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I've had tinnitus in my left ear for about six months now. I was hoping it was the result of an earwax impaction or something, but after having several specialists look at my ears, test my hearing, and getting an MRI to check for tumors, the overwhelming medical consensus of the cause appears to be "I dunno", and at this point I have given up on it being temporary.

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.

A message of hope.

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've always been someone who hears high pitched noises that "normal" people don't. I'm also in my 30s, and I'm sure those "teenage alarms" in Japan would work on me. I was the one who would walk up to a CRT and turn it off when everyone else thought it already was.

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.

This is so relatable, though it has a strange downside. I've had tinnitus for as long as I can remember and always thought I was some superhuman child who could hear electricity. Didn't actually realize it was tinnitus until I heard it at the top of a mountain I was hiking in remote New Mexico a few years ago. I probably got it from chronic sinusitis as a child, but I'm still not sure what to make of it.

By the way, that CRT squeel is the sound of the flyback transformer, which operates at 15.625 kHz for PAL and 15.734 kHz for NTSC sets.

Funny I could hear CRTs too. In teens could hear faint high pitched noise in extremely quiet outdoor settings. Bad tinnitus 15 years later. Slowly reduced and I’m less conscious of it now.

huh. I could hear that noise as well and I have had tinnitus for 30 odd years.

I heard older TVs being turned on and off as well as CRT monitors. Now, its that very range I 'hear' all the time. Part of me wonders if it was sensitivity to that spectrum that damaged my hearing when I was around multiple CRTs so much.

I have known people that have it much worse than I face daily.

Me too!

I genuinely could hear CRTs when I was 5.

Tinnitus sound now is very similar for me too.

Hearing test showed high frequency hearing loss in that range which is well above human speech and a lot of music.

Yeah, for me it sounds almost exactly like the squeal that CRT TVs make. Like, it's basically indistinguishable from that for me.

I have had it since I was a teenager like 30 years ago. Honestly, I do not notice it unless someone points it out. Yes it is always there but there is nothing I can do about it so I don't worry about it.

For me, after 20'ish years with tinnitus, the only thing that brings the buzz to the foreground is reading/hearing the word "tinnitus".

Same here! Just reading the title of this post made me aware of mine for the first time all day.

Almost the exact thing to me, 20+ years of tinnitus which sits calmly in the background most of the time except when I read the word tinnitus, or I'm feeling anxious for some reason: when I can't fall asleep when I need a good rest, life stresses, and those moments when a different pitch shows up in one ear and louder. In those occasions I can clearly hear the tone of mine.

It's mildly annoying but I've definitely learnt to live with it pretty ok.

Haha, its funny you say that because I've been reading a novel at the moment where the main character has debilitating tinnitus, and every time the author describes it, I can hear my own.

It's very much like eye floaters. They are always there, but you can tune them out most of the time.

Completely agree. I've had some light/moderate floaters in my left eye which were very noticeable under a white screen, clean walls, or full bright sky in the evening. It came pretty sure because of a very stressful period at 27.

Here I am, 31. I have to look for them really really hard to see if they are still there. Only when I have a streak of stressful days and bad night sleep, they will be visible again. It comes without saying that I had to change my life in many, many aspects, not only due to these floaters. A much calmer life, better food, gym, financial security, better friends and people around me, and cultivate a spiritual being in some sense. The mind can be shaped in many many ways it's fascinating.

Brains crazy

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

The fact we don’t notice our nose is crazy! It’s right in front of us!

We have a projector instead of TV in the living room, and there is a small outlet inside the projection area, top right corner. We can go months without realizing/remembering it's there, until it accidentally matches a shadow or object in a scene... the brain just deletes it.

I also thought I would go crazy when mine started after some ear infections in my 20s. It's gotten a lot worse over time but I mostly only notice if I think about it, and when I'm laying down to sleep, and when I wake up (it seems so strong). I've slept with white noise all my life, and without that I the tinnitus would definitely disturb my sleep.

Same exact story for me.

Audiologist suggested treating it like a rock in your shoe. At the time seemed like impossible advice but now I just live with it and it’s 100% fine.

Also the idea that it is actually made worse by anxiety was a game changer for me. Literally, “don’t worry about it” is the exact right advice.

I've had it for four years and I don't notice it most of the time anymore. But for reason just reading about it makes me notice it.

same here. now 51. I reckon i got it in my early 20's.

