Only 10-12M of 350M Americans Have Chronic Tinnitus

Chronic Tinnitus that lasts more than 5 minutes a week.

Of that sub-group 1-2% or 1-2M Americans suffer from persistent chronic tinnitus that is 24/7, and of that group only 100,000-200,000 find the Tinnitus bothersome.

 

Once I learned about how bad it is to search statistics about Tinnitus on internet I got mad, because If I was just cool in the beginning I wouldn't have had bad H or perhaps even the Tinnitus would have gone away after a while.
I worried so much I caused myself to get H, if only I had just buggered off.
This forum is great but any Tinnitus forum gives you the idea that this HAS to be a big problem for you when in truth most of the times it really doesn't.

 

These figures are from the American Tinnitus Association ...

20% of the population of the US has tinnitus. That's roughly 60 million Americans.

For 80% of the 60 million (or 48 million) their tinnitus is not bothersome.

Of the 12 million Americans with bothersome tinnitus, 25% (or 3 million Americans) are to some degree or other debilitated by their tinnitus.

Dr. Stephen Nagler

 

My question is about how many americans have 24/7 tinnitus, not including fleeting T, and not including tinnitus that lasts only 5 minutes ( which is intermitent T).
Were those numbers including the only 24/7 kind of T or ALL types of T like fleeting, etc.

 

Imo, that number is the number of seriously debilitated people.
10 million with bothersome tinnitus (coping)
and the rest are habituated/mild tinnitus.

 

Grace, I do not know the answer to that question.

But here's the only important take-away.

There are loads of people (like me) with 24/7 loud screaming truly debilitating tinnitus who have moved from the group of 3 million to the group of 48 million, while their tinnitus itself has not changed in the least.

And if I can do it, anybody can do it. All that is necessary is Strategy, Determination, Flexibility, and Insight. My own strategy was TRT, but that's a highly personal choice. There are lots of ways to get there.

Moreover lest you think that I was an ideal candidate or something like that, here's something you might find to be of interest. Dr. Jastreboff and I have become good friends over the years. We had lunch together a couple of weeks ago, and I asked him if he remembered way back in 1994-5 when I first went to his clinic in Baltimore. He said he absolutely remembered. I was a physician, a surgeon no-less. and after speaking with me for an hour or so, he felt I was the worst possible candidate imaginable for TRT. That's what stuck in his mind.

So whatever the strategy, I am here to tell you that it can be done. It most definitely can be done.

Dr. Stephen Nagler

 

Good point, Grace. Also, do these numbers include veterans. My audiologist seems to think they don't. And also that the numbers above pertain to those with t which lasts longer than 5 mins. Hmmm.

 

Nevertheless, habituated or debilitated 60 million is a HUGE number and what's even more ridiculous is that there is no cure no relief.

 

@Dr Nagler

I am very slowly getting some fight back in me, those are encouraging words from your experience. I am going to scratch and claw my way out of this somehow!

 

@Dr. Nagler -I think I'm moving into the 48 million group too. It's been one day at a time and there are setbacks but I have my life back. It's not perfect but it is so much better. I have moved from abject terror to not really giving a darn--it's amazing to me.

Thank you for all you do for us.

 

There is no cure, but there is incredible relief.

Dr. Stephen Nagler

 

I wouldn't call it incredible lol.

 

I don't believe those statistics at all. Well, maybe I do, but it's because one of the things I've found out about myself through this ordeal is that I'm different from some/most people in a particular way that I didn't know I was before.

To me, having tinnitus is enough to say I'm debilitated by it. It doesn't matter that I can hold down a job, take care of my family, play video games, or take long walks in the park. I still hear the noises, therefore, I'm not one of the "48 million". My feeling is that if people defined themselves and their head noises like I do, nobody else would be one of the 48 million either. So long as tinnitus exists for me, I'm not going to pretend I'm alright living with it. Same as the pains in my jaw, my achy shoulder, whatever. If something's wrong with me, I want to fix it. I don't believe in "living with" anything.

Now, I realize that as I get older, I'll have more and more of this stuff to deal with. I know, intellectually, that I'll not be able to fix everything that goes wrong with me, or my loved ones, and that no doctor will be able to fix it all either. But so long as something's wrong, I feel it would be fatalistic to just accept it.

