Do Most People Have Tinnitus?

After developing mild tinnitus one month ago (noise induced), I began voicing my concerns to my family and friends, as one would.

As I began talking to more and more people, so many friends reached out to me like 'Oh yeah I've had mild tinnitus for years now, you get used to it', or I had my family be like 'now that you've mentioned it... I hear ringing when in a quiet room too'.

Which gets me thinking, do some people have tinnitus and not even notice?

My tinnitus is mild, but as someone with OCD, I noticed it straight away and are constantly bothered by it... but I guess it is a more common problem than people think? Lots of people have tinnitus to a degree it seems?

Just wondered if anyone else had found this or had any thoughts.

Hope you're all keeping well

 

I think the simple answer is YES; if we generally accept tinnitus as a symptom in the case of hearing loss/damage where dead/damaged hair cells are not sending enough signal to the brain. Agreeing that it is a symptom would allow us to apply it to literally everyone; as everyone likely has some form of hearing damage. Either from a significant event. or accumulated over time.

For most people, the damage/loss isn't significant enough to hear it in a normal environment, so it goes on the back burner of their mind. For most of the people on this forum, unfortunately, that is not the case. It is present at most normal environmental levels; and most likely the damage is sufficient enough that there aren't sufficient hair cells to send signals to the brain to quiet it down.

In my journey with this symptom, I have also learned many close family and friends also have experienced some degree of tinnitus, either chronically or that lasted for months. It seems like not enough people talk about it; or maybe I just didn't understand until I got to live with it full-time.

Speaking anecdotally. I have probably had tinnitus long before it became noticeable in normal settings in 2019. Sometime in 2007/2008, someone fired off a flare gun about 3 feet from my left ear. From then on, I noticed a slight hum sound; but didn't think much of it since it was only noticeable in dead-quiet rooms. I didn't know what tinnitus was, and frankly, being young, didn't think much of it. I also knew that the ear that was damaged definitely had a "dull spot" in terms of hearing. Fast forward to now, and it is definitely still there, along with the everyday tinnitus that I experience that started in 2019. The point of this story is to note that for me, gradual damage and death of hair cells probably made the tinnitus more noticeable; reinforcing the idea that hearing damage and tinnitus is probably more widespread than is currently known.

 

A lot of people probably do have it and don't realise it. I myself was terrified of getting tinnitus and regularly checked - never such a thing, until I did get it lol.

I know plenty of peoplw with mild tinnitus who are able to live normal lives. Mine is unfortunately moderate, which makes it a little harder.

 

Very, very many if not all people have some amount of self-generated noise in dead silence. They never hear it because the ambient noise level in a normal apartment drowns it out completely.

The amount of people that have tinnitus they can hear all day every day is probably pretty low. But yeah, I bet there's a large amount of construction workers or whatever that have it and don't care or talk about it at all.

It's all about the volume of the tinnitus I think, I had tinnitus so low I forgot I had it before it became a thing I hear constantly over everything. It's simply not comparable. There's tinnitus, and then there's tinnitus.

Yes, I think certain people have a tendency to notice it and focus on it also. Just like people experience pain very differently.

 

Lots of people have tinnitus but it’s usually mild and not bothersome. Mine went straight to moderate meaning I can hear it over most things and also have hyperacusis so it has caused me great stress but since getting it I’ve learned 2 of my close friends have tinnitus and have for a long time but they only hear theirs at night as a really quiet ringing. I also have a few coworkers who have tinnitus that is a bit worse off than that, but also doesn’t bother them as they still go to loud places, listen to headphones, etc. All of us are in our mid twenties. When I asked my friends if they hear a ringing when it’s quiet they were both shocked to hear that it’s not normal as in - some people hear silence (like I did prior to my ear issues).

My circle of friends has a lot of people that are very into music and go to lots of concerts and festivals, lots of sports events, bars with loud music, headphones, etc so I’m sure many have tinnitus, it’s just fairly quiet. I think mild tinnitus, especially when it isn’t accompanied by gyperacusis is fairly easy to get used to.

There are tons of people on these boards who say they had mild tinnitus for years that didn’t bother them, until it worsened. So my guess is lots of people have it they just don’t care because it’s not loud.