Yeah, it just blends into the background for me, I've had it for decades. I blame the loud music as a kid.

Once the major (though exceedingly rare) problems have been ruled out, the best course of action is to start learning to live with it.

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.

In my case, this mindset + SSRIs have helped me tremendously.

I didn't want to depend on a drug, but after getting into a really bad, quasi-suicidal mental state, I went to the psychiatrist. I've been on escitalopram for 4 months and it has really helped reduce the distress associated with tinnitus in like 80%. Making an effort to not think about it has also helped.

I hope to stop taking the drug at some point and see if the mental improvement persists.

This is how it worked for me. I’ve had it in my left ear for decades, the last time I thought about it was the last time I read an article about tinnitus on hacker news.

Meditation, despite being a common trope, has helped me accept it too.

Yes, the best way is to let it fall into background. Just keep going.

I have found notch therapy to be quite helpful. It's basically where you tune a note to your exact tinitus pitch and then create white noise that has every khz EXCEPT your pitch. Then you listen to the notched sound at about the same level or slightly higher than your tinnitus. So, basically your "tinnitus" is notched out of the sound. The theory is it can retrain your brain to not produce the fake sound. I also just find it helps to alleviate the symptom.

My own tinnitus is 15khz which is annoyingly high. And I suspect the reason why tools like Tinnitus Neuromodulator don't help much in my case.

I first got pretty bad tinnitus about 10 years ago while still fairly young. Didn’t go to concerts, shoot guns, hammer nails, or any activity typically associated with hearing loss.

At one point it was so loud, it would drown out the sound of a dryer when right next to it.

This was party from impacted earwax but still pretty bad after cleaning.

Hearing test showed substantial high frequency loss (well above speech frequencies)

A few suggestions:

1) Listening to light music helped me stop focusing on it.

2) Tried Taurine. Unsure if it helped, didn’t hurt. Make sure you aren’t low on Vitamin D. That alone causes enough other problems too.

3) Make sure you don’t clench teeth or have dental issues. I think that might be able to aggravate the nerves.

It never went fully away but I’m no longer overtly conscious, just faint in the background. Always aware of light pressure/muffled feeling in affected ear. Changes were slow and gradual but did happen. Doesn’t bother me much anymore. Do miss the “sound of silence” but light background music while working is enjoyable .

I got tinnitus in one ear after using music in headphones to block out other noise. I was probably using the headphones too loud and too often. This happened 15 years ago. It was pretty bad at first. Since then, very slowly, it has mostly "healed" or something. It's still there. But it's much less severe than it was.

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!

Earplugs are like condoms:

They make a sensual pleasure less pleasurable, and they also protect against life-altering consequences.

You can get earplugs that only lower the sound quality a tiny bit these days. I bought some from the drum shop and they’re great. As you say, $20 or so to avoid lifetime ear damage is a very very good investment. I feel like concerts aren’t quite so loud these days too, maybe audio gear quality is better and the sound engineers don’t feel the need to turn it up quite so loud.

Earasers is one brand. Concerts are still pretty loud.

I wish I took better care of my ears as damage is pretty much irreversible.

I’ve also noticed that younger people seem to wear earplugs at concerts a lot more often. I get the feeling there’s been a change in attitude towards hearing protection. My guess is that instagram ads for earplugs and AirPod hearing health features have had something to do with it

The last time I attended a concert, it was still very loud even with earplugs!

If it helps: I've gone through years of coping strategies and coming to peace with it; it'll probably annoy you a lot less a year from now than it does today. (I had a really rough run in my teenage years, but these days a cure for tinnitus is kind of only academically interesting to me; I mean, I'd do it, but it probably wouldn't change my life much.)

I have had tinnitus in my left ear since 2011. You do get used to it. I really only notice when someone says the word or an article on it pops up. I considered setting up some kind of web filter just so I never saw the word again. I notice it now, for instance.

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 really only notice when someone says the word or an article on it pops up.

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.

Remarkably, our experiences are _incredibly_ similar. Left ear, about a year, got all those tests done, specialists don't know other than "that's tinnitus for you - if I had a cure I'd be rich", 98% of the time I tune it out, I live in NYC, early thirties.

If you ever find something that works for you, please reply here @tombert, I'll do the same :)

I had tinnitus before I knew it was tinnitus - I thought it was normal. I literally thought that everyone had a constant sound in their ears.

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!

