r/tinnitus

Think about it. How many times did it keep you awake at night? It creates anxiety and raises cortisol over nothing to a point that you can’t sleep. And for some unlucky people like us it will also create tinnitus (constant ringing in the ears) that makes sleeping even harder. And the funny part is that the brain is the organ that suffers the most from insomnia. But it sleeps just enough for you to be alive while making you suffer everyday. And the only things like benzodiazepines that actually calm down your nervous system can’t be used longer than a few weeks because your brain will down regulate your gaba receptors to build a tolerance. I want to fucking kill my brain. Not my body just this fucking parasitic evil thing called the brain.

Is that still tinnitus ?? Like. Movie theaters cause my left ear to screech a bit

This is something I’ve been noticing with tinnitus at night and I’m curious if other people get the same thing. If I put on one completely constant sound, like plain white noise or a fan recording, it helps at first. My tinnitus kinda blends into the background and I stop focusing on it. But after maybe 5-10 minutes I start noticing the masking sound itself. Like my brain figures out exactly what it sounds like. Then I start hearing the little texture of it, or the exact frequency range, or if it’s a recording I eventually notice some pattern in it. And once I’ve noticed that, I can’t unnotice it lol. Then somehow I’m paying attention to BOTH the tinnitus and the sound that’s supposed to stop me paying attention to the tinnitus. So recently I’ve been experimenting with sounds that aren’t completely static. Not dramatic changes because that would obviously keep me awake too. More like really subtle movement between frequencies and layers. I’ve been doing this in Nocturne: Sleep Sounds & Noise (which is not even primarily for tinnitus) because you can actually build the sound yourself, so lately I’ve been mixing brown/pink-ish noise with rain and changing the tone a little instead of just having one perfectly flat noise playing forever. YES ITS AN APP OK I GET IT REDDIT. And I think I prefer it way more. The best way I can explain it is that there’s nothing for my brain to fully “lock onto”. The sound is still boring enough that I’m not actively listening to it, but it’s also not EXACTLY identical second after second. I used to think the goal with tinnitus masking was basically: find frequency, cover tinnitus, done. Now I’m wondering if for me it’s almost the opposite. If the masking sound is too consistent, eventually it becomes another distinct sound in the room. Whereas if there’s some very slow variation, it stays more like background texture. I’m definitely not saying this is some tinnitus treatment btw. I went looking into the research and sound therapy seems way more complicated than “play X frequency and tinnitus disappears”. There are studies looking at broadband noise, narrowband noise and frequency-specific approaches, but there doesn’t seem to be one universally best sound for everyone. Which kinda makes sense because tinnitus itself can sound completely different between people. But from a pure falling-asleep perspective, subtle variation has been much nicer for me than one endless fixed tone. I’m curious if anyone else has noticed this.

I have a question for people with really bad t how many years have you endured that beast? And what keeps you going?

It's been a while since I've been on this subreddit. It's crazy how 5 years have passed since I got permanent T. I'm currently searching for a job(in my final year of bachelors), there's highs and lows, but I think T is what has kept me grounded in a way.

No matter what happens to me, I'll make it out of a bad place, just as I have with T, T is just a piece of me now.

Have a nice day! :)

I just found out that pineapple spikes my tinnitus massively . I think it only happens if you have an allergy. Has anyone else here experienced this before?

I had pulsatile tinnitus in my left ear for around 3 years. Usually I only heard it at night or in silence, but there were times when it was loud enough for me to notice it during the day too. At first it was very annoying and even bothered my sleep. Then thankfully I learned to ignore it and put it in the ‘background’. One night I remembered I have this, and I focused on it, and then I realized I don’t hear it anymore! It’s been a week since. I never thought I will experience complete silence again…! I also didn’t do anything different or specific for it, so it just went away randomly. Thought I post it here, so others can have some hope too!

Not in the sense that you isolate yourself from society but rather in the sense that people can be sympathetic but rarely anyone relates?

It’s kinda the main reason I joined this subreddit since I was born with severe chronic tinnitus and genetic progressive hearing loss. I’ve had both for as long as I can remember and the only people I have ever met with anything similar are my father (who only has hearing loss, not tinnitus) and occasionally people with very minor tinnitus. Due to my age (17) it’s really hard for me to find anyone my age, or even remotely close to my age, who share my experience. I wear hearing aids and am doing Tinnitus Retraining Therapy which has helped me improve my overall QoL tremendously. However I still struggle in certain situations (like testing environments).

