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 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.
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.
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
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 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.
The hissing is still there, but I can now ignore it most of the time.
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 :/
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.)
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 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!
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 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 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 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?
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’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.
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!
Another message of hope: I'm mid-late thirties and had the exact same. Daily tinnitus from December 2024 through to around August 2025.
I went through MRI etc to no avail.
Then one day I felt something (extremely deep in my ear) just 'release', like a tube unblocking or pressure equalising. And the sound went away and (fingers crossed) hasn't come back since. This was after daily issues for 8-9 months solid.
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.
I'm on that same journey. 8 months ago, I was sitting at my desk and all of a sudden my left ear just went out. The ringing was there. I figured the same that it was wax. I've always had wax issues with that ear that require a doctor's office visit. (trying the home kits has only made it worse!) But this time the doctor came in, looked in the ear and said, "there's no wax at all in that ear". What followed sounds much like your journey. Visits to ENT, CT Scans - waiting on an MRI to ensure there's no tumor... All the while I went from having great hearing to having to say, "say that again" all the time.
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.
There are lots of interconnecting bits inside and around the ear, and with that in mind...
Can you try something? Find a very quiet place, one where you do hear the tinnitus.
Move your jaw as far to left, and then to the right, and notice if the tinnitus stops, changes, or alters at all.
Next, get a firm hold of your earlobe of the tinnitus ear, and pull and hold it away and at various angles from your head; you can do this earlobe move separately or in combination with the jaw movements.
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.
I've had it for years in one ear as well as measured and diagnosed hearing loss in the same ear. At first it would come and go and then it became permanent.
In my experience, I barely notice it on a day-to-day basis.
What I have noticed is that it's worse/noticeable when after a night of drinking and if I'm tired/stressed.
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.
I am pretty sure I've had it my entire life and for a long time I just thought it was the background noise of the universe. Never bothered me till I figured out that wasn't the case.
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. :)
Did you have Covid a short while before noticing? One of the not uncommon but under reported side effects is permanent hearing loss, which associated fallout such as tinnitus.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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...
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 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.
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'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.
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 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 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.
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.
My first reaction to this was, "this is dumb and annoying", and then I played with it for a few minutes and found a set of levels that were causing my symptoms to briefly go away. It still isn't perfect, but a combination of Steve Seq and Pulses High creates "gaps" in my tinnitus, where my brain seems to "forget" about it briefly and I don't hear it. But then it comes back a millisecond or so later. I don't think I could get work done with this on all day, but it has more effect on my symptoms than other websites I've tried. It's really interesting, like there are brief (millisecond) periods of no tinnitus. [I've had it in my left ear for probably 35 years (I played in a punk band in the early 80's with no hearing protection but it didn't show up until a decade later).]
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. ;-)
[+] [-] tombert|5 months ago|reply
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.
[+] [-] guilamu|5 months ago|reply
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.
[+] [-] Aurornis|5 months ago|reply
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.
[+] [-] reify|5 months ago|reply
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
[+] [-] BobbyTables2|5 months ago|reply
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 .
[+] [-] victornomad|5 months ago|reply
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:
The hissing is still there, but I can now ignore it most of the time.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 :/
[+] [-] tptacek|5 months ago|reply
[+] [-] semitones|5 months ago|reply
If you ever find something that works for you, please reply here @tombert, I'll do the same :)
[+] [-] oh_my_goodness|5 months ago|reply
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!
[+] [-] manoDev|5 months ago|reply
- 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).
[+] [-] ectospheno|5 months ago|reply
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.
[+] [-] jv22222|5 months ago|reply
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.
[+] [-] GioM|5 months ago|reply
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?
[+] [-] hyperpl|5 months ago|reply
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.
[+] [-] breendreams|5 months ago|reply
[+] [-] Towaway69|5 months ago|reply
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!
[+] [-] butler14|5 months ago|reply
I went through MRI etc to no avail.
Then one day I felt something (extremely deep in my ear) just 'release', like a tube unblocking or pressure equalising. And the sound went away and (fingers crossed) hasn't come back since. This was after daily issues for 8-9 months solid.
[+] [-] LeoPanthera|5 months ago|reply
Please consider a local noise generator. Static is incompressible so you're using quite a lot of data.
[+] [-] cnnlives8387|5 months ago|reply
[+] [-] nobleach|5 months ago|reply
[+] [-] semolinachops|5 months ago|reply
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.
[+] [-] geophile|5 months ago|reply
I would really like to experience total silence at some point, but that seems very unlikely.
[+] [-] IndySun|5 months ago|reply
Can you try something? Find a very quiet place, one where you do hear the tinnitus.
Move your jaw as far to left, and then to the right, and notice if the tinnitus stops, changes, or alters at all.
Next, get a firm hold of your earlobe of the tinnitus ear, and pull and hold it away and at various angles from your head; you can do this earlobe move separately or in combination with the jaw movements.
Do any positions improve the tinnitus?
[+] [-] mft_|5 months ago|reply
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.
[+] [-] WanderPanda|5 months ago|reply
[+] [-] epolanski|5 months ago|reply
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.
[+] [-] thekurst_|5 months ago|reply
In my experience, I barely notice it on a day-to-day basis.
What I have noticed is that it's worse/noticeable when after a night of drinking and if I'm tired/stressed.
[+] [-] bad_haircut72|5 months ago|reply
[+] [-] nswest23|5 months ago|reply
[+] [-] sixtyj|5 months ago|reply
[+] [-] stubish|5 months ago|reply
[+] [-] brianhama|5 months ago|reply
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.
[+] [-] r2ob|5 months ago|reply
If you're suffering from tinnitus, remember, at least you're not bald and 5'2" tall.
[+] [-] Refreeze5224|5 months ago|reply
[+] [-] Arch-TK|5 months ago|reply
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.
[+] [-] joshdavham|5 months ago|reply
The fans don’t totally block out the tinnitus, but they sorta act as an undistracting distraction.
[+] [-] janmo|5 months ago|reply
apparently the phenomenon is called residual inhibition. If only there was a way to make this work permanently...
[+] [-] lexx|5 months ago|reply
[+] [-] tarr11|5 months ago|reply
https://treblehealth.com/tapping-technique-for-temporary-tin...
[+] [-] vinc|5 months ago|reply
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.
[+] [-] shinycode|5 months ago|reply
[+] [-] gikkman|5 months ago|reply
[+] [-] y-c-o-m-b|5 months ago|reply
[+] [-] reify|5 months ago|reply
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.
[+] [-] scragz|5 months ago|reply
[+] [-] larrykubin|5 months ago|reply
[+] [-] dahart|5 months ago|reply
Neuromodulator certainly masks my tinnitus, but doesn’t reduce it. Sometimes I feel like it’s a little worse when I turn off the sound.
Mynoise.net is great though. The speech jammer is awesome in noisy places, and layering noise and thunderstorms helps me work. I’m a happy subscriber.
[+] [-] exasperaited|5 months ago|reply
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.
[+] [-] skopje|5 months ago|reply
Keep at it, I think you're on to something!
[+] [-] nostromo|5 months ago|reply
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. ;-)