I've had it as long as I can remember. Like you, I thought it was normal. When I was a little kid I thought that was what the Simon & Garfunkel song "The Sound of Silence" was talking about. Since I suspect I've had it since birth, it doesn't bother me. It's just something that is. I feel bad for the folks who get it later in life and have trouble with it. My neighbor got it a few years ago and it keeps him up at night sometimes.

I’m basically in the same exact situation as you, only ringing in my left ear. MRI/hearing/etc tests have all shown nothing and I haven’t received any answer for it. I’ve had it for close to a decade now. NYC definitely helps drown it out but life would be better without it.

> 10-hour videos on YouTube of TV static

Please consider a local noise generator. Static is incompressible so you're using quite a lot of data.

I feel you. Here’s things you can try (in this order):

- 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 don't drink alcohol at all and haven't for quite awhile, and my blood pressure is pretty low and hasn't changed significantly. I did try cutting out caffeine entirely for several months (and the tinnitus actually started when I wasn't haven't any caffeine at all).

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.

Yeah, caffeine is not the cause per se - the thing is it has both vasoconstriction and vasodilation effects at different times, so it can mess with blood vessels in the inner ear. It totally makes sense if you get tinnitus when you cut caffeine after your body is used to it.

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 started having tinnitus in both ears 10 months ago.

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 :/

You can do it.

It will be easy once you start.

I got tinnitus in my late 20s. Forty years later, it's still there. Research into the causes, and treatments, has been disappointingly slow.

I would really like to experience total silence at some point, but that seems very unlikely.

Another message of hope for anyone struggling with the possibility of having tinnitus:

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 have slightly similar experience. When I was a teenager, I had a random flu shortly before two flights abroad. I didn't feel that sick anymore, but apparently my ears were still badly blocked. On descent my ears would hurt like hell, and I was half-deaf for rest of the day. That was more than ten years ago, and since then I've suffered from moderate tinnitus.

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).

I have had tinnitus from an infection, which (very thankfully, and I admit very luckily) slowly resolved over a period of years.

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?

I just tried it, it does not change significantly when I tense my neck muscles.

Exactly the same story for me: right tinnitus just started one day in my 30s; examination, hearing test, MRI all normal. ENT specialist exhausted his diagnostic options then suggested ginger tablets.

It rarely bothers me (although it’s always there) but obviously there’s a cause and I’d like to find it. I have a suspicion it may be somehow related to neck anatomy and/or postural factors (it sometimes seems to worsen slightly with particular positions) in bed but beyond that I’m at a loss.

I have a strong Tinnitus on one ear after an ear surgery for 8 years now. And I usually don‘t notice it for months at a time, even though it is there all the time (thanks for reminding me :p) So it’s not as bad as it might feel in the beginning. I‘m mostly bothered by my hearing being generally impaired by it. It sits at ~9kHz but it somehow still makes it significantly harder to comprehend voices.

how did you came with ~9kHz number? I want to know my own LoL

I had mine measured a few years ago. I had given some headphones in a quiet room, with a low frequency sinus wave on it. Whenever I said I could hear the tone clearly, they increased the frequency. At one point, the tone blends with my tinnitus tone, that's the whole magic. They then measure the current volume in dB, just by increasing/decreasing the tone's volume.

I'm on 12kHz, vacuum cleaner level.

maybe see "Won-Taek Choe" - he's a legit smart hearing specialist ENT on UES

that said, prob nothing to do other than wait and hope for the best really

when i had tinnitus following an ear infection years ago, it lasted several months and gradually went away but I always had at least white noise around me and some people say "notch" therapy can be helpful...

I’ve noticed that if I’m eating more salt, don’t sleep well, under a lot of stress, or taking anything that increases my blood pressure or affects vasodilation (supplements, some foods, stimulants, etc.), it causes me to have tinnitus. Loud concerts / music / sound-reducing headphone / noise can do it also.

Look into Ménière’s disease . I got diagnosed recently and those are all triggers for it. When undergoing episodes I also have vertigo. There’s medication for controlling the bigger symptoms.

Kids told me that I am losing my hearing. So I went to hearing lab. When I told doctor that I have tinnitus in left ear for almost 10 years, he recommended lorazepam in tough times… that it works. :)

Note - Lorazepam is one of those drugs which causes dependance if you use it regularly. If you find you need it often, get a substitute which is safe to use all the time.

