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Hi TL
I have had tinnitus for almost a year now. Lately I have been struggling to manage it, and so have decided to write a blog to inform all of you about tinnitus and why you should try to prevent it.
I am sure many of you know about or even have it, but for those that don't tinnitus is high pitched ringing in the ear. It can be caused by many things such as wax impaction, fluid in the ear, infections etc, but probably the main cause is hearing loss. My tinnitus is caused by high frequency hearing loss, probably from years of listening to headphones, live music, loud music in cars/gym, etc. At first my tinnitus was only audible in very quiet situations and I only really heard it when trying to sleep. Eventually it progressed to quiet but audible most of the time, and finally now I hear it over the TV, music, etc.
The worst thing by far is trying to sleep with tinnitus. It gets even worse when you are stressed (proposal or seminar the next day, etc), as it seems to be considerably louder. This can really leave you shattered when you need to have a good sleep. The next worst thing is trying to read or write with tinnitus. For me I pretty much have to play background noise, except I wont listen to headphones anymore, so it limits me to do these things at home. I cannot emphasize enough how shitty it can be; sometimes it will make you so miserable you just want to die.
So what can you do to avoid it?
1. Throw away your headphones / decrease the amount of time you use headphones. A number of studies (search yourself) have found that listening to in-ear earphones and headphones can lead to hearing loss. I am quite sure the years of gaming/music listening to headphones contributed to or directly caused my tinnitus. I never even had the volume particularly loud, but I imagine the continual undeflected noise for more probably 3+ hours on average for almost a decade took its toll.
2. Reduce the volume you listen to music, tv, etc.
3. When doing tasks that have unavoidable loud noise (e.g. mowing the lawn) wear earplugs. They are cheap and reduce noise to much safer levels.
4. When going to festivals/clubs etc stay the fuck away from speakers. Also wear earplugs if you are not afraid of looking different. If your mates say anything just laugh at them knowing they will have hearing loss later while you wont.
5. Don't poke q-tips/other shit into your ears. Wax impaction from doing this is a common cause of tinnitus, so if you need to clean your ears find a safer method.
Didn't bother proof reading, don't get mad about grammar/typos. Also no citations cos I'm only interested in plant biology, ciao.
Edit: If you already have tinnitus I figure you may already use a background noise generator, but if not try this http://simplynoise.com/ it can really help.
Also this album seems to help me focus a lot whilst writing (I only listen on very low volume through speakers)
![[image loading]](http://991.com/newGallery/Emancipator-Soon-It-Will-Be-C-461808.jpg)
 
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I'm 26 and have tinnitus since a year in my right ear. It's a constant beep that I only hear if the environment is silent (so often only when I am in bed). If I'm not very tired - it will prevent me from falling asleep at all. Tinnitus cannot be cured and it's symptoms can only be reduced using expensive surgery that has hearing risks associated with it.
I have stopped using in-ear headphones and attempt to avoid using headphones when possible. As a biology teacher I often warn my students about the risk of in-ear headphones, but they are often ignorant about it until it's too late.
If the noise gets so bad that you cannot phase it out anymore, tinnitus can drive you mad (which it did to me the first two weeks).
EDIT: some figures - over 20% of the human population above 55 years old have at least some degree of tinnitus, and that number goes up as the age increases. If you are planning to get old, get ready to one day be confronted with this, as your hearing cells never regenerate (with current medical technology).
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I have had this for 13 years now (caused by construction workers drilling when I had to stay home sick). I guess my only advise is to try not making it any worse by exposing yourself to too loud environments. If it's already so bad you can't phase it out by other noise that must suck. For me I can often also mentally phase it out by focusing on other things.
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On January 19 2013 19:11 Callynn wrote:
As a biology teacher I often warn my students about the risk of in-ear headphones, but they are often ignorant about it until it's too late.
Its so frustrating when people don't listen/ don't comprehend how much it can change your life. My friends don't seem to care, they listen to music ridiculously loud in cars/ at the gym, and go clubbing all the time. Good job at least trying man, hopefully some will get the message 
On January 19 2013 19:41 Travin wrote:
I have had this for 13 years now (caused by construction workers drilling when I had to stay home sick). I guess my only advise is to try not making it any worse by exposing yourself to too loud environments. If it's already so bad you can't phase it out by other noise that must suck. For me I can often also mentally phase it out by focusing on other things.
Fuck man that is a long time. I can phase it out mentally to some extent, but lately I have been quite stressed and it seems that I keep remembering about it, and then have difficulty removing it from my brain. One positive is I have been getting more fit lately as when I'm running or working out I don't really hear it at all
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My dad has two tones in the right ear and four in the left after an 'accident' at work.
On January 19 2013 19:11 Callynn wrote:
Tinnitus cannot be cured and it's symptoms can only be reduced using expensive surgery that has hearing risks associated with it.
Eh, first time I hear it's even possible to perform surgery on that. However, it appears that there are ways of training/meditating to get at least used to the constant beep. Ever tried to ask a psychologist about that? At least it helped my father to actually cope with the sound in silent environments and/or other circumstances.
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You should always have with you high quality in ear, hearing protections. Also if you have to use headphone for a long time, they should be highly isolating from outside sounds, it allows you to listen with minimal sound level.
One thing about sound levels, we don't really notice the exposure we have. In my university, in the audio lab, they did long tests with bubble warps, you have to use hearing protection because even if one clap doesn't sound loud, if you pop bubble wrap for hours, you are damaging your hearing... even if it will never feel like it.
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On January 19 2013 20:45 Gecko[Xp] wrote:My dad has two tones in the right ear and four in the left after an 'accident' at work. Show nested quote +On January 19 2013 19:11 Callynn wrote:
Tinnitus cannot be cured and it's symptoms can only be reduced using expensive surgery that has hearing risks associated with it.
Eh, first time I hear it's even possible to perform surgery on that. However, it appears that there are ways of training/meditating to get at least used to the constant beep. Ever tried to ask a psychologist about that? At least it helped my father to actually cope with the sound in silent environments and/or other circumstances.
The surgery is for cases where the sound is so loud it is impossible to properly sleep anymore. What they basically do is remove defective cells that are constantly sending impulses to your brain - so this is making you a bit more deaf: a high price to pay for getting rid of the noise.
Meditation can help a lot, but for some people meditation just isn't the right way (either due to the intensiveness of the sound or due to the fact that they have other disorders that prevent them from concentrating).
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EPT
