with other fat old men (😜) does help!
All I can hope for is that the hearing aids help calm things down some. Does anyone have any other suggestions for things I can do?
Cheers.