Dr Jastreboff, Dr Nagler, and others in their speciality do an invaluable service helping people to cope with what they cannot change. But as much good as they do for people, I see this disability in the same light as any other. I know a huge number of amazing, dynamic, self-reliant deaf people. They've coped with their disability in thousands of ways, some of them staggeringly beautiful and inspiring. But none of them can hear birds sing, or a child laugh. They have to cope with difficulties, fears, and inconveniences that most of us have never imagined.

I've milked all the good and positivity I can out of the last eight months with tinnitus. But until I can go into a quiet room and have silence greet me with open arms, I can't ever see becoming one of those 48 million. And honestly, I don't believe that number means what it purports to mean. I don't believe it's representative of people's true feelings, and I'm afraid it give a false impression of the scale of the problem.

 

I do not cope with my tinnitus. And I do not help people cope with theirs.

I simply do not care about my tinnitus. I used to care about it - very much - but I no longer do. No matter how loud, no matter how pitchy, no matter how incessant, I just do not care. And when you do not care, there is absolutely no need to cope. That is habituation in a nutshell.

Dr. Stephen Nagler

 

@attheedgeofscience

If you would be willing to pay for my trip to Atlanta and my treatment I assure you I would be there in a flash!

 

In that case, I suggest you follow another piece of Dr. Nagler's excellent advice:

The possibilities are endless: TRT will remove your tinnitus, and money grows on the trees. So what are you waiting for...?

 

@theedgeofscience

I thought you would be kindhearted and send Dr Nagler a cheque and I could be a test case, and he would give me a call once he cashed it, so take this as begging, because I can't borrow the money and I'm not into stealing. Its news to me that money grows on trees, but I am not here to get into a pissing match. If your cash is good, I would be more than happy to accommodate you, let me know when I can pick up the tickets. Thanks.

 

"50 million Americans have chronic tinnitus defined as not having tinnitus.

Now that the misleading headline has gotten you to read this, it can be said that if you, like most people, associate the word chronic with something problematic and lasting 24/7, then only 100,000 -200,000 Americans have chronic tinnitus by that definition."

 

I think it is. Considering I was once nearly bed-ridden and thinking of suicide to now being able to function normally 90% of the time.

 

What do you propose that people do? You apparently don't believe we should try to habituate, and there is no cure as of yet. So what exactly do you think we should do? Do you honestly think people should remain miserable until that cure arrives which may never come?

Do you think we should habituate using a method other than TRT? I seriously just don't understand what your position is.

 

Yes it was all in your reaction, which was obviously spectacular considering the characteristics of your tinnitus.

 

Chronic Tinnitus is defined as T lasting 5 minutes or more every week.

Would it not be nice to have T that only lasted for 5 minutes a week and then vanished?

Persistent, 24/7 T is a ball-park of it's own.

 

If someone has tinnitus for only 5 mins a week I don't think they would bother being on this web-board.

 

That definition comes from an article on hearing impairment in Great Britain published 25 years ago in an obscure epidemiology journal.

Dr. Stephen Nagler

 

Dr Nagler what's the estimate for tinnitus world wide, if you know?

 

All there seems to be are estimates @valeri

"Tinnitus affects millions of people the world over.It has been roughly estimated that tinnitus impacts some 400 million people world wide.Of this, it has been claimed that around 50 million Americans suffer from or have experienced tinnitus to varying degrees.So too do around 3.5 million Australians and almost 5 million Britons."

Rich

 

One question which has been puzzling me for a while: we are all agreed that a very large number of people worldwide are affected by T and find their quality of life diminished by it to some degree. Why is it that the companies at the forefront of research into treatment are generally very small companies with no more than 10 or a dozen employees. I recall a post from @attheedgeofscience in which he listed these companies and the numbers employed by each.

Given the size of the potential market for any drug which would help to alleviate T, why do the big drug companies appear to show very little interest in financing research into T?

 

Probably because you only need a handful of top scientists working on any one particular cure or drug for a cure, I think it would be a bit out of control to have 100 scientists working on the same thing under the same roof, a little hard to all agree on the same direction!

Rich

 

If 50M Americans really had T that runs 24/7 then this message board would likely be one of the most popular forums in the world.

You can easily poll around your community and ask 1:5 or 1:6 people if they have T. Odds are you'll find maybe 1:50 or 1:100.

 

Since I got t, I have been asking around, and surprised at just how many people I have known for so long actually do have t.
Apparently the odds increase after age 50.