Your Head Is Humming and It Won't Go...

Hello fellow Tinnitusans!

I have been living with severe tinnitus for at least 39 years. As we know, it's a form of hell. I expect to have it for the rest of my life, barring some medical miracle - the possibility of which I don't discount.

The possible causes of my tinnitus are a bit fuzzy, and extremely cringeworthy, but I will share them because I have come to accept the errors of my childhood. I primarily believe the damage occurred when I was a precocious (i.e. stupid) 14 year old at a very loud rock show with a bunch of friends. To show them just how cool I was, I stuck my head deep inside the massive floor-standing loud speaker cone for a long time during a particularly expressive number. Hundreds of decibels pounding into my young eardrums. This seems like a likely culprit though I can't be sure. I've also had several head injuries over the year, one right around the time of said concert, when I was knocked out by hanging with all my weight on a boxing heavy bag, that (of course) snapped and fell onto me with all of its weight. I was quite a kid.

Anyhow, I'm here. I'm very glad to be a part of this community and I hope I can learn something. I'm happy to share any aspect of my tinnitus experience. I'm interested in learning about the different types of tinnitus. I think maybe I have two types - one that is constant and holds a slightly different pitch in each ear - tonally, they are just off by a fraction, creating what could be the ugliest paring of notes ever known to humanity. Fun! I notice the second variation (which could just be a spinoff of the first) in which the the tinnitus gets much louder in my head when I'm running (sound increases on every downstep) or twisting my body (and especially my neck) in different directions.

Humor is key. My other trick is to call them 'my better angels' calling out to me at all times - like sirens on a rock - beckoning me to become my best self. So far I'm shy of the mark.

All my best to everyone here...

Paul

 

Greetings, Paul! Welcome to the forum.

A whole 39 years, huh? Wow, that's... disheartening, to say the least. Words cannot describe how much I respect and admire your ability to have soldiered on with it for that long. I'm sitting here utterly dismayed after having to deal with my symptom for just five weeks...

I think it would be easy for anyone to look at your potential cause and go "wow, that's pretty dumb", but if anything, you clearly highlighted what it means to be a kid at that point. It's just a shame that you have to pay for that mistake with this terrible disorder. I have a feeling that this is just going to become more and more common for those in my generation given how frequent headphone and earbud use has become, among the general ignorance and feelings of invincibility often expressed by the youngins.

I would certainly love to learn anything you might have to share, be it techniques for coping, strategies for habituation, or chapters of your story. All of this would be a wonderful contribution to this community.

Regarding your "angels", I find that both charming and clever. I wish I could feel the same. Part of what I hate so much about this is the fact that the phantom noise is just that: noise. There's no information. Nothing to be gleaned from its contents. It's just there.

As for your hope of a medical marvel, we might be closer to than you may think. Perhaps the best section of this board belongs to the section dedicated to research. There are too very promising drugs going through trials now that may be the first ever real, legitimate treatments for hearing loss: FX-322 and OTO-413. It's hypothesized by myself and many others, some of whom are quite educated in this field of science, that it relief from tinnitus is a likely result from restored hearing. There's no guarantees yet until we learn more from the trials, but things are looking bright!

I certainly hope to see you around here.

 

39 years with severe tinnitus! You should teach us (or at least teach me) something! Welcome aboard

 

Welcome to the forum, Paul. You are obviously a veteran of tinnitus living and someone who has been able to wrestle down this devil tinnitus for so long and yet able to maintain a good sense of humor is quite admirable and worthy of inspiration to many of our newer members who are just beginning to trek the 'hellish' journey of a life with tinnitus. Your words of advice to share your experiences will be highly appreciated.

To our newer members, not all of our tinnitus will linger for a long time. Some will fade over time, others may become so trivial and unimportant to the brain that will just be ignored and forsaken by the brain. However some will unfortunately have to deal with more severe tinnitus for a long time. Paul seems to fit into that category. So if he is willing to share some of his wisdom on how to live with this ailment for a long time and come out unscathed, it will benefit our members a lot. Knowing severe tinnitus is survivable as exemplified by Paul is already a comforting thing to many of our struggling members.

So welcome Paul. Feel free to browse our site and to give helpful support to struggling members whenever and wherever you can. Take care. God bless.

 

Good God, 39 years... You are a true survivor, hats off to you. I got mine in 2012, in a very loud clothing store where I wanted to get out (that was my natural impulse, I wish I had listened to it), but let myself persuade to stay there for some 20 more minutes by my then girlfriend. Those 20 minutes did me in, and a constant static electric buzz has been my loyal companion ever since, to this day. For whatever reason it is loudest when I wake up, which is always quite a shitty way to start a new day. But on the other hand it always subsides after about an hour, after having had my morning coffee, and then I can move on again. And I can still sleep, thank God for that. But tinnitus is a cruel thing, all my hope for a cure is focused on FX-322, the drug which is currently being developed by Frequency Therapeutics (there's a thread in Research News category). I just wish things could be a bit accelerated, you know, just like they've done with that COVID-19 vaccine. Obviously it was possible to pass all the red tape and launch the vaccine into the market within 9 months. But anyway, that's all beyond my personal power or influence, so it's rather pointless to think about those things for too long.

Good luck and stay strong, we're all stuck together with this monkey on our back, and we all have to live with it.

 

Thank you so much for the great welcome all! I will try to post a longer answer later... My thread title was meant to be a funny reference to a lyric from a Led Zeppelin song, Stairway to Heaven, which is probably what was playing on the loudspeakers when I acquired my tinnitus. Anyhow, no matter. I just didn't want to freak anybody out with that title. A lot of people only have tinnitus for a period. Most I would imagine. My situation is also probably fairly common - wild kids blowing out their ears, just not knowing any better. In my case it has not changed in all these years, but the good news is that it IS manageable. You have to come to terms with it and learn to love life with it, through it, and sometimes around it....

Best,
Paul

 

"A form of hell" describes it best. My buzzing/ringing was due to an aspirin overdose as a teenager definitively IMO. I hate to admit it, but that was 1969! Do the math. I'm old but young in mind and still love my 70's rock, soul, AC, & disco. But at a much lower volume. The hum am I able to live and is mostly gone since I sold my house.

 

Welcome to the forum. You obviously are another veteran about living with tinnitus for a long, long time. You are welcome to share more of your experiences to help the newer members cope. Writing a success story or sharing your experiences in support threads will help others indeed.