Maybe I could apply for a clinical trial.
The fans don’t totally block out the tinnitus, but they sorta act as an undistracting distraction.
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.
About 95% of the time, I can fairly easily just tune it out and it's no different than any other background noise. Living in NYC helps, there's a fair amount of constant background noise even in the best of times. I've found that finding 10-hour videos on YouTube of TV static at a low volume can be helpful for the remaining 5%.
Still I would really prefer it wasn't there. The ringing in my left ear is still annoying, and I'm only in my mid 30's, so assuming an average lifespan I have anywhere from 40-60 years left to enjoy this constant ringing.
I'll play with this thing to see if it helps.
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.
I had a slight crack in my windshield right at eye level view. And after a minute of driving I don't notice it at all anymore
What helped me accept (and ignore) tinnitus was realizing that I had already grown accustomed to tolerating that sound indoors. When's it's something you have no agency over (like "it's an old house and the wires just make that sound sometimes"), you learn it's part of the environment.
Accepting it as part of the environment gets you past the "OMG my body is ruined forever" anxieties and back to normal life.
I have known people that have it much worse than I face daily.
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.
Oh, exactly this. Haven't thought about mine in months, but as soon as I actively think about the subject, suddenly the high-pitch whine in my left ear is back and louder than ever.
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!
They make a sensual pleasure less pleasurable, and they also protect against life-altering consequences.
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.
I too got used to it, but I would really advice people to avoid flying sick if they can help it (or at least use some meds to unblock your ears while doing it).
- 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 do very slightly grind my teeth in my sleep, but in this particular case the problem is basically solved (at least at the dental level) because I have mild sleep apnea so I sleep with a plastic mouthpiece every night anyway.
I'll look into the magnesium supplements.
Magnesium plays a part on vasodilation regulation as well, and many people are silently deficient on it. It’s hard to detect deficiency w/ blood samples, because the body works hard to keep blood concentration stable. You will know you do if you get muscle cramps or twitches.
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 sleep earphones at night which have been life changing.
Sleeping with tinnitus can be very hard and increases the anxiety. At least it was for me. I found specific sleep earphones worked particularly well at reducing this.
i was taking it for unrelated nerve pain and was very surprised that my sense of smell and hearing also remarkably improved, to the point where i needed to reduce the long standing 'known' audio levels of all my various listening gadgets a few clicks. the ringing was a little worse for the first couple weeks, but then reduced a couple more weeks, then almost completely stopped 1 day.
from what i gather, high doses of the fat soluble form of vitamin b1 can repair nerves and is used as first line therapy in some countries for neuropathy, chronic pain and even alzheimers.
i'm sure it won't help everyone, i can't even find any solid research on tinnitus and benfotiamine, but putting this out in the ether since it is a cheap and relatively safe thing to try, i was completely surprised by this nice off-label side effect (it did help with my nerve pain as well). there is much more research based evidence on benfotiamine therapy for other nerve problems, and it follows that hearing and smell would also be affected, it's all nerves, good luck
edit * adding if you are taking high doses of benfotiamine, you should also be taking magnesium with it, i just took zma (zinc, magnesium and b6) at bedtime *
Why not use lipothiamine or occasionally sulbutiamine instead for this purpose?
I don't know the exact cause, but I started noticing it during a job-related burnout and a series of work-related events that significantly increased my stress levels.
It was so bad to the point I had to abruptly quit my job (FYI, freelancing without a safety net sucks).
My doctor gave me pills to help calm my brain and the noise, especially during the night. I also have hypersensitivity, so having a constant noise ringing was not ideal :/
Luckily my ENT doctor recommended that I do multiple things at the same time:
- tinnitus retraining therapy (TRT), listening to white noise ~4 hours a day
- going to a therapist
- daily meditation
- daily exercise
- reducing salt, chocolate, coffee, etc.
I started to see life a bit differently since then. Things that disrupt your life can happen so suddenly...
I'm still trying to find a job, but I lost a lot of confidence and developed a bit of a trauma since I don't want to experience burnout again :/
It will be easy once you start.
38, came out of nowhere few months ago, seen any kind of doctor, I hear this 24/7 whistle in my ear.
Being in silent rooms or trying to sleep is hard.
It was not until someone explained that they had tinnitus and told me their symptons that I suddenly realised that I too had tinnitus.
Since then it's become harder to ignore it but on the other hard, its nice to know that it's not normal and that others can truly hear nothing - something I do wish I could do: hear nothing. I did recently discovered that head under water helps to reduced the sound.
