Step 1: YouTube-dl this blessed sound: https://youtu.be/8indTo2ykPw?si=izyTOg4gYvnfsqZs (Plz tip the guy) (You should be able to tell just by listening to the sound that it immediately cuts out the tinnitus— if this sound print doesn’t work for you, there may be others that work better. But I have let other tinnitus sufferers wear my headphones and they all say it makes the tinnitus go away completely) 1a: (cut out the dialogue in the beginning with audacity) Step 2: buy a pair of these waterproof mp3 ONLY (it’s an appliance) bone conduction headphones: https://a.co/d/aqqhPm9 Step 3:put the mp3 you ripped on the headphones and remember what a normal life feels like

The only times I realize I have tinnitus is are right before I fall asleep, right when I wake up, and once a day for 20 minutes when I need to charge my headphones.

And I want to emphasize my tinnitus sounds like the screaming sun planet on Rick and Morty. It’s really bad. But thanks to this technique I only experience pain a few minutes per day. Good luck everyone.

I’m hoping for some “silence tourism” once in awhile!

I suspect we don't know the cause of tinnitus in many/most cases - even when we think we do. I think that makes finding cures a lot more difficult.

Same, I was unlucky enough to get it at ~16-17

Avoid it

I was like that when it was a lower volume. When it got louder persistent sound became important (I use rainfall over speakers).

The day it suddenly became shopvac-in-the-room loud, I had to use earbuds and a noise app (beltone's underwater blurbing) at mid-volume to keep my sanity.

Thank you for sharing it, I am hopeful it helps me :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8indTo2ykPw

Like some other commenters I'll probably stay away from it for now since my tinnitus isn't too bad and I think the "just accept it" strategy is right for me, but that's awesome that you've managed to find a solution and work it into your daily life.

How long have you been doing this?

My hearing was tested by an Audiologist and my hearing was normal.

The “sound” I observe is high pitched. Using a tone generator I matched it to around 16,500 Hz. Interestingly, if I play that tone I get temporary relief on the order of 2-10 minutes.

As far as I understand my tinnitus is the result of something going wonky with the signal processing in the brain.

If you’re suffering from tinnitus for the first time it’s important to remain calm. There is defiantly an amplifying effect from the psychological aspect of tinnitus. Eventually the body will “habituate” if it does not go away. It took me around 3-6 months to be able to ignore it. During the day I rarely hear it. At night a little more. Playing sounds at a low volume on a Bluetooth speaker helps. For example on Spotify an artist called “TMSOFT” has good stuff. In the day I’ll listen to jazz or lofi.

It’s important to protect your ears. iPhone has a hearing protection feature for headphones and I have it on the lowest setting. I would avoid in-ear headphones. Use hearing protection at concerts.

That's not what this recent book [1] says, at all. In Ducth, but [2] is a translation of the main point in an interview. As far as I'm aware, this guy is rather far away from snake oil. What is true though is that not all audiologists are caught up yet. Which is a bit weird because I already read about multidisciplinary approach working a couple of years ago IIRC. Which does obviously not mean it works for everyone, but also not 'there is no permanent relief'.

[1] Bart Vinck: Tinnitus, een schaduw van geluid

[2] Can tinnitus disappear completely?

"Absolutely, it happens very often. It's to say: we all hear sounds in our heads, only we don't experience them consciously. After all, the brain forgets sounds that are not relevant, just like I don't feel the glasses I'm wearing now.

"Our brain does nothing but sort out stimuli: this is important, that is not important. Logical too, otherwise we would go crazy with all the stimuli constantly coming in.

"My message is not to learn to live with that beep, but to train your brain to classify that sound as harmless, allowing you to forget about it. Feel free to call it an auditory reset of your brain." What does such a treatment look like?

"It has been proven that a multidisciplinary approach works well. Through an intense therapy bath, we try to reset the brain so that that beep or squawk is no longer threatening: patients receive 20 hours of therapy over four days.

"You also have to find other ways to vent tension and take care of yourself. Physiotherapists and osteopaths additionally work on the physical problems. Our patients often suffer from other psychosomatic complaints: they clench their jaws or have tense neck and shoulder muscles.

"Some 96 percent of our patients report afterwards that the impact of the tinnitus has been greatly reduced. Unfortunately, psychotherapy is barely reimbursed."

This is essentially what I do. I've had it tinnitus for some 20 years now. Both ears, a constant high pitched ringing.

Most of the time I honestly don't notice it, even in quiet rooms. As soon as something reminds me about it, or I'm trying to listen for something quiet, or certain high pitch sounds go off (my least favourite is flashbang like effects on TV or in games), it'll come back with a vengeance. So e.g right now because I saw this HN post, it's feeling especially loud.

