OY! My ears!

[LJay]

Anyone else have tinnitus?  Mine is especially bad these days and I don't know how to deal with it apart from drilling a hole through one ear to the other to let the demons out!

[Alvin]

I think everyone has tinnitus, aren't we? Whenever I am alone in a quiet space, I can hear it for sure. If the condition worsens, you might wanna go to see a doctor. Let the professionals take care of that.

[marshlander]

I have had tinnitus for decades. As a musician I tried so hard to take care of my hearing, but obviously not hard enough. My tinnitus is loud enough to be heard over all other sound. I did go and see my doctor a few years ago who sent me for further examination at a hospital audiology department. As a result I was diagnosed with moderate hearing loss above 2kHz in both ears. This was much worse than I thought it might be. I rather expected that I could still perceive frequencies at least to 6kHz. The tinnitus is my brain trying to make sense of the signals it wants to receive but cannot.

The audiologist recommended and prescribed hearing aids. They made an immediate difference to me. They didn't get rid of the tinnitus, but they did mean I could function without focussing on it quite so much. Sometimes it drives me absolutely crazy. It rushes in with a vengeance when I take out my hearing aids to go to bed. The irony is that I have aways craved to live in a quiet place and now I do I am not physically capable of perceiving silence.

I would disagree with Alvin. Not everybody has tinnitus and certainly not everyone experiences their T to the point where it is disabling. Much as I hate the condition I am grateful that mine manifests only as high frequency whistling and hissing. I think I could become suicidal if I had to live with constant changes in the sound or the pops, crackles and pulsatile sound that many experience. Some people even experience their tinnitus as voices or music. I could not function as a composer if I had to live with that. Nobody fully understands the horror of tinnitus without experiencing it. If anyone thinks they have it and it is bearable, they really don't know what it is like.

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@LJay

Although we experience tinnitus as being something in our ears it is actually nothing of the sort. The "demons" are partying in our brains not our ears, so be careful where you aim that drill

[InbetweenDreams]

@LJay I do experience it occasionally. It's kind of like someone turned down the gain on a microphone by say 50% and I'll hear something like a 1 kHz tone that slowly fades away and things appear to go back to normal. Other times it will be a very high pitch sound, sometimes higher than what I can normally perceive like 18-20 kHz. Last time I checked I could hear up to around 16-17 kHz and actually fried a tweeter messing around (Yes, your speakers are rated 100 watts, but your tweeters aren't).

If your tinnitus is causing pain or discomfort definitely do something about it and go see a doctor.

@"marshlander" Although I seldom ever find myself in a silent place. I'm around computers, air purifiers, servers at work and so on. Unless I'm outside I'm never in silence or something closer to it. But what I do notice when I'm outside on a quiet night is that I always hear some kind of internal noise. Hard to describe. Not static or anything like that, of course I can't hear it right now because my office is so loud.

Makes me think about that time I was playing with AM (amplitude modulation) at audible frequencies...Kind of bizarre but I've done it. I'll have to yak about that in another thread.

[CellarDweller]

I have a mild case of tinnitus, a low level ringing in the ears.

It first occurred when I went out to celebrate a friend's 21st birthday, went to a club that was in a hotel, and spent the whole night dancing, and then went to bed. The DJ has the music blasting so loud, the music sounded like it was distorted coming out of the speakers.

She woke the next day, and said that her hearing sounded like she was listening to things with clogged ears, or as if she was underwater. My ears were ringing.

Her's cleared up. Mine decreased, but didn't go away.

If I'm going to be somewhere that could expose me to loud noises for extended periods, I bring earplugs and don't hesitate to use them. If I don't, the ringing gets loud again.

I normally don't hear it during the day, there is usually other background noise to cover it up. I don't hear it in the evening, as I have the TV on. When I go to bed, I put on a fan or some other white noise, and it covers the ringing, and I can get to sleep.

[LJay]

Thanks guys. You do provide some perspective and that helps. For so,me reason it has never occurred to me to discuss this with the audiologist. If I can ever find the hearing aid that I dropped under the bed I will go back to her and do so. I finally decided it was tinnitus after cussing the neighbor out when I was trying to get to sleep. I could not deal with is loud air conditioner any more!!! Then I realized he had been dead for 8 months and the AC was not running. I'm not making this up.

[eastofeden]

My husband has it pretty bad and he has been listening to these sounds on you tube at night when we sleep - I quite like them and find them very soothing. He also has been taking this LIPO FLAVANOID pills.

This is what he (we) listen to



He said his has diminished by maybe 35% since he began doing both - been some months now.

[LJay]

Excellent suggestion! Don't know how I would rig this in the bedroom but it certainly is nice at the computer. I found the one with a picture of a stream and bird and other sounds against the sound of water. Love being outside but that has not been possible for the last couple of years. This is superb.

[marshlander]

Have you discovered SleepPhones? I have also discovered another brand called SnoozePhones I found SleepPhones an excellent way to be able to listen to music that doesn't disturb anyone else. PA says he can't hear them at all when I wear them. They are very comfortable, even if you sleep on your side. The only problem I have is that I am not keen on having the BlueTooth focussed around my head all night - this may or may not be a rational concern - so I opted for the wired SleepPhones. Unfortunately the wire is very flimsy and breaks at the plug. Neither pair I have bought have lasted even a year. Recently I have had my iPad playing music at night (with wi-fi and BlueTooth disabled of course), but it's not the same as hearing sound directly in my ear. I have a nightly playlist (recently lots of Frank Zappa) and it helps with the insomnia too. Without the music I would lie listening to the tinnitus for hours (really, hours!), but with the distraction of music I usually don't last any more than a couple of songs. If you prefer the natural sounds that would be fine too.

[LJay]

Zappa? Susie? Susie Cream Cheese? Oh, it has been years.

If I can figure a way to get my desk moved into my bedroom, I could set the computer speakers up and it would not bother anyone. Roomie sleeps in another room and nature sounds can be subliminal.

A music sound track would keep me up. I get into music and that can be good and bad. Have never learned how to get it out of my foreground thinking. That can be good and bad.

Even so, I will definitely look into SleepPhones. So many electronic miracles to know about. Odd how I played with an old tube radio when I was a kid. It didn't work, but it was neat! And it did get warm when you plugged it in.