Recent content by VictorDedalus

I just wanted to encourage any musicians coping with this affliction. I've been suffering with awful, constant unilateral tinnitus for three years now, but I've resumed writing and recording. Despite the intrusive and sometimes pitch-obscuring screech, I somehow manage to sing on key. To all you...

I did. If you think circumstances dictate our actions, so be it. I choose to exercise free will, which many maintain is an illusion. Perhaps. No one really knows. Certainly not terrible advice, but in my case I doubt my ears are "compromised" at all—my brain is. Again, maybe. We just don't...

I realize that your comment was well-intended, @annV, but I disagree that any circumstances exist that obligate us to commit suicide. Certainly, adversity can increase the attractiveness of that option, but I don't think it necessarily leads to us "having to commit suicide." The choice remains...

This June represents the two year mark for me and tinnitus. As I've described in previous posts, the onset of my severe unilateral tinnitus occurred spontaneously one evening while I sat watching television. It has not abated or diminished in intensity over the subsequent 24 months. I think...

@Bam I can indeed relate, but I reserve a modicum of...I won't say optimism, but bittersweet conviction that prods me on. I'm convinced that suffering confers dignity and understanding upon those it torments. Maybe by facilitating self-knowledge. To be sure, there are no material gains accrued...

My brother is a very gifted software engineer, @dayma. I have a lot of respect for your discipline and the logical ingenuity demanded by it.

Thank you all for the helpful and considerate replies. I agree, my emotional response is the key variable in my ability to cope successfully. I don't think my tinnitus has intensified dramatically, but my tolerance of it varies week to week. For me, a combination of mild obsessive-compulsive...

Are any of you writers by trade? I'm a copywriter working in advertising. I'm finding it especially difficult to write at the moment. I've suffered from severe unilateral tinnitus for almost two years, but it appears to be having a cumulative effect. While it's difficult for me to say whether...

I also get the crickets and cicadas, usually in the evening, but they typically recede by morning.

Right, I didn't mean to suggest that tinnitus precedes deafness as a causative phenomenon, but merely as an early presenting symptom of an otherwise undiagnosed, underlying ailment. Tinnitus doesn't cause deafness, but deafness frequently reveals itself through tinnitus. In any event, I...

I've reached the 20-month mark of constant, severe unilateral tinnitus. I already had bilateral tinnitus for about 10 years prior to the onset of this much louder tone in my left year. It presented spontaneously seven months after brain surgery to resection a meningioma. No one knows whether...

@Pianist_Will Your avatar of Kierkegaard got me thinking. I'm seated on my living room sofa, and just to my left on the wall hangs a framed print of the same portrait (sans shades). Perhaps it's presumptuous of me to draw inferences about your personality and world outlook from so modest a clue...

@katri, I'm sorry that you're struggling. We can all relate. Tinnitus exacts a heavy emotional and physical toll and can at times overwhelm us with doubts about our future wellbeing and value of our lives. I encourage you to tackle each day one at a time. All you are responsible for is...

@JaneFromBoston, I'm writing to commiserate, although my story is somewhat different. I underwent a craniotomy in Dec. of 2016 for resectioning of a meningioma. I awoke to a slew of complications, including 4th nerve palsy (double vision), balance issues and extensive nerve damage in my left...

Curious what others have observed regarding the volume of their tinnitus versus the quality or intensity of tones. I sometimes notice that the volume of the tone in my right ear - which bothers me far less than the left - is greater than the more obnoxious and troublesome tone in my left. Yet...