Everyone Has Tinnitus

Hello again. Everyone has tinnitus. An E.N.T. once explained to me that everyone over 20 has tinnitus. So why do you suffer with such a strong perception of yours while they don't? Do you think yours is much louder?
Here is a link that you may not have seen before:
http://www.familydoctor.co.nz/index.asp?U=conditions&A=32674

Here is a quote from that article:

• Virtually everyone is able to hear their own tinnitus if placed in a quiet enough place (such as a recording studio).
  • About 1 in 4 adults regularly hear their own tinnitus in quiet surroundings, especially in bed at night.
  • Of these about 1% have severely distressing tinnitus.

I post this because I believe it coincides with what I posted yesterday.

If you are irritated with anything I have said or done in the last 24 hours, ask yourself why. That may be a clue as to why you suffer.

Also one more thing. I have noticed in the past that being nice to strangers reduced my suffering. Holding the door at a store, stuff like that. Don't ask me to explain it, it's just something I noticed over the years. Be nice, be kind, but if you are letting yourself be a doormat, this must stop right now!

 

Very quiet rooms are a form of sensory deprivation, which is not a natural state for humans and that's why most people can hear some sounds which are not there. I wouldn't classify those as tinnitus though.

"In 1953 Heller and Bergman performed an simple and classic experiment. They placed 80 tinnitus free individuals (university members) in a sound proofed room for 5 minutes each, asking them to report on any sounds that might be heard. The subjects thought they might be undergoing a hearing test, but actually experienced 5 minutes of total silence. 93% reported hearing buzzing, pulsing, whistling sounds in the head or ears identical to those reported by tinnitus sufferers." - http://www.tinnitus.org/tinnitus.html

 

OK great. I am glad you wouldn't. I am going by what the E.N.T told me and also by what the doctor wrote in the previous article of which I posted a link.

 

Hey @Toddcrowther I think this is more a question of what is classified as "tinnitus" in the way we here think of it than a question of whether or not everyone has head sounds. If you're saying tinnitus is any kind of head noise if you're in a quiet enough space, then sure, I'd agree most everyone, if not everyone, has tinnitus.

For lack of any better term, I consider tinnitus to be the ability to hear those head noises in situations that one would not normally be able to hear them, regardless of whether the person is bothered by it or not. I would agree I had head sounds I could hear if I were in a sound-proof room prior to having "tinnitus". However, I would also say, yes, it is a lot louder now. I do not suffer from it at present after some time/habituation/etc, but it's still audible in conditions it was not audible in prior to my loud-noise incident. I think that's all @Sound Wave meant. His quote of a study also essentially said everyone has head-noise if you're in a quiet enough space - so I think you two essentially agree.

Also, I don't think anyone has been irritated by anything you've said since you've been here - we're all happy you're doing so well! Success stories are always welcome! I think the hallmark of this particular site is how positive and open it is - yay tinnitus talk

 

Tinnitus is only tinnitus if you can hear the noise ! There is such thing as total silence in a quiet room. If I plugged my ears before t , I heard nothing at all. And I heard total silence in silence.

 

I did a hearing test before I get tinnitus, I didn't hear these noises while it's so quiet .

 

I think SoundWave is right on; the reason people who don't have tinnitus hear it in a sound proof room is because of ghe sensory deprivation. Essentially the cochlea stops communicating to the auditory cortex and the brain tries to amplify things. But these people don't have tinnitus in any normal environment, i.e. in a quiet room, they don't hear any tinnitus noises.

Tinnitus sufferers, on the other hand, don't have to be in a sound proof room to hear the phantom sounds. In fact we can often hear it even in very noisy environments. Before I had tinnitus, which wasn't very long ago, I didn't hear the whining noise I hear in my head now.

So I can appreciate the attempt to make us feel more normal, but let's just be honest. Not everyone has tinnitus in the way that tinnitus sufferers do. As well meaning as this is, it sort of frustrates me because it almost seems like an attempt to belittle our suffering.

 

I am a musician, and pick up the smallest of sounds. I remember complete and utter silence. I miss it very much. "Everyone has tinnitus" seems to be a hand holder statement for the tinnitus community.

 

B.S. ...

 

OK Great. I am glad you have your opinion and you are more than free to disagree with the article I posted written by some doctor. For the rest of you, I suffered badly for over 15 years and now I am out of prison. I believe it can happen to you too. I honestly never ever thought I would be like this again but here I am, so I recommend you don't put too much stock in the naysayers. Like I said before, I went to the emergency room twice and the psyc ward once among other things, yet here I am.

 

If everyone had real tinnitus, to the extent that many of us have it on here, a cure would have most definitely came out ages ago. So in my opinion, no, not everyone has tinnitus.

 

Glad you're healed Todd. But to say everyone has tinnitus is sort of like going up to someone with a broken arm and saying, "Well everyone has arm pain". As for that article written by "some doctor" the problem is many other doctors have already explained why in a sound proof environment people who don't have tinnitus will develop temporary tinnitus. You can look up the research.

 

It's been a while since I have done some "old school" research on tinnitus. But, if I remember correctly from some of the older studies on tinnitus, the tinnitus-free patients who were put in a quiet room did not immediately experience tinnitus symptoms. Tinnitus was something that developed after a minute or two in those cases (and very mild, of course). This is significantly different from a "real" tinnitus patient; that person will experience tinnitus immediately when entering a quiet room. In fact many can hear their tinnitus all the time...

