Tinnitus... what does yours sound like?

[bonjour16]

Suffering with tinnitus just now (or at least I think that's what it is!). Beeping and ringing noises sometimes a bit musical!? In need of some reassurance. What does your tinnitus sound like?

Thank you in advance.

Please explain Summer

A high pitched buzzing. Alcohol makes it worse

It's a kind of hissing / ringing noise, the sort you get when your ears get blocked up when you've had a bad cold or you've got water in them. You think it will stop if you can just make your ears pop, but it doesn't.

I've had it for several years and actually, I am noticing it's got worse over the last couple of days

Had a hearing test and seen the ENT specialist at the hospital, but there's nothing they can do apparently.

High pitched white noise. Acquired through acoustic shock.

The much suggested Reddit back of head tapping solution has never worked for me. Might be worth a try for some of you?

lifehacker.com/this-weird-trick-might-give-you-brief-relief-from-your-1794093023

High pitched whistle kind of noise. Had it constantly for 14 months now. Hit my head and knocked myself unconscious. Have had it ever since.

Mines sort of a whooshing noise that kind of throbs in line with my pulse. don’t think mine is too bad really as I only really notice it when I think about it.

High-pitched whine in right ear but I can generally tune it out.
Nothing in left ear (that I'm aware of - but maybe right ear drowns it out)

I have the whooshing kind - it's got a name I can't recall atm.

It came on after an ear infection/burst eardrum a few years back

A whine with an undercurrent of mistuned radio - it seems much louder lately. I wonder if the amplification is linked to atmospheric pressure.

Mine is also 'whooshing' like the central heating coming on, but I wear hearing aids like some other PP and only suffer at night when I'm not wearing them.

@NomDeQwerty it's like @MoonshineWashingLine says it's about training your brain to ignore it.

I was told to think about it like when your feet are on the floor. You don't think about it constantly (although I bet you are now ). Your brain is constantly receiving signals from your feet to say they are touching the floor but your brain simply accepts this as it's the proper status quo and doesn't highlight the fact to your conscious brain. If you were to trip unexpectedly, your brain would suddenly raise a signal to tell you so you can put your hands out/ break the fall etc.

So you need to train your brain that ringing in your ear is perfectly ok and you don't actually need to know about it or hear it.

I don't hear mine too much apart from when I think about it (like now!!) so I do think I've managed to convince myself to ignore it as normal and inconsequential.

I loved the hearing clinic - it was fascinating!!

high pitched ringing, sometimes a secondary background noise cuts in which sounds like crickets, its very loud. I can't figure out which ear is louder. I have to ask people to speak up sometimes as it gets in the way of hearing. Had for 20 years.

I do hope it isn't hereditary, have two children and mine gets me down sometimes. I wouldn't want them to go through it.

Thanks Summer. I understand the idea but not the method.How do you train your brain? Do you just keep telling it?

Unfortunately @NomDeQwerty I'm not really sure 🤷‍♀️. I think knowing that I can/should ignore it has made me dismiss it quickly rather than worrying or being annoyed about it and it builds from there?

Ah right thanks. I'm going for a hearing aid test on Friday. I'm hoping that will help too.

To be fair I first got constant tinnitus when I was 11 so it's been a part of my life for 25 years. I've had to get used to it, I don't have any particular techniques, my brain just knows it's not important so I don't think about it (most of the time). But if you do have hearing loss as well then hearing aids do help massively. If I didn't wear my aids then I think it'd do my head in, plus I'd be deaf as a post

Lowish humming (different note in each ear), one side constant and the other intermittent. Plus high pitched noise which is hard to explain... like an electrical sound? Luckily the high pitched one is the same on both sides. Drives me crazy, I have to fall asleep with an audio book on. I like silence

@bonjour16 Did your tinnitus go?

high pitched ringing- a bit like the electrical sound you get sometimes from light fittings!

@Mummyofbananas That's what mine sounds like, but feels like it's coming from my head rather than ear. So high pitched that it's hard to mask with anything.