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An FDA approved device offers a new treatment for tinnitus

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Re: An FDA approved device offers a new treatment for tinnitus

#161
post #158

If you’re worried you have tinnitus you can also be hearing air conditioner units whine or even the fridge. I spent some time in the middle of what I’ll call the Mexican outback during the winter - everything is dead. There’s nothing at night, not even bugs. I could hear the blood pump in my ears. Pretty neat. No lights or stars either. The closest to ‘deadening silence’ I’ve ever been.

From my experience the reverse is much more common - that's what people THINK they're hearing when they actually DO have tinnitus. CRT whine was big one in the 90s/early 00s.

I'm old enough that I can no longer hear high frequencies such as CRTs, but my life long tinnitus is still with me. It is also high frequency, and similar to a CRT whine, but I never mistook one for the other.

Re: An FDA approved device offers a new treatment for tinnitus

#162
So glad for news in this field! It's fairly underfunded, as the symptom is just like "tummy ache". No clearly visible suffering with a million possible causes.

During High School and Uni, I played violin in various restaurants a bunch. Close spaces, full volume to match a singing crowd. A year later of no active playing, suddenly I got 1 day of hearing loss on the left ear, followed by tinnitus after hearing restored on the side where the violin is played. E-String'ish tinnitus pitch. Loudly and constantly present, can't understand speech levels strong on the left ear.

That was beyond horrible and sacred the hell out of me. Straight up torture. I think of myself as mentally strong, but that put everything into perspective of how fragile my psyche is, if pushed just at the right spot.

ENTs got me on multiple rounds of steroid injections through the ear drum. Luckily it subsided within 2-3 months, though fully unclear if the steroids helped or not. Only then I found out, you are supposed to use ear protection when playing violin, specialized musician's plugs that attenuate the volume a bit.

Re: An FDA approved device offers a new treatment for tinnitus

#163

I'll get to enjoy real sound of the coming Cicada-pocalypse, instead of these fake crickets.

That's actually really helpful to think of it as a cicada sound. Turning an annoying pitch into a nice nostalgic reminder of a summer evening.

Re: An FDA approved device offers a new treatment for tinnitus

#164
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have it only if the room is too quiet. Any reasonable level of background white noise makes it go away.

Does everyone not have ringing in their ears when they really pay attention? Or like when they are trying to go to sleep? I always thought everyone had it because I had it since childhood. Still have to this day, same intensity. During the day it does not bother me, nor do I notice it. But if I pay attention, it feels pretty loud.

I've always wondered that too. In very quiet rooms I hear quite intense ringing. I have distinct memories as a young child of wanting a fan turned on in my bedroom at night because of the sound of silence was ringing. It seems like what people describe as tinnitus, but... I don't seem to have any of the hearing loss that is always described as causing tinnitus. I can quite clearly high pitched noises such as CRT monitors and ultrasonic mosquito repellent. I don't have a history of working with loud equipment or going to concerts, and in any case that doesn't explain why I would hear it in childhood. It all doesn't quite correspond with with a lot of the causes and symptoms I hear described.

Re: An FDA approved device offers a new treatment for tinnitus

#166
post #74

I've had a mental visualization I've used to control tinnitus flares for about 20 years now - i.e., "biofeedback". I image the entire soundscape (what I'm possible of hearing) as a long, thin line which is warbling a bit, as I'm hearing things right now -- like the line in an oscilloscope. The present tinnitus represents itself as a sharp spike in this visualization, the location dependent upon its texture (sharp pin…

Interesting, I've done something similar for headaches. I imagine the pain as a sort of toy in a claw machine and then try to extract the pain with the claw. Like you said it doesn't always work but surprised it has ever worked.

I let myself focus on pain as just a sensory signal, like pressure or a focused sense of touch.

By completely welcoming the pain signal as information I can often quiet the discomfort component.

I assume that since pain functions by being a signal to avoid, completely reversing the avoidance interferes with its normal function - in a good way. Would love to know how that was actually playing out in my circuits

Re: An FDA approved device offers a new treatment for tinnitus

#167
post #111
post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Holy crap this works! I've the loud high-pitched type all evening and i've just used your method to reduce its volume significantly! Thank you!

You can also try this trick which works for me You place the palms of your hands on the sides of your head or over your ears and then drum/tap your fingers on the back of your head. After about 10-15 seconds, it will stop the ringing.

I always thought that this worked by providing a really loud noise that desensitizes you to the ringing. What do you think?

Re: An FDA approved device offers a new treatment for tinnitus

#168
post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Am I the only one that hear tinnitus only when sleeping and if I yawn a LOT I can finally remove it?

Probably jaw related, you should have it checked. Can be a posture problem.

Thanks for the advice!! it could be totally be that!

Re: An FDA approved device offers a new treatment for tinnitus

#169

I have had several audiologists begin their speech of “as you may know tinnitus is from damage to the ear due to loud … “, well mine is from Covid. I read about a study a few years ago that focused on shocking the tongue and its nice someone followed up on it. They described one year of relief post treatment. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/10/201015173126.h... Bimodal neuromodulation combining sound and t…

I also had it before but the 3rd vaccine shot amplified it maybe 3-5x for a few months, it was like a siren when trying to sleep, thank god it back to its normal level which I forget about most of the time.

I developed tinnitus two days after my third shot. Never had it before, and it hasn’t gone away since that day.

Re: An FDA approved device offers a new treatment for tinnitus

#170
I have horrible tinnitus that sounds like a goblin screaming in both ears. This is how I keep from blowing my brains out, I hope it helps someone:

Step 1: YouTube-dl this blessed sound: https://youtu.be/8indTo2ykPw (Plz tip the guy) (You should be able to tell just by listening to the sound that it immediately cuts out the tinnitus— if this sound print doesn’t work for you, there may be others that work better. But I have let other tinnitus sufferers wear my headphones and they all say it makes the tinnitus go away completely)

1a: (cut out the dialogue in the beginning with audacity)

Step 2: buy a pair of these waterproof mp3 ONLY (it’s an appliance) bone conduction headphones: https://a.co/d/aqqhPm9

Step 3:put the mp3 you ripped on the headphones and remember what a normal life feels like

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