 

I think perhaps its a matter of explaining the outcome. Ive noticed before that if I think very intensely that a certain body part aches, after a time it will start aching. I think if anyone is asked to focus on a sensation really hard, they most likely will find it. Perhaps this influenced the outcome of the study.

 

I would suggest that the ENT in question either goes back to med school, or better still, decide on a career outside of medicine.

Strictly speaking, the ENT is (probably) right to some degree. The auditory system in human beings is not a perfect construction (just as we have people with short- or far-sightedness). There probably is some (very) mild tinnitus in a lot of people. But there is a huge difference between "natural tinnitus" and "pathological tinnitus".

You may be trying to be helpful, but I don't find your posts helpful.

 

That is what they also explained to us in a German tinnitus clinic.
Maybe this is true for mild tinnitus. My head is buzzing and whistling like crazy today.
If this is a normal sound my brain makes and filters are not working... I don't know.
It is unbearable.

 

That's very true. But I suppose it's also true that a lot of people not considered to "have" tinnitus, do hear some head noise if it's very, very quiet. And they search for it. I too remember silence not long ago. But I also feel like I do sort of remember some faint noise if it was ever dead silent, and I searched for it, and maybe even if I cupped my ears. Though obviously now it is much louder, especially when sleeping. And my T is basically pretty darn mild I would think.

 

It's unfortunate you do not find my posts helpful. Hopefully some people do. Perhaps it would be best if you avoid them for your own sake. I am deliriously happy and I wish you good luck.

 

Thank you for being glad for me. Hopefully you will experience this as well soon. As I posted earlier, I believe it is possible.

 

Hi Martin. If you are like me, there is some sort of conflict inside. The Eagles said that so often we live our lives in chains and don't know we have the key. I take it further and say that many of us don't even realize that we are in chains, so to speak. I believe that figuring this out is the first step to being rid of it. I am not looking for an argument
so those of you who disagree, I would appreciate it if you disagree in silence, because I am stating this merely as opinion, not fact.

 

Lisa's post above has it right, your views are a handholder for some with T. If it helps you then great, I'm genuinely happy for you, personally I don't need that as an emotional crutch but we are all different.

 

If everyone has tinnitus, why have structural brain changes associated with tinnitus been identified (changes not observed in non-tinnitus population)?

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19413945

http://www.ata.org/sites/ata.org/fi...tional_Magnetic_Resonance_Imaging_12_2009.pdf

 

Because there is a difference between natural tinnitus and pathological tinnitus.

When ENTs or posters say the stuff they do in the first messsage, it is because it meant to be "provocative" in some way. That's all...

 

As well as the 'everyone hears tinnitus' debate, at the risk of drawing attention to the emperor's new clothes I don't understand what TC is talking about. An epiphany, yes I understand that, but so vague, why suddenly join this forum yesterday to spread the good news and then be so dissembling? If you are trying to help people why not be more specific?

 

@Toddcrowther
Todd
I'm so glad to hear you are healed from T after 15 years -- that's awesome! I missed the other post to which you referred; I'd like to read your story.

P.S.
My audiologist says everyone has tinnitus to some degree too; but not like us (ugh).

Mark

 

As I understand it, the study at the center of this topic was when participants were put into a soundproof room and asked if they heard tones, as if in a hearing test, but no tones were played. It would make sense that the mind would then make up things to hear under that sort of duress.
This study does not show that everyone has tinnitus. Far from it.
Pre t, I spent many times in a soundproof room with no sound at all. Absolute silence.
Just as in quiet environments, silence was such bliss.

 

Exactly my point. Of coursse if you ask people to focus they will probably start noticing it sooner or later.Anyway, if that is true and if there is a difference between the pathology with "normal" tinnitus and a person with "abnormal" tinnitus Id expect a change in the pathology of one with mild tinnitus and one with severe tinnitus as well.

 

"Everyone hears, but not everyone cares", might be a better way of putting it..

Out of sight(or hearing), out of mind. Sounds themselves are phantoms, in a sense, as the brain creates them itself.
There is no tangibility to a "sound". It is just a cracking of the neurons, which we perceive as a noise.

The brain can create T only because it creates "sound", Sui Generis, in the first place. Silence, if one can call it that, is an illusion. It is just the blocking of a noise, phantom in itself, that is being created whole cloth in the brain, regardless of external stimulation.

The brain's "job" is to make "noise", and that it does constantly, even in dreams. Think of it. Noise is just a form of brain processing. T happens when the filters that give the illusion of "silence" are un-blocked.....in that case, simply not giving a d--m might be filter enough, especially at initial onset of T.

Fear in itself is a brain "filter".......it causes one to focus inwardly, to freeze. Natural cognitive flow is interrupted. Like a log in a river, it jams/gums up the processes.

To remove fear from our neural processing not only helps our T, but helps get us past negative thinking in general. Like the Qi energy the Chinese mention, only then can thoughts flow freely. Rigid patterns of thought help no one. Fear and
negative thought in general is just calcified thought. This is why therapists work so hard in getting patients to unfocus on traumatic events. They are logjams that are calcified, almost like freezing time itself in the mind.

Perhaps this is what happens to all people with "bothersome" T. They simply freeze the fear they had at onset of T, and are never able to let the same go...

 

I think those people reporting T in a quietened room are misinterpreting the sound of silence!
When I first got T, 24 years ago the only way I could describe it was when in a quiet room and silence starts getting loud, that was my T but three times as loud as the sound of silence. Yes I still remember being in quiet places and just listening to the sound of silence, I would have that over my T anytime!

 

Everybody has cancer too...