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My noise-induced tinnitus remains at about 60 decibels, when voice matched. I have had tinnitus since 1992, and it was fairly mild to start with. I have been a professional brass player since 1962 - trombone and trumpet. An acquaintance blasted an instrument directly into my face in June 2014...

In line with the themes of favourite quotations, favourite books, favourite pieces of music, favourite works of etc... I would like to propose another suggestion which is very close to my heart. ‘Favourite Song Lyrics.’ At different times, different phases of our lives, our preference for...

In line with the themes of favourite quotations, favourite books, favourite pieces of music etc… I would like to suggest: ‘Favourite Works of Art.’ Here is one of mine.

My precious Sylvia died this morning at 8:40am in the St Catherine’s Hospice in Crawley, Sussex, U.K. For several months she had been suffering from advanced lung cancer. She never smoked. She bore the distress of this illness with the grace and courage for which she is known. She sends her...

Here’s the latest scam - Acouphenol. It contains Griffonia Dry extract, Cimicifuga Dry extract, Ginkgo Biloba, Magnesium and Melatonin. The company claims Acouphenol lowers blood pressure and "restores" hair cells to their original state so they stop sending a tinnitus signal. These claims are...

The trouble with meditation. Those of us with severe tinnitus, loud and constant, can expect difficulty when practicing meditation. In a quiet situation our tinnitus sounds even louder. Is meditating even possible? What should we expect from it? Subsequent to one or two PM’s on this matter I...

I would urge all those who suffer to download this inspirational book. In many ways it targets precisely what we have to cope with. Here are a couple of gems.....x

For those of us who have been severely damaged - who live in a state of continuous inner head noise - the experience of ‘quietness ’ is no longer a possibility - let alone the silence we once knew and cherished. Perhaps the best we can now do is to search for a state of peace - through...

It’s always dangerous to believe that things could never be worse. Making my missus a coffee yesterday morning at about 11:00am - when all of a sudden my vision went double. Two images - one above the other. I phoned the NHS helpline 111 and hung onto the phone for ages. I phoned 999 to speak to...

Sylvie is an embroidery designer. She feels so strongly that we are doing so many things wrong that she designed this this morning.

Today was really hard - noisy, painful, hateful. This evening I needed to read something to sooth my aching head. A couple of days ago I had picked up a philosophy book written for children of all ages. It is such a gem that I would like to share a few illustrations with everybody on here. These...

Man is the problem solving animal - and therein lies the problem. When we encounter any normal problem - we set about solving it. There is immediate satisfaction if we can achieve a resolution. We have regained our equilibrium. Tinnitus imposes a condition on us which is a problem we cannot...

There is currently no cure for tinnitus. This is an indisputable fact. If there was - even the man in the street - who incidentally does not have tinnitus - would know about it. In the old days itinerant pedlars dispensed a product known as ‘Snake Oil.’ It seduced the gullible on many levels...

Driving to my daughter’s house on Christmas Eve, for an Xmas dinner, I hit the kerb of a central road traffic island, which should have been illuminated, but unfortunately wasn’t. The impact destroyed the tyre and the driver’s seat when the airbag detonated. My car was a write-off. I arrived...

Tinnitus is a cruel twist of fate, however it occurs. Perhaps even the cruelest of all. One of the biggest obstacles to a fulfilling life that one can conceive of. Loud, intrusive, constant noise, so distressing. I don’t want to say too much about my life, except that it was creative, artistic...

Tinnitus blights our lives. There is no question about that. Internal head noise is so hateful. Sometimes I don’t even know how to survive the very moment I am living in, in order to reach the next hateful moment. In the total absence of any effective treatment, let alone a cure, we have to...

I feel the need to address an issue that has bothered me for some time now. Most of us know that the curse of tinnitus has a very wide spectrum of severity, from barely noticeable, to catastrophic, and life threatening. I will tell you that I have experienced virtually all brackets. I have...

Until quite recently I have found Tinnitus Talk to be a cosy chatty place. Somewhere to come and have a natter. For a few days now I have attempted to connect with a few friends to do exactly that, but to no avail. Perhaps I have been able to graduate to everybody’s ‘ignore list?’ I wouldn’t...

John Stockdale was imprisoned in the infamous Hanoi Hilton for eight years, suffered appalling treatment, continuous torture, isolation etc... His answer to this question is very enlightening. Finally I asked, “Who didn’t make it out?” “Oh, that’s easy,” he said. “The optimists.” “The...

