Hi, My Tinnitus Started About 30 Years Ago, It Has Got Considerably Worse

Hi Everyone,

New to this forum, but have been browsing for a while.

My tinnitus started about 30 years ago, difficult to deal with initially but managed to get used to it eventually. Now realise that it was actually quite a low level and could mask it with low level sounds, however that has now changed.

Reason for joining, is its got considerably worse and struggling to sort it out and have joined to see if can find out why and at the same time, help others with anything that i can find out which helps.

Wishing you all , the very best

Alan

 

Welcome to the forum.
When tinnitus is new or at a new irritating level, and the ringing is causing much anxiety and panic plus sleeplessness, it is advisable to get masking going so you won’t be so anxious and fearful and can sleep better. Stress and anxiety are toxic to T. So try masking if you haven’t done so. When my T was new, I used to mask all day just to prevent panic attacks from hearing my ultra high pitch loud dog whistle T. Try these if you haven't yet. Best of luck. Take good care. God bless.

1) Mask at bed time if having trouble sleeping, by using a sound pillow or sound machine with pillow speakers. There are good sound machine & pillow therapy systems like this one: https://www.amazon.com/Sound-Oasis-...d-Oasis-Therapy-System-Speakers/dp/B00MH5HKTA

2) If you need masking on the go, try load an ipod with nature sounds or music using itune. If you have a smart phone, you can download free APPs for soothing or T-masking sounds. Use wisdom in the use of headphones or earbuds as extended use or excessive volume may hurt your ears. Try set the volume slightly below that of your tinnitus.

3) With PC & speakers, you can try these excellent masking sounds to see which one masks best:

TT's excellent audio player: https://www.tinnitustalk.com/audioplayer/

or this online sound library, particularly the self-mix nature sounds: https://mynoise.net

or download free sound generator ‘aire freshener’: http://www.peterhirschberg.com/mysoftware.html

or click play to mix these sounds with this simple sound generator: http://asoftmurmur.com/

or search youtube with words like 'tinnitus masking sounds', 'white noise', 'rain sound' etc.

 

Have you been protecting your ears from moderate sounds (e.g., the sound of a loud pub, vacuum cleaner, blender, motor boat, etc.) @AlanE ? Why did it get worse, in your opinion?

 

What has changed, that has brought on the "New" level of irritation? Tinnitus can happen and change for many reasons, but there are some activities and habits that do take it to the other level (More horrible). Share that with us, so we can better understand....

I have had mine since 88 and it started out as a low hiss/tone and i was young back then and didn't know what tinnitus was or how to manage it. Due to my foolishness and being a young, i made mistakes and now my tinnitus is beyond garbage..We..live and ...learn.

So, if you could give some reasons as to why, your tinnitus has gotten worst, we can try to offer some suggestions...

 

Hi @AlanE

Same deal here. Mine was at a low level for 22 years. Things changed around two years ago. Possibly starting with an accident and airbag going off. Then another noise exposure happened and I developed reactive tinnitus and a gradual worsening. I'm still trying to figure things out. Was there any particular period of noise or stress that may have contributed to your increase? Did anything else change in your life? When did it worsen?

 

Hi,
Thanks for the replies.
I have written a longer post which explains why i think my T has got much worse.
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/thread...-spiked-several-months-ago.23201/#post-267048

What i am trying to ascertain is
Why the noise? I can handle the slight loss in hearing, but why does it have to create a noise?