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Metal Machine Music: The Tinnitus Thread

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    Metal Machine Music: The Tinnitus Thread

    In the last few months, it's definitely become a problem. Is it an age thing?

    #2
    I'd been thinking about starting a tinnitus thread for a number of yrs now. Glad you've started it. I've had it for last 9 yrs, can't really say it's gotten worse, but definitely hasn't gotten better. Will definitely add more later.

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      #3
      I had tinnitus until I got hearing aids, obviously not a solution for everyone.

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        #4
        At least 13 years here, went to the doctors with it and he just about laughed me out of the place. More specifically I have almost complete hearing loss in my right ear (from childhood) and tinnitus in my left. I can hear much better with headphones (and especially bone conduction headphones) so working at home has actually been a leveller for me, as it is a big improvement on trying to follow office conversations in the office, particularly when people have a bit of crack and lower their voice to almost a whisper.

        Anyway, let's get it out of the way early. I phoned that tinnitus helpline, but I gave up after a while cos all I could hear was ringing

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          #5
          The head of the first company I worked for suffered badly from tinnitus and would occasionally lie on the floor behind his desk to relieve the discomfort. This wasn't well-known but when it become common knowledge one or two of my colleagues mused thoughtfully about those occasions when they'd entered his office, seen an empty chair and loudly exclaimed "Does anyone know where the useless prick has gone now?"

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            #6
            Mine is almost unbearable in my left ear, the one I have something stuck in. Prior to that, it was quite low-level.

            Gets worse with red wine, which is a shame, as I like red wine in the winter.

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              #7
              I have had it for several decades as a result of attending and playing gigs and, possibly more impactful, rehearsals. I was going to say that I suffer from it but that isn't entirely correct. We once went to stay at a boss' flat in Manhattan. Due to the 24 hour nature of the traffic, there was an instruction that we used the white noise machine that drowned it out. I was somewhat sceptical but, of course, it worked. I realised that you can fall asleep to a constant noise, it is sudden noises that wake you up. I think that this is why people used to tune hotel TVs to static to get to sleep. Basically, I sleep pretty well as it takes a lot of noise to penetrate my internal white noise machine which is why I get very pissed off when something is so loud that it actually does.

              My issue now is that I am genuinely losing my hearing to the extent that I have to have subtitles for pretty much all TV and I have worn earplugs for rehearsals and gigs - both playing and watching - for a few years. Indeed, I managed to secure a "professional" (!) musicians' deal on custom-fitted earplugs a couple of years ago. I was asked to attend a fitting at a rehearsal studio which was the one we rehearsed at regularly. When I got there, they sent me to the room where we actually regularly rehearse. When I got to the room, the bloke had set his equipment up where our drummer sets up. I did mention the irony that he was testing my hearing and fitting for my ear plugs in exactly the same spot where most of my hearing loss probably stemmed from. The resultant custom-made ear plugs are fantastic in that they block off excessive noise while still letting me hear stuff clearly. However, this does mean that I miss the visceral experience of very very loud music. I am, after all, a Motorhead fan.

              As an aside, does anyone notice that - like earworms - tinnitus worsens with stress?

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                #8
                Mine is only in my left ear - still pisses me off as I've been diligent about using ear protection for concerts since the late 80s when almost all of my friends would scoff at the thought. Though like most people, I did treat my ears horribly when I was a young 'un.

                Freaked out big time when it first hit me, now I am totally used to it and it really doesn't bother me that much. I was always a light sleeper and now anything over 7-8 hours of sleep is definitely a rare luxury. Last couple of years I've used a white noise machine at night that seems to help a bit.

                Walt Flanagans Dog - yes, I went to a ear doctor and he pretty much shrugged his shoulders, but I was surprised how many people suffer from it. My frustration is trying to comprehend high-pitched 12 year olds when there are other students talking in the background.

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                  #9
                  Originally posted by Bordeaux Education View Post
                  As an aside, does anyone notice that - like earworms - tinnitus worsens with stress?
                  Ah, now this is something that I was wondering about.

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                    #10
                    Originally posted by Bordeaux Education View Post
                    I have worn earplugs for rehearsals and gigs - both playing and watching - for a few years. Indeed, I managed to secure a "professional" (!) musicians' deal on custom-fitted earplugs a couple of years ago.
                    Earplugs are great. The one I use isn't professionally fitted, it's just from the chemist, but the fact that I've worn one almost every time I've been in a nightclub or other loud music venue since I was about 20 is, I hope, going to make a big difference in the next couple of decades now I'm past the midpoint of my 30s. My best mate's a drummer so has worn them since he was about 12 if not younger, and when he visited me in Manchester near the end of my first year at uni and we went out dancing he told me I should wear one. Made the inside of my head infinitely less spacey come the end of the night, and given that I only have one ear I've always been scared of losing the hearing I've got, so I've stuck with always having an earplug with me if I'm going out to something musicky ever since.

