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When you have music playing, you eventually tune it out and focus on something in the "foreground." That's exactly what you're trying to accomplish with tinnitus, right? So why not use music as a "magnet" that attaches to your tinnitus and drags it into the background?

Then you are performing one of nature’s most beautiful functions, despite your stress. There’s something to celebrate.

Are you breastfeeding?

You can’t treat the stimulus, but you can treat your response to it. I say look into Zoloft or anything else to knock down your hyper-vigilant response. Then wean off it, and you’ll be back to listening “out” instead of “in.”

Anxiety and tinnitus feed on each other. If you have a baby, you've got extra stress -- but also a beneficial distraction. I have the same low-frequency fluttering at night sometimes. At first, I went downstairs to check on the furnace, thinking something was awry. I think we should think of...

Update, Julia?

Sirhand, just add it to the list of “I wish I were young again” laments — and move on. Surely you’ve improved in some ways, even if you’ve lost “silence.”

Sirhand, there is no silence. You’ve never experienced it and wouldn’t like it anyway. Google “anechoic chamber” and you’ll see that a truly silent room is extremely, um, disquieting.

I see countless cries for help in the "Introduce Yourself" string, from people who have just come down with tinnitus -- but very few take the time to return and update. If you've gotten used to tinnitus and moved on with life, everyone needs to know that. If the newbies read enough stories like...

Update, Marisa?

Update, Lakshmi?

Your underlying psychological condition, not the meds, might be more culpable. And improving your underlying psychology is the “cure,” when you reach the point where tinnitus is a background phenomenon. I think anxiety and tinnitus go great together. Both are worsened by our unhealthy habit of...

Dylana -- update?

Staci -- update? Did you take any anti-anxiety meds?

Alicia -- update? It's been a few months.

Well done. You've shifted it to the back burner with the dishwasher, heating system, cars passing by, muffled dialogue -- the cacophony of daily life, where it belongs. Question: Since you were panicking during pregnancy, did anyone put you on meds to calm you down?

Sounds like this didn't rattle you as much as some others on this site. That's good. Staying calm is the secret weapon against T.

Why were you taking antidepressants?

Striveon, I used meds. Lorazepam for the short term to help me sleep and calm down. Zoloft for a one-year period. Then I was "cured." The tinnitus is still there, but it's old news. The cure is not giving a shit.

Michelle, for some reason I cannot engage in a private conversation. I see you poked me, but I can't poke back. I can only talk here. At first I felt affronted by tinnnitus, then defeated by it. I sought help from my local hospital. A clinical nurse put me on Lorazepam for the short term (also...

I had what I think is hyperacusis for about a week. Any sound above a moderate volume level reached my brain as an ugly rasp, as if the sound had overpowered a speaker system somewhere. Also, one time a hotel alarm went off. I blocked my son's ears but left mine unprotected. For a few hours...

Tinnitus covers a huge spectrum. I'm aiming at the people who have bread n' butter tinnitus, the basic hissing/ringing, and are struggling to control their anxiety response. You're talking about the other end of the spectrum.

1. When you no longer give a shit about your tinnitus, you're cured. 2. Spend some time in a truly sound-proof chamber and you'll see that silence is overrated. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/earths-quietest-place-will-drive-you-crazy-in-45-minutes-180948160/ 3. Computers sometimes...

Is this the mechanism for having a one-on-one conversation?

Ashy, don't underestimate your adaptability. I remember waking up in the middle of the night to get some water and my ears were whooshing so loudly I thought I'd never enjoy life again. But that spike happens every night and now I'm used to it. Think of your internal soundtrack as proof that...

Stacy, now that it's been several months, how are things with you?

Yes, Striveon, I still have it. I'm here to help newbies through the psychological hurdle when they first get tinnitus. It knocked me into a major depression, mostly because it was the "last straw" with a bunch of other stressors that piled on me at the same time. Anyway, I sought help from my...

Michelle, I've had the same sounds you're describing since 2011. Do you notice it's more intense after you wake up from a nap, or wake in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom?

I was in this forum many moons ago. Now I'm back just to help others.