tinnitus

whydoibother · 26-09-2012 5:39pm

Lardy wrote: »

I suffered from really bad tinnitus until I got my hearing aids. Even when I take them out at night, its rare that the tinnitus comes back. Everyone will be different though, so what works for me, may not work for someone else.

After so many years of suffering with tinnitus and being consistently told by doctors and specialists that there is nothing to be done except relaxation techniques etc, I would agree with Mars on this but with Lardy's comment I would definitely feel tempted to try the hearing aid route now... Could any of ye advise me who to go to? Which specialist did you see, Mars? It is good to see some light at the end of the tunnel...

Mars Bar · 26-09-2012 6:11pm

whydoibother wrote: »

After so many years of suffering with tinnitus and being consistently told by doctors and specialists that there is nothing to be done except relaxation techniques etc, I would agree with Mars on this but with Lardy's comment I would definitely feel tempted to try the hearing aid route now... Could any of ye advise me who to go to? Which specialist did you see, Mars? It is good to see some light at the end of the tunnel...

I dunno who my fella was. It was some fella in UCHG who wasn't Irish so I'm not even going to attempt his name!

Lardy · 26-09-2012 7:20pm

Mars Bar wrote: »

I really thought he was trying to bull**** me because there is no cure for tinnitus. How does the hearing aid "help" tinnitus?

From my own understanding of Tinnitus, it's not curable, because there isn't actually anything to cure. One of the theories is that the brain is always "listening" for sound, and if there is non, or very little, it will amplify your own internal sounds. Your heart beat for example. Why it doesn't affect everybody, I don't know. Hearing aids obviously amplify exterior sounds, thus the brain isn't working overtime to try find something to listen too. Eventually, when you're used to the aids, the tinnitus should subside. That's how it was for me, but like I said, it may not be like that fro everyone. But 9/10 hearing aid users that I've spoken too have all had similar experiences. Hope this helps.

whydoibother · 26-09-2012 7:30pm

Lardy wrote: »

From my own understanding of Tinnitus, it's not curable, because there isn't actually anything to cure. One of the theories is that the brain is always "listening" for sound, and if there is non, or very little, it will amplify your own internal sounds. Your heart beat for example. Why it doesn't affect everybody, I don't know. Hearing aids obviously amplify exterior sounds, thus the brain isn't working overtime to try find something to listen too. Eventually, when you're used to the aids, the tinnitus should subside. That's how it was for me, but like I said, it may not be like that fro everyone. But 9/10 hearing aid users that I've spoken too have all had similar experiences. Hope this helps.

Hi Lardy,
Thank you for your input.
Could you advise on where I should go to get an hearing aid?
Thanks

Lardy · 26-09-2012 7:36pm

I use DeafHear in Waterford. The link to the website is in the sticky at the top of the forum. It will tell you where the nearest office to you. DeafHear also offer classes which are really good for first time users.

whydoibother · 27-09-2012 1:46pm

Lardy wrote: »

I use DeafHear in Waterford. The link to the website is in the sticky at the top of the forum. It will tell you where the nearest office to you. DeafHear also offer classes which are really good for first time users.

I used DeafHear in Killarney a few months ago. All they told me was that I had to do Tai Chi to relax and there was no point getting a hearing aid. I was hoping you had found another organisation that would really help. While relaxation does help with other things, it does not help me with the Tinnitus problem. I said this to them and they said a hearing aid would not help either. I do not expect a cure but at least something that would help me cope. I don't understand why both of ye were offered the hearing aid option and I wasn't. I just don't get it.
I do remember once I had to go to my GP for a chest infection and met a foreigner dr. there who was replacing my GP, he did say there were treatments for Tinnitus but did not prescribe me any on that occasion as he said we were treating the chest first. Then, of course, I never saw him and don't even got his name, and when asked my GP was told the usual, that the only I can do about it is to forget it. But always in the back of my mind is this hope that someone somewhere may be able to help. When I read this thread I thought maybe that hearing aid could but since it was given by DeafEar and I was with them in Killarney and they told me a hearing aid would not help Tinnitus, I kinda lost my hope now.
Thanks

Lardy · 27-09-2012 2:05pm

whydoibother wrote: »

I don't understand why both of ye were offered the hearing aid option and I wasn't. I just don't get it.

