Poll: When Do You Hear Your Tinnitus?

[cullenbohannon]

Hey martin. I will write up more about my t journey when I get the chance. I don't know if it will be helpful but I hope it will be beneficial for you.

Hey Cullen.
I did TRT (or some kind of) in a tinnitus clinic here in Germany.
Also went through all the explanations, audio files etc. on the ATA sites.
But still difficult making T a neutral stimulus for me.
My head is buzzing and I still cannot accept living with that.
So still a distance for me to go.

 

[jimH]

On days where it is loud on both sides I hear it everywhere and under all conditions. I even hear it above my very noisy battery powered tooth brush. My T is loud now about 80% of the time since February of this year. Previously it was moderate most of the time with an occasional day or two consecutive days of being loud then returning to moderate levels.

 

[LarryL]

What is the cause of your t ?

 

[glynis]

Sever 24/7 due to Menieres

 

[Lizzie Grant]

I hear mine whenever I'm in my room and trying to watch tv. If I go anywhere else in the house or outside it's hard to hear it because it gets masked there.

 

[Gemstonian]

My hissing tinnitus is at it's worse while watching TV... At first I thought raising the TV volume would drown out the hissing in my head but it actually makes it worse.... So now I keep the TV volume on very low and turn on the closed-captioning... Like many have said in this thread, a nice hot shower is my quiet time...

 

[Alue]

My hissing tinnitus is at it's worse while watching TV... At first I thought raising the TV volume would drown out the hissing in my head but it actually makes it worse.... So now I keep the TV volume on very low and turn on the closed-captioning... Like many have said in this thread, a nice hot shower is my quiet time...

Same for me, my high volume high pressure shower is the only thing that seems to drown it out.
If only I could spend hours in the shower at a time without running out of hot water and running up the water bill...

One thing I noticed though, the T seems worse just getting out of the shower.

 

[valeri]

Sever 24/7 due to Menieres

Yet you are always so positive!
Have you ever really suffered with t?
And I don't mean this in a rude way, I'm just courius coz you said it's severe.
How do you cope?

 

[glynis]

Hi @valeri,
My tinnitus never stops and out of 1-10 its 10.
That is why I have to wear duel purpose hearing aids.

I stay positive as I fight to stay happy all the time and not going let my health issues bring me down no more.
Having a tough time at the moment with my Menieres and a few room spins daily despite 11 tablets a day so need see my doctor Monday.
Life can be tough going but I have been rock bottom in the past and now I have come to terms with what health issues I have.
I have to remember my Menieres is the cause of my sever tinnitus as not to frighten newcomers but it is hard going....staying positive is the only choice I have....lots of love glynis

 

[snow86]

I hear my 8-10 different sounds over everything and all the time. Because of the loudness and mostly deep frequencies like engines/washing machines the sounds are unmaskable. I could stand next to a running train or a lawn mower and my T sounds are gonna be louder than that. Always reactive and above external sounds. If I could match my sound to external volume I would give it about 90-95db.

I do not only hear the T sounds but also feel them. It is like having a bass speaker next to my ears. I can feel the sounds vibrating. It's a disgusting feeling. Besides that I have hyperacusis and stabbing ear pains.

In case you wonder how catastrophic T looks, this is it.

 

[daniel1111]

The TV seems particularly bad for my T.

I thought having something to focus on aswell as some sound masking it would be one of the best things for it, but the T likes to make itself known. Maybe I need to watch something more interesting?

 

[Tweaker]

Power shower is the only real masker. Also, walking down a country lane in Spring with a lot of birdsong and crunchy paths can do the trick mostly, even with bad T. Car, even with music on and wipers on does not mask. TV has no chance of masking either.

 

[uae96]

I can hear my around my whole head in a calm environment and I can clearly hear it when inside the car with no music as described in one of the options but when I'm in the mall , restaurant , anywhere with lot of people I can't hear it

 

[John Baumer]

I have had T for 20 years. The only time I hear it is when I talk about it or read about it.