It'll probably be about an hour before I'll forget to think about it (for want of a better description), and I go back to not noticing it.

It’s always there for me but I usually forget about it and only notice it when something draws my attention to it.

According to an app I’ve used on my phone (Mimi Hearing Test), I have about 14db HL in each ear.

Somewhat related, but I just cannot follow conversations in a noisy environment, like a pub. All the background noise and chatter just washes out the voices of people I’m around.

Anyway, I now bring earplugs every time I go to a show.

The invulnerability of youth.

I used to do sound / PA stuff for live bands for some local events for older teens. One time we realised the kick drum was moving towards the edge of the platform it was on, with every kick. Dumbass that I was, a ran on stage with my trusty roll of duck tape, but without ear protection, and proceeded to duck tape the kick drum legs to the stage to provide extra resistance to movement. While the band was playing. I'd had a little bit of tinnitus before then, but that particular incident made it much worse, unsurprisingly enough.

As for the loud show thing I was already wearing ear plugs back in 1980, never got into the blasting the speakers/headphones, and now I have both significant high frequency hearing attenuation and a 25 year old case of nicely balanced tinnitus. Oh well.

As a small silver lining, my tinnitus now serves as an audible “alarm system”: too much stress in my life? Drank too much coffee? Overdoing it at the gym? All of these will raise the ringing volume and signal me to make changes.

Honestly I didn't think I had real tinnitus because I don't notice it for more than a moment for weeks at a time, at least not enough to be bothered, although I've have it as long as I can remember. It's not all that loud, but after concentrating on it for a while it's been there constantly and consciously for a good 10min already and it's not going away!

The very first time I noticed it at all was during a bout of the flu.

> So e.g right now because I saw this HN post, it's feeling especially loud.

Exactly..

I think this is a good approach to many mental & physical ailments, however it is easier said than done.

Is this correct and not physiotherapy? Psychotherapy (if send via gp and dianosed) is at least 75% reimbursed if done at a non-contracted practitioner unless you have the shit-insurance, then it's only 50%.

I remember cooking everything without salt (then buying reduced sodium salt for some time because he missed the taste of it to a certain degree), stop buying sparkling water, how my father tried to cope with the remaining tinnitus after the hearing loss mostly reversed (>95% IIRC), and how it increased and decreased over time.

He still doesn't drink sparkling water, we still cook with reduced salt. If we deviate from this, his tinnitus increases, yet he tries to hide it from us.

Do you need any more citations?

Mom also has tinnitus, but hers is different, not affected by diet. She uses an advanced hearing aid which counters it using sound somehow. She is relieved to a certain point with it.

There are different kinds, reasons. Need to understand each case.

To address the gp point, your original comment would have been fine without the last 2 sentences (unless of course diagnosing tinnitus is your occupation):

> Dad went through acute hearing loss twice. They banned salt during recovery. Your tinnitus is related to blood circulation in the ear. Reduce salt.

The first 2 sentences was you sharing your experience but the last 2 sentences were you making a diagnosis of someone else's condition based off of a comment (rather than a physical exam and/or some lab tests) which I imagine is why @maccard asked for citations.

I have written the comment like that, because the GP provided an example relating his tinnitus to salt intake, and I know that scenario from my dad, so I have written that with confidence. If I was not sure, I'd not write a comment at all. :)

Health and metabolism are serious subjects, and I have more than enough experience to not make any recommendations based on low-confidence information. Otherwise, I suspect that my wife would crucify me with cold blood (she's an MD).

citations let your reader judge your ethos and credibility in the absence of personal knowledge of you.

I've heard ambient pink noise (not in headphones) helps, but anectdotally only.

I started to hear it at night when the room was quiet 7 years ago, and then progressively all the time. The first year was hard, I saw a few specialists who told me there was nothing to do about it. In the end I accepted it and now it doesn't bother me anymore.

The more you are upset about it and the worse it is.

I only wish I could be able to hear the silence again, but there are worst things in life. My hypothesis is that it was always there but somehow the filter I had for it stopped working. A bit like eye floaters.

Normally:

- Tinnitus: 100%

With ANC:

- Tinnitus: 50%

- Bose ANC: 50%

I like the ANC sound more than my tinnitus.

I haven't noticed my tinnitus becoming worse or less worse.

In that case, have you tried something like the Bose Sleepbuds? Same idea, much more comfortable to sleep with.

Also: yep, that's what I mean by it, the white noise sound.

I had tinnitus from loud music for 20+ years prior to that and was always very careful with sound levels because it sucks.

