Anyone got it ?

Suffered for years but the last few weeks it’s went mental.
Is there any connection to blood pressure or stress ?

Wish they would find a cure, it’s friking awfull.

Aye, it’s not great I agree.

Not sure about blood pressure but it wouldn’t be surprising. Definitely gets worse with stress/tiredness/alcohol. It nearly drove me nuts for a while but you can train yourself to kind of tune it out – the worst thing is when you are listening out for it and then it seems to get worse and worse.

I’ve been able to pick mine out in my hearing test results for a few years now, scared to get it done now because it seems to have jumped in volume the last few weeks. Cause a couple of sleepless nights anyway.

Did read about connections to stress so wondered if BP affected it.

the worst thing is when you are listening out for it and then it seems to get worse and worse.

Absolutely.

Mine started 25 years ago after an Ocean Colour Scene concert at Stirling Castle.

Serves me right I suppose lol. Decades of industrial work, loud motorbikes and guns probably never helped.

I’ve had it for years but luckily I used to associate it with being pleasantly very tired e.g. finishing work overnight. I’ve managed to keep the mental feeling as it’s got worse over the years. For me, tiredness is still the thing that ramps it up. I find having background noise e.g. podcast on earphones helps me not to notice it when I go to sleep.

It’s not really to with stress or blood pressure, but it does depend on how conscious you are of it, so it you do start to “hear” it more, it does start to become something you hear more (if you see what I mean) You might want to perhaps  try a hearing aid? some of them can successfully tune it out.

It’s the first time I’ve been able to hear it over the motorbike, while I’m riding the feking thing !

Headphones help but I can’t fall asleep with them on.
I’m sleeping better this week and have discussed it with the GP in connection to BP , headaches etc so once the BP is back to normal we’ll see how it goes.

It’s the outside stresses causing the BP issue I can’t control unfortunately.

You might want to perhaps try a hearing aid? some of them can successfully tune it out.

Strangely my hearing is fine apart from the dip at that frequency.
I’ll live with it. It went up in volume a few years back but over time it seemed to fade. Hopefully it does it again cause it’s bloody worse this time.

Where did you read about stress and BP not affecting it ?

I’ve had a bit of tinnitus since my clubbing days in the 90s, but I swear it’s got worse in the last 11 months.

I believe it’s quite a common thing after having Covid.

I’m sure you have already tried this so I don’t want to patronise anybody but on the off-chance it just might help somebody reading the thread…I had it quite bad recently and went to a clinic to have “microsuction” (not to be confused with liposuction) treatment.

They basically stuck a tiny hoover into my ear and sucked out the compacted earwax and the result was pretty much instantaneous and the ringing just disappeared.

It cost me £55 but I honestly would have happily handed over way more by that point.

Been through this over the last few years…

Persistent ringing in the ears.

I went and got my hearing checked and the audiologist (?) explained that I had lost some high frequency hearing capacity and as a result my brain was filling in the gaps. He also said that the more I thought about it the worse it would get as the brain would amplify the bit that was missing.

So I went away and ignored it, and it worked!

However reading this thread and finding the one that I linked to means that my head is whistling like I’m on an aero plane. Thanks!

Yep – I have it too.

Came on last year after possibly having COVID (went to in late Feb last year and mixed with hordes of people) but dunno if that was the cause has I have spent A LOT of time in noisy clubs in the 2000s and listening to music too loud in general.

I can generally tune it out but it does get worse if I get a bit of a cold.

As others have said music etc helps.

Mine’s been worse the last couple of weeks but not sure why. Not stressed, haven’t had COVID afaik. Who knows

I feel for you 🙁

Having the Echo playing “Rain Storm” on loop while I sleep helped me massively

Another sufferer here and noticed it being worse over the last couple of weeks too

Where did you read about stress and BP not affecting it ?

Because tinnitus is caused by damaged cilia (modified hairs) sending signals to your brain. You’re hearing noise that hasn’t been created externally. Can be caused either by viral infection of the inner ear or mechanical damage (persistent loud noise).

I agree with all the clubbing and shooting damage anecdotes , it’s the same for me but also the earwax thing is a factor, I went to my GP he looked in my ear and said he could see nothing for the wax! Gave me some olive oil to drip in at night and an appointment with the practise nurse in a fortnight, she syringed me out with some high pressure water and I was shocked and embaressed by the dirty great lump that came out. She said that’s nothing compared to what I usually get !! URGH.
Anyway I left with my hearing back to ‘normal’. I reckon it may be genetic because my grandfather used to need his ears syringing if I remember correctly.

