Terrible phobia of earphones

[vuittion]

I know this post probably sounds incredibly insane but ever since I had an incident with a pair of Ultimate Ears Super FI.5 PRO's the thought of wearing another pair of earphones brings me out in a hot sweat and I think my throat is going to close up.

I was travelling on a train and the train driver made an announcment over the loud speaker, not wanting to miss this I hurridly yanked the right earphone from my ear which then left the earbud part lodged firmly in my ear canal, I began to panic terribly, I got off at the next station and had to find a chemist and purchase a pair of tweezers so I could finally get the earbud out of my ear, ever since this happened I have suffered with some serious panic attacks.

Believe it or not I am sitting here with a brand new pair of Klipsch Image earphones but cannot get the courage up to try them out.

Can the ear gels on the image come off the earphone while you are taking them out, does anyone have any advice for me to try and reassure me that wearing the Klipsch image is a 100 per cent safe.

I know this will seem insane to most people but it is a very serious issue to me as I want nothing more than to wear the klipsch image without worrying my self to death.

Many thanks.

[Amy]

Hi there,

We do have a "retention" design for the ear tips... I'm not sure how to describe it without a diagram... If you'll try putting steady pressure on the ear tips, like you're pulling them off (start out gently then gradually pull harder), you can feel how they are retained onto the tip--basically with a round lip that fits into a groove on the headphone itself. If you remove the ear tip, you can see the ring around the tip of headphone where it snaps into place.

I hope that helps some!

[LoudnClear]

The most important thing for you to realize is that if some part of a headphone gets stuck in your ear, it can be removed with the help of a doctor if you can't get it yourself. There is no reason to be fearful for your life. No matter what happens, it can be resolved without damage or life threatening trauma. Once your reallize this, it will be the basis for your progress forward.

if you want to get over your fear, just take it very slowly, it might take a month or more before you can actually insert it all way. You may never be able to put it all the way. Just don't push any father than you're comfortable with and you should be able to get to the point where you can put it all the way in.

The key is to just put it in a little bit to where you know its not going to get stuck. slowly try putting it in a bit further. Its just going to take time for you to get comfortable with the FACT that there is no danger that cannot be easily fixed by pulling out something that gets stuck.

Take your time.

Also know that you don't have to try to go down this path either if you don't want. you're the one in charge and you're the one making the decision according to what you decide you want to do.

Kimball

[Guest IVstringer]

I just had mine accidentally yanked out of my ears this morning...

The result: both tips stayed on just fine. In fact, the force was hard enough to invert one of the earbuds, but not enough to remove it from the IMAGE tip. I think the locking design really helps. Also, the fact that the IMAGE have such a comfortable, effortless fit means that they aren't "forced" into your ears. So they come out easily and won't get stuck.

[Dreven]

I hate to say this - Every time I finish listening to music I roll the Image cable around my Ipod pretty fast. Near the end I always give one harsh yank on the cable to pop the suckers out. I think I've had them for a month now? The tips stay on really well. I have 0% fear they're going to pop off.

[vuittion]

Thank you so much for your replies.

I plucked up the courage yesterday to try the images out but i'm afraid I payed for it big time as I suffered some really bad panic attacks afterwards.

The thing that goes through my mind as I am wearing the earphones is what happens if I have some kind of allergic reaction will my throat close up and then lead to suffocation.

I am also a little confused as to how far the images have to go in the ear canal to get the best SQ, yesterday I pushed them very deep into the ear canal and all I could see was the end of the rubber tip protrouding from the bottom of my earlob.

What would be the worst case scenario if say I inserted the images to far into my ear canal could this in anyway cause my throat to close up? has anyone ever died from inserting a earphone into the canal either from a reaction or by inserting them in to far?

I know I sound incredibly insane but for the few minutes I managed to listen to the images they sounded fantastic but im afraid my paranoia gets the better of me and I have to take them out.

This has all occured since the incident I described in my first post before this I never had any problems with wearing any kind of earphone.

Phobias are a terrible thing.

[Guest IVstringer]

Good to see you managed to try them out. I think you will eventually get more and more calm about the situation and can tolerate them longer and longer.

[pretzelb]

I would think you could Google around and find a medical diagram about the ear canal. I haven't looked at such a thing since being a small child in the doctor's office but I think eventually the canal gets so small that nothing can pass through. I'm not even sure there is a connection to the throat.

But could you get an allergic reaction to cause your throat to close? I suppose anything is possible. You could get one from something you eat too.

Most importantly, if this is as bad as you say, why bother? Nothing wrong with headphones that go outside the ear. Life's too short to torture yourself over something as minor as a listening device. If we were talking about a fear of flying and your job required flying then I could see you trying to get over the phobia but for something as minor as headphones I'm not sure it's worth the bother.

I like Klipsch and I don't want to run business away from them but I just see a strange priority order going on here.