I have hearing aids because I have a severe hearing loss, not because of Tinnitus.
Unless you actually have a hearing problem, I don't think you will get a hearing aid. I can't offer any other advice only you need to talk to a good Audiologist or speak to your GP about getting an ENT referral. You could be waiting up to 2 years for an ENT appointment though.

alanajane · 09-10-2012 8:34pm

I have my hearing aids a year now and while they are a great help with my hearing loss they have made no difference what so ever to my tinnitus. I think though it depends on the type of tinnitus you have. Mine is the constant high pitch tone..never eases but does occasionally get extra bad for no apparent reason.

Solair · 10-10-2012 2:21am

Same high pitch tone here. I think it's down to ear surgery I had in my teens to repair a hole in an ear drum.

It basically never stops in my case, although I usually can manage to ignore it.

Mine is louder than most other background noise. I can hear it louder than say a radio on softly in the background or a machine-noise like a fan or whatever.

The only noise I could describe as similar to it is the high pitch whirr you get from an old-fashioned TV tube, only a bit louder.

Dude111 · 24-05-2013 3:45am

Hear is a test to see what freq you are hearing (IT LOADS A JAVA APPLET)

www.digital-recordings.com/cgi-bin/www-tt-pure-tone.cgi

I hear between 9 and 10Hz,i cant seem to find it!!

standard one · 20-08-2013 12:16am

I have a hearing aid a year now and i only hear it now and then usually when it is quiet . but keep trying to block it out I found that helped

the_syco · 20-08-2013 1:01am

Has anyone tried other noise apart from white noise, such as pink noise or brown noise?

jaonphoto · 29-08-2013 1:56pm

Hi Sorry to hear about your tinnitus. I got this a few years ago and the first month drove me absolutely crazy. After reading up on the subject I just got more depressed, which in turn made the tinnitus worse. I decided that if stress was making it worse then it was important to de-stress myself to help me live with this affliction. I took up yoga and started feeling much more in control after a while. I also found an Iphone App called "Tinnitus Help" which really helped me get through the nights. The app allows you to program itself to the sound of your tinnitus and then create masking sound (very pleasing sounds of nature). Once you have created a mask it then allows you to play soothing music over the whole sound. The theory of this method, is that it allows you to de-focus on the annoying ringing sound. After a while you should notice an improvement. For me this really did help me through the worse part. The app cost around 12 quid I think but it was the best few quid I spent in years ;-) I also tried other similar apps but found this one the best so far.

Good luck
John

maninasia · 14-10-2013 6:28am

I've had it on and off over the last year. It's still not clear what's been causing it, but after a few months I have figured out how to manage it.
The major factors which exarcebate it are simply tiredness, caffeine and beer. The major way to resolve this, not surprisingly, is to get more sleep and drink less alcohol and coffee!

This has been surprising to me because I have gone to a few different doctors and specialists, and none of them had focused on stress and tiredness although one did recommend to cut back on alcohol and caffeine. They tested my hearing professionally which showed some minor hearing loss and then prescribed some drugs to help with circulation. I took them for a short while but rather than that I think the doctors should focus on emphasizing other ways to improve one's health.

Now I can sense when I am tired and force myself to go to sleep ON-TIME so to speak. The caffeine was interfering with my sleep patterns and I just drink earlier in the day now. Weirdly some brands of beer (naturally yeasty ones perhaps) seem to set off my tinnitus more than others.

I understand there are many different causes of tinnitus aswell as symptoms, but I recommend everybody to try and get more sleep and check your tiredness levels (hopefully before the tinnitus starts up of course!). I talked with my wife and realised she also suffers from tinnitus from time to time due to lack of sleep.

There has also been research that has come out that shows there is a significant benefit to getting 7.5 hours of sleep a night rather than 6.5 hours sleep a night, just one hour difference makes a LOT of difference.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-24444634

Dr Simon Archer and his team at Surrey University were particularly interested in looking at the genes that were switched on or off in our volunteers by changes in the amount that we had made them sleep.

"We found that overall there were around 500 genes that were affected," Archer explained. "Some which were going up, and some which were going down."

