Some Words of Wisdom (I Hope) About Tinnitus

[RobertFahey]

1. When you no longer give a shit about your tinnitus, you're cured.

2. Spend some time in a truly sound-proof chamber and you'll see that silence is overrated. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smar...will-drive-you-crazy-in-45-minutes-180948160/

3. Computers sometimes make a needle-like hissing sound, just like your brain. So think of your inner soundtrack as proof that your brain is working.

4. You've always had tinnitus to some degree. You've always had that swishing of blood rushing around your head when you exercise. It probably pulsates too. Orgasms do the same, yet nobody complains. Think of your life as one long orgasm.

5. Your eyesight probably means more to you than your hearing. Yet your eyesight might be a mess. You might not be able to see much of anything without help from a clunky apparatus you balance on your ears and nose, or lenses you have to stick into your eyeballs. And even if your eyesight is perfect, when you close them, especially in a bright area, you probably see funny shapes moving around. These things SHOULD be a horrible, torturous distraction, yet you don't even think about them. Instead you're losing sleep over . . . your ears?

6. When something rubs your skin, your skin develops a callous. Your brain does the same with tinnitus. No matter how much of a "nervous Nelly" you are, eventually your brain becomes bored and moves on. The callous is complete! If you need an anti-anxiety med or an antidepressant to ease your initial "hypervigilance" while your brain develops its callous, go for it, then wean off it.

7. Ever see this video of a dog getting irked by its own foot, and biting it? That's what you're doing when you freak out about tinnitus. You're fighting your own body. Cut it out!

 

[Contrast]

Hearing is sacred to a lot of people and scientists aiming to restore hearing are awesome.

This kind of logic is what held tinnitus/hearing loss research back 2-3 decades.

I have friends who are suicidal because of tinnitus, hearing loss, and other otological deficits such as hyperacusis with pain. How are they going to deal with that along with muffled broken hearing, tensor typani spasms and reactive tinnitus?

 

[RobertFahey]

Tinnitus covers a huge spectrum. I'm aiming at the people who have bread n' butter tinnitus, the basic hissing/ringing, and are struggling to control their anxiety response. You're talking about the other end of the spectrum.

 

[Bill Bauer]

1. When you no longer give a shit about your tinnitus, you're cured.

When T is quiet enough, the above becomes possible and then, indeed, you are cured. Until that time...

Spend some time in a truly sound-proof chamber and you'll see that silence is overrated.

Extroverts are uneasy when it comes to silence. Introverts like myself crave silence - it is what we live for.

You've always had tinnitus to some degree. You've always had that swishing of blood rushing around your head when you exercise.

I don't exercise. I know for a fact that before the onset of my T, my ears were completely quiet. I never went to any concerts. The first 9 months, I had T only in one ear. The other ear gave me an opportunity to experience what I had lost - it was Completely silent.

You might not be able to see much of anything without help from a clunky apparatus you balance on your ears and nose, or lenses you have to stick into your eyeballs.

My eyesight is likely worse than the eyesight of most people. I have keratoconus (astigmatism on speed) in one eye, and the other eye is not so bad - miopic at -2 or -3. I wear glasses only when I am driving. I can't see the faces of some of my students and the faces of my co-workers (it is all a blur), but that's ok. My eyeglasses are the lightest the money can buy. I've been wearing them for over a decade, and yet the sensation on the bridge of my nose drives me mad.

These things SHOULD be a horrible, torturous distraction, yet you don't even think about them.

If I had to wear my glasses 24/7, I would not think about anything else (except for tinnitus...).

When something rubs your skin, your skin develops a callous. Your brain does the same with tinnitus. No matter how much of a "nervous Nelly" you are, eventually your brain becomes bored and moves on.

I agree with the above, assuming T is quiet enough. I read posts here saying something along the lines of "I've had T for over 50 years, and it has been bothering me every waking hour, nonstop".

 

[Contrast]

Well tinnitus and atleast some mechanisms of hyperacusis may share pathways in the audiotory brain such as loudness amplification.


https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4208401/

 

[RobertFahey]

I had what I think is hyperacusis for about a week. Any sound above a moderate volume level reached my brain as an ugly rasp, as if the sound had overpowered a speaker system somewhere. Also, one time a hotel alarm went off. I blocked my son's ears but left mine unprotected. For a few hours afterward, I heard a crackling buzz coming from the hotel's speaker system -- yet the hotel didn't have one. It was in my head.

AND . . .

I've had episodes, usually late at night, when I feel and hear a deep, throbbing vibration coming from outside or downstairs. Is it a helicopter outside? A malfunctioning furnace downstairs? No. It's in my head.

 

[Bill Bauer]

Ever see this video of a dog getting irked by its own foot, and biting it? That's what you're doing when you freak out about tinnitus. You're fighting your own body.

I agree that we are a lot like that dog. For the analogy to be a better fit, we would not have any control over the limb and the limb would torture us 24/7.

 

[abbynormal]

I had what I think is hyperacusis for about a week. Any sound above a moderate volume level reached my brain as an ugly rasp, as if the sound had overpowered a speaker system somewhere. Also, one time a hotel alarm went off. I blocked my son's ears but left mine unprotected. For a few hours afterward, I heard a crackling buzz coming from the hotel's speaker system -- yet the hotel didn't have one. It was in my head.

AND . . .

I've had episodes, usually late at night, when I feel and hear a deep, throbbing vibration coming from outside or downstairs. Is it a helicopter outside? A malfunctioning furnace downstairs? No. It's in my head.

I don't believe there is any way, no matter how smart I may be, to know what tinnitus is like for someone else.