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                      #11
                      Originally posted by elguapo4 View Post
                      I had tinnitus until I got hearing aids, obviously not a solution for everyone.
                      Exactly this. Used to drive me mad, as soon as I got hearing aids it disappeared completely.

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                        #12
                        I’ve had it for about six years now.

                        It doesn’t register with me going through a normal day but once I’m home and the house is quiet it’s all I can hear. Agree also with the subtitles on TV it’s the only way I can view.

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                          #13
                          I've been in the subtitles gang for a long time, its the default setting in this house, to the extent that I get annoyed when they aren't available. As said on the TV threads, modern TV and film (particularly drama) really does seem to try hard to make it difficult to follow speech.

                          My daughter bought airpods a couple of months back and they have some setting on the app which turns them into a hearing aid of sorts, and to demonstrate it she made me try them when we were out for a pub meal - it was effective if a bit weird, picking up random conversations from (socially distanced) tables around us.

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                            #14
                            Had it for years, probably decades to be honest - only in my right ear, never that intrusive and sometimes all but fades away.

                            Last 12-18 months my hearing has deteriorated in my right ear, I presumed wax build up (had it syringed twice in the past) and finally (after Mrs TrL got fed up with me saying Eh? all the time) went and got my ear(s) suctioned out - it made a bit of a difference to my hearing but not to the tinnitus, and the last few months it has definitely got more noticeable, especially if the telly is turned down low. I put the ceiling fan on in the bedroom and the noise from that cancels it out to let me get off to sleep just fine but I may not be able to keep that up if we have a cold winter though.

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                              #15
                              So, at lunchtime I toddled up to the main house and opened a letter, with a new ENT appointment. This morning. At 9.20.

                              I held on the phone for an hour, fighting off a bit of a meltdown, then went round to my mates' for a cup of tea, a muffin and some sympathy. Fired off email to PALS. Messaged my doctor (who called me back and told me to try the hospital again). Then rang the hospital booking team again and they've given me an appointment for 3 December. I can live with that.

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                                #16
                                Good stuff. Ridiculous about the late notification though.

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                                  #17
                                  Yep. The letter is dated 5 November, and says that they might remind me by text (they didn't) and definitely would call me for a COVID questioning (I got one call from the hospital, which I missed, but they didn't say what it was about, and they said they'd call again).
                                  Anyway, 3 December isn't too far away.

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                                    #18


                                    I've had it for about eight years now and I find it to be an fairly accurate health barometer. Too much booze or too little sleep and I'll be sure to have loud ringing in the ears the next day. There does not yet seem to be that much they can do about it, but if your doctor just laughed you off you should find another one. I went to an ear doctor and took some tests. As has been mentioned upthread, for some it helps to get hearing aids as tinnitus may be caused by hearing loss. Much too my surprise, my hearing was more or less ok when I tested with the exception of one lacking tone in my left ear at 5.5 khz, which is the frequency of the sound I'm hearing.

                                    I have tried notched therapy, listening to white noise where the 5.5 khz frequency has been removed (you find these things on You Tube), but can't really tell if it helps or not. Some days it is entirely gone while other times I can hear it very loudly. However, it is interesting that with a little bit of training you are able to turn off your attention and forget about the sound completely.

                                    On the personal plue side, I have become much more interested in sounds as a result of my tinnitus. I have found that the sound of creek and the sound of trees whistling are the ones I find most soothing. The sound of snowfall is great, while the sound of the various planets have the quality of some other-wordly ambient. Saturn is the one I've listened to the most.

                                    Apparently, white men are more prone to suffer from tinnitus than women and non-white men. With the increased use of headphones it is likely that it will become an even more widespread problem, and that we will see an increase in resources allocated to research and remedies.

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                                      #19
                                      Interesting that most of you seem to be able to pinpoint almost exactly when it started. I genuinely can't remember not having that ringing in my ears, even when I was 6 or 7 it used to keep me awake at night. It's not massively overbearing though, I can quite easily ignore it most of the time.

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                                        #20
                                        I've had it in my left ear for about 25 years. Hasn't really affected television watching as I can hear that ok but I really struggle in noisy environments like the pub where the background noise drowns out any conversation, and often makes my tinnitus louder. I'm ok at football matches though (the cauldron like atmosphere at the Deva Stadium is fine unless I have someone loud stuck by me) , so maybe it's an indoor thing. What I really do struggle though is with certain noises, plates rattling probably being the very worse, as it usually always uncomfortable, especially in an otherwise quiet environment. I have got a hearing aid which helps to pick up some conversation but doesn't really improve the tinnitus.

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                                          #21
                                          Crashing crockery is torture for me. I hate those canteen style restaurants that were all the range a few years back, all people shouting, hard echoey surfaces.

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                                            #22
                                            Had it for, oh, a few years now I guess, can't remember exactly when it set in. Weirdly (or maybe not?) I get the really high-pitched thing and simultaneously a very low... throb? Rumble? Whatever you call something that's very low-pitched. Seems to be coming from the middle of my head so I presume that means it's in both ears. Thankfully not loud enough to be properly troublesome but always there.

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