Physically Blocking My Ear Helps Me Ignore My Tinnitus

indo_mex

Member
Author
Oct 31, 2019
2
Tinnitus Since
8 days
Cause of Tinnitus
Age maybe
Hi,

This is my first post and the mod can move to the correct thread if it's in the wrong place.

My backstory

Before I go into what appears to be helping me a lot, I want to explain my circumstances briefly. I was listening to a podcast about 8 days ago where someone talked briefly about having tinnitus - a 'ringing in the ears'. I assumed that would sound like an alarm clock. For some reason that I deeply regretted, I started looking into it and realised, with dread and much horror, that I had it to - although I wouldn't define that sound as 'ringing'. For me there are certain very high frequencies, but low in volume, sometimes a hiss, sometimes a tone, sometimes a bit of both. I've likely had it for many years without really noticing or being bothered by it - I assumed that noise was either, ironically, the sound of silence, or room tone or something. I've been in something of a state the past 8 days on occasion and now struggle not to hear it when indoors, unless I force complete focus on something else, which takes effort. There are some positive things; I've always had very good hearing and even now have the hearing range of a 30 year old (I'm 43), my condition is likely very mild, an ear person yesterday found 'very old and very dry compacted wax in both ears', which they're removing next week, and if that isn't it, I'm very confident I'll get on top of it. From reading around online about the condition I truly feel for worse sufferers - I don't know how ye cope.

What is working for me


After trying lots of things to deal with it in recent days, I happened across something that is really helping a lot, and I'm hoping it may assist someone else - I would like to know. It should be noted that I seem to have the tinnitus evenly in both ears, and as said, it's likely quite mild, albeit annoying and life-changing really. I needed to put olive oil in my ears before the wax removal next week and in my first attempt I accidentally put way too much in one ear - flooding the left ear. The canal was blocked and the tinnitus shot up in that ear. It's still a bit blocked now, two days later, but that's a different thing, and under control. The tinnitus is now so more dominant in my left ear that it has effectively gone in my right - everything has shifted to my left ear. But because I know the tinnitus I can hear in my blocked left is being caused by the ear being semi-blocked - and I've magnified that further with a form earplug - a physical object - it has a cause, and I can mostly ignore it. The biggest problem I was having with tinnitus was the volume of this invisible, sourceless noise (which is really in my head) - it was scary and depersonifying, if that's a word. What I happened across, for me, was that I magnified the tinnitus in my left ear - which of course you should only do with a form or wax earplug, which gave it a cause (the blocking of the canal), the tinnitus disappears from the other ear, and because that's my only good hearing ear, my brain is focusing much more on every-day/normal frequency sounds through it. It's also helped me that my window is on my right side too and I open it. Through this method I notice that my hearing-focus shifts naturally to the unblocked good ear, then through limited information it seems to force my brain to focus on sounds outside the high end, and my stress, anxiety, and especially lack of concentration has gone.
 
You have tinnitus but didn't realize you had tinnitus and in the past few days have tried many things and it's life changing?
 
You have tinnitus but didn't realize you had tinnitus and in the past few days have tried many things and it's life changing?

Oh, it's one of these types of forums. If I'd known, I may not have bothered.

My understanding of tinnitus is that it affects different people in different ways, from people committing suicide to others finding it a mild irritation on occasion. It's also of unknown cause in many cases. As I thought was implicitly clear, but I'll try again; I've likely had it very 'mild' for years and it increased so gradually, because of ageing or the slow impacting of ear wax, that I didn't really notice it, and definitely wasn't bothered by it. It's a very high frequency outside of the normal, everyday mid-range, so the fact I have it but didn't realise until I understood, following research, that the traditionally-described 'ringing' can also mean 'hissing', isn't that unusual. Maybe not for you, but for me. I've seen similar comments from people on youtube - the condition gets worse when they discover that they have it; many assuming everybody hears that sound in a quiet room.

They may not be as affected by the condition as a seasoned person like yourself on a dedicated tinnitus forum, with what looks like 477,414 posts, but my experiences seem reasonably normal from what I can make out - maybe not to you, obviously, but from reading about others.

