How common is Tinnitus?

[Mcoco]

I developed tinnitus in December in one ear after an ear infection. I am habituating now, slowly but I am getting there. My question is how common is tinnitus? Does anyone else have it too? Do you find you can just block it out?

I’ve had it for years, both ears and I’m quite profoundly deaf 🤷🏼‍♀️
Most of the time I completely ignore it but it’s more noticeable if I’m stressed or tired. I consciously try not to listen to it.

I have it on and off. In my case, it’s impacted ear wax. I use olive oil drops for ears (bought on Amazon) and it takes weeks to work, but really makes a difference

Same. I'm deaf in the affected ear and have a slight 'echo' in the good ear. Worse when youre tired ime. Don't know if this will work for you but ...I get a break from it when I'm cycling the wind masks it I think?

I don't wear earplugs flying. Earplugs make the noise more noticable for me, so I only use them if I am concerned about very loud noise. So really just concerts and the cinema. The airplane noise isn't so loud that I think it would be problematic, so I don't wear them.

The depressants were for the habituation. Where I live they are used in treatment of tinnitus to help people the first months. It helps people stop panicking about it. It worked for me and for a few people I know with tinnitus.

One thing which make mine worse is stiff neck muscles, so I do stretches a couple of times a week to help loosen them. One which works well for me is to tip my head towards a shoulder and then move chin towards the other shoulder (so e.g. head right tilt, then head moved as if I want to look over left shoulder). This stretches the problematic muscle for me really well. If you think you might have tight muscles, you could try it and see if it helps, or try other stretching exercises a couple of times a week?

I’ve lived with tinnitus, and associated hyperacusis and mysophonia, since 2008. My world fell apart at onset. Now I can think of a thousand worse things that can happen. I can take tinnitus on that basis.

Best wishes op.

Another thing - I was also worried about making it worse for a long time. But I have now realised that that isn't going to happen just by me out living my life (well, it might, but that would be very unlucky). So if I travel, or sit uncomfortably, or get stressed or swimming or go on an airplane, within a day or two it will be back to its normal level. Sometimes you get tinnitus spikes. They are normal and they pass. If you google you can find a lot of information about them.

It was COVID in 2023, gave me this mega loud tinnitus plus acute deafness in that ear.. I've had friends say "well, can't you put earplugs in to stop the noise" course now I have aids,those of you who do also,will identify,in a loud environment like a restaurant,I can hear every conversation but not what is actually being said, the coffee machine hissing, the cutlery crashing, everything.I also now have hyperacusis in my left ear.. and people say "can't you adjust the hearing aids so you can just hear what you want to"!! Add to that the auditory hallucinations! Like diesel arctic lorries next to me in the living room in the evening,blues and twos. I'm greatful for the hearing I do have, the blackbird in the garden. To think a few years ago, I couldn't sleep with any noise whatsoever, I wore earplugs. The birds would wake me up at 4am, the alarm clock tick.

I hope the specialist finds out why. Maybe blood pressure related?

Thank you for your reply. It's interesting that doctors gave you anti depressants
I was never offered them but pretty sure they would have helped me a lot in the early months.

I too may not bother with earplugs on the plane I keep thinking how loud it is on a plane but T has now given me a fear of most noises!

I constantly have problems with my neck. I have just tried the neck exercises you suggested. Really good stretches I will add them to my own stretches now. Thank you.

Thank you. It's true I have to keep reminding myself there is so much worse.

Really helpful to know this.

I recently developed tinnitus after an infection and am in the 'panic' stage.
I have a high pitch noise AND a low drone (like a vibrating low frequency noise?) that is very noticeable at night. I hate it and am not sleeping well at all. How do you habituate to something you can actually feel??

The panic is horrible but somehow you do. I think its developing the trick of ignoring it but at the start I know it feels impossible.
Mine is pulsatile so I don't have experience of your type, but there is great advice upthread. I have been listening to white noise at night on earbuds, ironically listening to the recording of a fan although we've had a real fan in the room! Have to get the volume so it drowns out the tinnitus whilst not being so loud as to drive me ( further) mad.This has enabled me to sleep. The last couple of nights I've managed without so light at the end of the tunnel.

