Poll: Which Is Worse — High-Pitched Tones or Low Humming Tones

I have high-pitched tinnitus in various tones, and recently a louder low humming - I don't know if it was always there and I just didn't notice it but it's easily maskable (humming).

 

I had a humming right at the start of my tinnitus journey that would start and stop. It was awful. Only masked by the car. Audible all the time. At least my high pitch is easily maskable for me. I think volume is more of a factor for me.

 

How high pitched are we talking?

 

If anyone knows how to mask a high pitched tinnitus tone (mine is around 8000 hz) then I would like to know how you can do this. I can hear mine over most things even when it’s not at its loudest.

 

How loud?

High or low pitch sounds that are only audible in quiet rooms? That would not bother me.

High or low pitch sounds that can be clearly heard over everything? That would bother me, and does. My T is loud and high pitch, I hear it even over the shower.

 

Humming is child's play when set against high pitch ringing...

 

Normal high pitch

 

how long have you had it?

 

2 and a half years. Obviously, the chances of it going away now are zilch, especially as I have hearing loss. It could be worse though..

 

High pitch ringing 11kHz tri tonal and on occasion a low thumping in my left ear but it never lasts long...

 

Well said, loudness is all that matters.

"Child's play" that I've suffered for nearly 7 years will very soon be the end of me.

So unless you've experienced severe low frequency please don't jump into making dismisive conclusions like that.

 

For me its high pitched, but I think it may be personal and even more complex !
My T is high pitched at about 6000-7000hz. Sometimes it has short bursts of really high pitch loud screechy ( metal railway wheels on metal railway tracks - like you get in the underground in London ) noises.
It fluctuates.
Bass sounds are soothing
Its just weird.
I feel like a radio that cant tune to any station.
Peaceful Monday to you all X

 

A couple of things to try just to get an idea of what may work for you:

• A running faucet (try your bathroom sink or kitchen sink)
• A frying pan (try sautéing some veggies with olive oil and a bit of butter - the latter isn't for the sound, just for the taste): it should crackle a good amount
• Crickets

Play with the distance to your sound source too (but be careful to not be burned!)

 

The frying pan thing really helped mine, faucet helps a little.

 

Loudness. All what matter is loudness. I could choose any type of sound for low volume. I perceive many types of sounds.

 

fridge motor running masks mine & its really high pitched over 11000

 

lovely idea my favourite place in the home..i'll cook more

 

Masks as in you can't hear it?

 

Hey Sam,

You say 'had,' did it go away for you?

 

I would trade in my high pitched tinnitus for a low humming any time.

In fact I already had a form of tinnitus which resembled the noise of an old refrigerator that I didn't even consider tinnitus.

 

The low humming is driving me crazy, it's constant and reverberating like someone blowing the low note of a flute in your head 24/7, I don't know how I am going to survive this.

 

I have a high pitched sound and a low pitched whoosh. They are both shit.

 

I’ve had both lower pitched tinnitus, which has resolved thankfully, and high-pitched tinnitus, which I have currently. I would say any tinnitus you can mask is the best kind. This high-pitched tinnitus can’t be masked by anything. It’s beyond awful.

 

Same here, however, it is the one tone my brain has learned to ignore best. The low hum, on the other hand, drives me mad because it is everywhere kind of like structure-borne. It's maskable, yes, but having your WNG in 24/7 is a different kind of challenge.

 

I have both a high-pitched hissing and a low-frequency hum. I habituated to the hissing 25 years ago, but the humming still makes me miserable. Unlike the hissing, which is constant and has never stopped since it started on 4/28/96, the humming will sometimes disappear for up to four years (the longest it's stayed away). It recently came back on March 27 of this year after being silent since 2019. No rhyme, no reason. And it's taken over my life again I'm sorry to say. Not only can I hear it, but I can feel it - Imagine a propeller plane flying around and vibrating inside your head and ears. I'm hoping that it will fade away again like it did all those other times, but I have to be prepared for anything.

Because of all this, I asked my doctor about putting me on a new antidepressant as my old one wasn't helping me anymore (I'd been on it for 15 years). So he put me on a new one called Pristiq. I'm two weeks in and I still feel like I'm at the bottom of a dark well. He said it could take several weeks to kick in. I'll just have to stick with it and keep moving forward.

 

I’m sorry to hear you’re suffering. I hope it improves for you soon. I have a hum in my left ear that vibrates pretty bad at times. Sometimes it’s mild. It’s maskable by a lot of sounds. I’m okay with it because it’s just annoying—not really painful. My high frequency tinnitus is ugly, though. It *feels* like electricity and is literally so shrill that it’s painful. So it’s much worse than my hum. If I could get rid of the high frequency, I’d consider my tinnitus a non-issue, despite the hum and drill, and some other tones that aren’t so bad.

 

I know it is highly individual, but trust me, there are types of low frequency tinnitus which is awfully hard to cope with. Mine is lower and more hollow than the refrigerator, sounds like thumping, rumbling, foghorn, idling motor, and so loud and vibrating, that it makes me suicidal. It also stops when I speak, but every little pause in speech, it feels like someone is drilling my brain with a subwoofer.

I also have very high pitched tinnitus too (and a couple of tones in between), it is also difficult because not many things can mask frequencies in the >12 kHz range, but this one is quieter than the hum, so easier to deal with. So probably both can be life altering, loudness matters maybe the most.