Those of us on here seem to either have moderate to severe tinnitus, with a few “‘mild tinnitus” folks mixed in who have a hard time coping with it due to OCD/anxiety as you said.

 

I had a very, very quiet tinnitus before, around 2014. I remember an especially quiet night with all windows closed that I could hear a very, very quiet computer sound. I thought it was my computer getting old but it was turned off. Then went to check out the surge protectors, power supplies, going out to living room to do the same. Same very quiet ring. I got really scared that night but when I woke up in the morning, I couldn't hear it (probably because it was masked by morning activities) and so I put it out of my mind. Fast forward to 2018 I got an ear infection on my right ear and a very loud ringing appeared but it was still mild. And now 2020 it has become moderate. To this day, I can't tell if my very quiet and old tinnitus is the same as my current loud tinnitus. Coincidentally, I started heavy usage of earphones around 2010 before I noticed a very very quiet tinnitus in 2014.

I believe many people do have tinnitus but some also do not have tinnitus. I definitely do not remember having tinnitus before 2014, however minor.

However, I tested my family members. My mom has very, very quiet tinnitus only with earmuffs. My dad who has moderate hearing loss has zero tinnitus. Some of my older sister's do not hear tinnitus at all in a quiet room with ear muffs. But, all my nephews and one niece have mild tinnitus, where the can hear it when they stuff a pillow to their head.

I guess it really depends on how much noise exposure and good/bad genetics that a person has. I'm maddeningly envious and jealous of my 94-year-old dad with moderate hearing loss with zero tinnitus.

 

Many people of my acquaintances in their 50s and older - probably around half in that age group - have been telling me they have it and "can hear it in a quiet room". When I tell them about my tinnitus in detail however, they soon go quiet. And when I tell them about hyperacusis, sometimes they freak out a little.

 

To bethadtr:
It is incredible the number of people, including relatives, close friends, neighbors on my block, etc. who affirmed that they too have this condition when I inquired. My ENT doctor said that this will be an epidemic condition for the retiring baby boom generation; his practice receives at least one new patient reporting this for every day of the year they are open.
None of these otherwise afflicted people I know have regarded this as an invasive catastrophe in the slightest as I have, and have not felt the need to make any expenditures on treatments, supplements, or even hearing aids.
I often chastise myself for not having their mental resilience (and for having spent about $12,500.00 on useless attempts to remediate this).
The human consciousness's truly amazing variance in reactivity to different external phenomena reminds me of a story I heard from a World War II Vet. He said there were guys in his regiment who were super macho ( like Burt Lancaster in "From Here To Eternity"), fearless in combat, and given a wide berth even by men known for their pugnacity.
However, when it came time to line up for inoculations, they would pass out at the sight of a needle.
Don't blame yourself for even a semi- freak-out reaction about this. Various researchers are now mindful of previous sudden, baffling, shocking events in a person's individual history that may predispose him/her to a greater, more entrenched PTSD response. This explains why habituation has in various instances only a very limited effect; the patient throughout his/her history may already have had to undergo several similar surprise-attack traumatic events that exhausted and undermined his/her capacity to cope with such new "reaction formations".

 

It also could be that most of the people you mention have mild tinnitus.

When it’s not loud, doesn’t change pitches/sounds by the day, isn’t reactive, isn’t accompanied by sensitivity to sound, ear pain, face pain, ear fluttering and spasms, or visual snow, it’s very easy to get used to and which is why the majority of the population who have tinnitus don’t see it as a catastrophe.

I don’t really think mental resilience has much to do with it for the most part.

 

A lot of people have the mild hiss or buzz, but not too many have the severe loud multi-sound fluctuating reactive tinnitus with a side of TTTS and/or hyperacusis.

 

To Orions Pain:

I have none of these additional symptoms you describe and it is still agonizing for me to remain in a quiet bank, office or library and be capable of concentrating. It has not been very easy at all for me to get used to; in fact, my capacity to function over the last six years and seven months has been very sorely abraded.

