(I must admit I’m really beginning to be fond of this board so I hope I’m not being a pest by starting two new threads in an hour, but it seems the right place to do it.)
Anyway, I’ve had tinnitus in both ears since my old Navy days, when jet noise probably did some damage. The Navy denied me benefits for it at discharge, claiming was OK since I could hear sounds clearly through the constant ringing. Actually, at times I cannot focus on sounds well because of it. Anyway, I’ve found no relief. Day and night, a high pitched ringing in the back of my head. Nothing seems to work to relieve it. Getting snockered only gives me a nice drunk with an accompanying screetching concerto. Doctors just shrug. Most friends don’t even understand. My wife does, sort of…at least she believes me.
If any of you have this condition, how do you deal with it? Any nostrums that work and that do not involve sheep entrails, flamethrowers and small children?
It tends to fade with time, and many have reported that listening to higher-pitched sounds can ease it. I know how awful it can be. Some nights when I first got it (from high school band class of all things :rolleyes: ) I would just lie awake trying to sleep. There is no cure, yet, although work on regerating nerves may change that.
As one who deals with Tinnitus daily I can say I have great hope that one day I will have access to ear plugs and time travel. No one would go to a concert or use power tools without hearing protection if they knew what living with Tinnitus is like.
White noise generators can really help hide it, I turn on a fan on nights where it is bad.
You have some gigantic shoes to fill if you aspire to become an SDMB pest. Two threads in the same hour isn’t even close to the record. Welcome!
I have constant tinnitus too, unknown reason but maybe medication related. The only thing that helps me is to have some sort of low-level noise—preferably white noise—running in the background whenever I need to concentrate. Fortunately for me, I’m also a postmenopausal woman, so a plain old electric fan kills 2 annoying birds with 1 stone. If I’m on my computer I have music playing at very low volume. I have at least 1 fan running when I’m in bed, 2 in the summer.
I did once try stuffing a small neighbor child with sheep entrails and setting it on fire but it didn’t work. Obviously I should have used a flamethrower instead of kerosene and a Bic™ lighter :smack:.
Thanks to all of you for your suggestions. I may have to try out some of those white noise-generating earphones, they might do the trick…but I doubt they will be appreciated much by my wife and her mom, who call on me all the time to help them with this or that around the house. I might end up mitigating my annoying tinnitus - but at the price of being in the dog house if I fail to hear the ladies calling me!
I have only mild, intermittent tinnitus, so I don’t know if this is helpful, but I’ll post it anyway…
Listening to the same tone that I’m hearing in my head, played out loud for a few minutes, often makes it shut up for a good while.
Antidepressants can sometimes reduce tinnitus. Alternatively, antidepressants can sometimes magnify tinnitus, at least while you are taking them. It might be worth exploring with your doctor.
I’ve had tinnitus since 1987. I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis back then and NSAIDS like Advil, etc. didn’t help. The only thing that did help was large quantities of aspirin. Guess what one of the side effects of large quantities of aspirin is?
It doesn’t go away. You simply get used to it. There will be times when it suddenly decided to amp up the “volume”, so to speak, and then just fade back to normal. There it is.
I have had tinnitus for the last two decades (not noticeably harming my hearing, subjective loudness a bit louder than that of the PC fan under my desk, but much more high pitched) and the thing that worked for me was just ignoring it.
Ignoring it is basically the only option. But at times it is terribly distracting and interferes with hearing some soft-spoken people.
I have run a frequency generator on my PC and can fairly well duplicate part of the noise, but the noise tends to wail up and down as I move or breath, so it is ever-changing. When I played the simulated noise for my wife, she said she would not be able to stand it herself. Playing the simulated tone did not appreciably change what I was hearing inside. I do think the white noise generator may be useful and will try to find one in a headset that I can afford.
There is a white noise simulator at simplynoise dot com. It even has a sleep timer.
Check out the University of Iowa Tinnitus Clinic, they do lots of research and have apparently had success with a hearing aid that has noise generating capabilities. I saw a webpage about using music therapy that works along the lines of what mislingsuggests but can’t find it now.
From what I’ve read the brain creates the noise to fill the silence left when the stereocillia are damaged/flattened. Birds can regenerate these hair cells so it is possible research will lead to human transplants a decade or two down the road. My ENT doc (who also has tinnitus) tells me for now I should turn on a fan at night and try not to think about it.
I do find my tinnitus (which sounds like cicadas) gets louder when I get dehydrated so drinking lots of water is my only home remedy for now. If mine gets worse I’ll be checking out the hearing aid option – apparently it picks up background noise which helps with masking. Maybe VA benefits would help out for you?
Up above I meant to say white noise “generator”. Oh, and don’t forget to monitor your salt intake, higher sodium levels can increase tinnitus in some people.
