tinnitus

today my left ear settled down, weird

Yeah, I have tinnitus and hyperacusis (I'm 40) but my hearing is fine. I actually did better on my least hearing test than the one five years before.

this is super weird since everything i can find about tinnitus indicates associated hearing loss, especially where there's hyperacusis. tinnitus is such a fucking weird thing. recent research points to some people's brains inserting the noise and others' brains just not.

xp I've been to the GP about it, and they had a look and (TMI time) I had *massive* amounts of ear wax in both ears

it's possible the ear wax is inhibiting the sound hairs in some way, but as per above i don't know what i am talking about

I was hoping so (re wax) but they removed it all and the tinnitus didn't change

I was given the fear of putting cotton buds in my ears as a kid so I've never tried to clean them out myself, so that was 42 years build up they removed. It was quite impressive, reminded me of that Father Ted episode where they make candles out of Father Jack's ear wax.

I was hoping so (re wax) but they removed it all and the tinnitus didn't change

oh i misread that you’d had the second syringing done. sucks.

At what point exactly will I be able to claim that almost 20 years of tinnitus qualifies me for... some level of recognition? Not sure what level exactly, a degree of fucking patience or understanding on the part of my employers for persistent sleep disturbances, deafness, and social anxiety due to not being sure I hear things properly. It affects me and it has a knock-on effect on any of the other various conditions I suffer from. I mean seriously, have you tried to sleep when your ears sound like an old TV tuned to static? Have some fucking respect, for fuck's sake.

Mine's been very noticeable the last few weeks. One time it almost always surfaces is when I wake up after falling asleep in front of the TV for an hour or two.

I have what I would consider a minor amount of tinnitus for someone my age (64). It is just one tone, not several, and not very aggressive. I notice it most when I am awake in the quiet hours of the night. I just try to ignore it as best I can, which seems the best option available to me, unless they invent cheap, easily attached, artificial ears that work better than new.

Is there a way to hide threads? I don't want to see this one because it reminds me and then I have it.

sorry stanm, i don’t think there’s a way to hide individual threads (greasemonkey maybe?)

today i was in a meeting and suddenly recalled a friend (being a dick because kids) firing an aerosol rape whistle in my left ear in the ‘90s. that’s the ear which has the hyperacusis and the louder ringing. on remembering that, i freaked out so much i nearly passed out in the meeting. incredible how a physical trauma can suddenly hit you 25 years later.

but as i mentioned upthread, i had basically forgotten about this for a few years, so i’m guessing it’s been like this for so long that i’d subconsciously normalised it. also, the rape whistle incident might not have had anything to do with this. it’s all guesswork at this point, but more importantly it’s ancient history.

the hyperacusis (or recruitment?) itself is bizarre. most of the time it’s not very perceptible, but if someone is talking loudly it causes me discomfort i can’t really pin down. this has been the case for as long as i can remember, but until this week i had no idea why. it’s most pronounced if i put in earplugs and then speak normally, which makes my left ear sound completely like a blown speaker cone. again, i think this has been going on for decades, i just didn’t think about what it was.

i’ve also had trouble understanding normal speech forever, which i always thought was just me being stupid but is probably this.

so where I’m going with this is that i‘ve only just realised i’ve had hearing loss for a quarter of a century. this is probably one for veg grrrl’s absent-minded thread tbh.

and the only thing that’s really upsetting me right now is that i can’t talk to anyone about this, even ‘er indoors, because i don’t want to remind them of their own hearing issues they might have forgotten about. so i’m sitting here half-watching ‘making a murderer’ and feeling numb as fuck.

CBT was really helpful to me, if it's affordable. I don't know where you live, but if it's London, I know a guy.

There's a book by a guy called David Baguely that's also helpful. Somehow knowing a bit more about the science is reassuring and causes less anxiety.

At what point exactly will I be able to claim that almost 20 years of tinnitus qualifies me for... some level of recognition?

I think about this a lot! People don't realise how strong you have to be to deal with it sometimes, how often you have to resilient and not freak out. I suppose people with most disabilities feel like this.

otm, there’s a maddening element to any long-term ailment which most unafflicted people don’t ever think about, e.g. how people endure untreatable chronic pain for 30+ years is just completely unfathomable to me.