Because tinnitus is caused by damaged cilia (modified hairs) sending signals to your brain.

I know that , but why would it change then ? if no extra damage occurs. It certainly feels like BP affects it. My heed feels stuffed since it went up in volume so I’m making that connection.

Exercise always makes mine worse, the increase of blood being pumped around certainly makes it more annoying.

And reading this thread has brought it back to forefront 😞

but why would it change then ?

conformation bias, you’re hearing it, because you’re hearing it, and noticing it more

God no, it has leapt in volume. I’ve had it that long that you get used to it and it’s nuances. My last hearing test proved it to be louder as well but the last week it went bonkers.

Sorry, I’m sounding like I’m just disagreeing with you at every point, but I’m not.

dunno then sorry, I’ve reached the limit of my knowledge.

What Harry says, one theory is that we the sufferers are hearing stuff that most people naturally filter out, so focusing on it makes it worse. Also for me, it’s a sign of tiredness/stress.

A good example that works for me is when I first worked for BT as a lineman, I’d call people from the telephone exchange on noise faults to talk to them to understand how bad it was, before I made a trip out to them. I would ask them if they could hear noise on the line and sometimes they would say “oh yes there’s lots of clattering noises” They could hear the Strowger exchange (electro-mechanical) in the background, I had got that used to it that I no longer noticed it. But oddly still if something wasn’t right in the exchange I’d still hear it. Don’t under-estimate the power of your mind in this.

Same here, and it’s worse recently. Bit of work stress but nothing crazy.

I also get the “hum” which sounds like there’s a diesel generator down the bottom of the street (there isn’t).

I’ve had tinnitus since 1990..but its because I’ve lost over 2/3 of my hearing, music, DJing in the early 90s, building works, that old micron exhaust pipe…lol.
The noise gone from ringing to air rushing to classical music sometimes…but it goes completely once I put my hearing aids..suppose I cant really complain now as I’m a old fart now and I’m used to it, but it really bothered me when I was younger

I’ve had it since 2007 thanks to a couple of incredibly awful ear infections. I’ve got hyperacusis too which is awful, have to wear ear plugs when doing normal things like walking down a busy road or being in a pub. The tinnitus has got worse over the years too, any loud noise that my hyperacusis is affected by makes the tinnitus worse permanently. There’s really no way to get used to that, you just have to accept it.

If there ever will be a cure, it will improve my life exponentially.

Is there any reason to believe you may have caught covid over the last couple of months? Tinnitus has been reported as a ‘long covid’ symptom. We suspect slightly that we had it back in September/October, and my wife’s tinnitus has got significantly worse recently.

No not really. Been fine otherwise apart from this jump in BP.

I suspect that may be stress for dealing with something. We’ll see if getting it back down affects the ears.

Usually manage to tune mine out but every now and again it suddenly seems to jump in volume, even happened the other night while just walking along with the dogs and talking to my son. If I think about it though, it’s there.

Mine was originally caused mostly by loud concerts and riding a motorbike without using earplugs, it then stepped up a few years ago after a car accident where every airbag in the car all went off, It was a picanto so none of the bags were very far away from me either.

I’m a sufferer and had been advised by the audiologist that work stress was likely a factor in the fact the brain would focus on an “irritation”, in this case a noise. The more you become aware tge worse it gets (at least for me). Same has been said about niggling little injuries, stress can cause the brain to amplify these.

A hearing aid had helped, particularly when I was working in a particularly busy and noisy open plan office with multiple distracting sounds but managed to lose it soon after starting to work exclusively from home last year. Had been ashamed to go back to NHS for a replacement as figured they had enough on with Covid, and without the regularly competing and distracting sounds of the office, didnt notice it much. Work stresses have changed, still there and work is now less reactive, but dealing with more strategic issues partly influenced by our services pandemic response. Therefore, still working long hours at home, but quieter and needed to concentrate more. Tinnitus is now much worse than it has been for a while!

Going to swallow some pride and see if NHS will sort me a replacement hearing aid now…

Had a quick word with one of the Drs at the practice, he reckons unlikely to be BP as it would have to be an acute sudden rise and you’d notice other things; headache, dizzy spells, nausea etc, and there’d be more to worry about than an increase in the noise level of your tinnitus if there had been. He offers nothing other than “mleh, probably not going to kill you, stop pathologising everything”

Sorry he also asks if you have hypertension?