Little Tinnitus Survey

[Screamin Ears]

Since when do you have tinnitus?
About 11 years, it got much much worse almost 9 months ago.

How loud is your tinnitus?
It takes 65+db of broadband white noise to mask it in sound proof room, outside of a soundproof room it is pretty much unmaskable.
Measured at 40db sl on a bad day and 14db sl on a good day.
( db sl is completely different to how many decibels it takes to mask your tinnitus )

What's the frequency of your tinnitus?
Multiple the most persistant is 10khz right ear and 11.3khz left.

Rate your tinnitus:
9.5 can hear it over everything, rings in both ears and middle of the head, it feels like my whole head is ringing.

Do you have hyperacusis and/or ear pain?
Sensetive to impact sounds, get short sharp painful pulses some times.

Are you struggling at the moment?
Yes the sound is so overwhelming, watching a movie last night it was like the sound from the tv was being squeezed out by the T.
The ringing gets so loud i think it will drive me over the edge.


How do you handle it / What helps you?
Constantly fighting what seem to be a losing battle by trying to find things to take my mind off it, but the problem is it's too intense and nothing takes my mind off it.

 

[ScottK]

Since when do you have tinnitus?
Ever since I can remember. At least 35 years.

How loud is your tinnitus?
I've never had a hearing test or tried to figure it out. Sometimes it is louder than others. Right now it's a high pitched whistle of multiple frequencies. The TV is on and I can hear it over the TV easily.

What's the frequency of your tinnitus?
I've never been tested. It is a shrill whistling noise.

Rate your tinnitus:
1: I can only hear it when completely silent and focusing on it
10: I can even hear it when showering and it's hard to understand people who talking to me because T is that loud

Not a good scale. I can hear it when showering, but have no problem understanding people. I can hear it at all times, but I only notice it when focusing on it, unless it is particularly loud at the time.

Do you have hyperacusis and/or ear pain?
Neither

Do you sleep with masking sounds?
No. I wear earplugs because external noises of any kind keep me awake all night.

Do you (still) using earphones to listen music?
When necessary. I'm taking a bunch of online classes, and listen to them with headphones.

Are you struggling at the moment?
No. This has been my reality for my entire life. It's gotten louder over the years, but I've always had this whistling noise in my ear.

How do you handle it / What helps you?
I've never had to learn to cope with it because it has always been with me. Some days are louder than others and I'll complain to my wife and say that my ear is really loud tonight, or whatever. She has T too, but her's is different than mine. She's always had it as well. Ordinarily I only notice it if I'm thinking about it. I could be outside on a quiet day and comment on how quiet it is outside without the awareness of the whistling noise. If I think about it, then that's what I notice.

 

[Taylorslay]

Since when do you have tinnitus?
About 2 months.

How loud is your tinnitus?
Im not sure. It use to be unmaskable except in the shower. But now it's silent unless I'm trying to sleep. Quietish rooms. I can still hear it in noisy rooms if the background noise is low.

What's the frequency of your tinnitus?
Multiple I think. But it it's mostly quite high. Past 8k hz. But lower than 13khz.

Rate your tinnitus:
5. It really isn't near as bad as it was before. So I wouldn't say its too bad.

Do you have hyperacusis and/or ear pain?
Yes.

Do you sleep with masking sounds?
I do. I use sound enrichment because of hyperacusis.

Do you still use headphones?
Nope.

Are you struggling at the moment?
Yes. I developed balance problems, dizziness and have been beginning to get vertigo. And I thought T and H we're bad

How do you handle it / What helps you?
Masking and ignoring everything. I think the balance problems are hard to figbt though.

 

[JurgenG]

Since when do you have tinnitus?
11 months.
How loud is your tinnitus?
1-2/10
I had spikes till 4/10

What's the frequency of your tinnitus?
A hiss, sometimes higher.

Rate your tinnitus:
1;5/10

Do you have hyperacusis and/or ear pain?
H. Because of overprotecting

Do you sleep with masking sounds?
Yes. Pillowspeaker for one ear, iphone for the other, and fan.

Do you still use headphones?
Yes, very quitely for my job, never for music.

Are you struggling at the moment?
Yes, I am filled with regret and am overprotecting, and staying too much away from social things.

How do you handle it / What helps you?

Sitting at my computer with music. All kinds of masking. Reading good stories. Talking to others about it. Getting reassureerd that I did no new damage. And that my initial "trauma" was not that big of a misstake somehow.

 

[Ambassador]

Since when do you have tinnitus?
about 3 years
How loud is your tinnitus?
3 - 8

What's the frequency of your tinnitus?
difficult to pin down, I thought 8Khz but lately more like 11Khz

Rate your tinnitus:
I'm a 30 on the tinnitus scale

Do you have hyperacusis and/or ear pain?
No pain and probably a little hyperacusis, a few sounds seem to go right through my head but not very often.

Do you sleep with masking sounds?
Maybe a half dozen times in all, I don't have a problem sleeping.

Do you still use headphones?
Never have and certainly never will.

Are you struggling at the moment?
I struggle with waves of anxiety, yesterday was tough but today I'm starting out quite well.

How do you handle it / What helps you?

Keeping busy, avoiding silence, using the tinnitus balance function in my hearing aids. Brute force and determination that tinnitus is not going to take me down.