 

[Xorthian]

I feel terrible for people that hear it even in the shower (clear and loud that it doesnt make difference at all to be in shower).

I wish something gets developed and helps them fast.

 

[linearb]

I have had T for 20 years. The only time I hear it is when I talk about it or read about it.

when this happens, are you able to hear it pretty much regardless of background noise? Meaning, it's loud or high pitched enough that you can find it if you look for it, but you just don't look for it very much?

 

[Purple Parrot]

I'm in the "everywhere" camp...though not completely, as standing by a waterfall will drown it out, also a bath running, - but only if I'm "ignoring" my T. If I listen for it, I can still hear the bloody screeching there too.

I agree with ATEOS's summary of it's not just loudness but the combo with frequency. High pitched T may be harder to mask in some ways, but I figure fluctuating frequencies would be even harder! No way I would be on planet any more if mine wasn't a "constant" torture...Sic.

Zimichael

I found out recently that an acquaintance of mine has tinnitus that constantly changes pitch. He was actually laughing about it. He could hear it in the noisy bar we were sitting in. He smiled and said he almost never hears silence.

SMILED AND LAUGHED.

Wish I could have that level of zen!!

 

[Telis]

I found out recently that an acquaintance of mine has tinnitus that constantly changes pitch. He was actually laughing about it. He could hear it in the noisy bar we were sitting in. He smiled and said he almost never hears silence.

SMILED AND LAUGHED.

Wish I could have that level of zen!!

Weird dude. If he ever gets worse he will soon learn that tinnitus is no laughing matter. It's pretty funny until you are crippled by it and can no longer function properly.

Tinnitus can in its extreme form accompany excruciating ear pain, ear fullness, get loud enough to effect cognitive ability, and also include hyperacussis and hearing difficulties that leave a person isolated and unable to function like they once did. Instead of laughing about it, maybe he should be thankful that he can still sit in a loud bar and enjoy himself with relatively healthy ears, maybe it won't always be that way.

 

[Michael Leigh]

Weird dude. If he ever gets worse he will soon learn that tinnitus is no laughing matter. It's pretty funny until you are crippled by it and can no longer function properly.

Tinnitus can in its extreme form accompany excruciating ear pain, ear fullness, get loud enough to effect cognitive ability, and also include hyperacussis and hearing difficulties that leave a person isolated and unable to function like they once did. Instead of laughing about it, maybe he should be thankful that he can still sit in a loud bar and enjoy himself with relatively healthy ears, maybe it won't always be that way.

Many people do not realize tinnitus comes in many forms and intensities and no two people experience it the same. When tinnitus is loud and intrusive it is no laughing matter.

 

[Michael2013]

If he ever gets worse he will soon learn that tinnitus is no laughing matter.

I wonder if for that particular guy it would be worse if he weren't smiling and laughing about it. Sometimes a person's disposition toward something can dramatically change the way it affects them.

Tinnitus can in its extreme form accompany excruciating ear pain, ear fullness, get loud enough to effect cognitive ability, and also include hyperacussis and hearing difficulties that leave a person isolated and unable to function like they once did.

Very true.

-Mike

 

[Purple Parrot]

Yeah, the point of my post was more that he had a positive attitude and that made it easier for him to cope.

 

[Song interpreter]

I hear mine all the time. I can forget about it if I'm concentrating on a task or enjoying something and I'm distracted. There's a high pitched alarm in my room that goes off randomly. My husband is telling me to turn it off, but I can't hear it. It's one of my sounds. I keep trying to help him understand. I told him, you know that noise from that alarm? I hear that all the time! I think maybe a vacuum cleaner might drowned out my ringing... I don't hear the refrigerator, except as the ice maker dumps ice. And I'm sitting right next to it! Pathetic...

I can can hear my children laughing in the other room! But my hearing is going too...

 

[Lorac]

I hear mine whenever I am awake. Always feel it too.

