New Member

Hi all
I'm 43 from Australia.
My mother passed away in 2014. I had depression at that time, not sleeping well, sleeping on a floor, bit overweight, the flu. I went to a doctor to clean out my ear which had become infected or just full of fluid because of my flu.

I'm not sure if all or one of these things caused it but I woke up one morning with this ringing and I guess I am stuck with it now.
I moved to China. There is always noise here and I think that helps, being in a busy environment. Also you always see someone worse off than you here. For some people, their lives are struggle x10 than what I have to cope with and that helps a lot.

In Australia they tested my hearing. very tiny hearing loss but hardly any. I've sort of just tried to adjust to it and it's been quite hard. I feel my brain works differently now. Emotions are more difficult to regulate, get tired more easily, have a different feeling in my head, can't sleep as well. In China I went to see an acupuncture person. They admitted acupuncture makes a very minimal difference in most cases.

Recently I started going to the gym and I think it helps.
I appreciate all the people posting their information. The hard thing is many, many medical professionals are dismissive of it as a condition. One doctor told me " You just have to suck it up" and I have since learned this is unprofessional. There are things one can do. Most doctors in Australia I found know very little about it and don't really take it seriously.

thanks everyone

 

@Rod McDonald ,
Welcome to Tinnitus Talk.
I'm glad exercise is helping you and living in China helping you cope better and that is all we can do and takes time to find what is available where you live around the world and hope the future holds more coping therapies or a cure for some of the sub groups of tinnitus.
Love glynis

 

@Rod McDonald
Welcome to Tinnitus Talk.
Sorry to hear about your tinnitus. A lot of us find that we don't really know the cause. I still don't, and it's frustrating, but you eventually learn to accept and move on.

Exercise is amazing, the endorphins give a natural high. It's my drug of choice.
Background noise is our friend, I enjoy businesses and activity as it distracts and masks my tinnitus.

Do be careful to protect your ears from too loud noise, you don't want any further damage. I carry earplugs with me in case I find myself in an unexpected noisy situation.

A lot of us have only minor hearing loss, but an extended audiogram would often reveal significant losses in the higher frequencies. I had a standard one done with a "notch" in my right ear, but when I had an extended one, I had significant high frequency losses. This may be somewhat normal for may age, but may also account for my tinnitus.

Take care and things most definitely get easier in time.
Sam.

 

Welcome to the forum. China is surely a busy place. Tell me about it. I didn't move to China but just came back from there after being a tourist for 3 weeks visiting Hong Kong, Shanghai, Hangchou & Nanjing. Also visited Zhangiagie where the movie Avatar was filmed. Awesome scenic destinations and busy as well as noisy for sure in these cities. Where the heck was T the whole time? I could hear it if I focused on it but honestly with all the actions and commotions as well as noises around, T was just shifted to the background from consciousness.

Honestly we don't have too many members from busy cities like Hong Kong or Shanghai or other major Asian metropolis like Tokyo or Seoul. Why is that? I wonder if that is because the noisy environment there acts as a natural masker constantly to make T less dominant from our senses. Just a thought. Wish you luck in getting better. Take care. God bless.

 

English is not their mother language which hinders their attendance.

 

I am very sure that there are many Ts in Asia especially big cities with noisy environment.
Also many motor cycle riders in Asia like Vietnam, China or Taiwan which are noisier than automobiles.