One can only liken it to Chinese Water Torture-- the incessant roaring, screeching sound that exists in my head. Much like a steady drip of water, it is a constant sound that occasionally fades to the background but comes roaring back at a moment's notice.
Tinnitus.
As a kid, I had no idea what the roaring sound was in my head. I can remember many nights of tossing and turning on a school night, trying to get some sleep and wishing that I could crawl out of my head and get away from the sound. For a long time after becoming profoundly deaf in college, I was blessed with peaceful nights of sleep. In the last few years, I've had a few episodes of tinnitus that fortunately, do not last long.
There are lots of Resources on Tinnitus
including some interesting pills made of botanicals that one can take to reduce it. Most of the time, hearing aids help mask the ringing sounds, but this most recent bout won't go away even with my hearing aids in. I usually resort to hypnotherapy (something that I used when I birthed my son at home) to quiet my mind and take the focus off of the sounds. Another thing that helps is to listen to my son's music on his Ipod.
One blast of Weird Al Yankovich and the sounds are gone.
10 comments:
My sympathy! My tinnitus is only audible when it's quiet around me, like when I'm trying to sleep or concentrate...! It's awful and I hope yours dies down again soon.
LOL! Weird Al would love that joke about him, I bet.
I have gotten periodic ringing in my ears since I was a girl. My parents said it was from so many ear infections as a kid. Who knows....
I do hope it quietens down soon.
Oh my that sounds so awful .... Sending Quiet vibes your way! Cool that the hypnotherapy works at times and the Ipod :)
Our pastor has it - he's a drummer and always cranks the music when he practices. He pronounces it "TIN-it-us". We say, "tin-I-tus". However you say it, it's an obnoxious fiend! I hope it clears up soon!
My dad had that, and he had a really hard time of it. It was horrible for him. I'm glad that you have found some things that reduce it for you.
I've had tinnitus for 25 years now. Mine sounds like a high pitch electrical whine. It is in both ears and about 5 years ago the sound of an intermittently ringing crystal bell was added to my right ear.
When it first hit at age 14 it wasn't too loud and I thought it was something in my room. I actually thought it was the electrical outlet and my very accommodating father even took the outlet apart for me.
By the time I was 18 it was quite loud all of the time and was joined by vertigo. When I saw a Dr. about the vertigo (I was falling down the stairs almost daily, etc.) they asked if I had ringing in my ears. When I said yes they thought I had a brain tumour. When it was discovered that it was Meniere's disease (at an abnormally young age), I was relieved. I didn't mind the noise in my ears for the rest of my life as long as I had a life!
Now I have recently had sudden periods of deafness in one ear or the other (both left and right but not at the same time so far) and what sounds like a big truck engine rumbling in my ear. I know that I can become profoundly deaf at anytime but I would hope that if I do it could at least be quiet!
Sorry this is so long but I've been living with it a long time and rarely talk about it.
Fortunately, if you can look at it that way, I've had tinnitus ever since the incident in the USN sub force that took most of my hearing away from me. The reason I say fortunately is because the ringing, crickets, bells, whistles and roarings have always been constant even with high end hearing aids since then with no lessening which means I've had plenty of time to get used to it. Like around 25 years worth (this doesn't include the "poof!-sshhhhh-ring" of a new nerve ending burning out of course).
It never goes away but it doesn't particularly bother me either. I suppose if things went silent for a good long time that I would most definitely notice it when it came screaming back so I do feel for you believe me.
Hang in there. You've got plenty of friends in the same boat including your truly.
I am one of this group .. Tinnitus sucks .... everyday everyday -- it never goes away. Mostly my left ear. Hearing aid helps but at the meantime I get dizzy. I feel like cutting my ear off sometimes. Crazy huh? This is me, Diane, Here I am...
Count yourself lucky if you can still enjoy the sound of music. After a severe ear syringing incident, I was left with tinnitus and sound distortion. It greatly affected my life - sleep, relationship, work - you name it. I cannot even mask my tinnitus due to the sound distortion. It's horrible.
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