Why Do I Keep Hearing That Everyone Has "a Sound in Their Ears"?

Whenever my friends ask me how my ears are doing they throw in "but don't all people have like mild tinnitus".

I'm like "Um no. You would definitely know if you have tinnitus".

Have you heard this argument?
I think it's absolutely obnoxious.
And, yes this attitude will keep the general population from caring about tinnitus.

 

Yeah, I've had this happen a few times too. I'll tell someone I have Tinnitus, then they say "Oh, yeah, I have that too!", then on further questioning turns out once or twice a month they hear a faint sound for a few minutes when they're tired or something..

 

EXACTLY! And it's infuriating to compare that to what sufferers with tinnitus actually experience.

 

Silence is obviously a myth.

 

Before I had my acoustic trauma I had zero tinnitus besides the rare seconds-long normal fleeting tinnitus. I had absolute, 100% silence and crystal clear hearing.

 

It seems like people want to deny that you have tinnitus when you tell them. Why is that happening, it's extremely obnoxious and annoying.

 

I think it's because run-of-the-mill mild tinnitus is so common that many/most people over the age of 35-40 in industrialized countries have it, in terms of "if I plug my ears in a quiet room, I hear eeeeee sound". But, such people may not understand that it can get MUCH worse -- just as people with run of the mill cervical spine pain wouldn't really understand how incapacitated someone with severe cervical spondylitis might be.

That said, not "everyone" has even a mild form of it; my brother has noise-trauma hearing loss to the point that it causes him some trouble, but he hears silence when his ears are plugged...

 

Are you being sarcastic?

 

I'd never ask anyone knowing they would make those comments. So I just think there are crazy people, but I would like to know how did tinnitus get so trivialized among the masses.

 

Exactly my question!
This condition cannot get trivialised like this!

 

Because people are stupid cattle.

 

Cuz ya gotta man up!