Annoying Tinnitus When Watching TV

[NiruD]

Hi Folks,

I just joined this group. I am a 67 year old male of Asian descent. My T started on Jan 1, 2014. It sounds like crickets chirping (around 4.5 KHz) in back of my head. I had a bad cold in late December, and went to the family physician after T started. He found lot of wax build up in on ear, cleaned it out, but T stayed. I went and saw two ENT's and their audiologists. I have moderate to severe symmetrical hearing loss in 4 KHz to 8 KHz range, attributed to aging. One of the ENT's thought that my brain is making up the T sound because it tries to listen to +4 KHz sounds, but cannot hear it. Like someone having phantom pain from a limb that has been amputated. I never was exposed to loud noises like gun fires or listening to loud music thru ear buds (too old for iPods). My T fluctuates. Some days it is very loud, then starts tapering off for couple of days, and I will have quiet or very light T for couple of days, and then it spikes up again. And the cycle repeats. I am coping with T using Valium and Xanax. My biggest annoyance is that T goes up when watching TV, or listening to music. And this is how I had planned to spend my time in retirement!

On July 5, I was having zero T day, and went to a baseball game. The stadium was loud, had no ear plugs, and my T spiked and has been staying loud. I hope it comes down.

Can anyone shed light on fluctuating T, watching TV etc? I tried to relate it to my blood pressure, diet, alcohol etc, but have found no correlation. Thanks.
NiruD

 

[attheedgeofscience]

On July 5, I was having zero T day, and went to a baseball game. The stadium was loud, had no ear plugs, and my T spiked and has been staying loud. I hope it comes down.

Be mindful of loud noise. Avoid or use earplugs (correctly).

Can anyone shed light on fluctuating T, watching TV etc?

Sounds like you have reactive tinnitus. Reactive tinnitus is tinnitus which becomes more noticeable in certain sound environments (ie. watching TV or driving a car). It is quite common.

Fluctuating tinnitus or tinnitus which occurs in cycles is also common.

 

[NiruD]

At the Edge of Science: Thanks for the information. Is there anything I can do to deal with reactive T? Does this happen in response to a particular frequency spectrum?

Be mindful of loud noise. Avoid or use earplugs (correctly).



Sounds like you have reactive tinnitus. Reactive tinnitus is tinnitus which becomes more noticeable in certain sound environments (ie. watching TV or driving a car). It is quite common.

Fluctuating tinnitus or tinnitus which occurs in cycles is also common.

Hello At the Edge of Science: Thanks for the information. Is there anything I can do to deal with reactive T? Does this happen in response to a particular frequency spectrum?

 

[Stina]

Well according to this definition I also have somewhat reactive tinnitus. Meaning that I notice it more when for example in a room with a fan or the window open. I just ignore it and now the fans and open windows dont annoy me.

 

[Karen]

Hi, NiruD,

My tinnitus reacts to television, too. It's been like this for the past four years, ever since my tinnitus got worse from taking blood pressure medicine. Like you, I'm an older person (68 years old) with some hearing loss in the high frequencies. My tinnitus is high-pitched, and I have both a hissing sound and pulsatile tinnitus, plus other ringing sounds on occasion.

I can only watch television for about 1/2 hour at a time, and then I just have to get away from it. When I do, the tinnitus calms down pretty quickly. I agree that the sound of the TV must be at a certain frequency that causes our tinnitus to react. I've tried using earplugs, but it doesn't help.

If you ever find a way to keep your tinnitus from reacting to these sounds, please let me know. I'll certainly do the same!

Best wishes,
Karen

 

[James]

Hello NiruD,
Welcome to the forum. My T seems loud a lot, and then it gets worse.
I must be run down, tired, stressed, lack of sleep, age related, high blood pressure, work at 5 am on Monday morning.
At least you got 66 years in before it went bad.

Someone at work who wears hearing aids mentioned to me, he still has Tinnitus.
He said, "Why worry about the small things in life."
That's his sense of humor, a perspective on it.
Its a terrible thing, but lets be grateful, things could be worse.

 

[NiruD]

Hi Karen,
Have you tried running a fan nearby while watching tv? That helps me sometimes, but not always. And it also aggravates my wife.
I have a Denon surround sound system for tv, and it has a built in equalizer. However, it is typical 8 octave band, and I played around with last two octaves, but, it did not make any difference to my reactive T. I would like to get software for PC that would allow me to selectively cut out range of frequencies, and see i f that helps. I saw one inexpensive one on Internet, but, can't find it again. If anyone knows the link, please post it.

Regards,
NiruD

 

[NiruD]

Hello NiruD,
Welcome to the forum. My T seems loud a lot, and then it gets worse.
I must be run down, tired, stressed, lack of sleep, age related, high blood pressure, work at 5 am on Monday morning.
At least you got 66 years in before it went bad.

Someone at work who wears hearing aids mentioned to me, he still has Tinnitus.
He said, "Why worry about the small things in life."
That's his sense of humor, a perspective on it.
Its a terrible thing, but lets be grateful, things could be worse.

James,
Very well said. This is a new "norm", and must get used to it. Now if it was a card game, I would walk away from it. But here, we have to play the hand that is dealt.

Best Wishes,
NiruD

 

[Karen]

Hi, NiruD,

I'm a pretty low-tech person, so if you are able to find a way to selectively cut out certain frequencies, I'd be interested to know how you did it. No, I haven't tried running a fan near the TV; I'll try it and see if it makes any difference.

