For a specific example ,if I ride a motorcycle for several hours ,then towards the end of the ride ,the tinnitus seems to be noisier and continues to be noisier after the ride .
I am unsure if this is psychological or not?
Is the exposure to this external noise stirring up the tinnitus (even if for a non tinnitus sufferer the external noise was in the safe zone ( less than 85 decibels for less than 8 hours)
If the net wind and engine noise after wearing proper earplugs is less than 85 decibels and no additional hearing loss is incurred ,can the tinnitus perception nevertheless increase from other peoples experiences?
Is the increase in tinnitus perception temporary or permanent ?
This applies to any external noise that a tinnitus sufferer experiences
and not just engine and wind noise on a motorcycle
Peter
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DR650SE
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The problem (well one of the problems), with T is that in most cases it is largely a psychological phenomenon. What makes it louder or or quieter, what is a spike and what a permanent change, is in our heads, and for most of us, in a part of our heads that the conscious mind cannot effectively control - if it has any influence at all.
Here is a current personal example. My T is strongly reactive to any external sound, especially a change in that sound. This morning in bed I was half awake (about 6 am), my T was at its usual annoying level, but not very bad. The central heating came on. The pump is quiet, but audible as the water in the radiators begins to flow. My T immediately went "up through the gears" as I call it, becoming louder and whinier until it matched and then just exceeded the sound of the central heating. When I got up, an hour later, it fell back to its former level, until it had its daily competition with boiling the kettle - up through the gears again to a point louder than anything earlier. As I sit at my computer now, it has only a quiet cooling fan for competition, and its normal level is louder than that in any case.
My guess is that your T will usually reduce in volume after exposure, and that there will be no permanent change from such events. On the other hand, if your hearing deteriorates, or your T just happens to feel like it in the longer term, it may become permanently louder - or even quieter. Apart from the standard, infuriating , advice to "let it be" and try not to worry about spikes, I don't personally believe (others may disagree), that there is much else to be said or done.
Hello DR. Please search through the website of the British Tinnitus Association. There are helpful articles there on noise, and somewhere you’ll find the answer. And , as perlcoder has already said, we all see/hear the T differently.
Hello pericoderIt is quite a complicated situation
I must be on my guard against the brain playing psychological tricks i know
However Mr T doesn't like motorcycles even with noise levels less than 85 decibels I am sure: -((
Of course the bike is noisier than the central heating so you can probably see where I am coming from
Don't want to sell the bike on one hand but on the other hand don't want more noise .
What a conundrum
I have been on mertazapine 7.5 mg for 4 weeks now and certainly have more noise perception because of it .
I think that I shall wait until the six week mark for the mirtazapine because hopefully any increase in noise perception will have stabilised by then .????
I can then hopefully eliminate the mert factor and then try and work out if the bike is having any effect on MrT
I don't have personal experience of mertazapine. I was prescribed sertraline about 4 years ago, but by then I had suffered from T for 15 years - albeit not at the severity that (in part, but only in part), led to the prescription of an antidepressant. I know that many people feel that one or other drug caused or exacerbated their T - in my case I don't think that it changed it for good or ill.
It would not surprise me at all if the reason your T hates the motorcycle is that you love it - in the sense that you will surely worry that there might be a conflict between them, and that T tends to win its battles - at least in the early stages. That is a very good reason not to fight it - but to ignore it so far as you possibly can - and I do understand how desperately difficult that is.
I do think therefore that it is a good idea to wait for that half way mark - and do let us know how you get on.
My T reacts to everything. I’ve used hearing protection in all noisy environments for my entire life. I am psychologically uncomfortable with anything over 70db and prefer quieter. When it goes up due to an innocuous sound like running water, I remind myself that it too shall pass. It always does.
Hi MarlaynaThanks for replying..I like your comment that Mr T will settle down after innocuous noises and that he does
Mr T is a serial pest
My approach is that I know that he is there and that I mustn't get hooked on thinking about him but put my thoughts and energies into more productive activities
It may be because you have this conscious thought about your tinnitus when you get off the bike. You become aware of it focus attention on it and it gets worse. Just by reading these threads my tinnitus increases because I am aware of it
Hello Olly65You probably are on the money with what you say
However when the T gets louder than what you previously ( correctly or falsely) believe that you have experienced ,it is really a challenge to differentiate between the before or after or for that matter convince yourself that nothing has changed and it is all in the mind
Even if they can't fix T, it would be good to have a proven method to let us know that our mind is feeding us bullshit and the fact is that the T hasn't even changed by one iota
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