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Tinnitus Neuromodulator

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Re: Tinnitus Neuromodulator

#161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Earplugs are like condoms: They make a sensual pleasure less pleasurable, and they also protect against life-altering consequences.

You can get earplugs that only lower the sound quality a tiny bit these days. I bought some from the drum shop and they’re great. As you say, $20 or so to avoid lifetime ear damage is a very very good investment. I feel like concerts aren’t quite so loud these days too, maybe audio gear quality is better and the sound engineers don’t feel the need to turn it up quite so loud.

I’ve also noticed that younger people seem to wear earplugs at concerts a lot more often. I get the feeling there’s been a change in attitude towards hearing protection. My guess is that instagram ads for earplugs and AirPod hearing health features have had something to do with it

Re: Tinnitus Neuromodulator

#162
post #6

I've had tinnitus in my left ear for about six months now. I was hoping it was the result of an earwax impaction or something, but after having several specialists look at my ears, test my hearing, and getting an MRI to check for tumors, the overwhelming medical consensus of the cause appears to be "I dunno", and at this point I have given up on it being temporary. About 95% of the time, I can fairly easily just tune…

I'm in your situation. 38, came out of nowhere few months ago, seen any kind of doctor, I hear this 24/7 whistle in my ear. Being in silent rooms or trying to sleep is hard.

It’s been repeated a lot in this discussion, but don’t loose hope. I had a very similar situation and for a while felt like I might not be able to keep living with this condition. A few months later I suddenly realized that I wasn’t thinking about it anymore, and then I had to start straining to notice it. The brain does adapt over time

Re: Tinnitus Neuromodulator

#163

I suddenly lost the hearing in my left ear at the age of 24. One moment I was fine, eating a slice of pizza, the next moment I suddenly could sense something was wrong. I tried to stand up and walk, but my balance was gone. My ear felt full and there was a strange metallic echo. I waited about 24 hours and it hadn't gone away, so I went to the urgent care. By that time, just standing up was enough to cause me to vomi…

My wife is deaf in her left ear as well. She doesn't usually tell people, but does tell people that she likes to walk on the left and sit on the left side of rectangular tables.

One interesting effect is that I have developed a preference for sitting or walking on people's right hand side, especially with good friends or people I respect.

The most interesting effect is I have noticed how much people take for granted the ability to sense where sound is coming from. Early on in our relationship I would occasionally perform "magic tricks" where I know immediately where a sound is. She would ask: how did you know where it was?

Re: Tinnitus Neuromodulator

#164
post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a strong Tinnitus on one ear after an ear surgery for 8 years now. And I usually don‘t notice it for months at a time, even though it is there all the time (thanks for reminding me :p) So it’s not as bad as it might feel in the beginning. I‘m mostly bothered by my hearing being generally impaired by it. It sits at ~9kHz but it somehow still makes it significantly harder to comprehend voices.

how did you came with ~9kHz number? I want to know my own LoL

I had mine measured a few years ago. I had given some headphones in a quiet room, with a low frequency sinus wave on it. Whenever I said I could hear the tone clearly, they increased the frequency. At one point, the tone blends with my tinnitus tone, that's the whole magic. They then measure the current volume in dB, just by increasing/decreasing the tone's volume.

I'm on 12kHz, vacuum cleaner level.

Re: Tinnitus Neuromodulator

#165
post #6

I've had tinnitus in my left ear for about six months now. I was hoping it was the result of an earwax impaction or something, but after having several specialists look at my ears, test my hearing, and getting an MRI to check for tumors, the overwhelming medical consensus of the cause appears to be "I dunno", and at this point I have given up on it being temporary. About 95% of the time, I can fairly easily just tune…

Once the major (though exceedingly rare) problems have been ruled out, the best course of action is to start learning to live with it. It’s not what anyone wants to hear, but it’s the pragmatic approach that works best from everything I’ve seen. The people who become involved in tinnitus forums, support groups, and chasing experimental treatments think they’re helping themselves but they’re really only bringing it to…

In my case, this mindset + SSRIs have helped me tremendously.

I didn't want to depend on a drug, but after getting into a really bad, quasi-suicidal mental state, I went to the psychiatrist. I've been on escitalopram for 4 months and it has really helped reduce the distress associated with tinnitus in like 80%. Making an effort to not think about it has also helped.

I hope to stop taking the drug at some point and see if the mental improvement persists.

