Vibrating Eardrums.

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Yesterday something someone said made me think. Now this is out of sheer curiosity.
If one hears a loud sound, is it normal for ones eardrums to then distort the sound while they vibrate. I mean... It is aweful when it happens. I have always assumed it was normal though... But I seem to get it so I can't stay in the noisy enviroment where others can. Enviroments like being in a school gym at lunchtimes where all I could do with all those noisy kids was to try to get out, and if this was denied me I would just sit clasping my hands over my ears and cry to make it go away.
It was also that there were soo many kids running back and fore and shouting at the same time.... It was too much!

In secondary school I found ways to escape. I would be on the constant move as teachers made their rounds. But I would stand there alone in the rain getting soking wet in whichever hiding place I had found in order to avoid being sent to the gym. Spending hours soaking wet even if I already had a cold was luxury compared to being in that gym surrounded by all that noise!

When I was a child, one morning I woke up. Blood all over the pillow. Perforated eardrum due to the cold air in the bedroom. Went to drs. Drs put ear drops in. Went to hospital. They wanted me to stay overnight. I was only about 6 or 7. I hated the thought. I was lucky. They had no spare beds. They shoved a bottle and a half of eardrops down my ear and plugged it with cottonwool and I was sent home and that was that.
But I noticed that rhat ear drum vibrated way before the other one did.

Then from te age of about 14 to the age of my early 30's I kept getting blocked ears. Usually one at a time. It felt claustrophobic. I could not make sense if more then one person speak at a time. It effected my schoolwork. One ear would block foe aboug 6, 8 or even 10 months. Then it would unblock and I could hear the slightest sound... And then it would block again... And at one time it swopped ears so the other one blocked in a similar manner. It was aweful... But with the ear blocked, it didn't vibrate... But... Could it be not blocked but could it be that it had vibrated too much? I don't know.... It felt like the eardru had turned insideout and was compressing my brain.

The last time I remember having a blocked ear was when I started work on the railways and strangely, in the medical, the "Blocked" ear passed the hearing test, but the other ear only just passed? They asked if I had damaged it as a child. It was then that I remembered about the burst eardrum event, and they were then happy as they said my ears were ok. I was surprized it was the non blocked ear that aas the issue.
Not long after that I was prayed for and I stopped having blocked ears.

When I had blocked eardrums I would often smack my ear hard in an attempt to free it up which opened it up for a few seconds of relief but thwn it would block again. My Mum would tell me off saying I would damage my ear if I did this, but it was the only thing that gave me relief.

But something unusual about my ears and hearing. I could hear the sound of bats. With the hearing test they noticed I had an unusually large range of sounds I could hear.

But regardless of the blocked eardrum issues of my past... About the vibration where I could not walk past or be in certain noisy enviroments.

(Which is seperate to the too many people speaking at the same time type issues I get where I avoid crowded rooms of peopke talking if I can... I have developed a way to move my ears so I can slightly deaden the sounds. My grandad could flap his ears and he had bones in his ears, as he broke them when teachers would pull him by the ear etc. I can move mine a bit.).

But this vibration feels like one is drilling into my eardrum with a drill. I get it with both ears. Is this normal, because I can't tollerate loud sounds when other people seem uneffected by them and like to be next to loud sounds like in a club or in a rugby or football match etc... I have never been to either and only once to a nightclub at a Christian event. I did it to please a young lady.

It makes me think. Do others get the same thing but at a higher volume? Or do they get it at all? I believe it is normal. But how can I tell as I can't plug my brain into other peoples ears to listen! Haha! I believe it is normal, but it is just my ears reach this stage at a lower volume to most other peoples eardrums do.

Any ideas? I am only asking out of interest.

Wow! You pretty much described my daily experience. I too have had perforated eardrums, and many many ear infections. Loud noises are often too much for me. I likened the sensation to clipping, the distortion in a recording that occurs when the input signal is too strong. But vibration would be just as accurate. If I am in a quiet environment my hearing is very good, often hearing things that others do not. If there are multiple sources of sound I find it very difficult to single one out. This eventually leads to an audio meltdown where speech is nothing more than noise, and noise becomes so disorienting that I have to get away quickly to avoid a full meltdown. It is strange when this happens. I know that what I am hearing is spoken words with meaning, but i do not understand any of it.

I was beginning to think I was the only one. Haha. Though it is soo hard to tell if this is something everyone gets or not. I do not know.

I would say no. I have often had to explain my retreats from noisy situations, or why I had my hands over my ears when others did not.

Thanks for the replies.

It is very hard to tell though..... I have learned to switch off my hearing when it gets loud. I could not to this when I was younger and so I used to suffer, but by switching off my hearing I force myself into daydream mode. I retreat i to my innermost mind. BUT... If my eardrums start to vibrate, I can't do this as the vibration (Which has a pain to it) pulls me out of the switching off mode, as does amyone shaking me or touching me etc... Or waving in front of my face so my eyes sense a differing shade... (I am in blank stare mode if I go into daydreams in my inner mind).
So usually I can't do this for long... So it is back to the wanting to put my fingers in my ears without anyone noticing mode again! Haha!