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I have tinnitus. I don't recommend it

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Re: I have tinnitus. I don't recommend it

#81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have had tinnitus for as long as I have been forming memories. As a child I called it "the sound of silence" and thought everyone heard it. Never bothered me much. Its much worse now at times. Still doesnt bother me much

I'm in the same boat for the most part. Always had tinnitus, for as long as I can remember. Doesn't bother me at all. However, for the past 3 or 4 years, during spring, I get much worse tinnitus in my right ear for a couple weeks. It appears to be caused by some kind of blockage in my inner ear due to the inevitable viruses we catch during the winter. It's louder and a lower pitch (around 3 kHz, unlike my 10+ kHz nor…

I had some nasty eustacian tube blockage this winter and some tinnitus during the worst of it.

You might try alergy meds (pills or nasal inhalers) to try to clear that up. I wouldn't expect it to do anything for your chronic tinnitus though.

Re: I have tinnitus. I don't recommend it

#82

Took 1-2 years before I went a single day without thinking about tinnitus after I gave it to myself playing drums. I was so happy to be smashing those punk drums in the first rehearsal of this band. I remember exclaiming afterwards to one of my bandmates, "Wow my ears are ringing! That was awesome!" He said, "Ya, mine have been ringing for 30 years." My heart immediately sank knowing what I had just done. I spent a l…

> I remember reading this story about some woman in a scandinavian country who chose medical-assisted suicide because hers was so bad.

I'm surprised there is not some method to surgically disconnect the brain from the ear.

Re: I have tinnitus. I don't recommend it

#84

Think you mean plugging, not plucking, your ears, unless sirens make you remove hair, in which case they did you a favor. I got some nice ear plugs designed for concerts (Loop) because I go to a concert and I already have mild tinnitus and don't want it to get worse. I do not know why concerts have to be SO LOUD. Loud, sure. Permanent ear damage loud, why? It should tell you something that the guys on stage wear ear…

> I do not know why concerts have to be SO LOUD. Loud, sure. Permanent ear damage loud, why I have often wondered this. So it’s non-deafening loud at the back? I was at a concert recently that was way too loud. A sound guy came to check and stood in front of the speakers. I thought finally it’s going to be turned down … nope … clearly his hearing had already gone which would explain why it was so loud. I think my hea…

I went to a metal concert for the first time in err. 25-30 years and I don't remember them being so loud. It was physically painful.

I also had to go have a nap in the car waiting for the main act to come on.

Re: I have tinnitus. I don't recommend it

#85

I “got over” mine after many months of “tinnitus meditation” (there’s a short book on this written by a guy who has some crazy disease that causes extra-bad tinnitus). Basically, you meditate by purposefully focusing on your tinnitus. It starts to flip your brain’s response from one of fear to one of relaxation. Even within the first session, you’ll find that when you try to focus on the noise for as long as you can…

I've recently developed tinnitus within the last few months, so I'm still early in my researching. However, I've found a lot of people that discount this approach and swear it only makes things worse. That's why I've been hesitant to try it. Do you think a lot of it has to do with having the right mindset?

It honestly may depend on how bad it is and how you react to it. For me, it was causing almost a constant panic-level reaction for weeks. I couldn’t sleep without heavy drugs, and I would wake up sweating and on edge. Just non-stop. I took a fair bit of time off work because of how hard it was to focus. So suffice to say I was willing to try anything.. and the meditation aspect was necessary for me beyond just reducing tinnitus. But I can’t see how it would make things worse, at least not in a permanent way.

Re: I have tinnitus. I don't recommend it

#86
Best way for me to get rid of my tinnitus was to get a hearing aid. In my specific case I got the Lyric hearing aid which is a totally invisible hearing aid positioned deep inside the ear canal and it is worn 24/7. It is known to reliably eliminate a tinnitus that is caused by hearing loss in the high frequency range.

Re: I have tinnitus. I don't recommend it

#87
post #18

Both my wife and I started experiencing tinnitus days after the first covid shots. I will never be able to prove the shots were the cause but there was really nothing else happening in our lives back then. In my case it was never severe but I've heard of people woken up by their tinnitus. Thankfully it has mostly subsided. These days I barely notice it unless I'm in a very quiet environment.

Very interesting, I started noticing it around the whole covid time too. Somehow I associated it with excess headphone use from WFH, combined with lesser general mobility(bed to desk commute).

Re: I have tinnitus. I don't recommend it

#88

Took 1-2 years before I went a single day without thinking about tinnitus after I gave it to myself playing drums. I was so happy to be smashing those punk drums in the first rehearsal of this band. I remember exclaiming afterwards to one of my bandmates, "Wow my ears are ringing! That was awesome!" He said, "Ya, mine have been ringing for 30 years." My heart immediately sank knowing what I had just done. I spent a l…

> I remember reading this story about some woman in a scandinavian country who chose medical-assisted suicide because hers was so bad. I'm surprised there is not some method to surgically disconnect the brain from the ear.

Tinnitus is sometimes neurological, seemingly caused by the brain compensating for a loss of sensation. I can imagine a horror story in which this just makes it a thousand times worse, on top of permanently losing all hearing.

Now, being able to use a hot-swappable audio sensor instead of an ear made of tissue would be pretty dope.

Re: I have tinnitus. I don't recommend it

#89

I can hear the high frequencies of cathode ray tubes, and generally feel like I hear much higher frequencies than others. That’s just normal, but when I’m tired or stressed, my blood pressure is up, or I’m sick, it’s what most people probably classify as tinnitus and is at a much lower frequency, more of a high pitched tone.

I also used to be able to hear CRTs. I didn't know what it was for a long time, and then I figured out I could "hear when the TV is on".

Re: I have tinnitus. I don't recommend it

#90
I get a weird transient tinnitus where my hearing drops out in one ear or the other for about 15 seconds, and is replace by a tone, which slowly fades as my hearing comes back. It sometimes happens multiple times per day, and sometimes not for weeks at a time. I've seen a couple specialists about it, but no known cause.

I also notice a low-level tinnitus when I'm in very quiet places. I keep white noise machines around to cover it.

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