What they discovered is that when the volunteers cut back from seven-and-a-half to six-and-a-half hours' sleep a night, genes that are associated with processes like inflammation, immune response and response to stress became more active. The team also saw increases in the activity of genes associated with diabetes and risk of cancer. The reverse happened when the volunteers added an hour of sleep.

So the clear message from this experiment was that if you are getting less than seven hours' sleep a night and can alter your sleep habits, even just a little bit, it could make you healthier. "Have a lie-in, it will do you good" - that's the kind of health message that doesn't come along very often.

I was also quite anxious when I first started experiencing it, you don't know what's happening, how bad it's going to get, and it sets off a bit of a negative cycle which can make things worse, harder to sleep and relax etc.

It's definitely a comfort to me to realise I'm not the only one out there who suffers from it.

Mars Bar · 26-01-2014 3:21am

I've always thought that on a night out, it was a loud venue that causes my ears to ring like mad. But tonight, I was out for a good few drinks (most I've had in a while) in quiet venues with friends and my ears are ringing like mad. it has to be the alcohol. Serious consideration will be going in to going tee-total.

waynerooney · 26-01-2014 6:29am

I've found that too. Even one drink, and tinnitus becomes more noticeable. I must say that I have been on an antidepressant for the last 18 months and that my tinnitus (while still present) has caused me pretty much ZERO annoyance since.

SpaceTime · 13-02-2014 4:09am

I have it as a result of trauma due to ear surgery to repair a hole in my eardrum.

Never been able to get rid of it. Basically it just sounds like a constant ultra high pitch whirr. A bit like what you'd hear from a faulty power supply or an old CRT tube in a television or maybe a capacitor charging.

Usually it's relatively easy to ignore but sometimes it's just a loud tone that will distract me enough to make me turn my head. It would be as loud as a mobile phone ringing. I mean it will just suddenly switch on at random for a few seconds or minutes and its so loud its distracting. Swallowing or rebalancing my middle ear pressure by popping my ears (gently) usually stops it.

I asked my GP about it and got a fairly patronising response that it's probably psychological.

I think the surgery traumatised or even damaged my inner ear. That's when it started and it's been present ever since.

My hearing is fine - perfect and above average in one ear and just very tiny bit down at low frequencies in the repaired ear.

The noise just never, ever stops though.
If it's really bad it wakes me up or even gets incorporated into my dreams/nightmares.

I think all you can do is tune it out and ignore it.

If anyone has similar problems or any tips I'd be delighted to hear about them as so far, it looks like the only solution is to train your brain to actively ignore the tone.

Mars Bar · 14-02-2014 12:48am

SpaceTime wrote: »

Usually it's relatively easy to ignore but sometimes it's just a loud tone that will distract me enough to make me turn my head. It would be as loud as a mobile phone ringing. I mean it will just suddenly switch on at random for a few seconds or minutes and its so loud its distracting.

Sounds like fleeting tinnitus. I genuinely thought there was something seriously wrong with me when I got it first but apparently it's pretty common. It's very, very unsettling though!

the_syco · 17-02-2014 12:42am

SpaceTime wrote: »

I asked my GP about it and got a fairly patronising response that it's probably psychological.

Funk your GP. Get a 2nd opinion!

TBH, you'd goto an optican to check your eyes, so consider going to a recommended audiologist (Bonovox/DeafHear/Hidden Hearing) for them to check your ear.

Probably Deafhear, as they sell a selection of devices and CD's that are meant to help tinnitus suffers.

SpaceTime · 17-02-2014 12:49am

I might check it out, usually I just leave the radio on all night.

manutd4life · 14-03-2014 8:37pm

I was diagnosed with tinnitus back in September 2012 coming from playing drums without ear protection. It got to me at the beginning but I have learned to just get on with things. I'm lucky in that my mates are clubbers and don't really head out to nightclubs so I don't really have to worry about loud noises. Anytime we do go out for a birthday party or anything like that, I usually bring earplugs with me which really cuts out the noise.