A friend of mine similarly reported that the in ear Apple headphones caused temporary tinnitus when in noise cancellation mode (including transparency mode) but not when those features were off.

Previous discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35023808

Half of the 200+ post comment section reads like those bottom of the barrel YouTube ads with the AI generated voices: "Try this secret trick to cure your [condition]." It seems to always happen when someone comes here to ask for opinions on disease, food, health or fitness. People, don't go to HN for medical or nutrition advice.

So far, we've already seen: Magic audio tracks, shocking the tongue, steroids, and Ambien, and those are only the top few root subthreads.

One of the things that occasionally freaks people out is that magical talismans, regardless the magic.. actually work - at above placebo! In fact, even fake magical talismans.. work.. at above placebo..

Psychological things are very real and can be measured but can be influenced in funny ways. Something may genuinely fix or help the issue and not actually treat the direct symptom.

However, people still have to live with it, and it causes stress. What are you going to do, nothing, just because there's no treatment that lives up to the standards of hackernews readers?

The statement that there is no permanent relief or treatment is false, and it's delivered with the same confidence as some of the snake oil advice.

Funny enough lots of stereo widening magic relies on a physical property of sound not existing when it's in your head.

I've never tried it with headphones, but I suppose even though destructive addition isn't going to happen it might affect things like intended spatial perception.

I still think it's unlikely to work.

In simpler terms: tinnitus does not have phase, at least not in the same way a sound wave does.

This technique makes the ringing go away for a while, but it creeps up again after some time. Thankfully, it has always completely gone away after a day or two.

This has been my experience. If I "notice" it, then I hear it until it goes away again. Of course, one thing that causes such notice is reading anything about it. :(

[1] https://www.gocomics.com/peanuts/1963/02/03

Do you notice any difference when you stretch, and specifically, are looking up and have your head back? I've noticed the ringing stops for me at that point. But I also have a high pitched, 24x7 bi-lateral ringing. I've had it my whole life.

I've spent a lot of time on PubMed, but so far I've not found anything that helps mine, even partially or temporarily. I've consulted with close friends that have significant expertise is relevant fields, which has not been fruitful.

Thankfully it's just part of existence as I've always known it, and so it's usually not too difficult, but can really be maddening when trying to fall asleep.

does white noise help?..

I'd recommend anyone suffering play around with the generators on myNoise. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say they kept me going when I was first adjusting to the ringing.

https://mynoise.net/NoiseMachines/rainNoiseGenerator.php

Unless I put the white noise very loud to drwon out tinnitus which is not a good thing to do.

Nope. Had it since my earliest memories, no known trauma as a child.

I saw two different physiatrists, a neurologist, two ENTs, an audiologist, and my GP about the sudden onset tinnitus and they all just shrugged it off. I had a hunch something was going on with my neck because I could modulate the tinnitus a bit with the position of my neck and jaw--I shared this with all of them and they said I was being neurotic. It wasn't until I saw a good PT (she was the third different one I saw) that I was able to get this addressed.

There’s a Lenire provider where I live (Austin) and I’m on the fence about scheduling an appointment to get one.

[1] https://treblehealth.com/lenire-tinnitus-review/

Your link lists all kinds of information about the effectiveness like:

> 80% of participants reported a reduction in tinnitus symptoms

That doesn't sound like snake oil to me...

I'd love to hear from somebody who has tried it. If they say it helped at all, I'd write a $5000 check today.

[1]: https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/cdrh_docs/pdf21/DEN210033.pdf

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35773272/

> Several of the authors have competing interests. BC, CH, EM, SLL, COC, SH, HHL are employees, consultants and/or shareholders of Neuromod Devices. BL, SV, DAH serve on the clinical advisory board of Neuromod Devices and receive monetary compensation for their contribution.

It sounds interesting! Not as a tinnitus relief, just the practice of doing this.

The first days of doing that, you will go right to sleep after the cold water and you gonna wake up with a heavy head, like drinking whisky the previous night. After some days it won't be like that, and the body will get used to it.

It also clears up the nasal pathways. Not absolutely, but it is one of the better ways i have found so far.

Thanks!

I found out accidentally, that it treated a very mild case of inflammation in the ear i had, for over a year.

I probably had the same inflammation 6 years back, and i was in a lot of pain. I went to see a doctor, and he didn't want to prescribe any antibiotics, because the antibiotics for the ear are the strongest of all, due to poor blood circulation around the ear. Anyway, i convinced him for the contrary and he prescribed the antibiotics, 3 days later my ears were working properly again.

