I have tinnitus. I don't recommend it

Summary

i went to a show in november of last year (it’s may right now) and ever since, i have tinnitus. i don’t recommend it. i’ve been going to electronic music shows for a while and had been very careless with my ears - because it felt like i would always be okay. after the show, especially in the morning, you’d have the next-day tinnitus, but then it would go away. of course, this one never went away. was i closer to the speakers that time, was the music louder, was it something about the frequencies. was it all of the accumulated careless listening. i’ll say three things: if you attended a show at a venue that had cool lights, but it turned out that some people lost their sight because of the cool lasers there, the venue would be shut down, there would be an investigation, there would be lawsuits, etc. however, if you go to a venue today and the sound is so loud that people become permanently disabled because of that… as far as i know, nothing happens. why? i’ve been weirdly lucky in that - in addition to the tinnitus - it now physically hurts when there’s a loud sound. loud sounds didn’t use to hurt - so now, i am one of those people that plucks their ears when an emergency vehicle goes by with the siren blaring. plucking ears used to feel ridiculous to me (like, come on, it’s just a siren), but now it hurts and i get it. so there’s a blessing there of course (i feel when a sound is “too” loud), but i still wish i didn’t have tinnitus. some of my argentian friends and i joke about my very “dad” ways around them (it’s a love language, what do you want from me): i remind them to wear their helmets, and i myself have started to wear a reflective vest (in addition to a helmet) when biking. they call this “seguridad” which is both spanish for security and has “dad” at the end which is very funny. it’s a good nickname. so yeah, just to be that seguridad on you - do wear something in your ears when going to shows. do ride with a helmet. and absolutely don’t fuck around with l...