Tinnitus sufferers

TheWanderer

TheWanderer

Striker
Anyone suffer from tinnitus?

Had it for a year now, like a truck idling in my head 24 hours a day. Tried these apps where background noise is played when you sleep in the hope your brain reacts and reduces the noise, but after months no difference.

What other coping tactics have any of you used successfully? Days when it can be unbearable.
 


An aunt of mine has it quite badly and reckons she can hear water running down the walls in the loft! She is 91, and told me she had been told there is no cure.
I have a regular noise in my left ear so when the room is quiet I have a monotonous quietish siren like noise.
 
TheWanderer said:
Anyone suffer from tinnitus?

Had it for a year now, like a truck idling in my head 24 hours a day. Tried these apps where background noise is played when you sleep in the hope your brain reacts and reduces the noise, but after months no difference.

What other coping tactics have any of you used successfully? Days when it can be unbearable.
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I have music on in the background nearly all the time. The tinnitus doesn't stop me sleeping, but if I'm anywhere where it is quiet, it drives me mad
 
I have a pulsating noise in my right ear which is pretty my driving me loopy. It can be less noticeable depending on the position of my head so not sure if it's pulsating tinnitus or summat else.
 
Suffered with this for over 20 years. Sad to say, you don't get used to it, but learn to put up with it. Worst at night or when stressed.

I started listening to podcasts, or audio books with earbuds in when trying to sleep just to have another sound going on as music doesn't do it for me.
 
My brother and I have suffered with tinnitus since we were born. We think it was because we were both premature and because I weighed less than a 1lb it may be as consequence of that. I never knew it was tinnitus as growing up I always thought it was a normal noise. Wasn't until I was in my late 30s when I realised that is what it was. It has been getting worse over the past two years because I suffer from chronic fatigue and the more tired I am the louder it gets and sometimes the frequency is that bad that it can be quite uncomfortable.
 
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Albay3037 said:
I have suffered with tinnitus since I was born, never knew that is what it was as I always thought it was a normal noise. Wasn't until I was in my late 30s when I realised that is what it was. It has been getting worse over the past two years because I suffer from chronic fatigue and the more tired I am the louder it gets and sometimes the frequency is that bad that it can be quite uncomfortable.
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Same boat regarding not realizing it wasn't normal for most of my life, can usually ignore it but it's like when you're told about breathing manually or your tongue not being comfortable in your mouth, one of those irritating things once you notice it.

Seems to get worse when I'm ill and really gets bad after a night out on the drink.
 
I have it, I think similar to others I find it gets worse when I notice it or think about it (this thread triggered it for example!). I also find it gets worse when I'm stressed at work or move suddenly to a quiet place. My coping techniques are similar to others, listening to music/podcasts and generally trying to think about anything else.
 
The Mrs (£5 paypal F&F) developed it after a neck issue, and before knew what it was, would have me raking round the bedroom for imaginary noises! She now has one of them earphone headband things and hoys a podcast on when she's ready to go to kip which distracts her.

The ironic thing is that her going through all that has made me realise I've got the fucker and probably have for as long as I can remember....always thought there was no such thing as real silence as there was always some sort of high pitched background noise. It's mainly tolerable so just getting on with it, but I'm deffo more aware of it recently.
 
I'm not aware of anything that alleviates it, but obviously all people are different and so some might find stuff that helps. I was told that hearing aids would help but they didn't.
Last time i spoke to a doc about it he basically shrugged his shoulders and said you have to live with it. He did say that there is one thing that they can do, which is to ablate the nerve - which leaves you stone deaf for life. But some people apparently choose this option when it is really bad!
 
Suffered about 2 years. I think i'm about 90% ok with it. I trawled youtube for a decent masking sound which i extracted the MP3 and have on my phone and play it when i sleep. Although i'm getting better at not needing it. Leaving the TV on low volume can be a distraction also. I set the TV to go off after 2 hours.
Al said:
I'm not aware of anything that alleviates it, but obviously all people are different and so some might find stuff that helps. I was told that hearing aids would help but they didn't.
Last time i spoke to a doc about it he basically shrugged his shoulders and said you have to live with it. He did say that there is one thing that they can do, which is to ablate the nerve - which leaves you stone deaf for life. But some people apparently choose this option when it is really bad!
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It won't end the tinnitus. Tinnitus is in the brain.
 
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I’ve had it for 40 years and although it’s worse than ever it affected me more psychologically when it first started (noise damage).

Distractions are good but beware of maskers at night that try to drown it out, as once you switch them off the tinnitus is worse. If we want to train our brains to notice it less, the masking sound should be quieter than the tinnitus, to try to train the brain to focus on that rather than the noises in our heads.

Tinnitus is shit, sometimes you just have to accept it, focus on the positives, and hope that it doesn’t get any worse, as that is when you have to re-adjust to the new normal.
 

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