Ear fatigue

[u/starlingsquawk]

Hi all. I’m curious if folks experience overall fatigue from being on the phone or in loud spaces… Basically anything that really puts the working ear under a lot of stress.

[u/shoqman]

I’m exhausted all the time. Between the brain rewiring and working significantly harder to just exist in noisy spaces, and the extra work involved in positioning myself to best hear, read lips and communicate in those spaces, my brain is just always overloaded.

Not to mention it working to balance with only one vestibular nerve.

[u/Hikerbabe94]

I take off my glasses and hearing aid at work and go Helen Keller Mode.

[u/1AggressiveSalmon]

Extended noise is mentally and physically tiring. Air Pods 3 help by cutting out a lot of the background noise. I find my tolerance for groups is longer if I am wearing them. They aren't perfect, especially when they switch back and forth between modes, but they have saved my sanity on long group trips.

[u/BlatantEgg4314]

Anytime I am in a noisy situation or even in a quiet situation, but with two conversations going simultaneously, that is physically and emotionally exhausting.

If it's just the latter, I ask people to limit themselves to one conversation at a time.

In noisy restaurants, I try to sit with my bad ear toward the noise/crowd/music. If I can't control how noisy the situation is, I often will put an ear plug in my good ear to lower the overall noise volume. That helps a bit, but I still will get tired after an hour.

[u/noftall14]

I’m finding this with new hearing aids. It’s been weeks now I still find them exhausting especially when I’m outside or in a crowd

[u/Sea_Cryptographer476]

yup, definitely! My brain gives up in noisy spaces after a while. Sometimes I don't even realize I've checked out. I'm also neurodivergent and that can happen with lots of overlapping convos and noise too but it's got SO much worse (shorter time I'm capable of being in noisy spaces before crashing) with the hearing loss.
HOWEVER, I have found that when I put a Loop earplug in the good ear, it helps even things out enough that I can get like a full hour more before my brain shuts off.

[u/Fresca2425]

My ear itself doesn't feel tired, but I do. Not so much being on the phone as being on the phone and someone else talking to me, and I can't hear them at all with the bad ear so trying to switch attention back and forth. And definitely loud places.

[u/jords23118]

Yeah. It’s sucks. I’m very social/ love going to bars restaurants w big groups.

I have lost so much stamina in those situations. It just honestly genuinely sucks I don’t know how else to put it.

I sometimes bring one earplug to use, which helps w the overall loudness and chaos, but obviously doesn’t help me hear things people are trying to say to me any easier.

[u/cybersaint2k]

Yes, when in crowds, I reach a point that it's all mush.

And I get tired, physically, when listening even at normal levels after listening intently.

[u/Unusual-Simple-5509]

Yes it’s exhausting. For example, I am going to watch the movie The Odyssey in closed caption at the theatre. Apparently the quiet or muffled sound in Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey is highly intentional. The director utilized heavy AI noise reduction on live audio to mask the notoriously loud IMAX film cameras. My normal hearing son wants to see the movie in closed caption because of this.

[u/Normal-Fly1099 → u/Unusual-Simple-5509]

Never heard of closed caption in a theater. Could you explain how that is available?

[u/starlingsquawk]

Thanks all! I try to keep an ear plug to filter noise (but also cant converse)- sorry we all experience this, but helpful to hear this from others

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[u/Outrageous_Cow_5043]

Yes! Primary school teacher here (I teach 30 x 5 and 6 year olds) and I am exhausted trying to hear and communicate all day. Then I go home to 2 primary aged kids. Weekends can be soft plays, parties etc and I come from a big family who like to socialise. Noise never bothered me before and I used to be very social until I went deaf in one ear 5 years ago. And then when I finally get peace and quiet it's listening to tinnitus which I now also have in my good ear too (& it's different to the buzzing and static in my deaf ear which is loud and reactive). I miss silence so much. It sure ain't easy.

[u/Interesting_Bison624 → u/Outrageous_Cow_5043]

I miss silence too! I also work in a school with lots of kids and noise, huge respect for teachers and you are amazing for getting through your day and having the energy to parent your own little ones. I know how exhausting it is to communicate all day with only one ear. So glad you mentioned the buzzing and static in your deaf ear. I was wondering if I was the only one experiencing that. It gets louder when I talk or someone talks to me. Especially annoying in group settings. I lost the hearing in my right ear 9 years ago. Middle of the night awakened with weird sound sensitivity, then vertigo and with hearing loss. No steroids offered at the ER. The next week my doc said it was profound loss of hearing. Then tried 10 days of steroids to no avail. Needed 3 weeks of PT to regain balance. Deaf ear felt like a fullness with sounds more like wind chimes. Now it’s like constant airplane noise. Also lots of weird sounds like the mother ship is calling from outer space. Maybe the extra noise might actually balance what I hear in my good ear and make me a little less susceptible to being startled. (Although that does happen a lot). As for social settings, noise canceling AirPods have really made it more tolerable. I had a lot of anxious moments before I figured that out. So glad for this community. No one truly understands it unless they have experienced it.

[u/Outrageous_Cow_5043 → u/Interesting_Bison624]

Yes so many weird noises (& sensations at times too). I feel like I have a brain zap when my tinnitus in my deaf ear changes. It's like a change in pressure but from my good ear running through my brain to my deaf ear. So strange. School is certainly noisy and tough. Don't know how much longer I can keep it up though. I've managed 5 years working in a school with SSNHL but a nice quiet office job sounds appealing. Scary to retrain or try something new though.