Had it on both ears for nearly 20 years. Most of the time it’s been manageable, but has worsened in both ears this year, and the left ear has got quite a bit worse in the last 24 hours.

Its deffo worth a trip to the doc. Hope the labrynthitis gets better too – that alone warrants a GP visit.

http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/gadget-mp3-pillow-was-29-99-now-7-99-argos-1793783

read this thread and then saw the above.. mp3 pillow… £7.99

may help someone

I’ve had it for years thanks to playing on too many loud bands. I have lost a lot of the top end of my hearing range. It bothers me when there is a lot of noise in the workplace and I am trying to talk to someone on the phone. Busy pubs are a nightmare for conversations and I have also found now that if any band I am in plays too loudly it actually hurts! Singing in a choir is also becoming problematic which is beginning to annoy me. I read somewhere that listening to violin music helps re-educating your hearing, but I’m sceptical.

I hope you wear hearing protection as will help prevent your condition getting worse and also soften the loud noises, you may also have a condition called hyperacusis which means you can become very sensative to noise and is common among Tinnitus sufferers, but can be managed.

I’ve had it about ten years now afetr seeing too many bands and playing the drums, sometimes it’s unbearable but its never kept me awake. I had a hearing test a while ago and was told by the specialist I had the hearing of a 60 year old. (I was 39 at the time).
Pubs are a nightmare if there music on, I really struggle to hear people speaking if there’s any background noise, music or not. I was at a kidsarty at the weekend and the dj was a frustrated raver and whacked it up loads despite being told to turn it down! I came away like I was underwater….
I wish, but, hey ho, I saw some great bands!

Mine started after a dunking in Windermere during late November waterskiing. It’s never gone away and I’m slowly losing hearing in the frequency range around that of the tinnitus (over about 12KHz). Much MUCH worse after listening to loud music, but I rarely do. Since it started I seem to be hyper-sensitive to loud music, tend to avoid all loud music if I can because I not only get increased tinnitus but massively reduced hearing afterwards too.

Nothing food, sleep or drinkwise makes it worse or better. No medication I’ve tried helps. I have to listen to music or podcasts to sleep, always unless I’m shattered so the advice at the start which was “do lots of exercise and go to bed knackered” is the only viable option for me.

I have it but it’s one of those things I kind of forget about , but then once I’ve noticed it it drives me crazy! And now reading this has made me notice it even more, such a numpty reading this before I go to sleep 👿

If anyone wants to email me for advice about their tinnitus as there are various ways to help cope with the condition and as I suffer myself I understand how distressing it can be.

any of these to make go away?

Wow. Thanks Flipping Heckler.

I’ve had Tinnitus for years now… I’m 32, used to go to clubs, listen to loud music when I was a kid – so I’m assuming that’s the cause.

I have a very good hearing range, I’ve done a few tests and can hear a large spectrum, including very high end.

The problem for me, is that I’m incredibly sensitive to high pitch whining noises, or rattles, creaks, or anything vaguely annoying. None of these annoy my missus.

Knowing that it may be related, and be Hyperacusis actually makes me feel like I’m not totally bonkers 🙂

Like everyone’s said, loads of people have tinnitus, it’s just something you get used to, forget about it and it goes away.

Yes, tinnitus can make you grumpy. I don’t like it. ‘forget about it and it will go away’ isn’t too far from some of the ‘treatment‘ for tinnitus.

It sucks though. Usually gets worse when you’re under stress and so you can end up with a reinforcing cycle of tinnitus->grumpy->stressed->tinnitus.

Coincidentally, there was this Q&A in Nature news http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v505/n7482/full/505159a.html

“Sound artist Daniel Fishkin tries to convey the experience of tinnitus. As the latest incarnation of his installation series Composing the Tinnitus Suites opens in Brooklyn, New York, he talks about building a mechanical model of the inner ear.”

As many of the above posts – had it for years (don’t know if there’s any link to having grommits as a child) but have learnt to live with it. The problem generally seems to be quiet times i.e. trying to go to sleep at night and just hearing the constant ‘ringing’ high pitched whine in my case.

flippinheckler – thanks for the offer, I will see what I can suggest and hope that mum takes notice of all your wonderful advice.

mine was made worse by chemo, just started chemo again and its gone up a notch again. nothing i can do apart from stop the chemo which is a little to drastic to do

OP, because you say it has onset recently and with a suspected infection, please tell your mum to see a Doctor. My mum got an ear infection whilst on holiday with associated inner ear pain and now has permanent tinnitus caused by the nerve damage. She had a substantial loss of hearing and now uses a hearing aid (which interestingly removes a lot of the tinnitus). She was told that, if she had been given anitbiotics for the ear infection within 48 hours, her hearing might have been saved.

It used to drive me mad – literally – but I’ve learned to mostly tune it out. I still usually go to sleep listening to something though.

showerman – good luck with your treatment.

konagirl – I have spoken to her but as the saying goes ‘you can lead a horse to water……