The last year however, a similar inflammation on the same spot appeared, but very mild. Almost no pain at all. Just a very small discomfort in the area sometimes. Well the ice cold water for an hour, it treats it completely every time.

The reason i am doing it however, is to smooth out the skin. That's a lot more important.

My audiologist said I was SOL and there was nothing to do about it. A few months later, I went to see a nurse practitioner about something unrelated. The ear came up and she wrote me a Rx for a steroid just to try it and see what happens. Two weeks later, I went for a walk. I heard this rush in my ear and suddenly I could hear again and the tinnitus was gone.

It was a miracle. I still had some permanent hearing loss but it was 90% better. I could function and make music again. Second opinions FTW.

In my case the secret was a sort of a therapy. At the second year I’ve become quite suicidal about it. There was a point in time after collecting all the information there is, when I absolutely ultimately had to make a decision. As a result of this thought process, “I will die with it” got fully accepted either way. Somehow this deadened my reactions and after a short while it became just a part of my life that I ignore. My brain got so good at masking it that I have to carefully listen sometimes (yeah, it’s there and it’s loud). I also stopped looking for a cure, relief, methods, threads like this. Not like “I shouldn’t”, but like “not interested”.

Pretty sure I must not recommend this way or leave it without a disclaimer: if you feel the same, then get professional help, don’t go through it alone.

My key insight is that you suffer while the hope lives, not that you have to lean over the edge to realize that.

Edit: upvote to https://mynoise.net, it helped to mask it at early stages much better than colored noises or youtube videos. You can tune sound components to your case and there’s a lot of presets now.

Same insight. I never got quite down to the deep end as you did, but I recognize the despair. I'm glad you're okay with it now, life is wonderful even with tinnitus :)

I once got a 10 seconds full temporary relief using the Wim Hof Method (probably due to lack of oxygen in the brain at that point, lol). That was a mystical experience. It was really tough to replicate as I had to not breathe for at least 2.5 minutes and I was doing this with doctors (for a WHM experiment conducted by the Radboud University) and I was almost at the point of passing out. I consider these 10 seconds as a gift, I never chased it.

The Texas Roadhouse CEO killing himself in part because of severe tinnitus[1] sometimes makes sense to me, and that's scary. I'd have never considered I'd ever want to do that, even being in chronic pain...but if I had to deal with my tinnitus at its worst, all the time? I don't know.

At the very least I'm pretty certain I wouldn't just do it suddenly and without warning; I'd have conversations with people I love so they know what I'm dealing with and why I'm considering it and doctors and try to make it better first.

[1]: https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2021/0...

The solution that worked for my was basically “acceptance and commitment therapy” - I think I learned it from a book written by a Dr Russell or something like that.

Would recommend, am very glad I did it. It seems kind of kooky though, it’s almost like you pretend the tinnitus is a part of you and you have a conversation with it and welcome it and all that kinda stuff over time, and then eventually it just kinda stops being bothersome. Doesn’t really make sense, but worked well.

One thing I tried as I was still anxious about the matter that I had damaged my hearing permanently, was sitting in a pressurized chamber with a lot of oxygen. Ridiculously expensive and did basically nothing. Possibly if you go immediately after it happens it might help but I'm doubtful of its benefits (the company was making a buck though as single-person business).

I just remember this lady who had hit a garbage can's lid too hard which had made her ears ring. How unlucky. She was quite stressed about it as well.

It's not too kooky nowadays, it's a relatively widely practiced approach used by clinical psychologists.

I've had some curiousity from time to time, but that's the extent of it.

I truly believe acceptance is the best cure when no cure exists in this case, but it's also the most difficult method in all aspects of life.

So in a practical sense, worrying about it literally made it worse by triggering those stress reactions which worsened the tinnitus.

It's that mechanism that acceptance helps me with.

I am not always accepting, but if I can calm myself down and just deal with it, it lessens drastically.

Most doctor visits were quite disappointing since they didn't do anything. I heard from many people that early therapy can help a lot (like oxygen therapy) but my doctor only tried some of these things after I repeatedly asked for it. But by that time it was already too late (like 3-4 weeks later).

What helped me was: - distraction - constant white noise in the background - avoiding any source of loud sounds/music/etc (I am very sensitive on that now) - relaxing my jaw muscles - distraction - going to the doctor at the earliest sign of possible ear infections to stop infections from spreading to the inner ear.

I went to the hospital that day, then saw two different specialists, and the only prescription I received was for Ambien so I could at least get a night’s sleep. Even on day three I could barely drive it was so distracting.

I woke up on day four and it was totally gone. Like it’d just been a terrible dream. I still went to the audiologist the next day to follow up, he said that sometimes that just happens, and posited that it might have been neurological. He did suggest more tests, but I never followed up.

