I Don't Believe 20% of People Have Tinnitus

You really need to let it go, ain't nobody hold a grudge longer than you.

 

I believe it’s incredibly difficult to really know the percentage of tinnitus sufferers.

I wouldnt be surprised if it’s more than 20 % to be honest.

My dad has tinnitus which he considers to be moderate to severe noticed it one day and googled it, realized it was tinnitus and went about his day. No distress or concern. And never went to the doctors for it.

All he says to me is that it can be annoying but he tries to ignore it. I know about 10 people in my life who have it and all can say they can hear it 24/7 if they choose to listen to it.

I believe it really boils down to the make-up of a person and the severity of ones tinnitus to warrant going to the doctors? Not sure really, just a guess.

 

People handle tinnitus differently, a majority just live with it and it doesn't affect their life.

 

Some people have a brain that can just dismiss chronic tinnitus and not be bothered by it, but plenty of people who can't do this in the beginning will eventually habituate to that very same way of handling it.

 

Why do you say that?

 

I realize now I had tinnitus for many years, but at a very low level. I thought I was hearing electrical or other external noise, but it never bothered me. One day I was at my off grid cabin in almost perfect silence it just started blaring. It has been my constant companion since. My dad was in the artillery (no ear protection). Firing howitzers all day...no tinnitus for him...

 

I am starting to notice that some people just might have "stronger" ears than others (if that makes sense)...some people will get T over the one loud bang...whereas others it won't affect their ears at all. Just my thoughts.

 

People can still choose happiness and still enjoy the sunshine no matter how intrusive their tinnitus is........ It's not easy, but it is possible to do this. Takes patience and lots of self love.

Our mindset is crucial to this.....

 

Twinkle - I have to tell you that the difference in the way people respond to ‘T’ is not the psychological make up of the person.
Many ‘dabblers’ go around patting themselves on the back because they can ignore it, with the obnoxious rider “and you can too !!!”
Even worse than that, they cannot resist the temptation to ‘advise’ real sufferers what to do, how to cope, by offering platitudes and niceties that they misguidedly think will earn them brownie points for being lovely helpful caring people, in the league table of life.
When it is full-blown severe / catastrophic ‘T’ will bring even the most stoical to their very knees.
They will buckle under the pressure!
At this point, anybody attempting to offer ‘gems of superficial wisdom’ would do better to lodge them right up their back passage.
Severity is everything!

Even so, I have to say that in my experience ‘some sort of a life’ is still possible.
I am four years into this ‘SHITE’ and I have come to accept that it will always be there, so I now fret much less than when I fought it ‘tooth and nail.’

I have come to accept the inevitable, I have had to ‘accept the unacceptable.’

 

He got really upset once when I said in a thread that happiness can be a "choice"...like it was a million years ago...but no he still mad

That's what i meant when i said he needs to let it go.

 

20% is incorrect. About 10% have some Tinnitus, but only 2% are severe cases close to disability. It is about 2 million people in the USA.

But even this data seems to be exaggerated.

 

The majority do not have severe Tinnitus,
and that is why!
Severity is the difference whether you like to believe it or not.

 

I wasn't even talking about severe T so just relax lol

 

@Jazzer

I don’t disagree with you when it comes to severity. But catastrophic tinnitus is considered rare when it comes to statistics. I can’t imagine what my response would be if I had catastrophic tinnitus. I really reacted very poorly to my tinnitus and I’d consider it moderate even though I can hear it everywhere. But I also believe that for some with mild to moderate tinnitus may have no negative response and I believe that has to do with their make-up. It’s shown in this forums that there are those who can hear their tinnitus only in a quiet room and have a very hard time coping but there are those who can hear there tinnitus everywhere, like my father, and have no response to it at all and cope quite well.

But I think this goes for other ailments as well. For an example, I have endometriosis and I have very very bad horrible pain in my uterus constantly but I just deal with it and go on. No negative response to it what’s so ever. However, I have a friend who has the same condition and she has a really hard time coping with it.

Does that make hers more severe than mine? I don’t know it’s really hard to say since I cannot feel her pain. Even if her pain was less than mine, it doesn’t make her weaker than me she just copes differently and I try to be there for her the best I can.

 

It's strange that people in general are more aware about habits and foods etc. that might affect their health, but blasting headphones or otherwise noisy lifestyle doesn't seem to concern people that much.

 

Exactly!!!