CBT was really helpful to me, if it's affordable. I don't know where you live, but if it's London, I know a guy.

There's a book by a guy called David Baguely that's also helpful. Somehow knowing a bit more about the science is reassuring and causes less anxiety.

thanks for this! i’ll definitely have a look at that book. you’re right about understanding the science – this video made me feel a lot less like a sadcase and more aware that some of us just have the wrong brain (and that it’s potentially treatable in the coming years/decades).

re cbt: for now i’ll just hang on and hope i go back to my years of blissful ignorance (?–2013, 2014–2018), but if not i’ll go back to the incredible psychologist who ended my lifelong severe anxiety in ~3 months. as the damage to my ears happened half my life ago, i can’t very well get worked up about it now.

oh jeez, that david baguely book is aud$150

oh! that's an old sciencey one - it's this one, more of a self-help book

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B009CH8X10/

fantastic, reading the sample now

Jolly good. If you ever feel desperate and need someone to chat/moan to, do feel free to drop me a webmail!

cheers! i'd make the same offer but my webmail address is long defunct, but i'll be here anyway if you need support &c.

Non-stop the past three weeks. Not sure if there's a connection to what's going on--I was thinking that all the silence plays a part.

Went through a very anxiety-filled week, also a week of almost non-stop tinnitus. I know a couple of things that were causing the anxiety, but I think the tinnitus played a role. I've read that stress/anxiety can be one of the contributing causes of tinnitus; I get the feeling it's like a feedback loop, though, and the tinnitus in turn exacerbates the anxiety. Today, for reasons as mysterious as ever, almost no tinnitus--and it was such a relief, I felt calm the whole day.

I got written up at work right around the same time as the pandemic started to kick in and my tinnitus volume level exploded. it's not great! its gotten less extreme lately but I also got laid off from the aforementioned job so I have no daily stress, just long term stress.

i wish you both well.

i keep meaning to start meditating. i think you're exactly right about the feedback loop, clem.

Huh, didn’t know about the anxiety and stress link. Would l-theanine help?

I got that from the Mayo Clinic site (under "Lifestyle and Home Remedies"):

http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/tinnitus/diagnosis-treatment/drc-20350162

To help with the anxiety, I bought some Melatonin over the counter a couple of days ago. I guess it's possible that that helped with the anxiety, which in turn helped with the tinnitus...but that seems a little too quick and too easy. I think it's more likely today's break was attributable to the randomness of this crazy thing.

Haven't noticed a correlation between noise and heat before but the ringing is fierce today. Coincidence?

I haven't noticed that, but it's something you'd have to consciously check. I'm on my second quiet day in a row after a few days of non-stop activity.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/new-tinnitus-treatment-alleviates-annoying-ringing-in-the-ears/

Steep price tag, not surprisingly, but promising. I'm guessing some of it would be covered by insurance.

electrically stimulating touch-sensitive neurons in the tongue or face can activate neurons in the auditory system

Say what?!

My tinnitus is noticably higher in one ear than the other. I feel the need to tune my head.

It's such a mystery how all over the place is. I think I can categorize and roughly quantify it:

40% of the time, it's either not there at all or I'm not conscious of it, which as a practical matter probably amounts to the same thing. When I am aware of its complete absence, especially when out walking late at night, it's like a gift.

25% of the time, it's very faint--there, but not a bother at all. I'd accept this 100% of the time if given the choice.

25% of the time, it's actively annoying, enough to spoil a walk.

10% of the time, often after waking from a nap with the TV on, I'm thinking "Are you kidding me?" And I regret every time I ever listened to music really loud in the car.

from that xpost Scientific American coverage: Our approach is to make everything in the auditory system much more hyperactive to everything but the tinnitus.
Reminds me of reading long ago that William Shatner was trying a headset, I think it was: white noise biofeedback, auditory system learning to ignore tinnitus. He said it was making a significant difference, but I don't know about long term results

just listen to Merzbow once a week (not kidding)