How Loud Was Your Tinnitus When You First Noticed It?

[Jesse Pinkman]

How loud was your tinnitus when you first noticed it, and how loud is it now? It would be interesting to compare evolution of loudness among members. Use a scale of 1 to 10 to express the loudness. Keep in mind that results here cannot be used to estimate proabillites for your tinnitus to grow in volume if its a low one. The reason for this is that this forum does not represent the general tinnitus population, since one of the reasons people come here is that they struggle with tinnitus while the average person with tinnitus does not.

Mine started off pretty mild, cannot hear it during most of the day but it tends to grow in volume when im tired, so id say it fluctuates between 1 and 2. When i got it i could only hear it at nighttime, and it was 0 in the day and 2 at night.

 

[Markku]

...and the award for the greatest profile on TT goes to... Jesse Pinkman! Miss that show.

(OK, I equally love @just1morething's profile And there's no contest for most information-rich profile... that one goes to @attheedgeofscience!)

Earlier I was easily able to mask my tinnitus with music / tv, nowadays I hear it over those, and generally have difficulty masking.

Definitely got worse.

For what it's worth, we have over 600 responses on our mini-survey so far (it opened yesterday), and at the moment 54% of responders say that their tinnitus has become worse over time.

A little bit depressing, I know.

 

[Telis]

Started at a .05 and is at 9-10 most days now. This is more to drugs I have taken due to tinnitus...grrrrr

 

[OddV]

Started at an 8... I now wake up to a 6 and it fluctuates between a 2 and a 5 most of the day... After work, it starts ramping back up and I usually finish the day back at a 6.

 

[tyty]

mine is 8 in the mornings usually when I wake up then as I get busy at work etc it seems to be lower maybe 4 or 5 then at night back up to 8 sometimes 10

 

[Jesse Pinkman]

...and the award for the greatest profile on TT goes to... Jesse Pinkman! Miss that show.

(OK, I equally love @just1morething's profile And there's no contest for most information-rich profile... that one goes to @attheedgeofscience!)

Earlier I was easily able to mask my tinnitus with music / tv, nowadays I hear it over those, and generally have difficulty masking.

Definitely got worse.

For what it's worth, we have over 600 responses on our mini-survey so far (it opened yesterday), and at the moment 54% of responders say that their tinnitus has become worse over time.

A little bit depressing, I know.

Its great to see another breaking bad fan! I love TV-series in general but breaking bad is definatly my favourite. We should have a thread where we discuss TV-series.

 

[awbw8]

My tinnitus has definitely gotten at least a little better and I have gotten a lot better. I came to TT when there was a bigger survey going on I think, and I remember answering that one in total despair. It felt good to fill this one out with something more pleasant.

Yes, 54% got worse, which is awful, but that means 46% got better or stayed the same (I think those were the options) and, as you said, we have to remember that the pool is people visiting a support forum. There are probably a lot more people whose tinnitus got better who didn't feel the need to be here anymore and didn't see the survey. In that context, 54% is actually lower than I would have imagined.

For rating, I don't know that I can say, one man's 5 might be my 3 or vice versa. From wherever I started, I'd say it's gone down a point to three points (at really good moments.) Especially if I have an incredible night of sleep, it seems very, blissfully quiet.

 

[MichaelM]

Started with 1, now 7. Has been 9-10 most part of this year. Goes to 11 on really really bad days.

 

[AntonR]

I'll have to be honest, probably started at a 5, after a month went down to a 2-3. After my MRI it spiked for about a week and was REALLY bad.

Past couple of months its been varying a lot, it'll be like a 1 for 4-5 days (can't even hear it until I go to bed and even then its so quiet it doesn't bother me) and then it'll randomly go up to a 3-4, like these past few days its definitely been worse for no good reason.

I look forward to my good days!

 

[bwspot]

Started as little air sound now changes pitch , volume, moves, ticks, reacts. It's beeteeen 2-5 in left ear and 1-3 right ear. Different pitches in both ears.

 

[russiancarl]

My tinnitus was probably a 1 or 2 when it first started. It stayed that way for 14 years until I had some medical stuff go on. It hasn't been the same since and is now probably a 4-6.

I took part in that survey but I wonder where it is posted. A lot of us at the boards are more likely to say worsen it seems. If you asked me 8 months ago before my illness I would say my tinnitus had gotten better... never even noticed it... covered up by any noise really and when it wasn't I didn't care.

Now. Basket case lol.

 

[MikeA]

Seemed troublesome at onset following a loud concert 20+ years ago, but was probably only at a 1-2 for many years. No bother. Recently I've achieved success, now at around a 3, following a nasty spike to 6-7 earlier this year that has 'abated' through habituation or plastic changes(?) since.

 

[JohnK]

Started at a 4 one morning...gone from 4 to 0.5 to 3 since.

 

[linearb]

Looking over my logs from a year or two ago, I described it as a 7-9 out of 10 most days at that point; I'd probably call it a 3-5 most of the time now.

The thing is, I don't think the sound itself has changed very much. So, then when I reflect back to when I first got tinnitus in 1999... was it a lot quieter then? It's very, very hard to say with any certainty. Trying to maintain a daily objective record based on some MML from external sounds is, overall, counterproductive because it just leads me to spend more time thinking about my tinnitus...

 

[joseph Ghass]

Started left ear 8/10

3 months later right ear started 3/10

6 months later L: 8/10, R: 6/10

8 months later L: 5/10, R:5/10

Today : 9.5 months Later L: 3/10, R 4/10

Estimated time for my T to fade 25 months.

but I created a 4 pillars system that will accelerate recovery to maybe 14 to 18 months.

Ready to the next challenge, RIP Mr.T!

 

[Natalie Roberts]

Mine started not too loud, maybe a 3 when I first noticed it, then it faded and came back. When its quiet or I'm laying down its probably a 1-2. While I'm at work it flucutates between a 2-5. Over the last 2 weeks the volume generally has decreased during the day most of the time to a 2 but can flucutate back up. I've also had moments where it spikes as loud as 6 or 7 but goes back down. Its only been 3 weeks, but I feel I'm having more and more good days or at least longer period of good during my days. My T is not always constant either. I'm grateful to say that currently there are periods of the day when the T doesn't bother me at all or it sounds quiet. This fluctuates though.

 

[PatrickG]

This time when I got it, it started at around 7. It fluctuates between 2-8 (mostly around 5), totally unpredictable.

 

[Bertman]

I got home from a gig and it was unbearably loud, 10/10. Over the next couple weeks it went down a lot to where I had to listen for it to hear it, 1-2/10. Then I went to a friends bday party for a couple hours and it has fluctuated between a 4-6 since (talk about regrets)

 

[InfiniteLoop]

Mine started very low and simple high pitched sound (1/10). As days went by, the sound was getting more complex, but remained low (3/10). Sound complexity kept increasing and the T started having tempos. It could be a slow drone or getting a fast paced and louder more like electrical current. This became a cycle and have slow drone days that are relatively quiet (1-4) followed by days with loud and fast paced T sound (4-7). The fast paced T days are the ones that kill me. Also, the T is very reactive to noise-like sounds: faucet, frying, road noise, etc... It took a couple of months to really develop in the very fluctuating sound, loudness and tempo that I suffer today.