Neuroscience may offer hope to millions robbed of silence by tinnitus

PBS ^ | Updated: Nov. 6, 2013, 11:28 a.m. ET | BY JENNY MARDER

[steve86]

I've had this for about 20 years and mostly manage to ignore it until someone mentions the condition or I read an article like this one.

I have pretty bad "visual floaters" and any mention of them like this comment I'm making causes them to seem much worse for a while.

[wizr]

I’ve been taking Effexor (or Venlafaxine Er) for many years to help as an antidepressant. Still have ongoing tinnitus, just don’t notice it as much sometimes.

[The Cajun]

Just like mine. I just ignore it most of the time.............

Think a lot of us do that until it's mentioned, then you become conscious of it until you get your mind on something else.

One thing for sure, you learn how to not fixate on it.

[wizr]

Mine sounds like the constant high pitch electrical noise we were surrounded by in Nike Herc radar vans.

[GrandJediMasterYoda]

I heard about that stuff but I thought it was another one of the 1000s of scams they got out there. So it really worked for you? I’m hitting the drug store tomorrow, I cant take this anymore. It feels like someone put a whistle in my ear and it wont stop blowing EEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

[wizr]

Thanks. Now I realize why the VA hasn’t wanted to test my hearing. There are others that need attention more than my little problem.

[acapesket]

Lucas, that is exactly what mine is like as well but sometimes when I wake up, it intensifies.
I have always likened to living in a very loud bayou!
Mind you, I have never been to the bayou...

[silverleaf]

yes,it worked for me. They say something about it helps improve the blood flow to the vessels in the ear.

I got mine from permanent damage from medical malpractice while I was on active duty. Ruptured eardrum. I got a nasty infection, I believe, when I slept in a roach infested barracks in Korea and woke up with roaches in my ear.
They never could quite treat it and cure it. So now I am half deaf plus have tinnitus, but not too bad.
Hope it works for you- I got it online

[Eaker]

It is amazing!

I tried something similar in the past but the 2x4’s kept breaking.

[AMDG&BVMH]

BUMP! Thanks.

[Inyo-Mono]

Like most all right handed telephone workers, my tinnitus increased with my hearing loss in my left ear. Left handed workers lost their’s in the right ear...... decades of having test sets cradled to our ears.

Same here. 30 years as a radio announcer with head phones on. For me it is both ears. I really hear it at night when trying to go to sleep.

[Gene Eric]

Stupid article. Forgot I had it... jeez.

[Eagle9]

There are many free audio tests at different frequencies and decibel levels at the following web site.

http://www.audiocheck.net/audiotests_frequencycheckhigh.php

My tinnitus and partial hearing loss at different freqs comes from my military service when I was eighteen years old.

[wintertime]

That is my experience as well.

[OneWingedShark]

See an ape-like slouch in many young men today--no stiff upper lip. No attentive obedience, either. It's a spiritual matter.

You're right about it being a spiritual matter.
I have a theory about it though, which is essentially this: society today places no value on any inherently male trait, indeed it seems more and more that the mere attribute of "male" is viewed as a liability and almost only in negative terms.
(E.G. men tend to be logical thinkers, logical thinking is not valued in society [as opposed to in an occupation] — see how men are not welcome in the legal profession, as litigants [divorce/family courts] nor is desiring logical uniformity/consistency in law viewed as a positive, but rather as some subversive anti-authority stubbornness [I've had some rather unproductive stints at trying to find out how to chalange contra-constitutional local-level laws].)

[GrandJediMasterYoda]

That is really bizarre because that is the EXACT frequency I hear in my head all the time. I wonder if it’s possible to find a tone or sound wave that would cancel that tone out, I think it’s an Ab note so I dont know what would work against that. Freakin’ thing has gotten so bad for me lately I can barely sleep and spend the whole day in a daze. What’s strange is when I tilt my head to my back as far as it can go it gets much much louder as if the nerve causing the sound is being squeezed.

[CivilWarBrewing]

"I feel your pain". One thing you might want to try at night is get a small battery powered pocket-sized AM/FM radio with ear buds and wear (just one ear bud inserted is fine) in bed to mask your tinnitus, tuned to talk radio to divert your attention away from the tinnitus until you fall asleep. 'Coast-to-Coast' 640FM (west coast) can be very interesting late at night.

You'll fall asleep with ear bud and radio, but no biggy. If you sleep with someone, they can hear for you if something goes bump in the night.

This should enable you to at least get some sleep. Keep volume low so as not to agitate your tinnitus, but just high enough to divert your concentration away from the tinnitus. It's somewhat of a catch 22, BUT AT LEAST YOU WILL GET SOME SLEEP and that is more important.

I have studied tinnitus to no end. There is no cure for it. You have to train yourself to ignore it. That is the best remedy for tinnitus. LOTS of people have it, especially older people. LOTS!!!

[GrandJediMasterYoda]

OK thanks Ill try that. I tried running water sounds in a ipod but they eventually shut off but that’s a good idea a radio. Yeah that’s what I’ve been hearing, learn to ignore it but the thing is it’s gotten much louder and it’s really tough. I’m praying this thing don’t get any worse to the point it drowns out all other sounds because then I could totally understand how it could drive someone absolutely insane.