 

[JasonP]

I feel really bad for people who hear it in the shower. That is awful. I can hear it most everywhere else though but lately, I have been tuning it out the past two days and it seems less loud (have new hearing aids and taking medicine to combat depression seems to help) so hopefully that will continue.

 

[Fungus]

I hear my high pitched hiss tinnitus 24/7, 365 days a year, pulsatile tinnitus generally only when I go to bed at night or am very scared or angry, and 'drops of water hitting a hot plate sizzle' tinnitus only when I'm otherwise ill. That is, I hear tinnitus some of the time if my brain is otherwise engaged and all of the time if I listen for it.I gave up listening for tinnitus a long time ago....it's there. Much like I don't feel my specs. on my nose or clothes on my body most of the time, I don't need to check. I see my tinnitus when I first go to bed and shut my eyes....a bit like a visual field test with varying intensity white dots, but the dots move a way before fading and disappearing like small comets (synaesthesia I guess).

I'm beginning to forget what silence sounded like now, though I think I always did have 'physiological tinnitus' if I listened for it.

So I guess I'm largely habituated.....friends and family rarely ask if I have tinnitus, not because they don't want to upset me, but they think it's gone.

Fungus.

 

[Beste]

At home.
Watching a TV.
Reading a book.
Playing video games.
At office.

 

[Gosia]

Always at home except for the kitchen if I'm cooking and except for the shower - in 98% of cases. It really doesn't depend that much on the loudness as of the kind of sound. Sometimes I get a cycadas in the right ear which are really not loud at all, but completely unmaskable and I hear them even tin the shower. Otherwise I normally don't hear it outside, but it's not a rule. The fact that being outside gives me a break from it keeps me alive.

 

[Kyxwz]

My T it's loud if my mind is not able to attach themselves to other sounds. In a queit park without sounds i can listen my T. But if there are some crikets or birds i focus my mind on other soucer and my T seems to disappear. In a quiet room it's the hell on earth. But with the same decibel in the air, if there is just a sound (for example the low buzz of a neon) i focus my hear on this sound and my T became lower or disappear. It's the "cocktail parties" phenomenon.
Seems that this, after habituation, work for low T and loud T.

My T it's around 5 and 15 decibel maskable with 30 or 50 decibel (depends, because it's very reactive).

But for example Driving car make my T worse enough to listen it on an highway, 130km/h, 65 decibel of sounds. So i'ts a mistery: in that case i don't think that my T it's around 5 or 15 decibel!

 

[linearb]

Yeah, the point of my post was more that he had a positive attitude and that made it easier for him to cope.

I think that people with a positive outlook who are more prone to laugh at the ridiculousness of their failing bodies than to worry and cry about it, universally and unquestionably have an easier time dealing with the adversity that life inherently throws at us. 85% of people don't have any significant amount of tinnitus, sure, but 100% of those people are going to die, mostly in pain, mostly at a time not of their choosing.

The problem is that the way we react to thing is a manifestation of wiring which is not under our direct control. In fact, having people who suffer "more" or "less" from the same set of circumstances seems like basic biodiversity to me.

I do believe that there are skills that can be learned, that neuroplasticity is a two-way street. No matter how f'd up someone's particular circumstances are, they have some degree of volition in how they react to them, and that willful response over time will increase or decrease their distress levels. If this is true for prisoners of war being literally tortured by other humans over a long period of time (http://www.usna.edu/Ethics/_files/documents/Stoicism2.pdf), then it's certainly true for people dealing with unavoidable physical ailments.

However, just because something is possible doesn't mean it's easy, and even if we can re-invent ourselves over time, it's not realistic for someone with a long track record of suffering from stress-related disorders to expect that they will ever escape that entirely.

Casting memory aside - your history, all forgotten;
driven onwards through the years in love with each distraction.
But all the while, the past is close behind;
like headlights on your tail, headlights on your tail.

 

[suze]

I would like to know what % of responders picked all of the situations. How many would pick the "I always hear it" box?