Also, the ATA mentioned that 12 million Americans now annually seek out an ENT doctor for this affliction. There has been an exponential, dramatic increase in the number of people who have not been able to cope any longer with this (to whatever varying degrees they experience it).
Another reason why the people I know have not sought treatment is simply because no real thing yet exists. Also, the majority of the American Working Classes cannot afford professionally developed hearing aids, which is the only venture I undertook that was partially successful.

One of my friends who has this (and lives alone) has to take such measures as playing classical music very loudly when he goes to sleep in order to mask it.

Another person actually (if you can believe it) feels compelled to play the Three Stooges quite loudly as a sleep masker.

Being compelled to do this is an indication of how crazy behavior becomes normalized by the influence of tinnitus.

You are correct though; it is not a question of mental resilience but, as I described, the amazing variability in people's responses to invasive phenomena. I am convinced this has everything to do with prior PTSD experiences and the genetic, biochemical makeup of each individual's brain.

 

Ooh ya I meant most who have tinnitus don’t care about it just have a very quiet mild sound without additional symptoms present. Or perhaps not most but the majority. Not to say those symptoms all need to be present for someone to be debilitated by it! Loud tinnitus in it’s own is horrible.

I also agree that being a high anxiety person or having existing trauma definitely makes it harder to deal with this thing and a genetic predisposition is present without a doubt.

If someone has a hard time coping with really really mild tinnitus (and I don’t mean mind subjectively as I know even mild tinnitus can be horrible to an individual) but I think we can all agree that a slight eeee in a silent room is mild. Something like this for sure falls in line more with mental resilience/genetics and perhaps for these type of cases CBT can be useful.

Our world is noisy and our ears haven’t had time to adapt so I think this will become a major issue in the years to come and we desperately need scientific advancement in the field of hearing health.

 

Most people have been to a concert. It is my understanding (having never been to one) that concerts are loud these days...

 

When I first got it at 19 and mentioned it to people I know, a couple of them said they have it but were a lot older than me - I’m yet to meet anyone early 20s like me with it in person.

They didn’t seem bothered by it and continued to go to clubs and festivals most of the time without earplugs as well. I think the majority of people have it mild, and the people that have it severe are the minority.

When I mention hyperacusis nobody has a clue what that is and a lot of people don’t even seem to think it’s possible, even doctors on the NHS lmao.

 

The mild "can only hear it in a quiet room" tinnitus and the "so loud I can't even think" types of tinnitus should be listed as 2 separate conditions.

One has virtually no effect on the quality of life, while the other could be life ending, both metaphorically and literally speaking.

As long as there is a wide spread misconception that tinnitus is "one size fits all", there will be victim shaming along with questioning of mental resilience (or even attitude) of the severe sufferers.
The playing field is anything but even.

 

“I’ve been saying this for years Harley’”

 

I'm not sure I'm willing to call the type of tinnitus you can only hear in complete silence tinnitus. With the way moderate and severe tinnitus impact life, it's like calling both a small cut on the finger and a chopped off arm "a cut" because it's the same core idea.

 

The difference between mild and moderate (and even worse) is something that needs to be talked about more for sure. I know a lot of people with mild tinnitus - a tone only in silence. They got used to it within a few months and all wear headphones, go out etc all without trouble or worry. I think this is extremely common - way more common that the current suggested figures, to be honest.

But once you're beyond that mild point it's just such a different thing/experience. I had no tinnitus (at least nothing detectable in super quiet rooms when plugging ears) previously, but I didn't even get to have mild as a warning. One moment and your life is changed.

Mild tinnitus, not so much - and there's plenty that struggle with that already.

 

I'm coming to learn that there is a HUGE difference between a mild constant tinnitus in the background and the kind that fluctuates drastically and is extremely reactive. Having the latter is endlessly burdensome and easily runs your life and state of mind. It's infinitely incomparable to the kind most people usually experience.

Being that mine will switch back and forth from a mild fuzz that won't react to anything, to a high pitch stabbing pain that I guarantee will make you consider ending your life, I know there is a gigantic difference. The mild kind is incredibly easy to ignore and forget about without any effect on your state of mind.

