[fexed]

I've had it since I can remember. One of my earliest memories, I was 1 or 2 years old, was "playing" with it while falling asleep at night: I'd focus on it and made the ringing grow louder and louder till it was the only sound in my ears, then it steadily grew quiter till I fell asleep. Nowadays, I'm 27 years old, my brain filters it out, but I can still hear it when it's quite. Perhaps it's one of the reasons I always have some background lofi music playing.

[FLT8]

Also had it as long as I remember, at least since I was about 7 or so, which makes me think it's not related to high level noise exposure. I know that because I have clear memories of asking other kids whether in times of silence they could hear anything. It surprised me that they couldn't.

My tinnitus is a kind of hissing, predominantly at a very high pitch. I'm in my mid 40's so grew up around CRT TVs. I think it's about the 15kHz horizontal refresh frequency, which makes me wonder whether my brain was trained at a young age to expect CRT TV sounds to be around and now it's just a permanent artefact, like a noise cancellation circuit that's gone wrong.

I find it gets worse if I'm run down, or eg. If I drink too much alcohol, or if I wear headphones for too long.

If I think about it, I can hear it at any time, but generally it's not too bad. I know it's not very helpful, but acceptance of it and shifting focus to other things definitely helps me, to the point that it usually fades away and is generally not noticeable at all.

[deergomoo]

Huh. I’ve also had it for as long as I can remember, and now you mention it mine is also almost identical in pitch and sound to CRT whine. I’m only 30, but I didn’t get my first LCD TV until I was a teenager.

My hearing in general is fine, although I have always struggled a little with understanding people unless they’re facing me. I can hear them just fine, I just can’t always parse what they’re saying. Maybe related, maybe not.

I should be thankful at least because mine never bothers me. Like GP I thought this was something everyone experienced.