Freeway - WHEN SILENCE GOES AWAY

WHEN SILENCE GOES AWAY

Most people have sometime gotten home from a concert or a nightclub, with an irritating ‘ringing sound’ in their ears. For some people, that sound never disappears. Tinnitus is a common problem all around the world. About 15% of the world’s population suffer from some sort of ringing in their ears. In most cases, tinnitus comes with age. Of the 900 millions suffering from tinnitus, the larger part is men over 50 and women over 60.

Tinnitus can also be a side effect to a number of diseases and sometimes it’s purely psychological. But for teenagers, Tinnitus is almost always noise related. The noise could be a concert with your favourite band, listening to music with the CD-player set to max, or even spending day in and day out with a class that just won’t shut up.
Frustrating problem
For doctors, Tinnitus is a really frustrating problem. It’s impossible to see any physical signs on a person affected by Tinnitus, except in those cases it’s caused by some sort of illness. The doctors can’t offer a cure to their patients; at most, they can provide an easing of the symptoms. Some people can be ‘cured’ to the point that they only hear the ringing if they think about it, but it’s till there.
Noise-tolerance is different from person to person, but it’s always wise to use some sort of hearing protection if you know you are going to be exposed to loud noise for a longer time.
Damaged at a concert?> Sara Karlström, 18, got Tinnitus at a concert four years ago. Ever since then, silence has ceased to mean anything for her.
- There’s always a beeping sound in my ears, Sara says. The more quiet it gets, the louder beeping I hear. I always listen to music or something.
It’s hard for the doctors to help her, because Sara’s the only one who can notice that she’s even got a problem. When she first went to see a doctor, they checked if her hearing had become affected. Back then, that wasn’t the case, but now Sara feels like she has gotten a hearing loss and she desperately wants to warn others, so they don’t have to get tinnitus.

- Never listen to your CD-player at the top volume. Concerts aren’t the only thing that can hurt your ears. But if you are at a concert, use earplugs! Now, I always wear mine at concerts, and I always make my friend wear some too. I think you probably should wear earplugs even if you’re just going to a disco.
If there’s one thing Sara regrets, it’s not using earplugs four years ago.
- I used to love the silence, now I hate it. It never gets ‘really’ silent anymore.

Reporters: Emma Östman and Petra Grundström