 

Yeah, it's almost unsettling how little knowledge there is of hyperacusis even amongst health professionals. One of my mum's friends is a teacher at a deaf school using sign language (although she is not deaf herself) and even she kept on telling me it was just 'anxiety' and that all my symptoms could be attributed to that. I have an appointment at an NHS 'tinnitus clinic' for my hyperacusis in the near future... I wonder how it will go. My expectations aren't very high.

 

100%!! In the past 10 months or so I’ve had maybe 3 mild days and it felt like my life was almost *normal* besides hyperacusis of course. The sound was there but hardly audible or bothersome and my mood instantly increased. Of course it always goes back to my baseline which I’d describe as moderate and occasionally is borderline severe and makes me jump back on the suicide train. This up and down kills me.

 

Yes all people in this world with no exception have tinnitus, believe it or not. For most people it is just so mild that they need to be in an anechoic chamber to hear it. There's no real "silence".

 

Not to mention that the bad version of this condition includes the isolation caused by family and friends telling you it's all in your head, which still happens to me 2 years later.

 

Technically speaking, it is all in our head, it's generated in the brain

 

Yes Jazzer, I cannot stress how important this distinction truly is.
It is very hard to be taken seriously, when people always seem to point out to "old uncle Jack", whom apparently had tinnitus for decades and he's "just fine".
Then you of course find out that sometimes uncle Jack can hear it even without having to plug his ears.

Here is what I would like to see in Wikipedia, various educational pamphlets and the home pages of the BTA and ATA:

Severe tinnitus is a horrid condition, which is completely different from the milder forms of the common tinnitus and should not be confused with it.

The 24/7 torture of severe tinnitus will essentially force the brain into a perpetual "high alert mode", which makes sleep (or any form of relaxation) extremely difficult, if not impossible.
There is no way to mask it and there is no way to escape it.
Since humans require sleep in order to properly function, this leads to a state of complete mental and physical exhaustion, which then leads to suicide.

Since there is currently no cure or a treatment available, severe Tinnitus is essentially a death sentence.

This would be a good start to spread some awareness about the fact that tinnitus is not the same for everyone.

 

I don't know how this thread went off topic between mild tinnitus and moderate/severe tinnitus but I'll chime in too.

A few months after my tinnitus onset, my tinnitus was mild. I can faintly hair it in normal room with all windows closed. I can hear it quite loudly in a very quite room. Like everyone, I got depressed and anxious but I came to accept it because overall, the mild tinnitus was quiet in everyday activities, even in a non-noisy office with all windows closed.

However, once my tinnitus got worse to moderate, where I can hear it loudly in normal rooms, walking outside, driving a car in a free way, it is an entirely different and debilitating pain.

Mild: it was an annoyance.
Moderate/Severe: debilitating, like pain.

And as a person who had mild tinnitus for two years, I also did not truly understand the severity of people's suffering with moderate/severe tinnitus.

It is very, very hard for people to understand moderate/severe tinnitus because even some mild tinnitus sufferers don't understand it.

But then again, this goes for many other diseases and disorders. People don't truly understand until it happens to them.

 

I don't think so. I know a lot of people with it, most mildly, but I think I know more people with obvious NIHL and no tinnitus or tinnitus so minor they don't consider it such.

 

I was seen on the NHS for tinnitus and hyperacusis. They basically said don’t overuse earplugs especially in normal noise level environments, use sound enrichment e.g a fan where possible, and gave me white noise generators which I used about once, and told me it would get better with time.

Over 3 years it went from a 8/10, cant withstand a normal conversation, running water, cutlery clanking, dogs barking. To about a 1/2-10, can be in a loud lecture Hall or pub with no issues but certain noises can trigger it a little bit if it’s loud and I’m close.

 

Glad you've recovered. I wonder how useful they will be for pain hyperacusis - I tried sound enrichment and it just made my pain worse and my ears burned afterwards. It would take days for it to properly subside too so continuing wasn't really feasible. Granted I have improved a lot since then but I still have issues with artificial audio so can't really listen for anything from a laptop or phone without it hurting my ears after a while (delayed reaction).

 

Hello. When your hyperacusis was an 8/10 how did you experience your pain/discomfort? Lile was it like a stabbing pain, things sounding uncomfortably louder, burning? Any TTTS? Happy to hear at least that has improved.

Was your tinnitus reactive?