Re: Tinnitus Neuromodulator

#166
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A message of hope. I got mine in my 30's too. The first week I thought I was going crazy, and this was the end of my life. I was shocked, I couldn't go to work for a whole week. I then saw a doctor who said to me: "Man, I've got tinnitus since 20 years and I barely hear it anymore. The more you accept it, the more it'll fade." A decade later, my own experience is exactly this. I accepted it as one of the body malfunc…

For me, after 20'ish years with tinnitus, the only thing that brings the buzz to the foreground is reading/hearing the word "tinnitus".

Same here! Just reading the title of this post made me aware of mine for the first time all day.

Re: Tinnitus Neuromodulator

#167
post #6

I've had tinnitus in my left ear for about six months now. I was hoping it was the result of an earwax impaction or something, but after having several specialists look at my ears, test my hearing, and getting an MRI to check for tumors, the overwhelming medical consensus of the cause appears to be "I dunno", and at this point I have given up on it being temporary. About 95% of the time, I can fairly easily just tune…

I first got pretty bad tinnitus about 10 years ago while still fairly young. Didn’t go to concerts, shoot guns, hammer nails, or any activity typically associated with hearing loss.

At one point it was so loud, it would drown out the sound of a dryer when right next to it.

This was party from impacted earwax but still pretty bad after cleaning.

Hearing test showed substantial high frequency loss (well above speech frequencies)

A few suggestions:

1) Listening to light music helped me stop focusing on it.

2) Tried Taurine. Unsure if it helped, didn’t hurt. Make sure you aren’t low on Vitamin D. That alone causes enough other problems too.

3) Make sure you don’t clench teeth or have dental issues. I think that might be able to aggravate the nerves.

It never went fully away but I’m no longer overtly conscious, just faint in the background. Always aware of light pressure/muffled feeling in affected ear. Changes were slow and gradual but did happen. Doesn’t bother me much anymore. Do miss the “sound of silence” but light background music while working is enjoyable .

Re: Tinnitus Neuromodulator

#168
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A message of hope. I got mine in my 30's too. The first week I thought I was going crazy, and this was the end of my life. I was shocked, I couldn't go to work for a whole week. I then saw a doctor who said to me: "Man, I've got tinnitus since 20 years and I barely hear it anymore. The more you accept it, the more it'll fade." A decade later, my own experience is exactly this. I accepted it as one of the body malfunc…

I've always been someone who hears high pitched noises that "normal" people don't. I'm also in my 30s, and I'm sure those "teenage alarms" in Japan would work on me. I was the one who would walk up to a CRT and turn it off when everyone else thought it already was. What helped me accept (and ignore) tinnitus was realizing that I had already grown accustomed to tolerating that sound indoors. When's it's something you…

Funny I could hear CRTs too. In teens could hear faint high pitched noise in extremely quiet outdoor settings. Bad tinnitus 15 years later. Slowly reduced and I’m less conscious of it now.

Re: Tinnitus Neuromodulator

#169
post #6

I've had tinnitus in my left ear for about six months now. I was hoping it was the result of an earwax impaction or something, but after having several specialists look at my ears, test my hearing, and getting an MRI to check for tumors, the overwhelming medical consensus of the cause appears to be "I dunno", and at this point I have given up on it being temporary. About 95% of the time, I can fairly easily just tune…

I have found notch therapy to be quite helpful. It's basically where you tune a note to your exact tinitus pitch and then create white noise that has every khz EXCEPT your pitch. Then you listen to the notched sound at about the same level or slightly higher than your tinnitus. So, basically your "tinnitus" is notched out of the sound. The theory is it can retrain your brain to not produce the fake sound. I also just find it helps to alleviate the symptom.

My own tinnitus is 15khz which is annoyingly high. And I suspect the reason why tools like Tinnitus Neuromodulator don't help much in my case.

Re: Tinnitus Neuromodulator

#170
post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've always been someone who hears high pitched noises that "normal" people don't. I'm also in my 30s, and I'm sure those "teenage alarms" in Japan would work on me. I was the one who would walk up to a CRT and turn it off when everyone else thought it already was. What helped me accept (and ignore) tinnitus was realizing that I had already grown accustomed to tolerating that sound indoors. When's it's something you…

I heard older TVs being turned on and off as well as CRT monitors. Now, its that very range I 'hear' all the time. Part of me wonders if it was sensitivity to that spectrum that damaged my hearing when I was around multiple CRTs so much. I have known people that have it much worse than I face daily.

Me too!

I genuinely could hear CRTs when I was 5.

Tinnitus sound now is very similar for me too.

Hearing test showed high frequency hearing loss in that range which is well above human speech and a lot of music.

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