I'm sure you're right that our reactive T is sensitive to certain frequencies. I'd love to be able to watch TV again without my tinnitus spiking miserably!

Thanks,
Karen

 

[ampumpkin]

@Karen a fan near the TV does help in masking the T.

My T is bad in front of the TV...

 

[ampumpkin]

@Karen I also have reactive T...

 

[Karen]

Thanks, @ampumpkin!

I'll give the fan a try. Maybe it will help. So sorry you have reactive T, too.

 

[ampumpkin]

Let us know @Karen. We cans share our tricks.

Tonight, I noticed that the T is more bothersome when I watch certain channels. But I have able to focus on a TB program without thinking about my T for about 45 minutes. After a while, I thought about it, looked for it and it took a few seconds to hear the reactive T. But it wasn't gone.

My reactive T is annoying. I work in a call center and the ventilation system is on the same frequency as my T (my T is not piercing, it sounds more like shhhhhh but it varies in pitch, just never gets to eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee). So anyway, at work, my T is very loud because the ventilation system is always on.... and then I go outside on my breaks and I hear the city traffic which makes my T react.

I have to say that my reaction to it is much better than it was 2 months go. The reactive part seems permanent but I care less and less about it.

Hugs!!

 

[Karen]

@ampumpkin,

That must be very difficult, to have your tinnitus react whenever you go outside at work!

Another problem I have is when I've been out somewhere, and return home. Our house is very quiet; my husband and I are empty-nesters, and my tinnitus usually reacts to the silence when I walk in the front door. It has gotten somewhat better, after four years of this, but I am hoping it will continue to improve. I also have pulsatile tinnitus, so when my tinnitus reacts, there is a vibration/pulsating that gets much worse, too.

I hope yours continues to improve. You are definitely on the right track; learning to care less about it is the key!

Hugs back,
Karen

 

[Thongjy]

Well according to this definition I also have somewhat reactive tinnitus. Meaning that I notice it more when for example in a room with a fan or the window open. I just ignore it and now the fans and open windows dont annoy me.

You mean before that your T actually gets louder when you in a room with open windows right? Same as me. Now no longer reactive?

 

[Stina]

You mean before that your T actually gets louder when you in a room with open windows right? Same as me. Now no longer reactive?

Maybe it is, maybe not - I just stopped monitoring it.

 

[Mark K.]

My T has recently become reactive. The first 3 months it wouldn't react to sounds, but now certain sounds tend to react my T. I'm continuing to expose my ears to my everyday sound environment, with the hopes my T's reactions will subside. But interestingly, I do notice that when I put on my Widex Zens on the hearing aid feature and actually amplify the surrounding sounds, my reactiveness diminishes. Even my H seems like it's diminishing when I use the hearing aid feature. My theory is my brain is hearing all the sounds at a louder volume, and so it's not amplifying it with my H. Has anyone experienced this positive results from just putting on hearing aids and amplifying the sounds and frequencies?

 

[RCP1]

Your reactivity is related to your H. When you get rid of your H (Which will happen itself). your reactivity will diminish...

 

[NiNyu]

My T has recently become reactive. The first 3 months it wouldn't react to sounds, but now certain sounds tend to react my T.

Wait a second! Isn't, what you guys call 'reactive T', hyperacusis?
My T (left ear) gets louder all the time when I hear high-frequency sounds/noise on my good ear (right). It gets so loud it hurts!

 

[Mark K.]

Hey NiNyu:
Did you have H from the beginning of your T? And did the sound aggravate your T from the beginning or did it take some time (like your 2nd month)? My T definitely gets louder from listening to certain sounds, but my ears haven't hurt me ( I hope never). Looks like you've had T for about 3 months now. So it may diminish as RCP1 is saying.

RCP1: Did your H and reactive T diminish with time? How long did it take? And was there anything you did to help the process?

Mark K.

 

[NiruD]

Mark,
What exactly "H" stands for in this thread? Is it "hearing" or "hearing thru hearing aid"? Thanks.
NiruD

 

[Rune B]

I know this is an old tread, but my tinnitus also spikes when I am watching television. Do anyone have any ideas what I can do to enjoy some tv?

 

[NiruD]

My T is at +/- 6.3 kHz. My TV allows me to reduce the volume in this octave. It is not precise, but perhaps close enough. Since most TV dialogues fall between 2 kHz to 4 kHz, I get by. I also have closed caption turned on. I find the background or embedded music in the shows most annoying. I also use Aftershokz (www.aftershokz.com) open ear headphones (they conduct sound thru skull bone) that allows some ambient sound come thru my ears and helps to mask the T. I hope this helps. Best wishes.

 

[David90]

I just had the idea of the bone conduction heatphones and I hope it gives me some relief... I will basically put backround sounds like crickets, water, fireplace.
I also got a little water fountain I putted next to my sofa, that distracts the attention wile watching TV. Fireplace sounds on speakers also work great for me...
We need to get creative to deal with this shit!

 

[Maggie B]

I use headphones to watch TV helps immensely. Had not heard of the bone conductive headphones, I am going to check them out; thanks

 

[Vicious99]

Use zen app. Play white noise in front of you.
A water fountain helps me.

 

[Ken77]

I also have very reactive tinnitus that bothers me most when I am trying to watch tv. I can only enjoy tv while listening to a white noise app at the same time.

 

[Cape crusader]

@Mark K.
I have Widex Evoke aids and also have reactive tinnitus. Do you use any of the Zen tones? What setting(s) do you use to help with your hearing and thus diminish the reactive tinnitus?