Tinnitus can be anything from mildly irritating to devastatingly catastrophic. Obviously we all fit in somewhere on the scale. My own experience is twenty years of mild tinnitus. Followed by five years of severe tinnitus. Does this make me a tinnitus expert? Well, yes and no. I am an expert on...

The difficulty of achieving a meditational state with tinnitus. For many people with tinnitus, attempting to meditate is so difficult that they fail before they even get started. ‘Our inner noise disturbs us, and puts us beyond success.’ We are probably suffering, angry and hateful. The...

My therapist was a mature Austrian lady with an accent.. (Very appropriate - I’d read all about Freud - the undisputed father of psychoanalysis.) I’ll jump very quickly to the meditational methods she suggested. “David - I want you to hold an image, a favourite picture - can you do that?” I...

Notes on a schizoid childhood. This could be a bit long, so you might need to pour a cuppa tea, or just skip it altogether. May be of interest to psychologists only. (That’s my disclaimer out of the way.) I went for psychotherapy to learn how to deal with a desolate infancy/childhood and its...

As a community we really should come together once and for all, and discuss this business of ‘generalisations,’ and the trouble they cause. ‘WHY?’ Because generalisations are a complete nonsense where tinnitus is concerned. Everybody’s case is peculiar to them. Everybody has their own unique...

People with tinnitus need support - all of them. There is no question about that - it is not nice. I would like to raise an issue that bothers me, and others like me. The disparity in the severity of the tinnitus experience is incredibly wide. My own tinnitus was super mild for 22 years - but...

Since the morning when my severe tinnitus started, in the summer of 2014, it has been loud, constant and unrelenting. It has never once abated or given me an easy day, or even one easy ‘lousy’ minute. Some of you will be the same - I know that. There is nothing incredibly interesting to tell...

Yesterday I drove a round trip of 500 miles to take Sylvie my misus, to see her lovely brother in Dordrecht General Hospital in Holland. So sad - he is very near the end and cannot speak now. A beautiful lovely gentle soul. We love him so much. While walking around the town beforehand, I...

How sweet is this folks?

This item in Tuesday’s Daily Mail. (Excerpt.) Vik Veer - TRT consultant at Royal National ENT Hospital London. For it to be successful, it’s important to find activities — especially at night, when all is quiet — that will absorb your mind so you don’t hear your tinnitus. So I’d watch TV with...

I desperately want a cure for the ‘hell on earth’ that is tinnitus. I long for it. It took almost everything from me, as I’m sure you all know by now. BUT - it isn’t here yet, is it? We currently do not have one. In the meantime - I would like to ask everybody with significant loud tinnitus...

.....er......I would just like to mention to my extensive readership (who does this berk think he’s kidding - about 3 so far) that for the next few days I could be described as being ‘elsewhere’ etc.... My misus is an embroidery designer, and her machines are in intensive care, at a hospital in...

I would like to draw everybody’s attention to the amazingly successful reports coming from @kelpiemsp between October 25th 2018, and February 19th 2019. * During the morning of Oct 25th 2018 I reported that my own tinnitus level voice matched to 60 dB. * Within just a few minutes klempiemsp...

Hypnotherapy delivers subliminal messages to the subconscious mind. (They are delivered below the level of full consciousness.) Auto suggestion delivers supraliminal messages, or mantras, to us in our fully conscious state. Both practices seek to replace very understandably negative perceptions...

This wretched ‘thing’ is such a variable and subjective condition that one wonders if any advice can be worth giving or taking on board. We can only speak from our own experience. Mine is a constant two toned hiss. I am never without loud noise. With no cure and no essential noise decreasing...

Here goes folks. This is the video that my lovely friends Phil and Sue Swallow filmed, directed, and helped me to make. It focuses on the devastating effect that severe tinnitus has had on my life and my career as a professional jazz musician. I would just like to add that my adjustment to...

There is still no cure for tinnitus, and no treatment to reduce tinnitus noise. I have a severe and constant form of this condition. My feelings vary between wishing I was dead, to wishing I could hit on a much better way to cope. Is it possible to: ‘make the best of a (very) bad job?’ My...

Tinnitus is such a sad condition for all concerned - obviously a tragedy for the sufferer, it is also a very real tragedy for the partner, and the children. There are particular dilemmas for the partners of severe tinnitus sufferers. They do not have this truly awful ‘condition’ to cope with...

