Tinnitus who suffers from it

I posted near the begining of the thread about my Tinnitus but have a new tale to tell.

Back in October I had a appointment at the hospital to get my left ear cleaned out due to it easily blocking after my big op on it. When I went in the lady had a look in my ear and said it's really clean so I said then whay does it feel like someone has stuck their finger in my ear. Somehow she got me to the front of the queue for a immediate hearing test. When I was in the booth I had the headphones on and had to press the button when I heard the beeps. No problem when she was testing my right ear but when she tested my left she stopped half way through and asked if I was ok. It turned out that I was pressing the button all over the place and mostly when she didn't even send a signal. I just couldn't pick out the beeps over the Tinnitus. Eventually we got the test completed and my hearing in my left ear has gotten significantly worse and now have moderate-severe hearing loss in that ear so now have a hearing aid. The good news is that my right ear is exceptional and is a long way above normal hearing. The downside is that my hearing balance is abysmal. The hearing aid has made a huge difference though.
 
pastymuncher said:
I posted near the begining of the thread about my Tinnitus but have a new tale to tell.

Back in October I had a appointment at the hospital to get my left ear cleaned out due to it easily blocking after my big op on it. When I went in the lady had a look in my ear and said it's really clean so I said then whay does it feel like someone has stuck their finger in my ear. Somehow she got me to the front of the queue for a immediate hearing test. When I was in the booth I had the headphones on and had to press the button when I heard the beeps. No problem when she was testing my right ear but when she tested my left she stopped half way through and asked if I was ok. It turned out that I was pressing the button all over the place and mostly when she didn't even send a signal. I just couldn't pick out the beeps over the Tinnitus. Eventually we got the test completed and my hearing in my left ear has gotten significantly worse and now have moderate-severe hearing loss in that ear so now have a hearing aid. The good news is that my right ear is exceptional and is a long way above normal hearing. The downside is that my hearing balance is abysmal. The hearing aid has made a huge difference though.
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How loud is your tinnitus , do you hear it in the shower for example?
 
Bassmansam said:
How loud is your tinnitus , do you hear it in the shower for example?
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It varies really but is always there. It can be heard in the shower, in the car, at the cinema, anywhere. It was terrible in that booth for the hearing test though, I just couldn't seperate it from the beeps of the test. I got it from below:-


pastymuncher said:

How long have you had it for?

15 years now.


What brought it on?

Had a hearing problem when in the RAF. As i was due to go to the Falklands they did'nt do any investigation and stuck a grommet in my ear. Nothing changed but two years later the left side of my face was temporarily paralysed. Again, incorrect diagnosis as they reckoned it was bells palsey. Three months later i started getting unbearable pain in the left side of my head. After being told they don't do anything for headaches i was in the workshop one day and blood and puss started pouring (literally) from my left ear. They sent to to a specialist who diagnosed a chronic infection of the inner ear. Scans showed that the infection had attacked the bones in my skull. Had to have a emergency operation which lasted three and a half hours. They cut my ear around the back so that they could fold it forward and get inside my skull to cut out the infection. Cue three months sick leave and a lot of dizziness/nausea/falling over and the infection was finally gone. The downside was that i am now 75% deaf in that ear and suffer from Tinnitus.


Does it bother you anymore?

Learnt to live with it for the most part but sometimes it does get annoying.


And what sound do you hear?

High pitched humming/buzzing.
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When I was little, I used to think my tinnitus was the sound of "silence"

I've never experienced true silence since I can remember.

Thankfully both my ears are the same pitched whine/hiss.

Family parties / discos made it particularly worse. I think grommets didn't help either. :/
 
Saw the ENT yesterday. Had another audiogram done which showed my right ear differed from my left (because the tinnitus is masking quiet tones). Probably not helpful that they did the left ear first. By the time they had gotten to my right, being in a soundproof made the tinnitus VERY loud. Oh well.

ENT was pretty dismissive tbh, spoke way more about coping with it. They said that about floaters as well and a year later they still **** me off, nuts to that. Really buggers me off that nothing 'caused' it, it just appeared randomly and she seemed okay with that. She did schedule an MRI though so I'm going back for that at some point.
 
