Anyone dealt with this? Looking for a magic cure.

jf

Mr WTG has had it for several decades. He's seen a couple of ENTs and had an MRI that showed nothing of interest. Classic example of "we know you have ringing in your ear but we can find nothing wrong".

He also has occasional bouts of vertigo, which we suspect are related to whatever is causing the tinnitus.

He said that over time he's pretty much tuned it out. He notices it most at night when he's falling asleep, because it's so quiet and there are no other noises to distract him.

He's also tried acupuncture and herbs.

I'm sorry to say, nothing helps.

quote:

Originally posted by wtg:


I'm sorry to say, nothing helps.

That is what I am finding out.

jf

Had it for, oh, maybe 15 or so years. My constant companion.

quote:

Originally posted by Piano*Dad:
Had it for, oh, maybe 15 or so years. My constant companion.

+1.

I had a series of very bad ear infections (as an adult, while I was living in Japan and teaching in elementary school, lots of sick kids plus me constantly using my voice meant lots of upper respiratory infections). The end result of that was some damage apparently, and tinnitus. I have learned to tune it out for the most part.

But there are some things I've found that matter. My tinnitus seems to ramp up if I'm tired, if I'm on the verge of a migraine, if I have a generic tension headache. And it got pretty bad when I had a concussion and post-concussion syndrome.

It seems to be less noticeable when I'm well-rested, healthy, and when I'm regularly able to walk (i.e. exercise-walk). There might also be a connection to increased caffeine intake and more noticeable tinnitus, but I refuse to consider the possibility that I might benefit somehow from reducing coffee.

I have also read that people find relief by using a white noise machine, but that never made sense to me. You're just erasing the ringing in your ears with ringing outside of your ears. Also, I never wanted to get "addicted" to a white noise machine for sleep. So I've never tried it, but it's another thing you might consider.

Good luck!!

Same here.

About 20 years ago, I went to the dentist for two crowns. He gave me nitrous, so I was compliant with whatever he was doing. He used a planer for what seemed like an hour on the two molars on the upper left. The noise in my head was intense and prolonged.

A day or two later I realized that I was still hearing the sound of the dentist drill in my left ear. It has never gone away.

I talked with a lawyer. He said the problem is there are no externally detectable symptoms. He asked me if I regularly drive with the window rolled down. I do... most of my life I didn't have air conditioning in my car. He asked me if I ride a motorcycle. I do, but it's quiet... it's a BMW. He asked me if I ever listened to loud music. I do. I grew up with rock 'n' roll. He said I had about a 10% chance of winning a case against the dentist.

So, I have been living with it for two decades. I have heard about megadoses of one of the B vitamins can help. I've never tried that.

I can ignore it most of the time and music at even a low volume will mask it.

The real bummer is that I used to love complete and total silence (I almost bought an anechoic chamber once) and I will never know that ever again.

Similar to SK, stress makes mine seem louder.

I’ve had it for years; I don’t remember when it started. I don’t notice it most of the time, but if I think about it I can hear it. And then it takes a long time for. me to tune it out again.

Sadly, playing the piano really exacerbates it. I wear decibel reducing earplugs when I play, and that helps it from getting too crazy. (Etymotics, 20 db reduction.)

I've experienced it to some degree. If I think about it it can seem worse.

For what it's worth, this guy helped me a bit. (I've never watched part 3; part 1 is there somewhere--about being in the present.)

Focusing on the present has been helpful. Tinnitus for me seems to be in the same category as not being able to get to sleep: If it creates anxiety, it's worse, far worse.

The other funny thing I've noticed is this: I have several antique wind up clocks. There are 3 in the living room alone, 2 in the upstairs hallway, 1 in the kitchen, 1 in the music room (2 actually, but one needs repairs). I'm often surprised to find that I don't hear them. I'll suddenly hear 3 strikes of a chime, or a 2 cuckoo's only to look at the clock to discover it's just rung 8 times but I only heard the last few! Also, the ticking just disappears to the point where I'm totally oblivious to it; I simply don't hear it. BUT, if I were suddenly to focus on it I think it would seem so overwhelming that I'd go around and stop all the clocks! LOL.

Anyway, along those lines ...

Wow. So many people here. I know that markb suffers from it, too (he's mentioned it often, here too I think).

I'm sorry for all of you. I do not have that particular malady.

WTG, I have also been experiencing occasional vertigo since last summer. There is nothing wrong that is identifiable, I just get a little dizzy sometimes. I'm learning to adjust to it.

I think I recall OT mentioning he has it pretty bad, too, but learned to listen through it to be able to hear beats to tune a piano.

OT felt his was the result of an antibiotic. I helped him get back to tuning; it was a matter of shifting focus and deciding what to hear...

Mine is very high frequency, up in the 14k range, so it doesn't interfere with hearing, but it is always there. Ibuprofen seems to make it a little louder. Longer tuning days, or tuning without my earplugs in loud rooms (current favorite is the Eargasm brand - softer feel for my ear canal, yet flat response like the Etymotics) tends to make it sound louder at night.

Focusing on it definitely makes it worse!

I have it all the time. markb knows quite a bit about it. Was just reading some interesting bits about how it’s not just your ears but your whole brain.

I blame my very loud piano.

Discover Magazine piece from 2010

I had issues with it when I was working in the Costco bakery. It was so loud back there (I wore earplugs). I’m sure part of it was stress related. I’m nt having issues now, most likely I don’t think/worry about it like I did then. Often I go to sleep with the the google home playing river sounds, (the actual sounds of a river) which helps, not having it dead quiet makes me not hear the sounds that are playing in the background of my brain.

When I get it sometimes a lot of water with a bit of Gatorade stops it and the ensuing vertigo.