371–380 of 440 posts
I used to have tinnitus. I suppose I still technically do, but it appears much more rarely, and when it does, I can make it stop entirely in just a few seconds. So I'm basically "free" of it these days. Two things I learned over the years: 1. Tinnitus seems related to dopaminergic neurotransmission (or faults thereof.) I have ADHD, but I didn't know it until I was an adult. Growing up, I would often get episodes of t…
Something brought it back in the past couple months and triggered the same reaction again.. it’s not clear what the trigger was this time, but it’s like my brain needs time to re-train itself to ignore it as background noise. It’s an emotionally exhausting process that I wouldn’t wish on anyone.
The only advice I can offer to people here is to treat tinnitus like any other serious injury (which it is): take time to let your body heal, don’t push yourself too hard, don’t come down on yourself for how you got it, and don’t judge yourself for any feelings it might bring out. Get help if it’s making you depressed.
There are definitely some helpful coping strategies that people have highlighted here, particularly white noise (look into notch filtering as well), and everyone needs to find the approach that works best for them. Allow yourself to grieve; you’ve lost something - the sound of silence (at least what you used to think of as silence - most humans never experience true -inf dB). It’s easier to move on if you come to terms with it from that angle, rather than continually trying to make it “go away”.
It can also be a symptom of brain cancer. My aunt passed away last year after suffering from severe tinnitus for two years, and not a single doctor suggested and MRI, they all pretty much gave her magnesium supplements and drugs to treat the symptom (tinnitus) rather than actually thinking outside the box and suggesting an MRI to be sure (which is almost free in my country). Even I nearly suggested she does it very e…
For what it's worth, here's my case: I have tinnitus, a 4khz tone on both ears, one more than the other. I have hearing loss at high frequencies (the curve of my hearing tests drops abruptively right around 4khz). The side with the worst hearing is also the one with worse tinnitus. My loss probably comes from many many ear infections as a child (plus hearing to loud music on a basement, and just bad genetics). Things…
Has anybody tried or know somebody who tried the Lenire device? It's been out for a little while now and is in the price range ($4k) where I think it might be worth a shot. https://www.lenire.com/what-is-lenire/
I've got multiple tones in both ears. Most of the time I don't notice it but sometimes... well it's hard not to panic when you realize you can't escape it. I would very much like to experience life without the ringing again before I kick the bucket. I'd honestly probably cry.
It's unbelievably depressing in the initial onset. Couldn't sleep. Couldn't do my job. Forced to take extended time off. Terrorized by the possibility that I would never be able to work again. Closet I've ever come to suicide.
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I can do this too. It also does the same thing as yawning when your ears get blocked on a plane or driving up a steep hill. It unblocks them.
I’m wondering if this is something different, or if it’s a more intense level of the other thing. I’m able to pop my ears without any apparent tensioning of my jaw or a yawn reflex. But I can do it while also making the rushing sound or not.
I don’t know if this is a clue, but I can do muscle movements in my head/face/jaw to make the tinnitus worse (only as I make the movements, immediately reverting back to “normal” tinnitus as soon as I relax). Some examples: - jutting my jaw forwards - moving my ears back with my face muscles - pushing downward on the top of my head with my hands Another possible clue: this has been true since I can remember — even as…
Yes, this is called somatic tinnitus and is actually quite common. Like you, I had this since I was a little child and thought this was normal. Only when I first heard of tinnitus as a juvenile, I realized that this is what I had. There have been small studies regarding somatic tinnitus, see for instance https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2633109/ For modifying tinnitus loudness, the most common is that it…
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Frenzel is not done by controlling the muscles in the ear. It's done by controlling your epiglottis and your tongue and push air against a blocked nose. So while it's hands free, it's not the same.[1] With controlling the muscles in the ear, one can do it without a nose clip. It's called BTV (or VTO sometimes in English)[2], and instead of forcing air in to open the eustachian tube, you just open it by muscles. [1]:…
That second link is a gold mine. Thank you so much for sharing. I've known how to do the basic BTV/VTO for many years, but it wasn't quite enough for me to equalize pressure while diving (without descending very slowly, I suppose). Just a few minutes with the techniques on that page has already improved my ability dramatically.
But for freediving with the air going towards the stomach and much faster descent it's still a bit tricky. One thing is if I'm not equalizing quickly enough, no amount of force I can muster will open the tubes again without actually doing a more classic pinch nose technique. Doing a classic equalize you will often "overblow" air in and can descend a bit before needing to equalize again. But with VTO you're only equalizing to a perfect balance so will need to make sure to keep equalizing to not get under pressure. But of course not as much hassle hands free, I try to just do click-click-click continuously, almost every kick down to remind myself to keep it open. But yeah, if I get too much under-pressure I'm not able to open it again hands free.
I also feel head angle matters a lot, so trying to not bend the neck too much to look down, but instead swim down while looking "straight ahead" instead of where you're actually going helps for me.