In the past eight days I have tried many things - that's just an objective fact, and I'm not bothered if you believe me or not - but I would imagine most people would scramble around trying many different things to alleviate a condition that will likely be there until the day they die - presumably you didn't, but someone else might.

Yes, my situation is life-changing; maybe it wouldn't be for you, if you were me, but for me it is - I was speaking on behalf of myself, which I thought was clear from the original post. The first 6 days were very difficult as I couldn't unhear the tone when indoors. It has led to a huge amount of anxiety, stress, depression, poor concentration and sleeplessness. It's not something I need in my life right now for other reasons that I won't burden you with. Regardless of what happens to me, I will be affected by it. If it's gone next week, I will still be doing everything I can to protect my ears better moving forward, including changing jobs and the way I experience music - my favourite hobby.

Maybe try to be a bit more respectful of other peoples experiences and lives. I wrote my original post in the hope of maybe helping other people, I really didn't need to as I'm pretty much sorted to be honest. It only took me 8 days and a stupid mistake before realising a great alleviator, for me. I've learned great sympathy for people with the condition in recent days and so happy that my condition, even now, is at the very lightest end of that spectrum. But I discovered something that appears to work for me and I have a good understanding of why it works for me, and thought it may assist someone else. That was the real point of my post.
 
Oh, it's one of these types of forums. If I'd known, I may not have bothered.

My understanding of tinnitus is that it affects different people in different ways, from people committing suicide to others finding it a mild irritation on occasion. It's also of unknown cause in many cases. As I thought was implicitly clear, but I'll try again; I've likely had it very 'mild' for years and it increased so gradually, because of ageing or the slow impacting of ear wax, that I didn't really notice it, and definitely wasn't bothered by it. It's a very high frequency outside of the normal, everyday mid-range, so the fact I have it but didn't realise until I understood, following research, that the traditionally-described 'ringing' can also mean 'hissing', isn't that unusual. Maybe not for you, but for me. I've seen similar comments from people on youtube - the condition gets worse when they discover that they have it; many assuming everybody hears that sound in a quiet room.

They may not be as affected by the condition as a seasoned person like yourself on a dedicated tinnitus forum, with what looks like 477,414 posts, but my experiences seem reasonably normal from what I can make out - maybe not to you, obviously, but from reading about others.

In the past eight days I have tried many things - that's just an objective fact, and I'm not bothered if you believe me or not - but I would imagine most people would scramble around trying many different things to alleviate a condition that will likely be there until the day they die - presumably you didn't, but someone else might.

Yes, my situation is life-changing; maybe it wouldn't be for you, if you were me, but for me it is - I was speaking on behalf of myself, which I thought was clear from the original post. The first 6 days were very difficult as I couldn't unhear the tone when indoors. It has led to a huge amount of anxiety, stress, depression, poor concentration and sleeplessness. It's not something I need in my life right now for other reasons that I won't burden you with. Regardless of what happens to me, I will be affected by it. If it's gone next week, I will still be doing everything I can to protect my ears better moving forward, including changing jobs and the way I experience music - my favourite hobby.

Maybe try to be a bit more respectful of other peoples experiences and lives. I wrote my original post in the hope of maybe helping other people, I really didn't need to as I'm pretty much sorted to be honest. It only took me 8 days and a stupid mistake before realising a great alleviator, for me. I've learned great sympathy for people with the condition in recent days and so happy that my condition, even now, is at the very lightest end of that spectrum. But I discovered something that appears to work for me and I have a good understanding of why it works for me, and thought it may assist someone else. That was the real point of my post.
It wasn't very clear what you were saying helped you. Sorry.
 
This thread caught my attention after I wrote some similar experiences in another thread. Without this inexpensive cheat, I figure (and I had to figure out myself what these human-waste "professionals" couldn't), I'd belong in a mental institution:
Ever tried plugging just one ear and leaving the other one exposed to ambient sound? I mean, if your tinnitus is bilateral like mine. Gives me the impression that the tinnitus is just in one ear (the one which is plugged), which makes it easier to manage and ignore as it's confined to its own 'compartment'. The mornings are hell, though, what with morning serotonin levels adding to the anxiety.
 

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