Im curious did you also experience hearing loss? I started getting tinnitus in my left ear almost 12 months ago, but 12 months before that I started noticably losing hearing in my left ear (with audiology tests to back it up, Im basically deaf in one ear now). Also mid 30s.

Nope! I haven't really noticed any significant loss in hearing at a "vibes" level, but I actually got my hearing tested in both ears to be sure, and my hearing is actually slightly better than the average 30-something.

I got tinnitus about 4 years ago in one ear. At first I thought it was stress with a new baby, moving house and a busy time at work. I thought maybe it was wax.

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.

Is this an ad for Soundcore?

Yea i have no idea how that product relates to tinnitus

Inadvertent ad removed.

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'm in your situation.

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’s been repeated a lot in this discussion, but don’t loose hope. I had a very similar situation and for a while felt like I might not be able to keep living with this condition. A few months later I suddenly realized that I wasn’t thinking about it anymore, and then I had to start straining to notice it. The brain does adapt over time

I too had exactly the same constsnt ringing in my left ear.

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

Same situation, basically went away a year later on its own. Every once in a blue moon or when I’m at the boundary of wake|sleep or sleep|wake I’ll kinda hear it again but I find if I just acknowledge the sensation, move on and continue what I was doing - it’ll be days or weeks until I remember it even happened. Focus on it less.

Try experimenting with diet like cutting out/down on sugar or salt and see if it makes any difference. There's no strong evidence that EMF can cause tinnitus but would be interesting to test that out somehow too (camping/cabin trip in a radio free zone?)

this is anecdotal and not medical advice, but i reduced my tinnitus symptoms by ~90% by taking therapeutic doses (1200-1800mg/day) of benfotiamine (fat soluble form of vitamin b1) over the course of a month and a half.

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 *

Absolutely anecdotal, but my left ear tinnitus recently cleared up and ive been taking a b complex for a couple of weeks for unrelated reasons... Wild.

Even 80 mg of benfotiamine a day is too potent for me, giving me anxiety. 40 mg is more tolerable. I do take plenty of magnesium, zinc, and P5P. Be careful taking the basic non-P5P form of B6 because it risks causing serious neuropathy in the long term. Benfotiamine is more for managing damage from high glucose. I acknowledge your experience, but if your nerve damage is not from metabolic concerns, I am skeptical.

Why not use lipothiamine or occasionally sulbutiamine instead for this purpose?

the older i get, and more in tune with my body i become, the more i'm thinking everything is connected to metabolism... it is, after all, the primary thing life does as it relates to energy. the b vitamins, and specifically b1 is a precursor/cofactor in almost every metabolic pathway. i only high dosed it for a couple months, just taking 150mg with ala daily now, but my tinnitus that i've had for 20 years is gone unless it gets triggered by movie or video game sound design during explosion or gun fight scenes (ugh)

I tried Lenire and it didnt do anything, probably made it worse. Been doing CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) and I seem to be making some progress with it.

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I suddenly lost the hearing in my left ear at the age of 24. One moment I was fine, eating a slice of pizza, the next moment I suddenly could sense something was wrong. I tried to stand up and walk, but my balance was gone. My ear felt full and there was a strange metallic echo. I waited about 24 hours and it hadn't gone away, so I went to the urgent care. By that time, just standing up was enough to cause me to vomit. I've had a pretty healthy life, so everything that was happening was rather disconcerting to me!

The doctors at urgent care erroneously diagnosed the problem as dehydration as a result of my telling them I had played tennis earlier before the incident. They sent me home with instructions to drink lots of water. After waiting another 48 hours completely unable to hear or even stand up, I went back to the urgent care. This time, they diagnosed it as an ear infection and gave me antibiotics. Over the next two weeks, my balance slowly returned, but what little hearing I still had slowly deteriorated further. About a month after it started, I finally was referred to an audiologist that concluded that I was completely deaf in my left ear, possibly due to a viral infection, but there isn't any way to know for sure the cause. Had it been treated with steroids immediately, it might have saved my hearing.

I am now 40 years old and have lived with being single sided deaf for half my life. Initially I didn't think much of it. I've slowly realized it has had a profound impact on my personality and sense of identity. I am much less social due to the difficulty I have hearing in group settings. Conversations are frustrating because it takes so much effort to hear the other person properly. I am reluctant to tell people about my condition because I don't want to be seen as handicapped in any way. Usually by the time I do end up telling someone, they say they had already figured as much.

Tinnitus is a major daily issue as well. I can’t seem to understand how this website helps though.

