How Frequently Does Your Tinnitus Change?

[Owen]

I'm just interested in how variable peoples tinnitus is. Mine changes at least once an hour, every hour, of every day, totalling 11 or 12 different sounds that I have identified - in fact it has changed as I type this from a chirp, to a slightly more continual tone for a few seconds and then back to a slight hiss.

Perhaps one for the long term suffers who have multiple tones, but I'm also interested to know if this ever settles down to one tone.

 

[InfiniteLoop]

@Owen

I have many different sounds also, and they tend to cycle. Some audiologists and ENTs with a lot of T experience told me that usually all those sounds consolidate to one during the first year and that is part of the T formation process. In my case, I have noticed very little consolidation of sounds after two years. Perhaps they are better defined than at the early stage, but that is it. My guess is that the sound variety has to do more with the range of frequencies affected, and some other peculiarities of the lesion originating the T. My loss is at high frequencies, and basically I am at 50db loss at higher than 10KHz in my left ear. Having a broad range loss might favor different perceptions as these wide areas of the affected neuronal networks might get in the different states of synchronicity, firing rates, etc...

 

[Reinier]

Mine almost never changes. In volume, but not in tone. I am trying to lower it by using neuromodulator therapy.
Sometimes it is lower. Roughly an hour every day on average it changes from 9.5 kHz to approximately 5-6 kHz.
During the therapy it is purple noise. So that is three different tones. 9.5 kHz, 5-6 kHz and purple noise.

 

[Poyraz]

Mine changes like every hour but it gets always lower when in the morning and then it gets worse by night.

 

[smel]

Mine changes sometimes several times an hour in terms of volume. I have a high-pitched tone around 1okHz and an accompanying hiss. If I listen to an ACRN mp3 (2 tones above my T frequency and 2 tones below) for 10-20 minutes my 10 kHz starts fading and can stay away for 20 minutes or so but the hissing never leaves. At least the hiss is less annoying and more easily blends into background noises.

 

[Owen]

Mine changes sometimes several times an hour in terms of volume. I have a high-pitched tone around 1okHz and an accompanying hiss. If I listen to an ACRN mp3 (2 tones above my T frequency and 2 tones below) for 10-20 minutes my 10 kHz starts fading and can stay away for 20 minutes or so but the hissing never leaves. At least the hiss is less annoying and more easily blends into background noises.

I have a very quiet hiss as well and that doesn't bother me much either. Oddly, that appeared after I stopped taking the prescription drug that gave me tinnitus in the first place - some kind of withdrawal side effect I suppose.

In my case, I have noticed very little consolidation of sounds after two years

Mine is close to 2 years in as well and I would have thought that I would have gone through the same process of "consolidation" if this were to occur. What I would say though is that I think the total number of sounds I hear is slightly fewer in number and the overall amplitude is lower - on average. Also, I used to find that they would get a lot louder when lying down, perhaps 3 or more times the amplitude, although it used to take around 15 minutes to gradually increase to full volume. This doesn't seem to be the case anymore, with only a very slight increase. I'm hoping that in time, lying down has no effect, as obviously this makes sleeping more difficult.

 

[Hotaru]

Weekly.

 

[Alue]

Almost never, changed a little after I got injections into the eardrum, but I think that was just the procedure. After a couple weeks it was back to the same damn high pitched buzzing in my head that can't be masked.
Does that mean it's more chronic if it never changes?

It seems like tinnitus from acoustic trauma quickly gets ingrained and changes less frequently than tinnitus caused by other factors.

 

[Vaba]

Ive technically had T for almost a decade now and it basically never changes.

If youre a new sufferer it will eventually chill out and become constant (if it doesnt go away completely) if you don't abuse the absolute crap out of your ears.

 

[linearb]

Mine changes when I put conscious thought in to it. It seems to be stable if I'm not thinking about it, but there's a logical problem with believing that...

 

[zombiechick]

When mine started it was slightly reactive. After a year it settled down to one constant sound. I'm 36 weeks pregnant and at I think 29 weeks it got louder. It changes now. Some days are good and some days bad and other days it can be almost unbearable. I'm hoping it will return to its normal ring after the pregnancy. I could always hear it but I had habituated to it and it wasn't nearly this reactive or loud. I can hear my T over crowded rooms, it never gives me a break, even in the shower. I still love a good shower though. I'm trying to learn to cope and be postive, I'll be mom soon and I really want to be there a 100%.

 

[PatrickG]

Mine changes everyday. Every time I wake up from sleep in the morning, I have a certain sets of sounds. These sets are:
1) Can live with (2-3 / 10): Low hiss
2) Can probably live with (4-5 / 10): Low hiss + mechanical rattling
3) Pretty hard to live with (6 / 10): High pitched hiss
4) Oh so damn hard to live with (7-8 / 10): Low hiss + high pitched whistling

The sounds are never stable, they are changing every second. Up and down and not in any special pattern. So hard to get used to. Been 6 months now and no improvement. When I feel I get a little used to a set of sounds, I go to bed and sleep, wake up the next morning and something new to try and get used to. F U T.

 

[NineNails]

Constantly changing. Though, the eeee is always there only the volume is changing.
There's no use in pretending that anybody could get used to this condition. That's utter BS.
The more is damaged, the wilder the noises; probably.