I find it difficult to focus my attention on a single voice and hear what someone is saying to me if there is any background noise. Years ago I had my hearing tested and it was fine, it wasn’t a hearing issue. It is just something about the way my brain processes sound.
For years I’ve been able to hear a high pitched hiss all day, every day. Just before Christmas I noticed that I could hear a deep rumble all day, every day too. Since Christmas, I’ve also noticed I’m hearing a constant note, just a little sharper than a G above middle C. I hear these three sounds (the high pitched hiss, the low rumble and the out of key G) all day, every day. It’s called tinnitus, and it’s a common condition amongst aging metal heads like me.
There are two things I’m lamenting. Firstly, I’ll never be able to sit in absolute silence again. The next time I perceive no sound, I’ll perceive nothing at all, because I’ll be dead. Sitting in a silent room, the hiss and the rumble are bothersome, but the G is worse because it’s near the middle of my hearing range.
Secondly, I’m lamenting that as my tinnitus worsens (and it inevitably will as I age further), my ability to discern conversational voices will lessen. Background noise makes it hard for me to hear what someone is saying to me, and I hear background noise even when there is none. People will have to shout at me for me to be and to hear them.
One frustrating thing about my tinnitus is that the hiss and rumble are perceived in both ears, but the off-key G is only in my left ear. This is possibly because from the age of 18 to 22 I would spend almost every Thursday night stood with my left ear against a huge speaker at Jilly’s Rockworld, a nightclub that used to exist in Manchester, enjoying Slayer and Megadeath and Machine Head and Iron Maiden at volumes far louder than I could manage with headphones or speakers in my own room at university. I used to joke that, by the time I was age 40, I would be able to squirt stem cells into my ears to heal my deafness. The naivety of the young. Now I’m 40, and no such stem cell treatment exists for hearing loss or tinnitus.
Young people be warned. If you’re going to listen to loud music with your earphones permanently jammed into your auricles, make sure it’s worth it. Don’t waste your precious hearing listening to bad music.
Physics with Keith 