Introduction

Hello
My name is Ray and I am from Gosnells, a suburb to the south-east of Perth, Western Australia.
I gained Tinnitus from working on a farm most of my life - two things set T off, that was working long days on open tractors (no cabs in those days) when the roar of the engine was constant - the second was stupidly using a high-powered rifle with no earplugs (something else we didn't do in those days). I first noticed ringing in my ears that didn't go away like it had been, in about 1984 and have had it constantly since that time.

I have two types - a white noise (a bit like surf) above which there is a high-pitched whistle. I find it hard to describe the whistle - maybe the whine of an electric motor would be the closest. I am using Hushtinnitus - a UK-based program that uses downloadable masking sounds (several types alternating sound and silence from 15sec to 15mins) I had a technical analysis done when I first went onto the Hushtinnitus website - then I downloaded many types of masking sounds.

I have been using a white noise masker (15mins repeated so it is continuous) that is giving me some relief, having reduced the volume of the white noise. I am contemplating now, however, switching to a whistle masker to try and combat the electric motor, which the white noise masker has no effect on. In fact with the surf now less volume, the whistle is more prounced so has become a bigger problem.

Many years ago (early 2000's) I went to a clinic here in Perth and paid $5000 for a lousy set of a half-dozen classical music tracks on a flash MP3 player (that stopped working after three months anyway) and fortnightly hearing tests - no counseling (my hearing is not bad, I don't need hearing aids which they tried to sell me for another $5000) - so I considered that whole program a complete rip-off and I am now very sceptical when I see T programs advertised. Things seem to have improved, however, and I now see many programs that advocate masking with counselling so maybe they are of value. Hushtinnitus was only about $50 US and even now it has well and truly paid for itself for the relief side alone - I would have obviously been happy to pay a lot more than that.

I am no longer farming. I work in an office job and ride a (quiet) motorcycle daily - earphone music on the bike does a good job of helping me to ignore the T and mask wind noise which apparently is bad sound.

So that's me (oh by the way I am 68 years of age) and I will follow you people on the forum with great interest.

Thanks
Ray

 

Welcome, Ray! Sounds like you're doing all the right things. I'm still struggling but hoping to habituate eventually! I visited Perth 35 years ago; such a beautiful city. We drove there from Melbourne. What an adventure!