Dh listens to music, recorded books or the TV nearly 24/7. He also has some hearing loss, so it’s not always easy to get his attention when I need to ask a question. I’m getting better at hiding my frustration because he rarely complains about the tinnitus or any other medical problems, his or mine, and I wish I could be more like him in that regard.
I have had it so long, I don’t remember what it is like not to have it. When it is quiet in the house, I tend to pay attention to it more. There are times at night (probably when I am over tired) it is so loud I miss other sounds in the house. On a recent hearing test, they found hearing lose. However, I am curious if the tone I missed was the same as what I always hear. Never followed up on it. I tend to try to keep back ground noise. It helps mine. Keep trying to find what works!
My dad had tinnitus and couldn’t hear things around that pitch, which was the normal electronic alarm pitch for ovens, etc. His was due to time spent in tanks in Korea.
H is sensitive to loud noises due to the tinnitus. He always thinks I’m speaking louder than I am and carries earplugs to movies and football games to keep things manageable for himself. Mostly he doesn’t complain about it or his various aches and pains. He’s really a good sport and makes me grateful for my relatively good health.
Tinnitus has long been a problem for me. It’s worse when I’m under stress or not sleeping or eating poorly. I find that I can lower the volume with relaxation techniques and meditation…but it never goes away completely.
For those interested, do a search on Tinnitus Retraining Therapy Pawel Jasterboff
The retraining aspect has to do with understanding the symptom and not treating it as threatening. It’s accomplished through a combination of counseling and sound therapy (like masking noise)
Here’s an article describing various methods including that one.
http://journals.lww.com/thehearingjournal/Fulltext/2014/12000/First_Evidence_Based_Tinnitus_Guideline_Shines.1.aspx
Does anyone with tinnitus suffer from misophonia? http://www.webmd.com/mental-health/what-is-misophonia
I hear there is a connection to tinnitus even though miso is more a neurological disorder than a hearing one.
@RightCoaster what kind of ear drops?
I am sensitive to loud noises, but not from the tinnitus, but from total hearing loss in one ear from the tumor mentioned in my post from yesterday. Only having one working ear means unless I am looking at the sound source, I have no idea where it’s coming from, so the noise catches me by surprise.
@jillpnk I don’t have the bottle at home. I left it at my other house and I can check when I get back there. But in the meantime if you go into a Walgreens or CVS they should have a some drops that are designed to reduce the symptoms of tinnitus. I think that’s where I got the drops I used.
I used it for a month or 2 regularly and it did seem to help a bit. My tinnitus is not super bad, and it bothers me mostly at night when it’s quiet. During the day I don’t notice it all that much, but if I go to a loud event ,or use a leaf blower or lawn mower without ear plugs they will ring afterwards.
I’ll post up the name of the stuff I used later, sorry I can’t remember the name of it right now.
I know someone who had that once. He’s dead now.
Sorry, this was an old joke that my late father used to tell whenever any of us asked about any medical symptom. Bad Dad jokes live forever. But he did have the ear-ringing for many years, but only in one ear. In the early 80’s he bought a Sony Walkman cassette player, and got a long-play cassette tape of white noise - seashore waves gently crashing on shore, and played it over and over with a single earbud in. He chewed through plenty of batteries but my mom swears it saved their marriage, as his mood improved significantly.
The other thing he found was chewing peppermint gum - he swore it affected the pressure in his ears and was cheaper than going to yet another ear doctor.
I am always in favor of trying cheap solutions first.
We run a HEPA filter at night for my allergies. DH keeps it on his side of the bed, because the white noise helps with his tinnitus.
Also the Tinnitus Retraining Therapy linked to by @LBowie is the therapy that has reduced the problem significantly for DH.
ENT here. Don’t waste your money on drops or supplements for tinnitus. Study after study has proven that these types of treatments are really no better than placebo. Over 100 million people in the US suffer from tinnitus. There’s a lot of snake oil out there trying to grab dollars for this common problem.
Tinnitus associated with hearing loss can be alleviated with hearing aids. Some aids have built in masking. If there is no hearing loss, a tinnitus masker can help. Unfortunately, these are devices that need to be worn to be effective. Most folks take them out at night which is when tinnitus is more bothersome due to the quiet environment. Most patients have figured out their own home masking techniques for sleep (fan, radio static, TV, white noise machine, HEPA filter, etc…).
The only techniques truly shown to help those with tinnitus revolve around tinnitus retraining protocols and biofeedback techniques. Those patients still generally hear their tinnitus, but it becomes less bothersome to them as they learn to adjust their bodies response to the annoying sounds
@mnm111 would you agree that if one develops tinnitus in just one ear, and there is no good explanation (have not used rifles for example, or had a firecracker go off near that ear) one should see an ENT to rule out an acoustic neuroma tumor?
@LBowie yes, I would agree. Unilateral tinnitus should be evaluated with an audiogram and possibly some imaging. Pulsatile tinnitus should also be evaluated by a physician to rule out intracranial vascular loops, carotid artery disease and vascular ear tumors.
I developed tinnitus this past fall. I also have some unilateral sensorineural hearing loss. I had an MRI and it was normal
I’ve had mine for about 3 years now ever since a car crashed into my house, which was extremely loud.
I have some minor hearing loss, but never thought hearing aid can help with tinnitus, need to look into it.
I mostly learned how to ignore it during the day, but at night it is pretty loud. Sometimes it changes frequencies and I never know what triggers that.
It mostly bothers me when I try to read, I used to read books pretty fast, but now it takes me forever due to difficulty concentrating, I suspect tinnitus is the cause.
I also noticed diet makes some difference in how loud the ringing gets. It gets louder if I drink a lot of tea for example.
Yes, caffeine in coffee, tea, chocolate can worsen H’s tinnitus as well.