My wife is deaf in her left ear as well. She doesn't usually tell people, but does tell people that she likes to walk on the left and sit on the left side of rectangular tables.

One interesting effect is that I have developed a preference for sitting or walking on people's right hand side, especially with good friends or people I respect.

The most interesting effect is I have noticed how much people take for granted the ability to sense where sound is coming from. Early on in our relationship I would occasionally perform "magic tricks" where I know immediately where a sound is. She would ask: how did you know where it was?

I've had tinnitus since 2018. I got used to it. it's not the worst thing for me. I'm 5'2" bald guy LoL

If you're suffering from tinnitus, remember, at least you're not bald and 5'2" tall.

My condolences. At least you’re jacked.

Tinnitus is extremly annoying when you remember about it but as soon as your attention goes elsewhere it’s almost not bothering at all, you’re so used to it that it’s hard to notice it.

I've had a low grade (although who knows, it's not like I can hear someone else's tinnitus to compare) tinnitus for as long as I remember. For my childhood I thought it was just normal to hear this noise when there was no external source of other sound.

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.

Similar story here. I hear something like CRT whine all the time (except higher than the typical 15Khz NTSC tube whine). When I was a kid I played with the SOUND statement in GW-BASIC and figured out my tinnitus s was between 17 and 18 Khz (listening for bleating interference between my laptop speaker and the tinnitus). Today my hearing tops out between 12 and 13 Khz but I assume the tinnitus whine is still the same old frequency.

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.

Same.

I'm half convinced it's something like blood vessels too close to sound receptor thingies in my ear. Or something similar.

I had a hearing test done a few years ago and my hearing is actually slightly above average for my age.

It would be nice to not have it, but whatever.

Same here. A few years ago I thought maybe the ringing isn't normal. It hadn't occurred to me before that.

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 think that's most people. I never even knew that I had tinnitus (still don't know if I do frankly) because if you've put me in a dead silent room I've always heard some very low kind of 'static' for a lack of a better term. Most people I've ever talked to say the same thing, very few people have ever told me they hear absolutely nothing. Only after I kept reading about it did I start to notice it more, I think there's a really big psychological element to it.

Tinnitus (at least mine) sounds like a quieter version of the high pitched noise that movies like to use to emulate tinnitus due to a loud noise (explosion).

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.

MyNoise.net is such a great site, consider throwing them a couple bucks, it's basically a pay what you can model. I can't count the number of hours I've spent programming listening to their different soundscapes, rain on a tin roof, and cafe noise are 2 of my favorites.

Absolutely. I have a person favorite setup... which is to have these two playing at the * same time * and play around with the combos of sliders / set to automate.

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.

Many of my biggest professional achievements were enabled via Irish Coast. I give them a few dollars a month.https://mynoise.net/NoiseMachines/windSeaRainNoiseGenerator....

We played the gregorian chant for about an hour every night when my kid was newborn. Not sure if it had any effect on him but definitely lowered our blood pressure!

The white noise generators were also a lifesaver when working in a busy open plan studio with loud idiots.

The way I personally manage my tinnitus is by having fans constantly blowing in various rooms of where I live, for example I have a fan in my bedroom when I’m trying to sleep or in my office when I need to concentrate.

The fans don’t totally block out the tinnitus, but they sorta act as an undistracting distraction.

Same, for going on 40 years now. I can sleep without some kind of white noise, but it's really challenging. I have one of those Dohm thingies, which has been relegated to my office; in our bedroom we've got an air purifier and I have a tiny desk fan on my nightstand.

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.

While I can normally tune out my Tinnitus, i also love the constant city noise and in my office I have a collection of solar toys that keep clicking randomly, which help me focus. Actually I tried the OP site and trying to tune the thing actually made my Tinnitus pretty unbearable ATM. I guess the trick is to use it without trying to directly hear the effect...

Have you tried the Dohm mechanical noise machines? The original white noise machine AFAIK. Might be a little more power efficient while still making sound by moving air rather than a speaker.

Look up "pink noise".

What type of fan is best for this? Box fans or the round powerful ones?

If you're interested in optimizing, the Dohm classic "sound machine" isn't very expensive (maybe 2x what a decent fan costs), is portable/packable, has tunable sound, but is fundamentally just a fan that doesn't move air around your room.

It's different for different people. The air purifier method suggested works for me, but any fan is better than no fan.

You can buy an air purifier, like IKEA FÖRNUFTIG.

