Do you have tinnitus? I do. It made me quit playing the guitar in the late 80s. It’s estimated that 50% of all professional musicians have tinnitus.
I play guitar at very low volume now. A lot of time I play unplugged. Do you know how loud you are? Download this great decibel meter app. Anything above 85 is hurting your ears. Wear ear protection. And encourage your kids to protect their ears–no ear buds!
Join the American Tinnitus Association. It’s a great organization. If you can’t afford to join (it’s only $40 per year) at least like them on Facebook, and you will get lots of cool updates and articles like some of the ones linked below.
Want to learn more about tinnitus? Here’s a great article on ABC.
Read this interview with Dr. Fatima Husain. She’s a total badass and part of a wave of new researchers working every day to find a fix for our condition. She thinks we are ten years from a significant breakthrough. So that is good news.
I will continue to update this post with new links so check back from time to time.
Pete Townshend–tinnitus poster boy:
Thank you for these articles! I also have tinnitus but it hasn’t been caused by listening to loud music. However, I do wear ear plugs whenever I go to a concert – no matter how loud it is.
The whole thing bothered me in the past but I have managed to relax somehow and now I can deal with it rather successfully (that is, it doesn’t bother me too much and I try not to over-analyse it). Stil, I really, really hope the cure for it will be discovered soon.
No problem! The main thing is to educate yourself and not give up hope! And try not to worry about it too much either!