Not2Good · 17-09-2014 11:27pm

what else could cause T? Had it as long as I can remember, hissing away now.....

the_syco · 19-09-2014 11:53am

Not2Good wrote: »

what else could cause T? Had it as long as I can remember, hissing away now.....

Workplace noise, such as jackhammer on building site, etc, and also loud noises from guns, from the military or your hobby. A lot of people shooting clay pigeons use silenced guns as otherwise it'll affect your hearing after a few shots if you shoot without ear protection.

Not2Good · 19-09-2014 11:58am

Cheers thanks for that, I am beginning to blame the 'Aerosmith' concert (fado fado ) when I was young and foolish!

the_syco · 21-09-2014 3:09am

Not2Good wrote: »

Cheers thanks for that, I am beginning to blame the 'Aerosmith' concert (fado fado ) when I was young and foolish!

Unless you were right at the speakers, it generally wouldn't be the cause. Tinnitus is most often caused by loud noise over a period of time (not a doctor, so can't give the music the all clear, but it's doubtful that that's what caused it.

echancrure · 26-09-2014 10:14pm

I am 44 and got tinnitus 4 years ago after a very bad ear infection.

I haven't found much on the web about tinnitus after ear infection.

I was probably run down at the time and also too a couple of flights which I read did not help matters. I also went to my GP too late.

The ear drum burst because of the infection pressure and it took a couple of weeks to find the right antibiotics after that to clear things up.

The result is permanent tinnitus in my left ear. Went to private consultant because I had health insurance at the time and I did not find the experience useful at all, got an MRI as well etc. probably just to bump up the bill. Never got any useful advice out of it.

I live with it, it is OK if annoying if I think about it.

I've ditched the health insurance, not because I can't afford it, not because I distrust private health care, but because I cannot live with the guilt of jumping waiting list in front of people more deserving than me while not paying the full price.

Not2Good · 29-09-2014 8:15pm

Sorry that you have it too, ear infection .. I am sure there are many who got it the same way?

echancrure · 29-09-2014 9:25pm

Not2Good wrote: »

Sorry that you have it too, ear infection .. I am sure there are many who got it the same way?

I think that having tinnitus during an ear infection is common but having long term damage by an ear infection causing non curable tinnitus seems much rarer.

But I am no expert.

roundymac · 01-10-2014 12:34pm

I got an ear infection, gp missed it at first, took another gp in the practise to spot it, any way the ear would not drain, got sent to a consultant who deceided to insert a gromet, cleared the ear but left me with tinnitus.

doney84 · 02-10-2014 8:58pm

echancrure wrote: »

I think that having tinnitus during an ear infection is common but having long term damage by an ear infection causing non curable tinnitus seems much rarer.

But I am no expert.

Probably rarer but I suffered from ear infections all through my childhood and by the time I was 21 I needed a mastroidectomy on my right ear which left me with permanent tinnitus & at 22 I needed the same operation on my left ear again leaving permanent tinnitus ... My consultant says I'm very unlucky to have needed the operation on both sides but the constant ear infections destroyed my middle ear on both sides so bad that the operations were needed.

echancrure · 02-10-2014 9:10pm

doney84 wrote: »

Probably rarer but I suffered from ear infections all through my childhood and by the time I was 21 I needed a mastroidectomy on my right ear which left me with permanent tinnitus & at 22 I needed the same operation on my left ear again leaving permanent tinnitus ... My consultant says I'm very unlucky to have needed the operation on both sides but the constant ear infections destroyed my middle ear on both sides so bad that the operations were needed.

That is bad luck indeed.
Hope you are coping well.

doney84 · 02-10-2014 9:44pm

echancrure wrote: »

That is bad luck indeed.
Hope you are coping well.

Thanks ... Like you said yourself, I live with it, some days are better than others. I just try to forget about it and keep myself busy with other things.

Dude111 · 03-10-2014 12:12am

doney84 wrote:

Probably rarer but I suffered from ear infections all through my childhood and by the time I was 21 I needed a mastroidectomy on my right ear which left me with permanent tinnitus & at 22 I needed the same operation on my left ear again leaving permanent tinnitus ... My consultant says I'm very unlucky to have needed the operation on both sides but the constant ear infections destroyed my middle ear on both sides so bad that the operations were needed.