Is Cortisol Now Our Enemy Number One?’ I have been reading and re-reading Laura Cole’s excellent informative book, “Living With Tinnitus.” (Incidentally, I would not be without this ‘Reluctant - Owner’s Manual.’) Chapter 26 - ‘Brain Waves & Hearing Loss’ is particularly significant for us all...

Before I wake, before my eyes open, I am aware. It is there - as if it can’t wait to torment me again. In truth of course, I know it never left me. It will have kept me company all night long making sure that whenever I wake again I will be tired and depressed. Another new day - but just like...

My tinnitus noise is constant. My suffering however is not. Sometimes - some whole days - I suffer like hell. (I want to die....) Sometimes - some days - I seem to be okay. (I want to live....) Active sufferance - Passive sufferance? When I become interested in what I am reading, what I am...

Obviously it’s not a cure, but I would like to contact any members who do meditation, that find it helpful. Dave x Jazzer

Dear friends of Tinnitus Talk - after another very noisy NYE, yet another year of noise for all of us, as the rest of the world enjoys its peace and quiet, and remains totally oblivious to our plight. However, at least we have the opportunity to come on here, express our heartache, look for and...

We suffer so much - there is no question about it! I have to say, I personally would not make it, would choose NOT to make it, without both my human connections and my animal connections. My lovely wife, my wonderful family, my adorable critters, are all crucial to me. They provide not only...

Last day in the Caribbean, on the island of St Thomas, before going back to New York. It seems to have a deeply religious culture: 25% Christian 25% Voodoo 25% Superstition 25% Dark Rum (I might have got that league table completely the wrong way round ??) Comparing my ‘spiritual stance’...

There is little doubt that I have come under attack on here recently. It appears to stem from the fact that I consistently stand up for the most severe sufferers, and repeatedly attempt to protect them from ‘trolls’ who demean them for whining, often described as ‘negativity,’ when what they...

The toughest lesson in the world. We all had pretty good lives - am I right? Some of us had truly wonderful lives. I would’t have traded my life with anybody. For me, jazz ability represents the pinnacle of artistic achievement - the ability to create passionate spontaneous music, literally...

On Christmas Eve I had roast chicken for dinner in the Club Britannia (Posh) restaurant onboard the QM2. I spent Christmas morning talking to god on the big white telephone. Following this I had six hours of persistent hiccups. (3,600 hics - give or take.) I sent a desperate email to my mate...

Advice to Self. Make something of your life (Dave). Yes..... I know it’s noisy, I know it’s so difficult, I know it feels totally impossible, But you’ve never been a quitter, Even when you had nobody, You never ever gave up, Just perhaps - you can do it..... Re-read the first sentence every...

We are left to pick up the pieces. In reading the experiences of many members I have come to the conclusion that in many cases, perhaps most cases, there has been one person, one culprit, one incident that caused our devastating acoustic trauma, and ultimately our brain damage. Whether it be a...

Folks I’m feeling a bit out of touch with all of my tinnitus mates, at the moment. I’m stuck on this boat somewhere out in the mid-Atlantic. We get just a few minutes internet per day, unless we are prepared to buy more, at a rate of £25 an hour. Take care folks, Best wishes Dave x Jazzer

My video man Phil Swallow and I managed to finish filming a tinnitus awareness video yesterday. I have only seen a rough cut, but I think and hope it will be effective. (Incidentally, I did try on ‘a little pink number’ before the shooting - I hate to be outdone by the TV celebs of course - but...

(Americans are not expected to ‘get’ this joke....)

I meditate every day, in a lovely warm bath. Eyes closed - I lay there and ask my tummy to take over my breathing. No moreconscious breathing - I wait for my tummy to breath for me. I hear a distant hiss. (Pink noise) A higher and louder hiss. (White noise) I imagine that I am outside -...

D.W.Winnicott was a brilliant child psychologist. Together with John Bowlby they set the tone for modern parenting, designed to make the creation of healthy well adjusted babies / children / adults - not just a possibility, but a reality. I would urge anybody interested in the subject to read...

Folks - this sentence comes from an item relating to soldiers returning home after fighting on the Western Front in 1918. The total horror they experienced is indescribable. Thank goodness this doesn’t apply to us. However, emotionally I couldn’t help noticing some parallels...

This ‘thing’ infects every millisecond of my existence, the entire soundtrack to my life. My soundtrack used to be jazz - such a joy. That’s now history, a past life. It seeks to corrupt every thought, a noisy witness to every conversation, an uninvited guest at every social occasion. It has no...