Air purifier white noise is the best. I don't know what it is about it.

It's cause the noise is filtered

Agreed (provided it is a sufficiently large air purifier like Austin Air's Healthmate).

The drumming technique works for me for a few minutes if I need some temporary relief

https://treblehealth.com/tapping-technique-for-temporary-tin...

The only way to temporarely get rid of my tinnitus (completely gone or at least very reduced for up to 30 seconds) is to listen to this beep tone from 8 to 12 KHZ: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNf9nzvnd1k

apparently the phenomenon is called residual inhibition. If only there was a way to make this work permanently...

https://youtube.com/shorts/YyT9ZwWy5Jc?si=PoDNVQ4ox24_RW-l

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.

Whoah, that's weird. I listened to the whole sweep just so I could match it to my tinnitus (turns out: about 10khz), but when I paused it to re-evaluate my own tinnitus, it wasn't there. I mean, it's back now. But still, weird.

Works for me, too. Interestingly enough, playing the Tinnitus Neuromodulator for 20 seconds (with certain sliders set and some off) also works.

Have tinnitus 20 years now. Very loud. Can hear it in cinema while watching action movies. First year was depressing. I couldn't believe I will never enjoy silence again. Now I don't care. It's my little friend. Really. Life can be amazing even with extreme tinnitus

I've had tinnitus since I was a child. It's probably due to a procedure they used to do around here an children with ear infections. Nowadays, I rarely notice it. But I remember in my teens, it sometimes was absolutely excruciating because I had no way of coping or tuning it out. This is very interesting. I might consider trying it. If there's something I'd really want to experience at least once, it's that "absolute silence" so many mention when being out in the forest it country side.

Ear tube surgery?

> Ear tube surgery

Almost certainly. My Dr feels mine created a weakness that enabled tinnitus to develop 4 decades later.

Yeah, thanks. Didn't know the English term. I had them for years, and I've been told by my doctor that's the likely cause to me having it for as long as I can remember.

I'll add this. When I first mentioned it to my Dr (GP, not ENT), he looked in my ears and saw scar tissue. That was all he had to go on.

I was also driving an old car w/ heavy cabin noise and the timing fits. I recently moved into a different old car and will see if anything changes.

edit: The last time I tried to gauge my freq, I put it at about 1150Hz. Today I would say it's closer to 5300Hz. I guess ignoring it includes ignoring changes.

ref: https://onlinetonegenerator.com/

This is pretty cool, but unfortunately I have somatic tinnitus, so this doesn't work as well. The frequency/tone is very dynamic with my version of tinnitus and I can even change it by moving or massaging my neck (especially at the base of my skull) in certain ways. The good news is that also means there are brief windows of time where I have zero tinnitus because my neck and muscles are in a position to temporarily fix whatever underlying issue is causing it.

I can relate.

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).

I assume that I have somatic tinnitus because my tinnitus seems very associated with tension in my jaw, should and head. But every medical practitioner I talk to about this just seems say "uh...huh...what" and makes no effort to understand or investigate the phenomena.

I have found doing the Alexander Technique helps me quite a bit with the tinnitus.

I started hearing tinnitus a decade ago in a quiet room at night when I came back home after two years traveling the world at around 30 yo. Over the following months it became louder and noticed it more, then after maybe a year I could hear it all the time. During the day I could live with it but in the middle of the night I could not get back to sleep after waking up. It was causing a lot of anxiety because I was afraid of how much louder it may become.

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.

> It was causing a lot of anxiety because I was afraid of how much louder it may become.

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

I thought I was alone but there is so many comments I wonder how much people is there and if it’s really random or if there is common sources like some stress, airpods or some kind of psychoacoustic event. I have like 3 different frequencies and it « exploded » in a stressful event at work. I always thought it was music all day with AirPods but it might be stress actually because everytime I’m tired and stressed it’s unbearable. A nightmare that we learn to live with. I often ask myself what the sound would look like if demodulated and de-pitched if that makes sense. It might seem weird but a voice modulated at a very high frequency and pitch might look like those kind of noises or I am wrong ?

I have low pitch rumbling in my right ear. MRI was useless. Hearing test "perfect". Its hard to sleep without background noise. I think its a damaged blood vessel in my brain or neck: veinous stenosis.

I still want to try one of the ones with the cyberpunk pacifier that shocks your tongue to stimulate neuroplasticity.