I went suddenly deaf in one ear 4 years ago (no known cause - possibly viral, CT ruled out tumor) and was left with no hearing in my right ear and multilayered tinnitus. It is loud. I can't mask it as no sound covers it. Also external noises can make it louder. I used to envy people whose tinnitus only bothered them at night as I couldn't escape mine at all. Very depressing at the beginning especially as I was so anxious about my good ear and all the stress of trying to hear with one working ear in noisy environments (I'm a primary school teacher). I slowly habituated to it and life got good again. Some days it doesn't bother me. I generally sleep well and again I don't try to mask it as it didn't work and I needed to learn that this is my silence. Good days and bad days. Unfortunately I've developed tinnitus in my good ear and it's totally different. It's like a low bass rhythmic rumble. I'm finding this v difficult to be honest. I've so much noise going on in my head if I wake up in the middle of the night I can feel quite panicked about it. 😔 It's been a couple of months so I'm hoping in time I will get used to it. One type of tinnitus was bad enough but two is very hard to bare. 😔

A story saved my sanity. It’s makes a real world comparison about how we are alert to danger. Our senses evolved so that we hear in the first instance to sense danger. So we perceive the unwanted noise of tinnitus as danger and so sets off the fight/flight reflex.

So the story goes, the short version. A new neighbour who you don’t know has parcels arriving at strange times. This triggers a worry, the unknown, of what’s going on - danger. Dodgy dealers, potential for criminal activity that impacts on you. You are on high alert to every move associated with the house. Until you find out the neighbour is receiving donations for a local charity. Neighbours activity no longer presents a danger. Your nervous system relaxes, your brain no longer alert for potential risk. You can safely ignore deliveries.

I habituated over time because there was/is nothing wrong with me physically; tinnitus can’t be cured or treated really; so what ya’gonna do. Like any pain in the arse other, you just gotta learn to coexist side by side.

I gave my tinnitus a character of a two year old tantrum. I gotta be kind otherwise I’ll get caught up in the emotion.

I guess really the treatment is intentional kindness and calm in the chaos of all that adrenaline. I tell myself when I get spikes now - Gotta just chill the fuck out dude 💜

It's really hard but you are at the beginning where most of us do panic. I use a sound machine sometimes at night. It depends how loud my tinnitus is. Sometimes it's low or I am so tired I sleep straight away without it. But I sympathise as it's so difficult at times.

If you habituated to the first lot of tinnitus I think you will habituate quicker to your new sound. I don't think it will be as hard.

I love this story actually I can relate tinnitus to it. Your attitude is great. There really is nothing we can do but try to get on with it. Still horrible but positivity is what we all need.

My late DM had it for many years,it drove her to distraction at first but I think she eventually just got used to it. I get it temporarily sometimes if I go to see live music. I went to one at the beginning of June and my left ear (it's always my left ear) was ringing for the test of the day afterwards. Gradually faded away overnight,thank goodness. It is awful. I would hate to be stuck with it permanently. Every time it happens,I think I should stop pushing my luck with the live music events,but I do enjoy them so much! What baffles me is how more musicians aren't totally deaf after being exposed to that volume of noise all those years.

Thank you! Yep, it's all about attitude. I did CBT the first time so I've started that up again. The more I resist the louder it gets.

Prior to getting tinnitus, I would often sit in silence late at night reading. At a certain point in the evening I would go momentarily ‘deaf’ and I would get a high pitched ring in my ears for about ten seconds? It would then stop. Every time that happened I’d think thank god it goes away again!

Cut to a few years later and I got the 24/7 tinnitus. My specialist explained that what I’d been hearing wasn’t a precursor or anything, but just the cochlear ‘rebooting’ as he put it. I always found that quite interesting.

Re the travel white noise machine, @mcoco, you could use YouTube on your phone or tablet, maybe? They have a great selection of all night white noise videos. I often listen to the ocean waves ones in summer - not to drown out my tinnitus, but the neighbour’s deafening bloody tv!

In the very early days when I was absolutely terrified and I went to see the specialist, he said to me (in an effort to reassure) ‘don’t worry, it wont kill you’. My reply? ‘But I want it to kill me!’ I was serious at the time because I just thought I would never, ever learn to live with it. But I did.

And yes, antidepressants did help in the early days. Also a short term course of Valium for the panic. Obviously they don’t give you those for long, but such was my distress I managed to get them prescribed.

Actually, @mcoco, they used to prescribe diazepam for people with fear of flying. It would literally be like two pills or something, so in no way habit forming, but if you’re extremely worried about it you could ask the gp.

I've had it in one ear for about 25 years. Never found the reason. It could have been from a. Ear infection or from loud music in headphones when I was younger. I am now almost fully deaf in that ear and got heating aids about 6 years ago. You learn to cope with it and block it out. I don't even notice it now unless I'm thinking about it, like now.

I first noticed it in lockdown. I think it’s perimenopause. It drives me mad sometimes but I manage expect when I have to accompany my son to his hearing tests. The silent environment in the room makes it ten times worse.