Im so sorry buddy

DmcF · 11-10-2014 11:54pm

Is all tinnitus accompanied by ear and head pain?
I have bad tinnitus but its the head pain and ear fullness/ache thats probably the worst part.
Thanks

doney84 · 12-10-2014 9:39am

DmcF wrote: »

Is all tinnitus accompanied by ear and head pain?
I have bad tinnitus but its the head pain and ear fullness/ache thats probably the worst part.
Thanks

I don't think all tinnitus is caused by ear & head pain as some people get it by being exposed to loud noisey places eg. concerts

If u have ear fullness/ache , I'd get a doctor 2 check it out cos if ur ear needs syringing it could relieve the pressure and get rid of the tinnitus.

DmcF · 12-10-2014 7:12pm

Thanks,
Yes I've had my ears checked for wax etc.. and all is fine. I am around loud sounds quite alot but always wear ear protection, but its still getting worse.
Was involved in a bad car accident many years ago and had a lot of neck and back trouble, have been told there could be a link there to tinnitus?

SpaceTime · 12-10-2014 7:28pm

DmcF wrote: »

Is all tinnitus accompanied by ear and head pain?
I have bad tinnitus but its the head pain and ear fullness/ache thats probably the worst part.
Thanks

No, tinnitus is just a noise in your hearing system. It can be caused by a whole load of things.

doney84 · 12-10-2014 7:39pm

DmcF wrote: »

Thanks,
Yes I've had my ears checked for wax etc.. and all is fine. I am around loud sounds quite alot but always wear ear protection, but its still getting worse.
Was involved in a bad car accident many years ago and had a lot of neck and back trouble, have been told there could be a link there to tinnitus?

Is your head pain caused by the accident? If not, and it is caused by sinus problems, I have heard before that this can cause tinnitus.

DmcF · 12-10-2014 8:07pm

SpaceTime wrote: »

No, tinnitus is just a noise in your hearing system. It can be caused by a whole load of things.

So what if I have tinnitus (10 years now) and over the past year have started getting headaches, ear ache (kinda)? As well.

DmcF · 12-10-2014 8:08pm

doney84 wrote: »

Is your head pain caused by the accident? If not, and it is caused by sinus problems, I have heard before that this can cause tinnitus.

Really not sure what's caused it, driving me mad trying to find out

doney84 · 12-10-2014 8:26pm

DmcF wrote: »

Really not sure what's caused it, driving me mad trying to find out

Hope you find out the cause soon...

SpaceTime · 12-10-2014 9:10pm

DmcF wrote: »

So what if I have tinnitus (10 years now) and over the past year have started getting headaches, ear ache (kinda)? As well.

Then you should go see your GP.
The tinnitus may or may not be connected to it.
You could have an ear infection or something.

Only person who could give you proper advice is a doctor looking into your ear.

DmcF · 12-10-2014 9:29pm

Hi,
Believe it or not I've had 3 GP's, an ear specialist, a homeopath, even an osteopath check me out - The only one who says he sees some sort of a cause is the osteopath who says upper back or neck trauma may have caused my tinnitus.

Been getting treatment but it actually seems to be getting worse aarrrggghhh

mooseknunkle · 16-12-2014 1:11pm

I have a constant moderate ringing in my ears the last 2 weeks i suffer with migraines and 3 weeks ago i was prescribed Amitriptyline by a neurologist only 10mg dose and one of the side effects is ringing in ears,so i went back to my GP last week and he said to come off them for a week and see if it goes but now a week later and still no improvement.

I never really had problems with my hearing but due to my job i wear ear plugs for 7 hours a day and have my hearing tested every year with no problems,i haven't heard of tinnitus before i only looked on this forum out of curiousity so now after reading up about it im a bit worried that this is not a side effect of the medicine and more serious,its not something i think i could deal with forever its so annoying

Im not looking for any medical advice just wondering if anyone else has experienced this due to medicine they were taking?

SpaceTime · 16-12-2014 3:16pm

Get it checked out by all means, but just remember that the human hearing system is not a studio microphone. It's an active system, evolved over billions of years to operate in noisy, natural environments. It focuses on specific sounds and can pick them out of background and it does not produce pure, silent signals. It's actually quite internally noisy - clicks when you swallow, occasional ringing, your own pulse, digestive noises, breathing etc etc are all filtered out normally.

