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I made tinnitus my friend, then it disappeared [video]

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Re: I made tinnitus my friend, then it disappeared [video]

#21

Yeah, that's nice and all, but people suffering from tinnitus will tend to get downright angry when you tell them: "Just change your attitude to it." There's nobody with tinnitus who hasn't heard it 100x already. And it's not that easy. It's unfortunate and surprising that there's still no effective drug, though lidocaine does, in fact, work. (Very temporarily, sadly.) And time does help, at least sometimes. Over the…

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Re: I made tinnitus my friend, then it disappeared [video]

#22
post #15

Over the years I have seen a few threads on tinnitus. I have it very mildly and doesn’t bother me much. On the other hand I have had “floaters” in my eyes since I was a teenager (probably just when I noticed them). Until I saw a doc I thought I was going blind but apparently they run in my family. They are like visual tinnitus and my god do they drive me crazy. I find wearing sunglasses helps me ignore them but they…

I've had them all my life. I remember watching a some video a few years back that said they're more noticeable against a bright/white background, which checked out with my past experiences. And judging by your skiing comment, probably for yours as well!

Re: I made tinnitus my friend, then it disappeared [video]

#23

Yeah, that's nice and all, but people suffering from tinnitus will tend to get downright angry when you tell them: "Just change your attitude to it." There's nobody with tinnitus who hasn't heard it 100x already. And it's not that easy. It's unfortunate and surprising that there's still no effective drug, though lidocaine does, in fact, work. (Very temporarily, sadly.) And time does help, at least sometimes. Over the…

I've had it all my life. I'm 55. Mine is bearable and generally I don't notice it. Mine was caused by "glue ear" or more likely the operations to "cure it", which caused ear drum scarring and what not. I don't think that glue ear is a modern diagnosis anymore. Mind you doctors were only beginning to not advise people to smoke for their health in the early '70s.

I know what a variety of tinnitus is like (I've never known anything else) and I'm sure that other varieties can be horrendous. In my case time does not help.

Perhaps we ought to insist on a tinnitus spectrum, with multiple dimensions and some TLAs. I don't think that advice from a single data point is very helpful, or being charitable: annecdata. I'm glad it disappeared for OP.

Tinnitus ranges from, say, me (I'll live) through yourself (fuck! but I'll live) to committing suicide in despair at the extreme end.

Re: I made tinnitus my friend, then it disappeared [video]

#24
post #15

Over the years I have seen a few threads on tinnitus. I have it very mildly and doesn’t bother me much. On the other hand I have had “floaters” in my eyes since I was a teenager (probably just when I noticed them). Until I saw a doc I thought I was going blind but apparently they run in my family. They are like visual tinnitus and my god do they drive me crazy. I find wearing sunglasses helps me ignore them but they…

That stinks, sorry to hear.

It's mentioned when tinnitus comes up, or when dark mode isn't available. Couple months ago, someone recommended a supplement that it seems could easily(?) be DIY'd in case it's snake oil (even if it's more expensive, then they don't "win"!) :)

https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...

Re: I made tinnitus my friend, then it disappeared [video]

#25

It's almost certainly my own damn fault I have it, but after at least 35-40 years dealing with it,tinitus sure as hell isn't my friend. Mine is high pitched, and varries in intensity but has gotten worse lately. Sometimes it makes jus existing down right hard, but usually it's only moderately annoying and I can mostly ignore it. I've tried an assortment of sound based methods to mask it or train my brain to tune it o…

I developed tinnitus in my right ear about 5 years ago. I remember exactly when it started. I was welding up a tailpipe repair on my car, and in the next bay over my brother was running the lawnmower to adjust the carbs. The exhaust was basically blasting directly into my right ear from a distance of about 10ft. I don't recall it feeling excessively loud at the time, but afterwards for about a two years I had really bad occasional ringing and occasionally I could hear "rushing" sounds very loudly.

About 3 years ago I used a borescope and some tweezers as a sketchy endoscope and pulled out a hair that had somehow wedged itself in my ear canal. I don't recall how I figured out this plan, but it worked. The tinnitus has never returned since then.

I have no idea whether there's any causal connections between any of these events. It's a big mystery. But TBH I don't really care that much, I'm just super glad it's gone.

Re: I made tinnitus my friend, then it disappeared [video]

#26

Yeah, that's nice and all, but people suffering from tinnitus will tend to get downright angry when you tell them: "Just change your attitude to it." There's nobody with tinnitus who hasn't heard it 100x already. And it's not that easy. It's unfortunate and surprising that there's still no effective drug, though lidocaine does, in fact, work. (Very temporarily, sadly.) And time does help, at least sometimes. Over the…

I mean people with tinnitus can choose to get angry about it or they can... change their attitude toward it. I have it. I've changed my attitude toward it and made it my friend. I don't really know what else to tell you, but if you want to, the way is open for you. Or you can continue to see it as an aversive thing, and it will continue to be so.

Yeah, I know people don't like that message, but yeah... just accept it.

No amount of wishing it away is going to make it vanish in the same way if I really want to fly I just need to think I am a bird... at least in theory. ;)

It doesn't mean you have to be happy with it but just accept it, bring it out like a photo album of the family. 'Here is my tinnitus, it stays past its welcome but keeps me company.' 'There is my balding, society considered it ugly, I think it is just neat.'. 'Oh the knee that wants to play up every once in a while, yeah that happens, we work with it the best we can.'

Re: I made tinnitus my friend, then it disappeared [video]

#27
post #15

Over the years I have seen a few threads on tinnitus. I have it very mildly and doesn’t bother me much. On the other hand I have had “floaters” in my eyes since I was a teenager (probably just when I noticed them). Until I saw a doc I thought I was going blind but apparently they run in my family. They are like visual tinnitus and my god do they drive me crazy. I find wearing sunglasses helps me ignore them but they…

As someone with both as well, yeah they are there but really they don't bother me.

I cannot change them so I don't worry about them, they are just little my little floating jelly blobs friends that visit when I am at my computer.

Re: I made tinnitus my friend, then it disappeared [video]

#28
For people looking for treatment for long-term tinnitus, notched sound therapy has been statistically shown to help by reducing brain activity in relation to the perceived tinnitus frequencies (https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8832119/). In other words, it doesn't go away, but it becomes less "important" to the auditory centers.

There are various professionally provided therapies of this style, but there are also simple self-therapy apps that find the perceived frequencies and then play white noise or a music library with the sound adjusted to produce the notched effect in that small frequency window. For example: https://audionotch.com/ https://www.tinnitusnotch.com/ https://www.tinnaway.com/

Re: I made tinnitus my friend, then it disappeared [video]

#29

It's almost certainly my own damn fault I have it, but after at least 35-40 years dealing with it,tinitus sure as hell isn't my friend. Mine is high pitched, and varries in intensity but has gotten worse lately. Sometimes it makes jus existing down right hard, but usually it's only moderately annoying and I can mostly ignore it. I've tried an assortment of sound based methods to mask it or train my brain to tune it o…

Amateur musician with mild/moderate high frequency tinnitus here. I was treated with exposure therapy, and while I hear the sound (less now than before) it doesn't bother me any more. I would recommend a book called "Living Well With Tinnitus". Good luck!
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