Angry, Can't Believe It — What Kind of Tinnitus Is It That You Don't Even Know You Have It?

So just quicky, coz I deliberately set my alarm for 4am to study, but anyway, we were talking about unilateral tinnitus in class yesterday so after I went up to the lecturer and said "look, I've got unilateral tinnitus and blah, blah...." and she says back "Oh you dont have a problem then, I also have unilateral tinnitus but i didnt even know I had it until I started audiology". WTF!? What kind of tinnitus is this, that you dont even know you have it? I'm pretty sure that means you dont actually have it, if you cant hear it, ever, then clearly you dont have it, and she just looked at me like it was no big deal and then i nearly punched her in the face with anger! haha

 

94% of healthy people with normal hearing and no history of tinnitus will hear their own tinnitus, tinnitus that they never knew they had, when placed in a sound-isolated chamber and asked to listen for any sounds they can detect. Asked to describe the sounds they hear under such circumstances, they describe the same types of sounds that people with severe intrusive tinnitus describe - buzz, hum, ring, crickets, teakettle, roar, etc. (Heller & Bergman, 1953)

Incidentally, therein lies one of the problems researchers face when trying to come up with a cure for tinnitus. How do you cure something that is present (admittedly to a small degree) in 94% of the healthy population??!! Do you cure only a certain loudness? And wouldn't that cutoff be sort of a moving target?

Stephen Nagler

 

there are people who have had T all there life or since they can remember and until one point didn't know that Tinnitus existed or that it is considered a symptom/diesease if you have ringing in the ears. So many of them just thought it was normal ( especially if they can only hear it in a quit room) and that everybody had that. Of course those aren't really bothered by their Tinnitus or maybe only start to be bothered once they realize that is an abnormality. So probably that's also the case for your lecturer.

 

these people must have rediculously quiet tinnitus then, if they can only hear it in a quiet room. I hear mine over everything except the shower, and that EVEN if I'm actively trying to not focus on it by thinking about other things

 

Karen-

Has your T reduced over the months/years since the change or stayed the same?

Greg

 

I think your emotional response to it is the key, hate it and it will totally drive you nuts, mine is in my left ear and is never silent... have to ask everyone often to repeat them selves.... I have to turn on the closed captions to read TV, since I can't hear half the sounds, or more to the fact of understanding the sounds..... but when you give into the T, and truly believe there is Life after the T, a good life, you will not get better. Its all perception.....

 

Neenie
I hear mine over everything too! It's a way different situation than your instructor.

BTW: what's unilateral T?

Mark

 

I don't know how relevant this is, but when I first noticed my T, my initial thought was that I felt like I had it forever and that I had just tuned into it.

 

Volume....Volume....Volume.

If there's no volume there's not much to light matches about.

If it's a bloody 747 taking off in your head, then there are legitimate thoughts for a self directed SAM missile. However, it sounds like your instructor should be the target...though do stand out of the way Neenie as they are "heat seeking" and an 'anger flare' may attract it...Ahhh, well, then I guess you wouldn't have a tinnitus problem any more. But remember we want you around to figure out the cure! So just go low tech and punch.

 

I remember hearing T as a kid, when hiding in a closet playing hide and seek...thought it was normal and everyone heard ringing...some nights I even found it soothing to go to sleep too...like I would tune into the sound and it would put me to sleep...weird huh?! LOL... I've tuned in and out over the years, but this year a new hum set in and figured it was stemming from my sore neck (tmj) it comes and goes..then the worst was the beeps with H...that's the new tone...and some days it reacts to external sounds...I hate H more than anything though..and the bloody ear spasms and pain!!!

 

T in one ear ... bilateral is T in both ears.

 

they hear the sound of their organs but once they are out, they hear nothing like all of us before.

 

I respectfully disagree.

The sounds of their organs are "somatosounds" - not really tinnitus.

What they are hearing in a sound-isolated chamber isn't the sound of their organs. What they are hearing is the cortical expression of all of the spontaneous activity in their auditory pathways. They are hearing tinnitus.

Stephen Nagler

 

this is also a good way to think about hearing loss induced T, that your hearing loss in a particular range is like a sound-isolation chamber in your head. The mind overreacts when stimulus is removed, to the point of creating hallucinations and phantom sounds.

What I think would be interesting it to know what sound T the non-T people heard in the sound chamber...

Most hearing loss T is shaped by the hearing loss range.

so what T sound does a person hear when all the sounds are removed?

 

I spent time in musician sound proof rooms reading books waiting for my friends to show up and never heard the sound of my audio cortex....

I must say i have a noisy heart, i can feel every pulse at any moment so maybe that covered the half decibel noise that my ears could produce at that time.

 

According to the study they heard the exact same variety of sounds people with severe intrusive tinnitus hear - buzz, ring, crickets, roar. teakettle, etc.

Stephen Nagler

 

... because you were not purposely listening for a sound. These folks thought they were undergoing auditory testing and were trying to hear the sound they believed the audiologist was introducing to the room.

The 1953 Heller & Bergman study is a true classic in the tinnitus literature.

Stephen Nagler

 

Kerry
I know what you mean (kinda weird); I have T in one ear (left) but sometimes my right ear will do a little ring and then fade out. When I think about it, I recall it used to do that when I was a kid (I just never really paid attention). Some people have said that everyone has T (to some degree); they just don't know it.

Mark

 

Hell, its all about volume...If I had to go into a sound proof booth to hear my T. I would consider myself one lucky fellow.

 

I hear that only place I can't hear my T is in the shower!

 

@Relic Hunter Exactly... Volume is everything! My T was not bothersome until it became so worse nothing masks it... All the articles saying that its not much the volume is the person are completely wrong and honestly don't have T. Each person has a different perspective and sometimes that helps with T but I think volume is the factor that impacts the most!

 

Volume, multiple sounds and on top h or other ear problems

 

Well ~ Neenie ~ ( is that how she spelled it) did you really want to smash her in the face ``` Well ~ it's here for us ~ unless I'm the only one and the rest or you are making fun ```







onjig or Richard ~what ever first I feel like ```