I'm not sure if mine is tinnitus or not. It's like a hissing static in my left ear but I also have an anxiety disorder as well. The therapist said it might be linked to that and my stress levels. I have above average hearing and the MRI was clear, had it 1 year. At first it drove me nuts but I forget about it mostly now. I get that occasional loud high pitched noise occasionally which quickly goes away.

It all started when I bought a house that has noisy neighbors, I got more and more stressed. Bought some Bose noise cancelling headphones and then suddenly woke up with it one morning.

Using an ambient noise app on my phone helped me get through those anxious few months but now I usually just forget about it. I'm terrified of it getting it worse and dating women who like going to gigs is always a pain. Even with earplugs I don't feel safe.

Most people I know have it in some form.
 
If you have a constant noise in your ears, it is tinnitus. You could probably try getting a mold made of your ear and then get earplugs made from that - those can reduce sounds by up to 30dB. At that range, even 100dB crazy gigs would only be 70dB to you - perfectly safe for all day. They might not attenuate equally in all frequencies, so may make the music sound a bit crap, but if you can pretend to enjoy it you're all in the clear.
 
Oh sorry I don't doubt I have a form of tinnitus, my question is the relation to my anxiety disorder with the onset of stress. Sometimes I think the noise is my hyper awareness of things and not actually there.

Thanks for the advice on the ear plugs. I picked up some alpine ones that got recommended, went to a couple of gigs but feel anxious about it.
 
I have noticed a few weeks ago I get a humming noise in both ears when the house is silent(more in my right ear) but as soon as I hear any sort of sound it seems to go then come back when the house is quiet. I guess I have some sort of tinnitus, I should make an appointment with the doc really....I think it's the many years of PC gaming with headphones on/listening to music that have done the damage.
 
I'd be surprised if you actually listened loud enough to cause damage. Just using headphones can't cause damage, it's all about the SPL. At home you'd have to be deaf to want to listen loud enough for it to be damaging, that is more an outside problem.
 
Tephnos said:
I'd be surprised if you actually listened loud enough to cause damage. Just using headphones can't cause damage, it's all about the SPL. At home you'd have to be deaf to want to listen loud enough for it to be damaging, that is more an outside problem.
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I presumed mine had been caused by constant headphone use at work and home. The ENT actually told me to be careful with headphone use, I can't avoid it with my industry thought.
 
All depends on the volume. If you can't measure the SPL, then put your earbuds at arm's length in a quiet enough room. Still hear them? Too loud.

Sound all hits your ear in the same way, so the only way it can cause damage is purely through too much pressure. The ENT told you to be careful because people (especially using IEMs) do not know what 'too loud' actually is.
 
I can't believe I never spotted this thread. I suffer from relatively bad tinnitus. It is hugely aggravated by loud environments and loud music. Though it does calm down if I keep away from loud environments or don't wear ear phones etc.

Mine is a high pitch tone that I constantly hear. It has been linked to why I often get headaches. Things like sirens or a noisy train line (the tube) are awful for triggering more high pitch squealing.

You know in war movies when the protagonist has a grenade go off near him and you hear that high pitch ringing? Well that's what it sounds like. Just not quite as loud.

I have been training myself for a few years to ignore it but loud environments trigger it and it does become irritating again. It's very distracting and doesn't help my insomnia.
 
Freefaller said:
I can't believe I never spotted this thread. I suffer from relatively bad tinnitus. It is hugely aggravated by loud environments and loud music. Though it does calm down if I keep away from loud environments or don't wear ear phones etc.

Mine is a high pitch tone that I constantly hear. It has been linked to why I often get headaches. Things like sirens or a noisy train line (the tube) are awful for triggering more high pitch squealing.

You know in war movies when the protagonist has a grenade go off near him and you hear that high pitch ringing? Well that's what it sounds like. Just not quite as loud.

I have been training myself for a few years to ignore it but loud environments trigger it and it does become irritating again. It's very distracting and doesn't help my insomnia.
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Mine is that exact noise, I never thought of a way of describing it before but the grenade thing is spot on. I don't suffer badly from it apart from at night when it is quiet, like some others have said I always just thought that it was just how silence sounded....yes I know it sounds silly but I can't remember not hearing this sound so i don't know what silence is. I read this thread last night at it kind of made me more aware of it at bed time

Sitting in the office just now and next door it is lunchtime so all is quiet, I have the ringing noise now but normally I don't notice as long as there is some kind of background noise.
 
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