Poll: Are You Ashamed to Tell People That You Have Tinnitus?

I refrain from people to say that I have tinnitus, because it's embarrassing and they react strangely.

 

Yes. I think I will be ashamed until I am an old woman, where T is much more expected. I am not ashamed of having tinnitus in itself, BUT I am very ashamed of having brought this condition upon myself at such an early age., and usually if I say I have tinnitus people ask how I got it and I hate telling them the ugly truth, because I feel so ashamed of it, so usually I try to keep very quiet about having T (and H)

 

tell people to let them know your suffering

 

the tinnitus community has an mental illness that makes them want to act mentally tough to impress people that don't care and discourage researchers who do care.

 

The only reason I don't tell more people about it, is because I am worried that someone might use this against me and, say, pull a fire alarm just to harm me. All of my co-workers know not just about my T, but also about all of the activities that they and their children ought to be wary of, if they don't want to end up with T.

You have the option of telling everyone that T just turned on one day (perhaps as a result of sudden hearing loss).

 

I don't bring it up often unless someone comments on my cool ear muffs. If it does come up I try to keep it brief and understand it's hard for someone without t to understand and I'm glad they don't. I also know talking about it bores the hell out of people.

 

"I'm sorry I'm crippled.............."

What a question. What a poll. There isn't an emoji to fit my thoughts on that one.

Where did I miss the DA emoji?

 

No more ashamed of my tinnitus than my bad back. I don’t feel a need to say anything unless it affects an interaction. Most everyone I know personally knows they need to be facing me when they speak to me since I have tinnitus and don’t hear well over the noise so I use facial,expressions and their lips to fill in that 20% I’m missing. The rest of the world thinks I’m an old man who doesn’t talk to anyone....LOL

 

No problem letting people know I have tinnitus .
love glynis

 

Yes for some strange reason, and I hate that I feel that way.
I think it's that I don't want pity, or maybe I just don't want to talk about it with people who don't understand.
I do find it frustrating that people don't truly know what it's like for us - "Oh that must be annoying" is a standard respone. It's actually worse than that, but how do you even start to explain it?

 

Not at all.
I even prefer to tell them when I have the opportunity, so they can understand why I am so cautious about the noise.

 

Personally, I feel that there is no ashamed to tell the truth.
My friends or family members will behave more cautiously
to avoid making loud noise.
My T life will be easier.

 

It's depend. Sometimes (most of it) people think I overdramatise or just want attention. Also, I tend to do some prevention to tinnitus, hearing loss and meniere disease and I know a lot of people think I'm weird for that.

I want to get a tattoo of the silver and gold awarness ribbon (wich is for deafness, hearing loss, meniere and tinnitus) but I'm afraid of what would think my family so yes and no

 

Absolutely. Pretty much everyone I know IRL doesn't know.

 

Why?

 

I have talked to a handful of people about it, several of whom, it turns out, have it as well. One said she "doesn't even hear it anymore," another hears it but it doesn't bother him, and another is able to suppress it at night by laying on his "t" ear. (Not sure how that woks, but good for him!) None of them could tell me how they got to the "doesn't hear it/doesn't bother them" stage --I guess it just sort of happened for them. Another time I was in a loud place with someone and said I had to leave -- they were annoyed, and so I explained the situation to them. If someone seems to require an explanation I'll give it to them, but by and large I've opted to pretty much keep it to myself at the moment while I try to come to terms with it.

 

I don't know really. I associated it with extreme shame because people often cause their own tinnitus. I don't want people to think that I was stupid enough to ruin my own hearing when the opposite is true.

 

I talked about it at first, but the people I encountered with tinnitus, acclimated in short order. They coundn’t understand my dilemma. I never knew anybody with severe or profound tinnitus, until I joined TT.

 

Yes, and not to worry them. It's a oxymoron disease. How do you describe it properly to anyone. I'm still battling that one.

 

No, my family and close friends know. My family knows and acts carefully most of the time. ENTs aren't helpful about tinnitus without hearing loss, they don't advise you well especially when you are young (I'm 22). They don't even tell you to be careful. My main cause is an acoustic trauma in February. In July I had an abnormal tympanogram (type B) which tells that something else goes on as well.

 

What you said just goes to show that there is T, and there is T. Remember, roughly 20% of the population has it in a very mild way.

I had it for many years just as very faint crickets, and only once in a while. It never "bothered" me. I could even sleep fine. Then came the real ear damage a little over ten yeas ago and it was like turning the sound volume level from 1 to 10.

 

I never heard of mild tinnitus. The levels of T as I understand it are; moderate, moderately severe, severe, and profound.

 

When I first got T, I wasn't ashamed, but now I am. I have a mental disorder, so I'm afraid that people won't believe my T is real. My DH often tells me that my T isn't real. If I cover my ears for something, he thinks it's a symptom of my mental disorder because the sound "couldn't possibly" harm me.

Of course, I'm also ashamed of having a mental disorder so I keep it to myself as much as possible. At my job, I don't want to be discriminated against. I keep my T to myself at work also for fear of discrimination. (Of course discrimination for either of these things is illegal, but that doesn't mean it doesn't happen. I'm not a regular employee so all anyone has to say is "we don't have anything available for you right now.")

This has been my policy with my OCD. Only a few people know about the specifics, because those specifics could be used to terrorize me and possibly even drive me to suicide. I sure wish my DH didn't know. He has an app on his phone to create a high-pitched noise to worsen my T (even though he claims I don't really have T).

And if someone were to cause us to have permanently worse T, they wouldn't be doing anything illegal.

 

Me too but I believe that mild tinnitus is the hissing someone hears only in a very quiet room which is pretty much everyone on earth from a certain age and after. I had an acoustic trauma 5 years ago when a firecracker went off 2 meters away from me (someone threw it) that left me with a hiss which I only heard in total silence in my bedroom. It wasn't bothersome. It took me a year to hear near complete silence again, it faded so much that it was only noticeable in very very quiet situations. This is pretty mild and it doesn't bother you enough to seek help. I had another acoustic trauma this year that made my silent hissing to ring enough that I went to the ent.

 

Have you considered divorce?!

 

I don't think that's the case. Perhaps this has to do with concert attendance. Nobody I am close with had ever attended a concert, and none of them (and that used to include me before I gave T to myself) can hear anything in a quiet room.

 

I have actually thought about it, but my income is not high enough to qualify for an apartment. Neither is his. So we're dependent on each other. He is not horrible all the time, but when he gets angry he gets mean. I suspect he has a personality disorder.

 

I just gave a definition of mild tinnitus and is related to noise exposure (noise exposure comes from every day sounds also). Acoustic traumas from concerts are more noticeable than a hiss and come along with some distortion but they subside too (I had one in 2015 after attending a concert 20th row for ~95 dB for 4 hours but it has faded again near complete silence in a year). I don't tell that you have never heard complete silence or that anyone who is hearing complete silence is not. I say that from a certain age and after which is different for every person on earth based on various parameters can have mild t (such as hormones, inflammation markers, noise exposure on any point in time, antibiotics and medications taken on any point in time, blood pressure etc).

 

Is moving back in with your parents, an option for you?

I know a number of people in their 60s who hear silence in quiet rooms.

 

Nice! I never told that it's not possible.