Hello fellow low drone folk.
I have just joined the forum. I found this thread pretty quickly as it resonated (sorry about the pun) most closely with the head-noise I have been experiencing since 25th August this year. I can date it so precisely as I recorded this in my diary on that date:
"Right NOW [7.33am], there is a very disturbing, HORRIBLE low frequency NOISE -- continuous, but kind of 'throb-thrumming' in and out. What the F*** IS it? It's hard to locate it." I could not focus on my writing and had to stop, and have not written much since then. I was writing poetry and some non-fiction prose as well as my diary for years up till them. Since that date, I have tried (and tried) but my focus is completely shot. I cannot read anything that requires more than about ten minutes of attention, nor can I meditate (either solo or guided), which I also did daily.
I have been 'comfort/ emotional eating' (a rubbish 'treatment' I have sometimes resorted to when very stressed) and have gained a considerable amount of weight. My motivation to exercise has evaporated. I was an early riser (4.45am daily, and asleep by ), and by 5.00 was either doing a home weights or cardio workout, followed by 'mat work' then a walk. I have never struggled to exercise as I enjoy it. I love dancing too.
I place a lot of importance on these daily healthy functional routines. They've been helping keep me healthy and buoyant, especially over these past 20 pandemic months. I am almost 60, and staying healthy has become even more important to me since a near-fatal pulmonary embolism when I was 51. I have worsening osteoarthritis in both feet and knees, which causes a lot of pain, but I would have even more pain if I wasn't so active. This has been borne out over these past 3 months of drastically reduced exercise.
Now I struggle to even just get myself up before 9.00 and into the shower before 11.00am every day. I am losing so much sleep due to the evening, bed-time, and overnight worsening of the noise. I dread going to bed. I dread getting up.
I know this goes without saying on a tinnitus forum, but this is driving me crazy. My anxiety is through the roof. I feel depressed, distressed, despairing. It's been three months of this. Feels like my nerves are being flayed inside and out. It has driven me to tears at least four times.
With the help of my very understanding, supportive, loving husband, we investigated any and every possible external source of this (eg, the drainage treatment unit in our neighbour's garden, which also serves our house, the sewage treatment plant a 10-minute walk from here, the fridge-freezer, etc, etc) ... because I was convinced it was coming from outside somewhere. For a long time, I couldn't believe he couldn't hear the noise (at all), but then we got neighbours and friends to check too, and they couldn't hear anything either.
At first, I thought I could only hear this at home (we moved to this rental house in a semi-rural area in mid-April), but then I spent a couple of nights in a city apartment, and I could hear a 'lite' version of it there, and could also hear it in our car when we sat in a quiet spot with the engine turned off, and in the audiologist's sound-proofed room when we went quiet when she was writing up notes.
I saw a GP on 22nd October. He fast-tracked me to ENT (on the NHS) as he was concerned it may be pulsatile tinnitus and my family history of cardiovascular conditions is very serious. I was seen there on 10th November. The specialist did not think it was pulsatile tinnitus. He got a student nurse in attendance to hand me a leaflet about tinnitus and referred me to audiology for a hearing test, which I had two days later (12th November).
I felt sure that my hearing was not reduced, and the hearing test showed that; in fact, it showed it was "very good for [my] age". The audiologist also used an instrument, which she placed in each ear, to test for eustachian tube dysfunction, and said there was no problem.
I asked what the cause could be. She said she didn't know, (but) then went through the whole stress-fight/flight vicious circle spiel, and finished by saying 'my' tinnitus is "the hard to treat kind". I'd already read enough on-line and had started with attempts for self-management, so was hardly surprised at this statement. She said she would refer me to an audiologist who "knows more about tinnitus". I received an appointment letter yesterday for 10th December. I am trying to be hopeful about that!
I have only managed to write such a long, detailed post by taking a couple of breaks, and with the 'masker' of the Starship Sleeping Quarters link that I found earlier this afternoon on this thread . . . so my sincere thanks for that, because it is probably about the best I have found to date, and I have tried LOTS. When I mute the sound on this, the 'generator throb-thrum head-drone' has built to its usual, by this time (8.28pm) medium-high intensity.
Also, when I stick my fingers in my ears, as one or more of you have noted in this thread, it goes away. I told and demonstrated this, as I think it is significant, to both the ENT specialist and the audiologist, who passed no comment, but I will do so again at my next audiology consultation. Foam earplugs, my swimming earplugs, Blu-Tac, and the fancy noise-cancelling headphones my friend lent me don't work.
I love music. I love silence, peace and quiet (especially for WRITING and READING). I love (most) sounds of nature. But I have never been a fan of fans, leaf-blowers, mowers, strimmers, any motorised vehicles . . . and mechanical 'stuff'. The irony is that I get some reduction and relief from this DIN in an urban setting, and from a 'starship' motor!
From what I have read on-line, I know the earliest months are the worst for those with tinnitus. I am really struggling. I have not found it easy to write this, but the time came this evening for me to post, instead of just lurking, because I feel so alone and disconnected with this pig of a thing.
If you have read this far, I thank you. I have gained much insight and some solace from reading posts on this forum since I found it a couple of weeks ago, and my gratitude and heart goes out to all of you who have been living with this.
) drives me up the wall.
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