Tinnitus... anyone else got it?

My head sounds like an old CRT TV set.

Too many years of abuse - although I have always used hearing protection when shooting, etc. I think for me it was the motorcycling without ear plugs for so long that did me in. I am also cognizant of loud music and only listen really loudly for short periods of time.

Interestingly though I still hear beyond 18khz clearly.
 
I've had tinitus since I was 16 or 17, I used to work in a factory and go to a lot of gigs (still do the second one).

Most of the time I can deal with it, although 15 years without silence is annoying. Two things make it a lot worse though; antibiotics and alcohol. Either of them and I get a trippling of apparent level, which dissapears when the effects of the drug wear off. Of course if I'm drinking, I don't mind as much.
 
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I have a pretty strong tone in my right ear, though it is masked by daytime noise. At night it gets worse, but I guess my brain blocks it so I can go to sleep.

It gets pretty bad when the cold seasons hit though. I got it after an operation to deblock the right ear, the consequence of taking a flight with a head cold. That was messy - I couldn't walk straight till the operation.
 
One of the good things about writing on a site like this is knowing that you're not alone and that there are some alternative methods that can help - my particular salvation has been the Tomatis system, but some of the other methods seem to work equally well for different people - there doesn't seem to be any rhymn or reason to it.

This isn't the place for this but perhaps I can sneak in a plea for assistance here - somehow recently, the automatic notification of new posts on subscribed threads has ceased to work for me - can anyone tell me what to do to reconnect this very useful facility?
 
My head sounds like an old CRT TV set.

Too many years of abuse - although I have always used hearing protection when shooting, etc. I think for me it was the motorcycling without ear plugs for so long that did me in. I am also cognizant of loud music and only listen really loudly for short periods of time.

Interestingly though I still hear beyond 18khz clearly.

I reckon motorcycling is responsible for mine too !!
 
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17K is great! I am not quite 40 - no grenades, and I can barely hear 17K.

For me the killers (pun intended) were handguns, loud motorcycles and loud music. Although more often than not I used ear protection with the guns.

We were doing our semi-annual arms qualifications on the fantail of the ship (if you could hit the water you were qualified) and had taken off our ear protection and some dumb sheit fired up the 50 cal before we cleared the area – I still remember that very clearly. I was fond of the Colt .45 but my fav was the short barreled 12 gauge riot gun. Note to self – DO NOT get in da way of anyone packing 12 gauge riot shot gun
 
One of my other hobbies, for many years, was sports car racing. I co-drove many years ago at the 12 Hours of Sebring in a Mazda RX-7 that was so loud it felt like an ice-pick in my ears, even with radio earplugs, a balaclava and helmet. After 20+ years of driving, officiating and instructing, yes, I have tinnitus. It is a cruel irony for all of us who love music and seek to reproduce it as faithfully as possible. Now that we have and, presumably, can afford a decent system, we really can't hear it well enough to appreciate it!

Hell, it's so bad that I can barely tell the difference between Kimber 8TC and zipcord!
 
One of my other hobbies, for many years, was sports car racing. I co-drove many years ago at the 12 Hours of Sebring in a Mazda RX-7 that was so loud it felt like an ice-pick in my ears!

Don't mention Mazda race cars !! I was at Lemans in '93 when Mazda won , that thing was so loud it was impossible to find refuge ANYWHERE around the whole circuit :eek: I was just willing it to blow up , but alas it was still lapping the next morning and went on to win !! Actually , thinking back it was probably responsible for the CRT EHT whistle in my right ear :D
 
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Mine is less glamorous: years of construction abuse, too young and stupid to protect my hearing (if I could go back in time and slap myself... :D ). I have heavy tinnitus in my right ear and hearing loss in both.
The audiologist says the tinnitus is the brain trying to compensate for the hearing loss, especially of certain frequencies. All I know is that the more I'm aware of it, the louder it seems to be.
 
Tinnitus - my favourite subject!

I have had tinnitus for several years which I attribute to too make loud gigs and listening to (and building) HiFi since I was 17 (I am now 39).

The tinitus comes and goes, depending on stresss and tiredness. I've also noticed that if a really look after my ears for a while, the tinnitus gets bettter (i.e. bring earplugs with me when I am going anwhere with loud music, or listen to my HiFi at low volumes).

My tinnitus has definitely got worse since I had kids (they tend to cry and scream a lot). It's also got worse worse in the last couple of weeks since I started building a new fullrange. I also work in the audio industry, so I have to be careful on my exposure levels at work.

My advice
1 - try to ignore it as much as possible. Don't concentrate on it, don't talk about it (I'm breaking my own advice here), don't worry about it as focussing on it makes it worse, increases your stress and the pattern repeats.
2 - avoid all loud environments and stop using headphones( or buy noise-cancelling headphones so you can turn the music level down). If you do something that makes the tinitus worse, stop doing it, otherwise you will regret it by the time you are 39!
3 - cut out caffeine completely. That made a huge difference to my tinnitus. You need to make sure that all of the caffeine is out of your system, which means going cold-turkey for 2-3 weeks.
4 - avoid alcohol. I've never quite figured out whether it is the noise of the pub or the alcohol that makes it worse.
5 - limit your HiFi dose to short periods, at times where you can get the most out of the music a nd really enjoy it
6 - buy earplugs and carry them with you,
7 - when you have kids, make sure you have quiet ones :-~)

Hope this helps. It sounds draconion, but it may be worth at least trying each of the above, one at a time until you find out the one that really works for you. I do all of the above, but have relapses from time to time... I've currently fallen off the wagon due to my fullrange project and the approach of Christmas spirit, so my right ear has starting playing up again... :snowman2: