I'm not able to post that much recently, lacking a connection as I am but you can be sure I'm missing this place mentally. So I thought I'd take this opportunity to ask if anyone suffers from Tinnitus and what you might do to help you cope with it.
I have had Tinnitus for about fifteen years now, so you'd think I would have grown accustomed to it by now. There are a lot of theories as to the underlying causes for this torment but I've yet to hear any helpful information from anyone about treatmant, by helpful I mean a treatment that actually works. The usual approach is "I'm afraid you will just have to learn to live with it".
To help me "Live with it" I've decided to try to eliminate any other nasty reasons for the noise by having a MRI scan. That scan was a buzz too I was strapped down to a stretcher and loaded into a huge round electro magnet about 20 feet in diameter. I have not had the results back yet they are due in March but once they (hopefully) find no gremlins in my head I can carry on with cognitive retraining my perceptions.
I've been told some people use a sound masking device that helps sufferers reduce that noise for hours at a time but I don't actually know anyone who has tried it. I can't upload any stuff here where I am but I've made a MP3 of a noise that closely resembles the noise in my head. If you can imagine the sound of steam escaping under pressure mixed with a slowly modulating tone at about the 9000mhz range . It is constant, never stopping for one moment in fifteen years.
Most of the time I will have the radio on in the background to distract my attention as a coping measure but I'd love to hear from anyone who has found other ways of getting over this. Hell, I'd just feel a little reassured knowing that I am not alone with this awful silent noise.
Apart from this though I am in rude good health as I hope all my fellow asylumites are.
I've heard about Tinnitus before, but never knew much about it, doing some reading I came across and article on the BBC, you may have read it, but perha[ps it'll give you some ideas for treatment.
From: Happy Hunting Grounds... Insane since: Mar 2001
posted 01-19-2007 16:31
I have Tinnitus - I received it during the Gulf War, from a particularly loud explosion nearby.
There is no cure for it, unfortunately. One has to learn to live with it. I have it in the left ear. Thankfully, it comes and goes. Stress seems to aggrevate it - I was once without hearing in my left ear for 2 weeks, and I was pretty nauteous due to my middle ear acting up. When it is active, it is a high-pitched whining that really grates on my nerves. Kind of like a mosquito in the ear, but it doesn't go away when I swat at it.
WebShaman | The keenest sorrow (and greatest truth) is to recognize ourselves as the sole cause of all our adversities.
- Sophocles
I've had Tinnitus for the last three or four years. I remember that one summer about four years ago my ears would ring for several hours after I came in from a day of mowing the lawn. Then one day it just didn't stop.
When I was in the Navy, I worked around steam turbines, jet airplanes, and computers. It seems I have spent most of my life around machines that make some kind of constant noise. For example, the fans that keep computers cool. I have wondered if this constant exposure is what caused it. However, my father also had a hearing problem where he lost the hearing in his right ear and said he had ringing in both ears all the time. He always blamed if on his work running the rifle range for the army during World War II. I'm beginning to wonder if maybe some of it is hereditary.
I've had my hearing checked and the people giving the test say my hearing was better than 98% of all people's. I started wearing earplugs to see if reducing the amount of background noise from my computers would make it go away. That didn't seem to help. I mentioned it to my doctor and she had me checked for high blood pressure. My blood pressure seems to be fine.
Based on what you and WebShaman are saying, it seems that the frequencies each person hears are different. Mine is more like Tao's in that there is a constant background noise like a white noise generator in the background with a pulsating high frequency noise at about 18,000Hz over the top of it. The high frequency becomes more pronounced when I do heavy work or exercise.
After about a year of seeing different specialists, my doctors seem to be ignoring it, except to ask me at annual checkups if I'm still bothered by it.
I've learned to ignore it most of the time by thinking about other things, like the projects I'm working on, but it still gets annoying from time to time.
I started getting it some years ago. A high-pitched whine for several hours a day. It started getting most annoying. I decided before it got worse to stop using my headphones so much. Man, I used to blast the headphone, and I'm pretty sure that was the start of it for me. Now I only get it when I'm really tired and lie down to sleep, or when I'm around electro-mechanical equipment that is is poor repair.
Actually, the electro-mechanical thing is kind of weird. Sometimes it's pure electrical. I can actually hear pure electrical from some distance sometimes. Run some low voltage through a transformer and I go nuts trying to figure out where the whine is coming from. "Who turned that on?" and I go running about like a ferret. This was not the case prior to my onset.
Treatment? The only thing that works for me is indulging it in pure silence. Turn everything off and meditate on just the whine. Or sitting reclined in the bathtub with my head half underwater. If I let the whine run rampant and listen to it, it tends to calm down.
I have it as well (100% of the time)...but I only really notice it in bed at night when everything is very quiet
...if i focus on the noise it becomes very loud (perception only)...during the day normal ambient noises drown it out or mask it so i don't even notice it....
it is worse if i have a cold...when my ears and nose are congested...
using noise to cancel it out might work, if you can try to tune it out mentally that might help as well...
I have it, too. Had it since I was a teenager. I had a lot of ear infections in middle/high school, so I'm fairly sure that's what did it. Of course, the concerts I went too as a teen probably didn't help, either. It's a high-pitched modulated sound (I've never tried to track down the frequency) that never goes away. Odd thing is, I realized I had it one night when I laid down to sleep and realized that I couldn't remember the last time I heard nothing. It's most prominent when I'm stressed or when there aren't any competing noises. (I'm guessing that stress sharpens my focus on my hearing in a 'fight-or-flight' kind of way, making it that much more noticeable.) I suspect I have a small amount of hearing loss as well, as I've noticed myself occasionally asking people to repeat things in the last few years (I'm 33, so I'm a little young for an ear trumpet).
I've never sought treatment for it, but I do keep my eye out for news. Most of what I've heard involves retraining, although I heard something a while back about a supplement to treat it. I'll try to track down the name, although I'm always wary of a supplement claiming to do anything for anything.
I've had it for as long as I can remember plus 10 years. Used to cry all the time when I was a baby, no one knew why.
These days, I'm always always listening to music. So I almost never hear it anymore. Of course, I'm almost deaf in my right ear now. So, que sera sera. The only real problem is that when you're always listening to music, you sometimes run out of things you want to hear. Audio-books, relaxation noise (rain forest anyone?), whistling, whatever. I feel your pain.
If I'm focused, generally coding, I can sometimes forget it's there.
Thanks for the replies fellas, strangely enough it really does help knowing you're suffering too Odd creatures we humans eh?
I've saved this page to my USB Drive so I can look at it properly when I get home and write a more comprehensive reply, which I will post up next time I am at the Library or using my buddys connection.
First thoughts are, tension and stress do seem to exacerbate the perceived intensity. As do electrical noises, and bunged up sinuses. I really will have to look into these. Here is a rough idea of what the noise actually sounds like, in reality there is alos a white noise type of hiss over the top of it but I could not manage to get that effect using cool edit pro so you'll have to imagine it
Tried Ginko which was about as useful as sticking snails up my nose and cost a packet too.
I think some noises, like the computer or electrical junction boxes and meters act or react as a kind of harmonic with the tinnitus. WarJ you made me smile there as I too can often tell if an electrical switch has been turned on in the house. It's like the persistant tinnitus acts like a carrier wave that might amplify certain frequencies.
Once again thanks a googol for the info/replies/kind thoughts. You never fail to bring a little sunshine to my day.
I've had it for as long as I can remember. It's not serious, and definately not loud, but it's very definitely there. Then again, it could jsut be the oversensitivity of my hearing simulating it; I don't really know. I just know thatwhen things are quiet, it's all I can hear, and it seems very, very loud. Doesn't keep me awake anymore, though. I'm far too used to it.
quote: Skaarjj said:
it could jsut be the oversensitivity of my hearing simulating it
i think that's exactly my case...i know that since participating in this thread i've become aware of the ringing at night...i normally don't notice it....i had to refocus my mind last night in order to mentally suppress the ringing..it worked very well and off to sleep i went.
my better half has had what she describes as very loud ringing in her ears since childhood...she has learned to deal with it and almost never mentions or complains about it.
but each case is different, so the only advice i can give is try to ignore it...no matter how loud....
on the other hand, if you have vertigo or hearing loss with the ringing...well that could be much more serious.
My worst cases are actually painful. I'll very suddenly lose all hearing in one ear, and this loud, high-pitched ringing will start, accompanied by a stab of pain. I have to stick my finger in my ear to make it go away.
I have it too, but I'm normally so sensitive to the noise from electronic devices that I only really hear it when it's dead quiet - it is very much like the whine from a leaky capacitor. It is much more pronounced when I've been drinking, or when I'm particularly tired or stressed. It seemed to start for no particular reason when I was about six (I believe I had conjunctivitis) and has been ever-present and variable in intensity since. Oddly, it shifts from one ear to the other sometimes, or becomes momentarily very intense, then fades back into the background.
Working in an office saturated in electronic equipment, it never bothers me during the day - I can hear the noise of every fan motor, charging capacitor, CRT, fluorescent light, transformer, etc, etc - and at such a level that I probably wouldn't notice if an insect was singing soprano in my skull. I'm glad I'm not the only one who has this sensitivity - many have accused me of imagining it. I have often diagnosed impending failures with equipment based on the noise they emit - and I don't just mean the dreaded hard-drive "clik of death"...
When I was living out in the country, half-way up an Irish mountain, I thought I had it really bad for a while - night after night, the whine was so bad it kept me from sleeping. I thought I would go mad right up until I found the source of my torment; an electronic mouse-deterrent! I hadn't noticed the thing plugged into a socket just outside my bedroom, and when I switched it off, the peace was blessed indeed! My normal level of background whine was restored, and almost welcome. Predictably, not long after I pulled the plug on it, I spotted mice several times that I hadn't noticed before. It seems that they and I shared a mutual hatred of the thing's noise - it actually was effective as an irritation to us both!
I'm afraid that I have no idea of an effective treatment. I find that meditation can help to "tune out" the noise, and a few minutes relaxation can help reduce the stress and tension that often exacerbates it, but when it's at its peak, I just do my best to ignore it - along with the pulsing whine of my mobile chargers and radio alarm clock, and of course the constant noise of passing sirens, neighbours getting home drunk and rowdy, or watching their televisions with the volume up...
Use of a therapy lamp in the mornings (to help me fight the winter blues) has helped me enjoy my days more. The reduction in stress and depression, along with the general boost to my energy levels throughout the day, means that I feel less exhausted in the evenings. As a result (perhaps, indirectly) I haven't suffered so much with it. In fact, I have had fewer headaches since starting to use the lamp too.
Perhaps my headaches and tinnitus are directly related to stress? That would be far less worrying than the thought of a CAT scan... O.o
Good luck with those results - and with coping with the noise! It actually helps me to know that there are so many others out there with the same problems!
Yes, it's electronic equipment I'm particular sensitive too. I can hear the whine of the television if it's been left on, even if the screen is blank and there's no sound coming from the speakers. And I can hear when someone switches on my computer (and I can discerne my computer from, say, my laptop, or my father's computer, or the shitbox testbed server I built) from across the house. And, same as you, White Hawk, people have accused me of making it up in the past. Shows what they know, doesn't it?
OMG I'm so glad I'm not alone with the electro-tinnitus. Just one of those things I've never really thought about talking about. I'm glad it was brought up. Love you funky inmates.
I thought I'd post an update. Yesterday I got the results of my MRI scan at the Royal Liverpool Hospital. I'm delighted to say that I was cleared completely of any nasties in my head like tumours or rumours of tumours. Yay =)
I really wanted to get a copy of the scan to show y'all but for some daft reason the National Health Service don't allow copies to be made or sold (yup, I offered hard cash too.)
After a good ten minute chat with the specialist the only new piece of information I learned was this. The actual reason we hear these noises is because our wonderful and resourseful brains realise that there is a hearing loss at whatever frequency and attempts to boost the signal at that frequency to compensate. A bit like turning up the volume of your radio while it is tuned into a weak transmission, you get lots of background hiss.
I took the recording I made of the simulation of the sound I hear to the specialist and it is more or less the same frequency as the hearing loss I present at the hearing test.
The specialist was surprised and amused that I had taken the time to simulate the tinnitus sound and make an MP3 of it.
So now I can get back to the task of ignoring it and managing the condition. I have to say that reading all your wonderful responses above really helped me just as much as the specialist hospital treatment.
Shine on you crazy diamonds.
Wow, I missed this thread when it came around the first time.
I've had tinnitus since I was real young. No doubt it came from shooting firearms without the proper hearing protection every now and then.
The first time I recall actually noticing it was in 7th grade. It was exactly like wj and skaarj said above
quote:Actually, the electro-mechanical thing is kind of weird. Sometimes it's pure electrical. I can actually hear pure electrical from some distance sometimes. Run some low voltage through a transformer and I go nuts trying to figure out where the whine is coming from. "Who turned that on?" and I go running about like a ferret.
I walked into our science lab and not 2 feet through the doorway my eyes opened up and I knew there was a television on in the room. Sure enough, I walked to the back of the room and there was a tv on the floor, muted, behind a table. As soon as I saw the tv it sent a shiver down my spine.
For the most part I don't notice the constant ringing now. But as soon as I think about it (since I started reading this thread) I hear it. If it ever gets completely quiet around me I'll hear it; luckily though I've just about always got music playing or a computer fan next to me. twitch^ hit the nail on the head too:
quote:The only real problem is that when you're always listening to music, you sometimes run out of things you want to hear. Audio-books, relaxation noise (rain forest anyone?), whistling, whatever. I feel your pain.
I'm constantly trying to find new music to listen to, or even just something I haven't heard in a couple months sometimes.
One treatment I've heard about before is to take a zinc supplement. I haven't tried it, but talking about it again, I think I might give it a shot next time I go to the store.
I've never tried to identify the frequency I hear, but I want to try now, just out of curiosity.
--
Any sufficiently advanced bug is indistinguishable from a feature.
I seem to remember hearing something about a "hearing aid" that was being used to help mask the effects of tinnitus on the ear/mind. Instead of just amplifying sounds from outsid ethe ear it produced a negative frequency to that of your particular tinnitus. It was something akin to standing near running water and having that alleviate your symptoms or a white noise that was enough to counteract the tinnitus but still allow you to hear. I'm not having a lot of luck tracking any links down and it was a year or more ago... I'll see if I can't find something and update the thread.
Good to see the familiar faces are still here =)
heh.
GD
[UPDATE]Using Sound to Suppress Tinnitus - 3/14/07 (From American Tinnitus Association
For many years, people have been using sound to mask (cover up) tinnitus. Now, researchers at the University of California in Irvine are looking for a way to use sound to silence tinnitus altogether. In this case study (a study of just one person), Dr. Fan-Gang Zeng was able to use an external sound, directed through the subject's cochlear implant, to suppress the subject's tinnitus. Dr. Zeng notes, "the suppressor can be much softer and more pleasant (lower pitch) than the tinnitus." For those without cochlear implants, he says, "I also believe the technology to help is here already: Internet, MP3 player and iPod." This research was presented at the Mid-Winter Meeting of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology, but has not yet been published in a peer-reviewed journal. You can read more about Dr. Zeng's research here (link goes to .pdf) and download the sound used to suppress the subject's tinnitus here. (link goes to .wav)This sound was customized over several months for one specific subject and is for demonstration purposes only. [/UPDATE] (Edited by GrythusDraconis on 04-13-2007 19:31)
I tried the frequency testing, but my soundcard began procducing secondary frequencies over 18.5KHz - so it seems that my SBLive is not happy attempting to emulate my high-frequency tinnitus.
Having had a good read of the information on tinnitus masking, I ended up on the subject of noise as an aid to sleep (paradoxically, it seems). I listened to a few downloadable samples of white noise before trying out a signal generator. I eventually created a soundfile over twenty minutes long of 'pink noise' (essentially, soft white noise), then played it to myself on my MP3 player when I went to bed last night.
I was asleep before the sound file ended. This certainly bears further investigation, and I'm going to play around with the idea of generating my own anti-tinnitus signal.
Wow GrythusDraconis long time my friend. Good to see you about
You've posted up some good links there, I have not had the time to go through them just now but I will just as soon as I get back from a day or two away.
I have another appointmet with the doctor next week who is probably going to say somthing like, now that I've found no nasties in my head I can concentrate on not thinking about it again. May well have a look at the Cognitive Behaviour Therapy malarchy and report back.
Thanks for taking the time to search these things out. Btw do you have tinnitus at all?
Back to the drawing board for me. Tried the pink noise thing again last night and found it impossible to sleep - perhaps I was just in an irritable mood...
And sorry, GrythusDraconis, I did mean to thank you for that marvellous information!
Gosh nine months since JK's post, tempus flippin' fugit asylumites New hope for tinnitus sufferers
Here is the programme: Longing For Silence
I wanted to post this little update as I thought the above Radio Four programme was the best news on the subject I have heard in quite a while.
Before you get too excited, it is not yet a cure but it sounds really interesting. I am going to make further enquiries and if all goes to plan I want to go over to Belgium and perhaps Germany and take some teats to ascertain if I would be "suitable" for treatment.
I'll keep you posted.
Those who look for monsters should look to it that
they do not become monsters. For when you gaze
long into the abyss, the abyss also gazes into you.
This is one of those threads that I never bothered to read... now I realize how much it relates to me.
I had Tinnitus since I can remember. I never realized that it was a hearing condition until I saw this. Something that may have a hand in mine would probably be rain. I lived in Washington state for the first 7 years of my life, and people who live there know it rains a lot. I recall this one time very clearly when I was 5 (I think) and I was waiting in our family car and everything was dead quiet, so quiet I could hear a pin drop. I took notice of the ring in my ears (very much like Tao's audio sample) and it seemed to get louder and louder but it really wasn't.
So fast forward to now, and I still have the ring (I have it now as I type this). I have developed some ways to combat it, it seems to work fine for me most of the time. If it's irritating enough, which is very rarely (only a few times in a year), I would stop whatever I'm doing (unless what I'm doing is important, like driving) and just focus on the ringing. I find that trying to twitch my ears makes it louder, but I eventually start thinking of something and my mind forgets about listening, much like daydreaming. I sometimes can even do this in the middle of loud noises (vacuum, etc.) and then for a second I could swear I didn't hear anything.
After reading this whole thread, I realize that it could be the reason I can't go to sleep at times. I grew up around computers, so that may be another factor. I can still hear clearly TVs that are on and other high pitch sounds my parents can't hear. For all we know, it could be cell phones, they may be frying our ears, not our brains.
So, thanks Tao for bumping this up. I hope what I said could help others.
Until this thread began, I really had no idea how common this problem was - it's one thing to read a bunch of statistics, but quite another to see the responses to this thread.
In my case, I believe my tinnitus has become worse during the darker months of winter, especially as I suffer from terrible insomnia during this time (I spend all night wakeful, and all day drowsy). Of course, during the day, I am utterly unaware of it over the noise of several fans and hard drives clicking and whirring away in the office.
On a side note, I find I'm much less aware of it at night when my girlfriend comes to stay - possibly because I fall asleep much more quickly. It could also be because the sound of another's breathing is a good substitute for a pink-noise generator. lol
quote:I can still hear clearly TVs that are on and other high pitch sounds my parents can't hear. For all we know, it could be cell phones, they may be frying our ears, not our brains.
Funnily enough, Zavaboy, as Tao mentions above, one possible explanation for tinnitus is a loss of hearing in a certain range which causes the brain to 'pump up' the volume. Personally, I also have no trouble hearing high-frequency noises that others appear not to be aware of, so I'm unsure of how accurate this is. I do know that attempting to match the frequency of my tinnitus with a signal generator was pointless, as the speakers fell silent far short of the perceived frequency!
I'm not convinced of any arguments regarding the risks of mobile phones and phone masts, but I wouldn't be surprised if overhead power lines were having some effect on health...
I just remembered something interesting ... when I was I guess about 8-11 years old I used to hear a voice in my head . It was my own voice and it was an interesting kind of "hear" ... not like thinking and not like hearing. It was like sensing that a second me inside of me was saying something. It would come and go and it was an endless stream of chatter. Often repeating things that it had said over and over. Never anything too meaningful ... much like a dream. But it would scare me every time. Sometimes it would start quiet and get louder and louder and often it would just annoy the hell out of me. I don't remember having it anymore. Anyone here ever had anything similar? Surely it's the best place to look for other crazy people...
No Arthurio, not everyone here has Tinnitus. Hearing a noise is one thing, those noises articulating words is another. I think Master Suho have a cure for that!
White Hawk, I find if I have a cold or blocked sinuses or nose (all those winter type of afflictions) the noise is definitely worse. It is during these times that I find it very difficult to sleep, the noise seems/feels deafening.
Zavaboy sorry to hear you have it as well. I was staying at a friends house the other day and they have their computer on all the time, day and night. Even though I was in an adjoining room the noise of the computer amplified the tinnitus so much that I had to get up and sleep on the couch at the other end of the house.
This thread has been a great resource for me too. I now know that other people report a raised sensitivity to electro/mechanical noise too.
I'm still making enquiries about the treatment outlined in the Radio 4 programme.
I know if this treatment works I will have no hesitation paying the £500 - £1000 for it. Imagine, no screaming feedback noises, I could sit in the quiet and listen to the bird song till my hearts content, bliss.
By the way, I can still meditate and the noise does not intrude too much. It is only a certain type of meditation that I find hard because of it, one that requires no thought, just emptiness and a kind of contemplation of the void.
Tao:
I might start cursing you soon for posting this. Since following this thread I've become much more aware of the ringing in my ears. Curse you!
So the psychological component of tinnitus is very real. The more you think about it the more the phone rings inside your head.
Schitzophrenia? Once in a great great while, I'll hear a female voice whisper my name. Seemingly external and very clear. Most of the time to the left and behind. Thankfully that's about the extent of it for me. The internal voices confuse me enough without having to worry about more external ones.
Sorry to drag this old thread out of the shadows and dust, but I've had a recent revelation. I've discovered that while I suffer tinnitus particularly when tired or stressed, the most noticeable noise in my head usually directly precedes a migraine aura. I get weird visual, auditory, and other sensory hallucinations sometimes - more often during the Winter (thanks to SAD) - but I rarely get the headaches I used to get with them. Sometimes, I get a massive increase in tinnitus-like noise for a while before the aura becomes apparent.
I've become so used to migraine auras over the years (started when I was eleven) that I've found ways of calming it down and avoiding the worst of the symptoms (blindness, insensibility, absolutely-intolerable-screaming-agony). I haven't had a full-blown migraine headache since I was about sixteen.
The thing is, the occurence of aura has been increasing in frequency for a while now. I have come to blame energy efficient bulbs, as my father suffers migraines (far, far worse than mine ever were - something I couldn't even begin to imagine) and he's noticed an increase in them since changing all the bulbs in our house. It makes some sense, as I've never been able to spend an entire day under flourescent lights without my eyes going bad, though I haven't noticed such a substantial effect with these.
Anyway, as I've started to determine a link between an increase in my tinnitus and the auras, regardless of the cause, I have to ask if any tinnitus victims here suffer, or have ever suffered from migraine auras, migraine headaches (usually very severe headaches or headaches on one side of the head), or visual disturbances in artificial light? Has this ever coincided with a noticeable increase in tinnitus?
How about normal headaches - do you ever find your tinnitus is greater when your head is throbbing? Is it possible that the 'morning-after' tinnitus is related to the 'morning-after' headache, and not the volume of the rock band the night before?
I've been thinking about this for a while, and this thread was the most obvious place I could think of to pose the question.
From: The Happy Hunting Grounds... Insane since: Mar 2001
posted 02-24-2009 14:42
My tinnitus is not related to headaches (though sometimes I might get a slight headache from the tinnitus - depending on the volumn of the noise in my ears).
What I particularly dislike about my tinnitus is the loss of sense of balance, that leads to dizziness.
WebShaman | The keenest sorrow (and greatest truth) is to recognize ourselves as the sole cause of all our adversities.
- Sophocles
posted 01-19-2007 14:56
I was strapped down to a stretcher and loaded into a huge round electro magnet about 20 feet in diameter. I have not had the results back yet they are due in March but once they (hopefully) find no gremlins in my head I can carry on with cognitive retraining my perceptions.
::cell::
(I don't.)