Always Had It, Now It's a Problem

[SusanButcher]

Hello all, my name is Susan, I'm 58, and I live in Australia. I've always had very mild tinnitus, usually noticeable when I had flu, but by middle age it had settled into a constant quiet high frequency fizz. I had no problem with that, and have no problem hearing things generally, although I very occasionally have vertigo attacks. But after a very bad flu earlier this year, I got constant tinnitus on a single frequency in my right ear that was loud enough to stop me sleeping. Initially I felt gloomy about it; my Grandmother had become partly deaf and was unable to use a hearing aid because of tinnitus. (No-one else in my family has had hearing problems.) But now I'm coping with it pretty well. I know it's fairly mild as tinnitus goes, and even if it doesn't stop, I will stop paying attention to it after a while.

I'm really not sure what caused it. Perhaps it was the flu, but I also had an infected tooth on that side of my jaw at the time.

 

[Bill Bauer]

I got constant tinnitus on a single frequency in my right ear that was loud enough to stop me sleeping

If you are still having problems sleeping, consider taking amitriptyline (it is non-addictive and doesn't make you feel drowsy the next day).

Have you tried sound enrichment?

 

[SusanButcher]

Thanks for the advice. I'll see if it's available locally. My sleep's OK at the moment. I've got a fan I can switch on if I need it, and next to me is my brother's old Tandy project set wired up to make a 1.6kHz RI bleep when I press the key. I may need to make something that will produce 1.6k or 1.2k on demand. My 1.2k burble is usually pleasant, but sometimes in the night it's an annoying whine.

I notice a few of us are sound engineers. I worked in radio and film sound. It's too easy to hear my head whistles as a fatal flaw in a recording!

 

[Bill Bauer]

Try http://mynoise.net/ or buy
https://www.amazon.com/Sound-Oasis-S-5000-Deluxe-Therapy/dp/B018KUVEOM

or
https://www.amazon.com/Cherry-Koala-Concentration-Relaxation-Sufferers/dp/B01FRW2WBA

 

[SusanButcher]

They look good, but have they got RI bleeps? I'll see how I go with the home-brew devices first. The first thing I did when the sleep problems started was to build a simple three-transistor pink noise generator inside an old pocket radio case. It's very portable, it cost me nothing, but it really chews up batteries. It needs two 9v batteries to work at all, and they only last a week! The fan's much better.

 

[Bill Bauer]

What are RI bleeps? Sound Oasis is expensive, but several people on this forum are very happy with it...

 

[SusanButcher]

By "RI" I meant Residual Inhibition. Is that the expression? Find the most annoying tinnitus frequency, and listen to a few bleeps of sine wave at that frequency at a slightly louder volume than the tinnitus. This supresses my tinnitus for a couple of minutes, and gives me time to relax and get back to sleep. It's working well at the moment.

 

[Rob Hammer]

I recently purchased the sound oasis s650.
I haven't had trouble with sleep, but the advice I received here was to include background noise at night. The volume, set below the sound level of the tinnitus will help with habituation, extending into the day time hours. I've had it a week now. It's too early to give a review, but I'm optimistic and happy with this purchase.
My tinnitus is a loud ringing, I'm struggling to adjust and constantly remind myself that I will be able to have a less emotional reaction to the T and slowly learn to accept this as a part of life. Not easy. All my best to you