 

That what you see in health infographics: https://hearinghealthfoundation.org/hearing-loss-tinnitus-statistics/

And I don't believe it; yes ....it's due to a survey with inaccurate questions. Many people experience tinnitus temporarily, many people may hear something in a sound-isolating room...but that's not what T is about.

 

i think its confusing because the statistics they publish can include people who have ever experienced Tinnitus in their lifetime. So 20 percents of us at some point in our lives experience tinnitus is probably more accurate.

 

Strange that given the simple choice of choosing happiness or choosing suicide, they opt for the latter?
Have you ever asked yourself why that would be fishbone.....?

 

It’s simple to say “choose happiness” but it’s actually hard work. It takes time and dedication. Fishbone states this over and over. Why is there so much research on depression, anxiety, therapies etc. If choosing happiness was easy then there would be no point. It take effort and time. And as time passes it gets easier. A motivational speaker doesn’t become a motivational speaker because they woke up one morning and said I want to be a motivational speaker. Usually they had to overcome something so great in life and that gave them the inspiration to do so. Crap, people pay money for a life coaches because life gets rough. Every one has some sort of adversity in their lives. But honestly we have to work at it to overcome it to some extent. I know it’s a heck of lot easier said than done.

 

Exactly, my friend told me he had a little tinnitus, that lasts 10-15 seconds at a time every couple of weeks.

 

Nearly everyone I've mentioned my T to didn't notice theirs so much until I did...which made me feel guilty of reminding them.

Sometimes commiserating your misery with others helps. With T however it seems to upset nearly everyone in some fashion. And best not to tell people there's no cure...there is a cure. It's called: NOT GIVING A FLYING F#%$& ABOUT IT!!!

This Liam Gallagher quote gets me through some tough times:

'Anyone who doesn’t have ringing in their ears can fuck right off.'

 

I’m the only person in my friend and family group to have tinnitus

 

I believe it, but I think for most it's so low that it doesn't register except in very quiet surroundings.

 

That's a personal choice one makes. I have blasting/intrusive tinnitus and I value my life and value the opportunities I have created for myself and keeping creating new ones. You cannot always just pin point a single element in someone's life and say that they act a certain way because of it. Unless you know 100% the story about someone and their life/history, lets not assume or speculate.....

My ears are not getting better, my body pain still remains. My attitude towards life and my self is always getting better. I have deep empathy for those that suffer on this site, I suffer from this intrusive venom. I still wake up and make my days count and that will never change....

I might be an outcast because of my stance on life(turning negativity into positivity) and tinnitus, but that's nothing new to me.....

I force myself to to go the gym each day. Depression as always lurked, but I still work hard at the single life i have to live.

 

To me no matter how much suffering tinnitus causes it's not worth mentioning. Never have I told someone and gotten a reply other than the usual replies which are insulting (replies already mentioned by others in this thread).

In five years only once someone seemed to understand. My audiologist when she first tested me. She thought she had equipment problems because I couldn't hear the high frequencies even at higher volumes. After verifying the equipment I heard her say through the intercom, "poor thing". This is the only validation I've ever received.

"Oh yeah, I have that. Doesn't bother me. Just ignore it." (Who needs to hear that?) Best way to not hear this is to not talk about it.

That's why I finally joined this forum after knowing about it for years. There are a few people here that by reading their posts I know they suffer from severe tinnitus the way I do. I can speak with them if I need to. (Thanks)

 

I got my T and H from using headphones (on low volume). I thought because I didn't listen to loud music on my headphones that I was safe. This is why T sufferers who think it is safe to still be using headphones are wrong.

 

Some have severe tinnitus, but those are in the minority. The level of one's tinnitus could have relationship to many things, such as amount of hearing loss, head or jaw somatic injury - conditions/diseases. Compassion and care should be made available to anyone that's bothered by tinnitus.

Any health problem can and should associate to many forms of awareness. With tinnitus some are: awareness of loud noise, awareness for research funding, awareness for proper medical care and awareness for device and coping assistance. There's many that can't afford proper dental, professional made mouth guards or hearing aides.

We had donations boxes in the dining areas for certain conditions and diseases - for research and care. At the end of each month, each box had a lot of coins and a little paper. Many donated for the care aspect. We never had a box for tinnitus and hearing. There's thousands of hospitals worldwide. Imagine a donation box for tinnitus and hearing in each hospital's dining area across the globe. This would also bring awareness and might make healthcare workers and administrations take more notice to our conditions.