'The Tinnitus Test' — Awareness Technique

[Andrew]

Hi all,

I thought of a tinnitus awareness technique the other day and wanted to see what all you guys think of it.

People can take 'The Tinnitus Test' (don't worry about the name), participants have to wear an audio device (walkman, iPod etc.) which makes the constant sound of tinnitus that we all hear for 24 hours. (Different sounds of tinnitus can be accommodated) The device would obviously need to have headphones that would be able to hear external sounds for the person to carry on with their day.

It would show others what we experience on a daily basis and how it effects our daily lives.

I'm not sure if this type of thing has been mentioned before though......

 

[jazz]

People can take 'The Tinnitus Test' (don't worry about the name), participants have to wear an audio device (walkman, iPod etc.) which makes the constant sound of tinnitus that we all hear for 24 hours. (Different sounds of tinnitus can be accommodated) The device would obviously need to have headphones that would be able to hear external sounds for the person to carry on with their day.

How would you get (force) people to participate? Educating people about tinnitus is a noble goal, but I believe you need less intrusive methods to accomplish it.

But the idea sounds wonderful!

 

[Andrew]

How would you get (force) people to participate? Educating people about tinnitus is a noble goal, but I believe you need less intrusive methods to accomplish it.

But the idea sounds wonderful!

Oh no no no, you can't force people to participate. It could be a feature of Tinnitus awareness week or something, you get volunteers to take part in the challenge!

I reckon after 24 hours of the noise people would be saying "Man, you've got that all the time?!?"

 

[daedalus]

People just wouldn't do it. I heard a story about a tinnitus conference where the participants were given headphones with a tinnitus sound playing. After five minutes everyone had taken off their headphones.

 

[Andrew]

People just wouldn't do it. I heard a story about a tinnitus conference where the participants were given headphones with a tinnitus sound playing. After five minutes everyone had taken off their headphones.

Shame we can't just take off our headphones, eh?

 

[Song interpreter]

My sounds sometimes are so strong I can feel them. I also feel like I should be able to grab that sound and take it out of my head.
Man! Don't I wish it were that easy! Just take the headphones off.

How about you run the conference without the headphones? Instead you run the sound through on of the channels on the sound board, but start really low and gradually increase the volume over time. It would be best if they couldn't escape it. This sound would go through lunch and be in the bathrooms. Or maybe not. If they left the sound a came back, it might make a bigger impact.

I think those videos with different people's sounds was great! A couple of them I couldn't hear. They must already be in my mix.

Who most needs to understand what we go through? Perhaps the people who contribute to it? I should find the link to those videos to share with my sound tech. She's trying to lower the sound at church. I'm so glad to have her in my corner!

 

[Markku]

I think those videos with different people's sounds was great!

This?

 

[Song interpreter]

That's it! I can't hear the second and the fourth sounds. They must be in my mix or mine is louder. Where is the link? Did I miss it?

Thank you!

 

[Song interpreter]

I have not had any testing or evaluation to know what my frequencies are. I have a few. Every once in a while another temporarily joins the chorus. It's pretty loud! I can forget it sometimes if there are other sounds to listen to. If I think about it, it's front and center. Hard to ignore. I'm just glad those high pitches aren't mine! They hurt!

 

[pathworker2017]

@Song interpreter, My audiologist asked me to give an approximation of my tinnitus frequency, poor guy I think i had him scuttling for textbooks on acoustics, psycho acoustics and just about everything in between.

The explanation I gave him was a rather convoluted description of modulating bands of frequencies which, unfortunately he could not even remotely duplicate.

That's not to say he was incompetent, but it just demonstrates how difficult it can be to accurately replicate the tinnitus phenomenon precisely.

As a point of interest a number of the sounds that are embedded in my particular instance of tinnitus are not audible to me if played via a tone generator, even at moderately loud amplitudes.

The only way I know this is that my hearing deteriorates drastically at around 7 kHz, beyond 8 kHz I can hear, for all practical purposes, nothing.

What this clearly tells me is that my brain or whatever mechanism is involved, is generating sounds internally to compensate for those that I cannot hear objectively.