Tinnitus: any ideas?

Zouslu

In summary, while there is no cure for tinnitus, there are several treatments and strategies that can help manage the symptoms. These may include managing underlying conditions, avoiding loud noises, using sound therapy, practicing relaxation techniques, and seeking professional help.

looksee

While its useful to read most of the threads, any time the word 'tinnitus' comes up in my notifications I re-discover my tinnitus. It is always there but it is 'tuned out' unless something happens to make me aware of it. It can become noticeable sometimes, usually indoors and if it is otherwise quiet or I am trying to hear a quiet sound, then it varies between fairly and very loud. So I am going to turn off notifications for this forum - I used to mod it so had to have it on, but now I will let it disappear - no offence folks, but I am switching you off!

AndrewJRenko

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120630373#Comment_120630373

It's when I turn off the TV or radio and get suddenly aware of the loudness of it all, a bit disturbing.

brokenbad

I suffer from tinnitus myself caused by a number of factors (genetic, medication, working in noisy environments for years with no hearing protection) however as there is no known cure for tinnitus - i have learned to live with it. It's only in quiet environments where it really affects me and it definitely has caused me moderate hearing loss to an extent whereby i struggle to interpret some conversations from people who speak in low voices. To alleviate this, i have started wearing a hearing aid particularly for work purposes. Background noise does help to mask the ringing/buzzing sounds.

KeithTS

I've suffered quite badly from tinnitus. It was bad enough that I couldn't hear anything else but a nice 155Hz (just shy of a perfect Eb) and hiss in my right ear.

I tried all sorts of therapies and treatments, white noise headphones, noise cancellation things which are tuned to cancel it etc. while lying in MRI machines and everything in between.

None of them did anything and actually made me concentrate on the problem more. It's still ever present but I've developed some coping strategies and what once dominated my life doesn't have such a large impact these days. After speaking with many specialists over the years the thing that works most for me came from a really basic description of the fight or flight response and how this affects things like tinnitus and the peripheral nervous system in general.The short version:

• I hear something in my ear, it annoys/stresses/worries me and anxiety starts to kick in.
• This causes my senses to get a little more acute and turned on which makes the sound more noticeable.
• I worry more because the sound is louder now which must mean I'm going deaf, my senses kick it up a gear again, it gets louder still and the cycle continues in this horrible positive feedback cycle. My ears are essentially unstable at this point and oscillating like a guitar held up to a cabinet!

I used to sit around watching Netflix, not knowing if the humming I heard was in my head or background noise in a show so I would pause TV, discuss it with my partner and acknowledge the existence of non-existent sounds.

I've learned that by paying attention to the sound and acknowledging it, it gets worse for the very simple reason that evolution makes our system go into overdrive for a reason, mine is just doing it for the wrong thing. So, I put great effort into training myself not to pay attention to it. It's harder than it sounds but simple things like not discussing it, not pausing the TV to determine if I'm losing my mind or not all go a long way towards attenuating the effect of the tinnitus. Simply put, if I don't worry about it, my fight or flight response doesn't kick in making it worse.

Now, I know it's there but I just move past it and it makes all the difference in the world.

The human body is amazing, the fact that hearing loss can cause/exacerbate tinnitus is actually fascinating, the noise is typically caused by the normal electrical signals firing around your system. There is a stimulus there but it's not caused by physical pressure changes in the ear like actual physical sound. You just happen to be more acutely aware of it and because you have some hearing loss, your system automatically adds a little more gain to compensate, resulting in your hearing loss not being quite as bad but it has the negative effect of boosting those pesky electrical signals too, resulting in more tinnitus.

External factors definitely contribute too. Caffeine makes it worse for me so I limit coffee to one cup a day. If my blood pressure/stress/anxiety or anything else that makes your senses ore alert, the tinnitus is worse so I run more and try to be a little more zen.

looksee

Like tinnitus, I switched off notification but still got notified anyway. Am now aware that it is pleasingly quiet this evening!

https://mynoise.net/NoiseMachines/neuromodulationTonesGenerator.php

this is worth playing around with, cool little site