Acceptance has been my treatment for years, I hear it when there is mental downtime. So it does keep me busy (mentally) so that I don't hear it - ironically tinnitus motivates me to do stuff!
First and foremost, ignore it. When you find yourself listening to it, distract yourself and immediately move on.
Secondly, add more white noise into your environment. The best approach I find is just opening a window or adding a little fan or water feature to your desk. White noise generators don’t work as well for me, but they can help in a pinch.
I believe that our modern day indoor environments are honestly just too unnaturally quiet anyway.
I’m not joking when I say that the only time I really get annoyed by my tinnitus is when the monthly “cure” for it gets posted on HN. ;-)
apparently the phenomenon is called residual inhibition. If only there was a way to make this work permanently...
Also works pretty great. If I need a few minutes of actual silence I use that. I think people using TENS and other therapies are basically stimulating the same nerves to treat it.
I think actually stimulating the parts of your hearing that match the tinnitus is what helps. That's why this white noise thing works. But, also, listening to music or watching movies with the Airpods Pro (after configuring) -- I assume -- does something similar.
Lots of people giving good feedback on it, though. What exactly is it about this site that works for other people?
Honestly, I never felt particularly negative about it.
I guess if you never know what true silence sounds like, you never know what you are missing.
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.
It's a quieter version of the tinnitus you can personally get if you are close to a loud noise (don't do this intentionally, it is an indication that you've caused yourself some hearing damage).
I've never heard static, I think that honestly sounds closer to what might actually be termed a noise floor. I know what a noise floor sounds like, and I've never heard a noise floor just due to quiet conditions...
IDK, like I said, unfortunately science hasn't found a way to easily and temporarily swap ears.
My daughter has it, too. My wife doesn't, but my daughter has described it to me.
I haven't felt negative about it except for the time I visited an anechoic chamber exhibit at a local museum (COSI in Columbus, OH) in my early 40s. It really messed with my perception and the tinnitus was much louder than normal for days after. Even thinking about it makes me edgy.
I've just downloaded this audio track with yt-dlp, placed it on an sdcard and I play it in a loop on a small speaker.
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....
https://treblehealth.com/tapping-technique-for-temporary-tin...
I had tinnitus for over 10 years. My tinnitus was not the usual ringing type, it was some sort of humming, low frequency noise. The frequency was not constant, it could vary. It could sometimes stop for 5-10 minutes, e.g. after a hot bath.
Went to see many specialists, tried everything, to no avail.
One day I started experiencing recurrent tension and light pain in my neck and shoulder blades, so I started doing some neck and shoulder blades stretches several times a day.
After a few weeks, the pain was gone, and I realised the tinnitus had stopped. This was maybe 2 years ago (I am still doing those exercises multiple times a day).
Almost certainly. My Dr feels mine created a weakness that enabled tinnitus to develop 4 decades later.
Tinnitus and anxiety are comorbid. It's healthy to just practice letting it be if you can.
This is me. I have a mental distance worked out. Posting in this thread will require a bit of recovery time.
However, I recently learned by best friend (lives distant now but we chat daily) has tinnitus to the point where it affects discerning speech - so it's up there. But it doesn't bother him at all to think and talk about it. He's never felt any distress from it.
I'd never heard anyone say that. I changed the topic because I didn't want to put his zen at risk.
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 was thinking that maybe I cough something during my travels so I went to see a few specialists but they found nothing.
What I understand now is that the cause is probably all the vipassana meditation I did and some psychedelics I experimented with during my travel which opened some filters I had in my mind blocking sensor noise. It's the most plausible explanation for me.
The noise was probably always there, or maybe it got louder when I become older, but I never noticed it until it became disturbing.
A decade later the noise is still there, all the time, but it's not an issue at all anymore. It's not louder than before, and I have no negative feelings associated with it. I made peace with it and I can now easily ignore it, or to be more accurate, I can live with it and it'll disappear on its own after a short time until I put my attention back to it (voluntary or not).
As I'm writing this in a quiet room it's very loud, but that's fine, it just sensor noise. Soon enough I'll stop hearing it if I don't focus on it.
I hope reading this can help. I wish I had someone back then telling me that it would turn out okay to just accept it after doing some medical checks.
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 loopsAnyone with tinnitus only in their right ear?
And yeah, I've had it since the early 90's and it mostly only bothers me now when someone brings it up. Thanks Hacker News!
it's not too bad, only one ear and it comes and goes pretty quickly.
For me the COVID correlation is 100%, but I haven't found too much literature about it and wonder if anyone experienced it as well
ronnier•4h ago