If you've got tinnitus, and it's definitely not being caused by some kind of active medical problem i.e. you've been checked out by an ENT specialist etc and given the all clear, the best solution is to train your brain to do its job and filter it.

If you focus on the tinnitus I can 100% guarantee that you will hear it, and you will hear it louder and louder as you're focusing on that particular sound. You literally have no options other than to learn to ignore it and it's very possible to do.

If you think about it, if you started to listen to your own breathing, you'd start to hear it. But, normally you don't hear it because you're not paying attention to it.

With tinnitus it's most likely some kind of glitch in your ear's internal systems that isn't anything dangerous or problematic, but you basically just have to learn how to not listen to it anymore.

mooseknunkle · 17-12-2014 1:57am

Thanks for the great advice and detailed post,im going to leave it off until the end of the week and if it is still the same by Monday i will go back to my GP on Tuesday.

looksee · 18-12-2014 12:52pm

I completely agree with Spacetime, training yourself is the best way, once you have had checks done. Audiologists cannot usually see anything in relation to tinnitus, they rely on reports of the patient. The more you think about it the more you will hear it. I have a kind of high pitched hum (for want of a better word) which I haven't noticed for ages, it has just surfaced as I read this thread! I suspect it will go away when I get distracted.

SpaceTime · 18-12-2014 1:00pm

BTW, it's not psychosomatic - you are actually hearing the sound and it's most likely created by a minor audio-system glitch, but you absolutely can filter it and learn to ignore it very effectively.

I'd actually suggest the main thing to do is start actively trying to listen 'past' it - i.e. focus your hearing system on something else, like try to pick out all the notes of a song or try to hear bird song and pick out the individual components, or even to a radio turned down a bit so that you have to strain to hear it.

That all makes your audio processing system work harder to focus on something else. Your brain can actively process audio in a way that a computer really can only begin to do - it can strip out complex noise and find significant sounds and stuff like that which is only really starting to be something that can be done with technology in recent years.

So, use the processing power and train it to just tune it out.

I think the first step though is to accept that the noise is real, it's not something scary, weird, just a bit annoying then learn how to make your built-in audio processing system start to actually work around it.

Utopia Parkway · 06-01-2015 12:57am

I've had it for 4 weeks now. Around late November I developed a persistent headache that lasted for 2 weeks. I don't usually get headaches so eventually I went to a GP who said it was probably a tension headache that should go by itself. Didn't really make sense to me as I had no history of getting headaches and was under no work or financial stress at all. A couple of friends said to me maybe I had some kind of viral infection or something? Shortly after visiting the GP the headache stopped and I was fine for 5 or 6 days until I noticed I was hearing a noise inside my head. Presumed it would go away after a good night's sleep or two or three but it didn't.

The noise is basically a high pitched whine (at it's worst). When it's at a lower pitch it's not so bad and I can ignore it but when it reaches a higher pitch it gets extremely annoying and distracting. I was driven absolutely demented the first 3 weeks. I was getting depressed and emotional about it. Luckily enough it hasn't affected my sleep at all. I can sleep completely normally with it. Can't imagine how bad I would have gotten if I had been struggling for sleep as well. I've been to 2 GP's and both of them said they expect it will go away by itself in time as it hasn't been affecting my sleep but I'm not quite as positive about it as they are. Figured it was something they would say to someone in my position.

The last week has been a bit better though. For most of today I could barely hear it at all which is the first time in 4 weeks although it has got bit louder again in the evening. I'm unsure whether it's actually going away though or am I just becoming used to it? Still unsure what to do about loud places like bars, restaurants, sporting events, etc or alcohol. I went out new year's eve and it definitely seemed worse the next day although my massive hangover made everything seem worse.

It's something very hard to explain to friends and family as you look perfectly healthy and fine but you are being driven half mad by noises in your head. Anyway got an appointment with an ENT in a few weeks. Figured I better get it looked at properly just in case.

Mars Bar · 08-01-2015 10:53pm

Did you start on any medications in that time?

tinnitus

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