Anyone else have tinnitus?

[Torvald Von Mansee]

I've got it fairly badly. I don't quite know why, as I started using ear protection when going to concerts in '91 and didn't really go to many prior to '87. Of course I'm of the generation that listened to the walkman rather loudly, but before the ear buds thing happened.

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by Torvald Von Mansee

I've got it fairly badly. I don't quite know why, as I started using ear protection when going to concerts in '91 and didn't really go to many prior to '87. Of course I'm of the generation that listened to the walkman rather loudly, but before the ear buds thing happened.

Note that if in your case noise is the cause indeed, it needed just one single event to cause a neural damage that then is beyond repair. When noise is the origin of tinnitus in form of neural damage, it can be exposition to noise over longer period of time as well as just one single situation where decibel slammed into the ear too hefty.

You can get tinnitus from just one shot being fired close to your ear.

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by jjammem

Piracetam, which improves rheology and has a positive effect on metabolism, would appear of particular interest for the treatment of acute tinnitus.

Tinnitus has the worse a prognosis the longer it already has lasted. "Acute" it is diagnosed as only when it last for a few months, say two or three months. Since you said you have it since years, you should consider yours to be a chronic tinnitus.

It might be interesting for those suffering from tinnitus, that physiopsychologic research showed that there seems to be no linear link between objective volume levels people report to hear, and subjective level of suffering they get from that. Some people suffer much from relatively silent ear sounds, others suffer relatively less from much louder tinnitus. This seems to support the assumption that to some considerable degree one can learn to psychologically adapt to the problem and being less effected by it. It is a worthy thing to watch out and check according training possibilities, from psychological programs that may exist, to meditation and relaxation techniques. Mind and awareness - and what on and how they focus - play a role here. This is not to say you an get rid of tinnitus. While that is not ruled out, in most cases it will not do this for you. But it can help you to get along better with it. Think of it as something like cognitive desensitization. No mattere whether caused by hardware-damage or by temporarry effects from otuzside or psychosomatical problem, there is always a strong psychological factor involved relating to the felt ammount of suffering. And that is the screw you can try to turn in both directions to see if this does something for you.

White-noise-floodiung canwork for some people. But there may always be a risk involved, a psychological one: You can get become depedning on it, feeling the tinjitus even stronger when not having white noise around you, comparable to somebody taking drugs against pain, and needing continually increasing doses of them to reach the same calming effect. White noise may not make the tinnitus stronger, but it could happen that psychologically it makes you more sensible to its absence.

[Sammi79]

Originally Posted by Torvald Von Mansee

I've got it fairly badly. I don't quite know why, as I started using ear protection when going to concerts in '91 and didn't really go to many prior to '87. Of course I'm of the generation that listened to the walkman rather loudly, but before the ear buds thing happened.

My ex girlfriend used to suffer with it really badly. I'd catch her punching herself in the side of the head some nights. I had the benefit of being taught exactly how the damage occurs by acoustic shock in my sound engineering degree. She had been standing with her head in 20K rigs output end at underground parties for years. By the time I met her, she was terrified of loud noise/music/voices she believed strongly that it would make her tinnitus worse, and she carried earplugs at ALL times. She also maintained that non-sufferers are unable to understand the torture that it can be and in at least some sense I guess she was right.

One thing I will say in regard to your quoted post and very few folks seem to be aware of this, even at seemingly moderate levels headphones of any kind are unreasonably dangerous to your hearing, and if you use them regularly you should definitely wear proper acoustic attenuating plugs while you do so. (they cost a bit but they lower the volume rather than muffle the sound)

I spent a few years mixing drum 'n bass records in the 90s and my left ear (the one I'd use to monitor, normally headphones) frequency response has dropped to less than 10KHz (should be at least 15-16K for my age) from doing that meaning my directional sound processing cannot be totally trusted. quite often I think a sound that came from the left came from the right, as my right ear processed a louder less muffled sound. I am lucky to have only very brief periods of tinnitus, no more than a day or so at a time. I think the most useful therapies are psychological as the damage cannot be repaired, but it can be lived with, and as long as you take care in future there is no reason for it to get worse. Trying to remain positive and stress free is the most important thing as all sufferers report worsening with stress or anxiety, which creates a negative feedback, making you more stressed making the ringing worse etc...

All you who suffer have my deepest sympathies.
Regards,
Sam

[Tchocky]

What?

[danasan]

I have had it for 20 years now in the left ear. I just got used to it. But it was the hell to me in the first couple of years. I guess sometimes in stressing situations it gets to be a pain.

[AVGWarhawk]

I have it. Both ears. Mine is a high pitched noise all the time. Normally my brain blocks it out during the day. When quiet at night it is most noticable. I have abused my hearing for years. Open headers on race cars. Loud mechanical shops. Loud concerts of the 80's. Yes, KISS at 100 decibels for few hours will do that to you! I'm paying the price now. Anything loud I will cover my ears now.

[Buddahaid]

I have had it for decades and it rarely ever bothers me. The only time I notice it is when the topic comes up.

[joea]

I do get it, especially in the left ear - well I think I do. I tend to get wax build-up in my ears and more so in the left. Often after a cold or during allergy season. When I go to the doc to get my ear wax removed it goes away. So is it really tinnitus?

[Rockstar]

Originally Posted by joea

I do get it, especially in the left ear - well I think I do. I tend to get wax build-up in my ears and more so in the left. Often after a cold or during allergy season. When I go to the doc to get my ear wax removed it goes away. So is it really tinnitus?

Good question. I get a ringing in my ear once in a very great while. Its subtle and goes away without notice. Not sure if that would be considered a case of tinnitus or what.

[Skybird]

Almost all people get the occasional accustic perception in the hear, for most it seems to be a high whistling-kind of sound. It last for one or two minutes, and then fades out again, often it is just one ear. It should not happen more often than every couple of weeks, I think. Also, as I already said, almost all people start to have some minor accoustic perceptions if being exposed to total silence.

This may be - my assumption - due to some physiological variable temporarily changing, like you can also get a second of swindle when you raise too quickly and for a moment your blood pressure goes up and down. Omne cannot say it often enough: tinnitus can and often is caused by accouzstic excessive stimuli causing neurla damage in the ear's inside, but it can be caused by so many different factors as well. It can stay for just a short while, minutes, or just days, then it will go away usually. If it last for longer than let's say 2, 3 or 4 months, then the prognosis becomes less optimistic and the tinnitus may become chronic.

Just for the record, I do not want to boast here, and I am no medical doctor, but we got a lecture on it in psychosomatics lessons when I studied, because tinnitus can be caused by psychological and psychosomatic factors, or in the attempt to learn how to deal with it people with tinnitus find their way into psychotherapeutical coping groups. Also, I base on stuff that I learned around 20 years ago, so research and medicine improving it'S knowledge may have gone beyond what I believe to know.

Oh, and I get the occasional 1-2 minutes "tinnitus" every couple of weeks myself, too, mostly in the same ear, always. Seen that way I am a typical representative of the numerically dominant "me too!"-group. I link it to stress and my blood pressure issues. Focussed relaxation like done in meditation has a positive effect in shortening the time.

[TorpX]

I have it, but not too bad. When I first noticed it, it bothered me a lot. Now I hardly think about it. When I was a kid, I went shooting with my father and uncles often and was exposed to loud noise. Veterans of their generation didn't use hearing protection.