Maybe I could apply for a clinical trial.

I've found that stuff like this site and therapy approaches like it tend to make me hypervigilant about my tinnitus, which is exactly the opposite of what I want. My tinnitus is moderate-severity (it's loud but never competes with real sound) and just by keeping background noise around I'm at a point where I think about it maybe a couple times a week tops; most of the times I'm persistantly thinking about it, it turns out I have a sinus infection or something.

Pair: https://mynoise.net/NoiseMachines/numberStationsRadioNoiseGe... with: https://mynoise.net/NoiseMachines/magicDuneArrakisGenerator....

I set the numbers stations to 'narrow' and Arrakis to 'wide' and stereo field, mute the numbers stations that repeats german numbers (those stand out to me too easily)... and it's like some magical productivity hack of my brain.

I got mine in my 30's too. The first week I thought I was going crazy, and this was the end of my life. I was shocked, I couldn't go to work for a whole week.

I then saw a doctor who said to me: "Man, I've got tinnitus since 20 years and I barely hear it anymore. The more you accept it, the more it'll fade."

A decade later, my own experience is exactly this. I accepted it as one of the body malfunctions that comes with age for everybody. I barely hear it anymore except in extremely low noise situations and it doesn't bother me at all.

I wish you well.

That said, I have experienced occasional reoccurrence. One thing that helps is I ask my masseuse to concentrate on the sides of my neck- there is a specific muscle that when tense can cause ringing.

Does your tinnitus get momentarily worse when you tense your neck muscles?

It’s not what anyone wants to hear, but it’s the pragmatic approach that works best from everything I’ve seen.

The people who become involved in tinnitus forums, support groups, and chasing experimental treatments think they’re helping themselves but they’re really only bringing it to top of mind over and over again.

It feels frustrating to give up and disconnect from all things tinnitus related on th internet, but disconnecting is exactly what helps with the process of letting it fall into the background of your life. Constantly bringing it to the foreground and reading about it only makes it worse.

To everyone who doesn't have it, wear ear plugs at concerts, be careful when you remove the ear plugs, and use the max volume limiters on your phones. Enjoy your hearing while you have it.

I also experienced significant hearing loss around the same time. My hearing had always been absurdly good, but that changed over about a year. Now I can hear well enough to get by, but I really miss what I had. Protect your hearing!

I could not get to sleep because the noise was so loud and intense.

It reminded me of those spy films where they torture someone playing loud heavy metalcore all day and night.

I had a X-ray, ultra-sound and two Consultants had a look.

Both said that there was nothing wrong with my ear. No ear wax, no damage, no issues at all.

They both mentioned that tense facial and neck muscles may be a cause.

As well as the constant ringing, there is a sound like a central eating system, thumping and groaning away, in both my ears too. I initially thought the thumping and groaning was the Mrs snoring.

I bought some earloops thinking my ears were too sensitive and I was somehow hearing noises from the houses down the road and the motorway traffic 3 miles away. to no avail, even with the earloops blocking all exterior noise, I still had the high pitched and low piched internal noises.

I found a way to reduce the noise.

I was laying in bed one night and I was relaxing my jaw when I noticed that if I opened my mouth and let my jaw hang loose all the noises stopped.

So over a month or so I tried to train my jaw to be less tense and more relaxed.

For me it worked.

it was my jaw.

I'm 69, so have a few less years years than your good self

I may not be able to fully recount all the factors but I believe my ears may have had some residual fluid after recovering from covid (my covid symptoms were entirely unpleasant and impacted me differently in many ways). Before my ears cleared up, I took a domestic flight where I actually got vertigo for a few 10s of seconds on ascent. My ENT believes my eardrum expanded to touch the inner ear.

The following day I went to a gun range and did skeet shooting for a couple of hours then shot really big guns and sniper rifles. The earplugs I brought myself were likely not adequate and taking them out and putting them in repeatedly in relatively cool weather likely didn't provide the best seal either.

That night or the next day I noticed lots of ringing in my ears and I started to become worried when it was still there even after a week. The worst was being in silent meeting rooms at work where it was most noticeable. It was extremely depressing and I nearly lost all hope.

I visited 2 separate ENTs and each just sent me re-take my yearly hearing test. They didn't really provide any comforting words other than to take the test and wear hearing protection, etc..

Before the hearing test (~2 weeks after the gun range and flights) I explained everything to the audiologist and he said "Lots of people have various degrees of tinnitus/ringing, just don't think about it. I have it and that's what I do. Don't let it bother you and live your life."

Interestingly enough, my audio test came back better than the previous 10 year results and since then I just don't think about it. If I do I can certainly hear it. My only personal takeaway is that the brain and body are very complex and have an arsenal of mechanisms to deal with trauma and that for this particular instance I've been very lucky.

- Cut stimulant use (coffee, energy drinks) and alcohol

- Drink plenty of water

- Check blood pressure

- Talk to a dentist and check if you grind teeth or suffer from jaw stiffness

- Supplement Magnesium (chelated/glycinate, 300mg/day)

I’m ignoring issues of the ear canal (wax, secretions) since you mentioned it.

Studies point to tinnitus being either caused by changes in blood supply on the inner ear, of neurological origin or trauma. These are all measures I took and greatly improved my case (and when I neglect one of those, it comes back).

I saw a few specialists, had hearing tests, MRI and CT, and everything came back fine. Couldnt work it out so I gave up for a bit.

Later I went back to my GP and got another referral. This time the consultant asked the radiologist to focus on a specific area. He explained it can show up on a normal scan but unless they know what to look for it often gets missed.

That is when they found I have thinning of the bone over the inner ear called superior semicircular canal dehiscence SSCD.

I wear soundcore sleep earphones at night which have been life changing.

I found a YouTube video of a "tinnitus demo" with the right sound and frequency. I could only start hearing it at about 80% volume. I gave my headphones to my partner and she said it was unbearable. I guess I'm used to my normal.

I slightly regret knowing about it, I seem to be paying more attention to it now.

I have no affiliation with this macOS app, but I use it for the same reasons you do. It's paid, but worth it IMHO. It generates the noise on your own machine, and you can pick what kind of noise you want to hear: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/brown-noise-ambient-noise/id15....

Tinnitus and anxiety are comorbid. It's healthy to just practice letting it be if you can.

Been there. After a few years of slow increase, mine suddenly cranked up to 11 (due to an infection, it turned out). There were a few rough weeks while I worked out counter & coping measures. I still need those measures from time to time.

    measures:beltone app & speakers at the head of my bed. 
    A half doz (non-controlled) insomnia meds to rotate thru.
    I discovered UK Great Railway Journeys vids; 
       they interfered with distress feedback loops