If you play in a loud band without ear protection, you are STUPID. Hearing loss is irreversible. Treat your self now to protection or pay for it for the rest of your life.
I posted a great deal on this topic a few years ago: Revisiting my years as a young, invincible-in-my-own-eyes combat-veteran & bassist in this context hurt. But I wanted to give other bassists with tinnitus, say, some hope, &, if asked, advice, too. Not that long ago, I was in their shoes. And it hurt so badly.
I developed bilateral tinnitus in my '20s. Few peers seemed to know anything about it at the time. Prior to becoming a serious musician, I was a soldier. I saw two tours of combat duty. T & other hearing conditions were dirty secrets in both "work settings." I suppose the music industry & military hoped that if the problems weren't addressed, nobody would notice them, or at least nobody would be able to see the correlations.... How cruel! I decided to get my hearing checked.
My 1st audiology exam & ENT consult were a disastrous package. Immediately upon entering the office, I was told "if you've got tinnitus, you've got hearing loss, too." I gave the examiner an impromptu lecture on patient-abuse &, mistakenly, took the test, anyhow. I was worked up, raging & panicking. In spite of this, my audiogram was within high normal limits, 0 dB @ virtually all tested frequencies. But it didn't represent my true hearing. My overheated mood also affected my results on the word-recognition test. I didn't do much listening.... Still, I passed. I felt like I'd been gang-raped. I withdrew for a few months; I wouldn't talk; I mostly slept...fitfully. I'll spare you any further "confessions." I shared the above to better illustrate my points.
I was urged by friends to go to a different clinic, where the staff had a reputation for, imagine, compassion. Yet I was furious, raging with a sense of violation. Thus, I blew the matter off for a long time. Eventually, I went. This 2nd exam couldn't have been more different. Nobody tried to candy-coat anything. Yet everybody tried & succeeded in treating me like a human being deserving of dignity & good "bedside manner."
The exam was far more thorough than the 1st. I took it in a calm state-of-mind. My audiogram was quite surprising: The only "notches" were in the "negative" dB domain, i.e., I could hear (many) tones softer than 0 dB, an artificial threshold rather than an "absolute zero" measure. IOW, my hearing, at all tested frequencies, all the way up to the hard-to-test (via standard air-conduction pure-tone audiometry) extended high frequencies (16 kHz in this test), was abnormally normal! My speech recognition test score was in the uppermost %'ile-range. All that, with bilateral, chronic tinnitus. I happily agreed to be fitted with custom ER-25 ear-plugs. I've used them religiously ever since.
Are my results typical for someone with "T?" No, although far more common than some would have you believe. So what. No matter how you "score" on the hearing tests, your mental-health doesn't have to be battered by so-called caregivers. On the contrary: If your results distress you, wouldn't it be best if you're consulting with a clinician who treated you kindly from the moment you signed in at the desk?!
Years later, issues pertaining to musician hearing-conservation/protection, tinnitus, hearing-loss, & psychology remain near & dear to my heart. Why? Because when I was terrified, people I trusted betrayed me. These clinicians broke their Oath to Do no Harm. They did an excellent job, however unwittingly, in scorching into my brain how NOT to treat a patient. No patient should ever be subjected to feedback the likes of "you asked for it" or "what did you expect, kid? Now learn to live with it."
It, therefore, pains me when clearly well-intending TB'ers give sound advice using alienating language. It defeats the purpose. This is especially true when you're attempting to reach very young (&/or defiant) players, for instance. It's particularly damaging when said players openly describe what ails them, & reach out for advice. That's what usually brings them to this thread. They're not here to argue with you. Even if they do, it's nearly-always because they're frightened & angry.
So, please, if you really want to help a player, how about replacing your "You are STUPID" with "It is STUPID."
Or, perhaps, ditch the "STUPID" entirely, in favor of an equally powerful but less derogatory word. That way, you'll be HEARD by far more people.
Thank you. That'll be all for a few years, probably. Well one more thing: Over time, my subjective T perception went from "severe" to "mild." This wasn't due to some snake-oil consumption. Rather, it was, in all likelihood, the result of "habituation." You see, when you no longer perceive a stimulus as a threat, well, your associated stress-level plummets. That "peace" allows the brain to "learn" to nearly ignore it, that T, as mere...noise.
.. in fact I'm one of the only people I know that bothers with earplugs other than those I work with.