Although I struggle with this, I still manage to succeed in school due to my love for learning, but I face an additional hurdle that seems to be like ADD/ADHD yet more severe (even with ADD/ADHD meds I still struggle significantly since stimulants makes tinnitus more intense). Despite overcoming it in many aspects, the loneliness of the people I know being unable to directly relate to my issue can feel very isolating at times. My father somewhat understands since he gets it on occasion (typically event related), but my mother seems to understand it less (she does try, though).

And how do you find living in either environment with tinnitus?

I live in London and since my T got worse I feel like rural would be better but there's a lot about this city I will miss even if I only go to the park at the moment. It's a weird one. And I feel I'll be more depressed and isolated in a rural area since all my friends and family are here in London.

What tests are done and questions asked by the audiologist to see whether you are a good candidate for Lenire?

Acoustic damage event July 5th. Got prednisone 7 days out 14 day taper. Ringing gone throughout the day and only sometimes hear it in the morning. Also my ears are back to normal in terms of sensitivity. Couldn't even play my phone speakers but now normal!!

I urge you guys to tell your friends and your children to get corticosteroids. Immediately after something like this. I'm also taking daily vitamins and n a c. Goodl luck everyone.

p.s. cause was loud headphones

Hi all :)

I have profound sensorineural hearing loss in my right ear — audiogram shows near-normal hearing in the low frequencies but drops to 100+ dB (essentially no response) by 6-8kHz. Left ear is mild-moderate and fairly stable across frequencies, so it's a pretty asymmetric loss. I also have tinnitus in the right ear.

Got fitted with an Oticon hearing aid (with the Companion app) a few weeks ago. I found the first day pretty overwhelming — background noise amplified more than speech feels clarified. Wondering if this is normal adjustment-period stuff or something I should flag at my next appointment. I've left it in a drawer ever since tbh.

Anyone else start a hearing aid with asymmetric loss + tinnitus - if how long did it take before things felt more balanced and was it worth persevering?

heyyyyyyy so basically my best friend and i + a few others went to a show at a local venue about an hour away from where we typically are and ofc we didn't have earplugs.... because it wasn't a well thought out plan. the show was ≈3 hours, it was in an indoor venue too. frankly it was bigger than the last venue i'd gone to repeatedly but not huge. however, for some reason my hearing was muffled all of last night and my ears were ringing all through to today. I hope it goes away within the next week or so, but i probably need to be realistic. the ringing is quite loud tbh and it kinda makes all other sounds sound separate from it in a way. how screwed am i??

oh yeah 19F btw

I'm going to be travelling in a car with a lot of noise, mainly loud music. It's unavoidable, sadly. Am I better off with earplugs (soft, ear friendly type) or wearing noise cancelling headphones?

If I go for the headphones, would it be better to just wear them and have the muffling effect or to set up some white noise?

I know this is a rubbish scenario and I'm worried about it but if I can protect my ears then all will be good.

I literally just spiked my tinnitus and caused my right ear to clog up by cutting an apple. The knife went through it too hard and clanged on the plate I had it on super loud. Immediately my tinnitus spiked and my ear got all muffled and clogged up. Now i’m trapped in the anxiety loop thinking what if this is permanent and I damaged my hearing etc etc. I put over ear silencers on and used the Niosh app to read the decibel level while doing it again and it read 90 db. How am I supposed to deal with this when the simplest mistake can cause such a disastrous consequence. I used to wear earplugs all day every day but I would get ear infections often because of it.

My partner has tinnitus. He's had it about 2 years. It is a 'slight high pitched ring when it's quiet.' He hears it some night, but not all. His is mild.

I developed mine about 14 months ago - 5ish tones, oscillating, reactive, dysacusis - after illness and losing some hearing. I'd classify it as severe on a good day, possibly catastrophic on the worst.

We were talking yesterday about how much money we would pay to get rid of it. He said at most, he would pay $100 to get rid of his, certainly not more. Meanwhile, I would pay our entire net worth (high 6 figures), including the house and pension, to get rid of mine. He found that hard to believe, buts its the gods honest truth. I'd actually live on the street and start from 0 again to have another shot at life and silence.

I think I've found a new way to classify tinnitus - severity and life impact is based on what you would be willing to give up in order to eliminate it.

Please stop. stop. The whispering will not go away. I hear it in my left ear and my head. Please help. Please help it’s driving me crazy. What’s happening???