Thread: Any Tinnitus sufferers out there?

When my hearing finally ebbs to the point where I can no longer hear the growl of the table saw I just shoved the board through, will I still have tinnitus? I ask because the ringing scream seems to be getting louder as all other sounds become apparently softer.

I was just over to the ear specialist last week to confirm my case. I've had it since this winter. Sounds like a leaky steam pipe. It's always there and always the same if I dwell on it or think about it seems worse mostly I just live with it. I was told I could try some OTC concoction Lycoflavinoid and sometimes it helps some people but otherwise there is nothing that can be done for it. I was told if you have it in only one ear that could be something else far more serious.

Its probably a nerve issue. The specialist said when they did exams of people's ears (dead people) they found deterioration with the hairs that transmit the impulses to the nerve. it's always caused by loud noise exposure usually a long time ago and doesn't get worse unless you expose yourself to continued loud noises.

Yup I sure do!30 years driving steel pins with a hilti gun into red iron will do it.Started about 3 months.How do you get rid of this thing.Constant high pitched ringing.Don.

Don,

Get rid of it? You don't. Learn to ignore it - it is the only option. Or said differently, the only option. Just like diamonds, tinnitus is forever. I've had it for about 40 years and it's one of those things you just have to accept. There are no other options as there is no treatment to reduce the noise, neither is there a cure to get rid of it. If you let it bother you, you will go crazy. Crazy is not a good option. I tried crazy a little bit and got scared out of my mind.

I've had it for 25 years or so. A combination of shooting 44 magnums without ear protection when I was a young fellow and being in steel erection for 20 years. For me it is birds chirping. I learned to ignore it most of the time.

Depending on the sound and the frequency you can try going to a hearing aid specialist and try getting fit with a white noise device which will cancel out the offending noise like those noise cancelling headphones that they sell for music listening. The issue is most probably can't be helped by that and even if it works you need to wear it 24/7 and if you take it off the sounds will then seem that much worse.

You just need to learn to live with it. If you are having a hard time with it there are bio feedback techniques that can help.

Hi,
I've had it for 10/15 years-got it by standing on stage in front of 100watt amps in a rock group in the seventies & by playing drums.
only affected by it when falling asleep in a chair-mostly high pitched screaming that subsides as you tune it out.Am not affected after sleeping in bed for some reason though.
Ear tests prove that my hearing is not as effective in some octaves and pitches as it should be -as i am 60 now i don't expect any relief in the near future.Just have to live with it.
AAARGH!!!!- thinking/writing about it has just tuned it back in again!!
Regards
Noggs

Originally Posted by ChrisL

I've had Tinnitus since birth or shortly thereafter. . . It's something I have learned to live with and try not to focus on.

Does anyone else have Tinnitus, and if so, when did it start, what does it sound like to you? How is your hearing otherwise?

Hi Chris,
I just found this thread. My tinnitus started in the Fall of 1988 when I was 35 years old. Twenty-two years later, I have not gone one day without it. Often it's muted, like a large symphony orchestra softly tuning up before a performance. It often changes in quality, tone and volume.

For three days and nights in 1993, I experienced the sound of a nonstop freight train roaring through my head. One night a few years later I was woken in the wee hours of the morning by a sound that could only be described as a 5,000 psi air line that carried away.

Back when it first began and I realized the noise was "all in my head," it just didn't seem like a big deal. It as there, that's all. People who live in major cities rent apartments alongside elevated commuter trains and they adapt to the constant noise quite well. I suppose that's what I did as well.

I had a progressive bilateral hearing loss that likely began some time in 1979 and continued until I became profoundly deaf in 1995. The worst of my tinnitus (so far) happened during the last two years of my hard of hearing life but since 1995 it's pretty much been the same as it was from '88 to '93 so I can't say how the two are related.

I have friends with a condition called NF-2 who had to have life saving surgery to remove benign tumors from their hearing and balance nerves adjacent to their brain stem. In almost every case the surgery requires removal of the hearing nerves too, leaving the patient suddenly profoundly deaf. Even without hearing nerves to connect their cochleas to their brain stems, some of my friends continue to have unremitting tinnitus. Yet other theories place some causes of tinnitus in the cochlea itself. Go figger.
Namaste,
Morty -_-

I am surprised by the number of people with tinnitus here. I had tinnitus all my life, most of the time it was half way between a continus high pitch and a roaring siren. then when I was in my late 30's my hearing began rapidly diminishing and i began to have vertigo, and within a year I was diagnosed with a combination of otosclerosis and menieres disease.

I had surgery which removed all bones in both ear's, the hammer, anvil and stirrup were replaced with titanium, after this the tinnitus grew louder, and was much worse when I took my hearing aids out. then to help control the vertigo a doctor in chicago pointed me to a drug called Serc, it is not legal in the U.S. (unless you have a prescription and it is made by a compund pharmicist) but is readily available in canada, europe, and the rest of the world after a "visit to canada" with my computer, I tried this drug, which not only stopped my vertigo, but inexplicably stopped the tinnitus as well, I must add that my otolaryngologist has no explaination for this phenomena, but it did work for me.

As with honing YMMV, but if the tinnitus is debilitating to you, it may be worth your time to do some research on Serc (betahistine hydrochloride) and see if it will work for you.

as a disclaimer I would like to state for the record that I do have a prescription for Serc, and in no way am I advocating buying this drug illegally over the internet from canada or sweden.

I have it to the point where i find it really difficult to hold a conversation in anything other near silence, I've been a drummer all my life which certainly didn't help. I explicitly remember the moment when it started, It was instantly 'on', not a gradual thing like it was for others. It has a huge impact on my concentration and mood.