The 'Stable tinnitus' sufferers

Guys I only just got tinnitus and hopefully not saying anything to dumb. But wondered if most of the folks logging on realise the amount of people out there with tinnitus not particularly tormented by it. Despite being a recent sufferer I have been around other people with it most of my life who got it from noise induced hearing loss but don't seem to have the volatile problems talked about here. Maybe everyone is aware of this already and I sound like total newb... It just amazed me recently so many of my friends with tinnitus seem surprised it can affect people like this.

I'm talking pilots, industrial workers, hunters and shooting enthusiasts who get a lot of tinnitus. I know folks who have had 'sirens going off in their head for 30 years' in their own words. Put up a post on accuratereloading.com the world's largest hunting forum on tinnitus and watch all the replies come in from professional guides who spend their career around guns, charter planes and noisy boats. They still shoot big guns, ride motorcycles, fly small planes , use chainsaws and jackhammers 9-5, and their tinnitus whether severe or mild seems to match their hearing loss and not do anything too unexpected. No spikes, no morbid depression, no fear of noise, no permanent increases, even from 500 high powered gunblasts at the local rifle range in a single afternoon, no time off work. They seem to go about their lives in some of the loudest atmospheres and don't care. Lucky buggars!

Not advocating that for anyone. My own version was caused I think by first onset mild tinnitus, then returning to noisy work for just 72 hours but I wonder if it was more the breakdown I was having over losing hearing which threatened my employability that did it. Anyway I am not saying get out there and start up a chainsaw. What I am saying is chances would seem to be that most folk researching it for the first time after some hearing loss probably have nothing to worry about. Breathe a sigh of relief you worked out you had a problem early, protect your ears from now on, and be happy

 

I agree with you in the sense that the people who are on this forum are seeking help which means they could be more disturbed by the T than others. For example, I myself am a very neurotic person and tend sweat over the small stuff. When googling tinnitus I actually found some posts where some people said that "ive had that ringing for 3 years, well you get used to it". So as you said, I think it has more to do with human psychology than the severity of the T.
On the other hand, everyone has to respect themselves for who they are. I don't think that a physical condition necessarily has to change who we are. So, if one is a neurotic person and tends to fear their health getting worse (as am I) I dont think the best approach is to be careless and continue doing the things that could make the condition worse. Chances are that it wont make them happy. If a person really does not care about their health (I dont mean it in a bad way at all) it is ok for them to continue taking the risks

 

You talk about most people having no spikes, stable tinnitus etc, I wish I was one of them, it did take extreme noise to cause my mild tinnitus, thought to myself after as long as I don't do something reckless it won't get worse. All it took was a car bonnet/hood slamming shut to increase mine! My ears went extremely full/blocked for a week after, which was temporary threshold shift for the second time, first threshold shift caused by noise that almost made my eardrums explode, this time all it took was that everyday loud noise, leading me to believe my ears can't tolerate the same noise as before. I wish it wasn't so, but now I'm even more scared of loud noise, my tinnitus went from mild to moderate, I don't know, maybe my ears are more sensitive than everyone else's.

 

On another note, my brother has moderate tinnitus from ear infections and he can blast out music, go to clubbs, bars, be exposed to any loud noise and his tinnitus stays the same/doesn't increase, so different strokes for different folks.

 

I suppose it also depends on how much and in what way the ear is damaged... if two people fall on the ground at the same time and break their bones chances are that the injuries are not exactly the same I think for further analysis we should do a picture of your ear with a microscope.

 

I agree stina, so many variables of tinnitus, what sort of damage to the ear etc. I was surprised to find out my hearing was normal, most likely the very high frequency's are gone but no significant hearing loss at all. That uncertainty that you no longer know what noise level is safe makes life difficult to plan, but if the end goal is habituation then it shouldn't matter anyway, live life forget about tinnitus.

 

Maybe we have talked about it before but a neurologist in Estonia said that the no hearing loss factor has to do with the fact that the microscopic endings of the hairs are damaged and that can not be detected.

 

All good stuff here guys. But let me chime in with a different perspective if I may. Some of us, myself included, suffer from neurological or non-trauma induced T. I have absolutely no damage to my inner ear/cochlea, and no hearing loss, yet have extreme high pitch high volume T that does not modulate. I believe there are others out there as well, yet it does seem the vast majority of T sufferers have noise/trauma induced T. Just thought I'd toss that into the conversation. I hope all of you are doing well !!