Is there any evidence that those things actually work? I haven't done a lot of research on it, but I asked my ENT about it and she said that they don't have a great success rate and they're pretty expensive so I don't want to pay for it.

Maybe I could apply for a clinical trial.

I had great success with Lenire, at the end of the six month (twice a day, 30 minutes) treatment the intensity of my tinnitus had definitely decreased, but almost more importantly I'd been reconditioned not to focus on it as much.

I... disapprove of this.

...why? Especially given your username!

Purely for the username. A cyberpunk pacifier has err... mental conjurations... I think are best left alone ;)

How would replacing a buzzing sound problem with a synthetic buzzing solve the problem of... not hearing any buzzing?

It's like trying to put out fire by lighting more fire, what am I missing?

Because the brain is really weird, and tinnitus is often a completely internal neurological phenomenon.

The sound machine linked here was really helpful for me when I had some distressing tinnitus due to concerts several years ago. If I listened to this somewhat loudly for several minutes, I'd then get about 2-3 minutes of what felt like pure silence. And for a little while after that as the tinnitus came back, my brain interpreted it as a gentle white noise instead of a continuous high-frequency tone. Then it went back to the tone a little while later. So if I was having trouble sleeping due to hyperfocusing on the tone I'd first pop in some airpods and listen to this for a few mins.

Nowadays my tinnitus is much less bothersome. Probably a combination of objectively getting a little better, and me getting more acclimated to it. Plus I've been using good musician's ear plugs for all my concerts and raves since then which stopped it from getting worse.

It's like how swimming is confortable but having a wet spot on your shirt isn't. Your tinnitus dilutes in the harmonic background noise.

Bit off topic but anyone here use white noise with their young kids, as a sleep aid?

I'm really paranoid about giving them tinnitus. I am just back from holiday with extended family, I mentioned to my brother that the white noise he is using with his kids is extremely loud, he's using a phone app. To the point my daughter moved rooms out of his kids room. Google ai agrees with me that hearing damage is definitely a risk. I mentioned this to him and it went down really badly. I'll not mention it again.

Here’s my hot take on tinnitus:

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. ;-)

While "white noise" is the colloquial phrase, it's also a technical term that refers to a different noise spectrum – one that will do serious damage to your hearing if you listen to it loudly enough to do anything about tinnitus. (When played on ideal equipment, white noise has infinite energy – which is clearly not what you want to deliver to your ears.) You're probably thinking of brown noise, pink noise, or perceptually-weighted grey noise.

Dont know why you are getting downvoted

I wish this would have more upper range sounds; it barely touches on the >15khz range at all and is at least two octaves below my tinnitus across the board.

For me personally, looking for solutions like this and researching tinnitus makes it more noticeable and worse. The best approach for me has been to pretend it doesn't exist and is insignificant, and even though it's still there after 7 years, it doesn't bother me as much anymore.

> looking for solutions like this and researching tinnitus makes it more noticeable and worse. The best approach for me has been to pretend it doesn't exist and is insignificant

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.

One of the insidious things about anxiety and panic disorders is the feedback loop of focusing on the distressing symptoms, which causes more distress, which creates more symptoms, etc. For many the "way out" for anxiety is to create space and simply allow the unwanted sensations and feelings to exist.

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

I tried it out but it did absolutely nothing for my tinnitus. All it does is put out a bunch of changing tones (my tinnitus never changes tones, so I'm having trouble figuring out what this is supposed to do?).

Lots of people giving good feedback on it, though. What exactly is it about this site that works for other people?

None of the sliders sound anything at all like my tinnitus, which is a very high complex hiss, maybe up around 6-9Khz? and steady, or varying slowly in volume. But no beeps or boops like this system.

It's not meant to mimic tinnitus, it's intended to help you cope with tinnitus. Tweak the settings until you find an arrangement that helps you. Of course, there are no guarantees. Personally, I like it.

Why is everyone here having tinnitus in their left ear? Including myself.

Left ear too. Was noticing disproportionately more left ear sufferers but thought it was a bias.

huh... me too

Because I can't hear you over the sound of stereo tinitus

Whoever is suffering with tinnitus, try this - firmly press on your jaw muscles - if your tinnitus amplifies then it is related to your clenched jaw muscles! A therapy on these muscles will either reduce the tinnitus or will completely make it go away! Wish my doctor told me that years ago instead of doing useless ct scans and hearing checks. Wish you all silent nights!

