Tinnitus Like Me??

Hi I'm Amber, I'm 17 and have been diagnosed with tinnitus today. After thinking I've had it for about 2 months as I fit a lot of the symptoms. I have a constant high pitched ringing in both of my ears which, I don't have to tell you, is incredibly annoying. I find it hard to study at sixth form sometimes as it is difficult to ignore. I also sometimes have a popping/cracking noise in my right ear when stretching in the morning. So my question is, does anyone have tinnitus similar to this? And if so how do you deal with it? Glad to be part of the community!

 

Welcome to the forum. You may want to check with the doctor or ENT to see if you have ETD or Eustachian Tube Disorder which is quite common and can cause tinnitus ringing. Here is a site talking about ETD and its symptoms.

http://www.medicinenet.com/eustachian_tube_problems/page2.htm

Meanwhile you may use masking to help deal with the annoying high pitched ringing which is what I have. Here are some nice masking sounds:

TT's audio player: https://www.tinnitustalk.com/audioplayer/

or download free sound generator ‘aire freshener’: http://www.peterhirschberg.com/mysoftware.html

or make your own rain sound: http://mynoise.net/NoiseMachines/rainNoiseGenerator.php

or search youtube with words like 'tinnitus masking sounds', 'white noise', 'rain sound' etc.

 

Hi Amber,

I noticed a lot more cracking and clicking in my ears when I first got tinnitus, but to this day I can't work out if that's a normal thing and the tinnitus is just drawing my focus to my ears more, or whether it's part of the tinnitus itself.

When you say constant, is your tinnitus 24/7? Or are the moments you don't notice it? (if so - when?),

As for coping mechanisms, one of the most important things is to try getting enough sleep. That can be difficult with tinnitus, so sleeping pills (melatonin) and using white noise apps to mask the sound at night (via a speaker pillow, or sleepphones) are essential if you're having trouble with that. If not, that's great news!

During the daytime and evenings you'll want to keep yourself as busy as possible for a while. I don't know what works for you, but going out and walking around the city took the focus off of the sound for me, and gave me some peace time where I didn't have to think about tinnitus all the time. I found sitting and watching TV/not doing much to allow your mind to wander and attach to the tinnitus subject. So if you have any hobbies like art or doing anything interesting, and socialising, those things really help.

One thing that's really important which you may or may not do, a lot of new sufferers tend to listen to and analyse their tinnitus sound. They want to know if it's getting quieter or louder or if the pitch changes and all that. You know what that does? It makes it louder all by itself, and makes you notice it so much more. If you do that, try to divert your attention away from those thoughts with some mental blocks.

Hopefully you're not feeling depressed, but tinnitus and depression seem to have strong bonds with each other and make each other worse in a vicious cycle. So really try to keepyourself as happy as possible and stay away from any worrying thoughts if they appear.

This gets easier to cope with by itself with time, so you have that to look forward to.

Take care of your ears now, by the way!

 

I don't know if I'm replying quite right but thank you so much! I will try these later when I try and sleep enjoying the help so far. Nice to know it's not just me with it which it what it felt like at first when I asked all my friends if it was normal to have these noises in my ear!

 

I am unsure, I think it's constant, but about half the time I don't notice it when I'm working. So it is 24/7 but only affects me most when trying to sleep, relax or work in a quiet environment, as these are times it becomes particularly agitating!
I do try and keep myself busy in the evenings, and will have about 1/2 hours free time after doing housework, schoolwork etc. In that time I usually watch TV or read a book which tend to make it worse! Probably because I fixate on the tinnitus so much. You're totally right, fixating on it does make it louder I've noticed. Thanks for the reply

 

@Ringdingitsme it sounds like you have it at about the same level I did. So if that's anything to go by you're going to be coping well with it but it doesn't always work out that way. At least it seems people with our level of tinnitus habituate to it easier.