Hello There

Hello I'm new here and my name is not really Garak and I have had Tinnitus all my life.

I've had Tinnitus for as long as I could remember and it most likely happened as the result of a loud VW Bug motor when I was a baby.

When I was a kid I thought that everyone heard the ringing and that it was completely normal to have it. After watching movies and TV where characters would talk about silence as if it was a pure ringingless thing I started to question it. However no one seemed to believe me or thought that I was speaking of the temporary kind. That changed years later when a build up of wax in my ear caused it to worsen. The wax was then removed and the Tinnitus has resumed to its usually level.

I tend to hear it the most during times of silence such as while taking a test or trying to sleep. I don't find it that much of a nuisance though. Instead I find it fascinating and makes me feel a little unique, but of coarse there are those times when it almost seems to hurt the inside of my ear. So the biggest downside, I think is that I don't know what silence sounds like.

And that is my Tinnitus story

 

Hello Elim!

Just a thought, but silence is exactly what you hear. That is what silence is like to you, so therefore that is silence. I actually envy you. My tinnitus has the habit of driving me nuts at times and I wish I could be used to it just like you are...to the point where it's my perception of silence.

I don't think anyone can hear true silence, the ears just aren't designed that way. Maybe the only time we experience true silence is in death.

Just a thought!

Mark

PS.
Ziyal : Well, what's going to happen to you?
Garak:Ooh well, let me tell you a story. I once knew a Cardassian, a dashing, handsome young man with a promising career, but one day, through no fault of his own, he found himself exciled and alone with nowhere to turn. But did he give up? No. He struck upon a brilliant plan: instead of fleeing for the rest of his life he sought shelter in the one place no one expected him to go: in a stronghold of his people's most hated enemies. There, surrounded by hostile strangers, he built a life and there, against all odds, against the merciless logic of the universe itself, he thrived.
Ziyal: By becoming the greatest tailor in the galaxy.
Garak:And the moral of the story, my dear, is to never underestimate my gift for survival.