My tinnitus gets louder when I press my jaw/cheek, but no amount of neck/jaw therapy, exercises, or dry needling has made any difference.

The scans and hearing tests are not useless, they help rule out the nastier causes of tinnitus. Calling them useless and going straight for jaw therapy is potentially dangerous advice for some.

Sure, give it a try, but don't skip the rest of the diagnostic process.

Can you please tell what kind of therapy you did ?

physical therapy exercises, eg https://youtu.be/lwWDbZrGDPg

Yes. This pretty much. As soon as you know where to dig it becomes so much easier.

I'm so happy mine is gone. It came in waves for me and funny it enough, it sounded like ocean waves crashing [0]. I used to play ocean sound for my kids to sleep, so I didn't notice that a good part of the sound wasn't coming from the device, but from me. It was unbearable for several weeks before it just disappeared.

[0]:https://idiallo.com/byte-size/nightmare-on-ocean-street

One thing that seems to help me with tinnitus is the Airpods Pro when you customize it for your hearing. Like they have a tool on the iPhone/iPad that will (essentially) set up an equalizer in it that matches your (lack of) hearing.

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 posting in here about how they can’t figure out the cause of their tinnitus.

Mine was ear wax. I went to an ENT doctor for an unrelated issue, he pulled a big plug of wax out of my ear, and my tinnitus (which was quite bad and had a very sudden onset) totally disappeared.

If you have it, go get a doctor to look in your ear before you give up and decide to try to live with it.

See also: https://audionotch.com/app/tune/

There is a company called Auricle that is working on releasing their tinnitus treatment device. To my knowledge, they are the only tinnitus treatment device company with a properly blinded study showing efficacy. They have started taking outside (accredited) investors for those interested:

https://www.auricleinc.com/joinourmission

I started having tinnitus right after a COVID infection.

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

Mine started after covid also, see further up tho it actually recently stopped and i couldn't figure out what had changed apart from taking a complex b supplement for a couple months.. Cant hurt maybe?

36yrs with tinnitus, but this website looks like what happens when chatgpt and a tinnitus sufferer vibe codes better than nothing I suppose ... Or is it?

No, it’s pretty old and created by an Audio Engineer.

Sounds like it's not, but even if it was made by a doctor that desperately wants to bring relief to the tinnitus sufferers of the world who used AI to create it, what difference would it make?

White noise is key here. Luckily I do not have tinnitus, but I have small children and they sleep great with this on. And so do their parents, especially handy when going on holiday in noisy hotels etc. I can't go on holiday without it now! :)

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.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMfPqeZjc2c

This appears to be brown noise, not white noise.

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....

It is striking that it sounds like Brian Eno - An Ending (Ascent)

My tinnitus is at 14khz, so every tone in this generator is too low.

I have mine since 2007 in both ears. Simply accept it.

Suggest trying Brown Noise for a bit of relief.

My AirPod pros gave me or really exacerbated my tinnitus

Same. I read that this only happens if you use noise canceling.

If you are on iOS seems you need to unmute your phone.

Like others I have tinnitus that only now really rears its head in extremely quiet environments or when I see the word "tinnitus" or someone says it. Then I am reminded I have it.

I think I have always had it; I became more aware it was abnormal and unusual in my twenties when I realised that TV dramas use a similar high pitch sound to indicate someone who has had sudden hearing damage (after an explosion etc.) and then it really bothered me for a while because I was living in a very quiet area.

About six years ago now I was at a gig at a local venue when I experienced hearing loss due to a freakish bit of bass feedback. I was in a particular corner of the room and clearly experienced an overtone that almost nobody else heard at all, and at a volume nobody else experienced; pure bad luck. The sound made me run away automatically. I was thirty yards away before I even really comprehended that I was leaving.

I experienced considerable hearing loss — muffled, incomplete hearing — for several days. Nearly complete for the first day.

But when my tinnitus came back I realised I felt sure I was going to get my hearing back essentially entirely. It was curiously reassuring. I've never really been stressed by it since.

So I have what I expect to be lifelong tinnitus. But also earplugs now.

A bunch of people with tinnitus in their left ear. That's kind of weird. That's what I have.

Anyone 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!

I only have it in right ear.

First kid had colic and measured crying at close to 100db, basically two months exposure to a jackhammer… Always held on right side — maybe a coincidence…

Right ear here.

I too had exactly the same constsnt ringing in my left ear.

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.

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