I doubt this is helpful to your case, but it’s an example proof of _something_.

My pet theory is that it was related to my migraines - I have very significant visual auras with migraines, which can last up to a day. Maybe this was an auditory equivalent which lasted much longer? (I like this theory more than worrying about a brain tumour, so please don’t tell me it’s impossible.)

Everything else is full of people saying they are going to go crazy.

My opinion is to approach it that it cannot be cured and is a part of life. I got it around 2016, unknown reasons why, at the time my hearing tested normal for my age. Have seen doctors over the years and while I know its potentially a symptom of something else, I don't know what that something else is.

The first few years were brutal, reading online does not help as people talking about going crazy. The best approach is to ignore all that and just accept it. Mine not be that terrible, but it is always there but it no longer bothers me. Sometimes I do get some weird flare ups where it pulsates but overall its just part of my life. The sooner you accept that the better.

You can find ways to participate in clinical trials, and therefore be a small part of the eventual solution.

I managed to rehabilitate myself mostly by walking for hundreds of hours. That isn't really some trick or secret. That is what health care would eventually tell you to do. It just isn't reflected as much as the easy and the qualified solutions. Now I got tinnitus a few weeks back and it's the same landscape on the Internet. But getting the information isn't really the problem, it is making use of it. It's easy to find a high level of engagement and it's easy to find a high level of knowledge. The challenge is finding both.

I have always been somewhat sensitive to noise, but a lot of people aren't. They have whining fridges, squeaking doors or noise pollution all over the place. They don't really care. You are dismissing symptom reduction a bit. But as far I can tell that is the solution for most. A combination of stress reduction, lifestyle reform and behavioural therapy, potentially with a hearing aid or noise masking. And then it gets manageable enough that they don't care. Maybe you can do that yourself, but possibly you can't and will conclude that it doesn't work.

Of course like I said you shouldn't trust me. I'm going to go find whatever specialist health care can give me without paying too much extra.

Sudden hearing loss can be reversed with prompt steroid injections but if it's left then it will become permanent. My mother woke up one day with no hearing in one ear. Unfortunately, by the time she got a proper diagnosis it was too late to do anything about it. Since then she's had tinnitus and vertigo to go with it.

   i still do not know the propper english word, in german its hörsturz

I know this isn't true, but I've told myself that having tinnitus is a normal thing, that everyone has.

The "fact" that it's normal and that everyone has it has removed the suffering for me.

Weird, but maybe it will help someone here.

"Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional."

The 'ringing' sound people hear isn't actually a sound. It is how the brain processes signals produced by damaged Stereocilia.

If the 'ringing' is constant it means the cilia are permanently damaged. While it would, in theory, be possible to use surgery on the ear and some sort of lazer to completely remove all damaged cilia to avoid them outputting a damaged signal, this procedure would be incredibly invasive and risky. I don't believe it's ever been done and i would find it hard to believe any Otolaryngologist willing to try.

Sometimes it is, apparently?

"If you have pulsatile tinnitus, your doctor may be able to hear your tinnitus when he or she does an examination (objective tinnitus)."

https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/tinnitus/symp...

This is a question for everyone I suppose, but does anyone know why that works? Could it be possible to develop an implant or something which generates the same effect?

I had assumed this was incurable but if my tinnitus is from tight neck muscles, that seems fixable. I'm going to reach out to my doctor about this. Thank you, I think you might have just greatly improved my life.

I also have tinnitus. I wonder if it’s all related?

It sounds like what we need is nanobots to do this surgery.

I also had all mercury fillings removed by a specialist with the correct equipment and procedures.

I.e., I got used to it.

In the beginning though it was awful.

Two years into a “I’d like to be fitter and healthier” lifestyle change and I’ve watched my diet influence tinnitus massively.

I switched to maple syrup or honey for all my sweetener needs.

However - I'm lucky in that I'm not really bothered by it anymore. In fact I didn't notice it now until I saw the HN headline and thought "tinnitus". And now I hear it. It's not very loud, as I said, but still loud enough to hear it over the traffic noise outside. And still, somehow, I forget about it a lot of the time. A guy at work is so disturbed by his tinnitus that he sometimes have to take the rest of the day off. I'm lucky I guess. I don't know if there's any mental method which can help with this.

Edit: I remember now that when I still traveled at lot at work the tinnitus would get worse after long noisy flights, and last for a while (up to a month) after that. I started using good noise-cancelling headphones and that definitely helped. As someone else said, protect you ears. It's even more important if you already have some hearing issues, I believe.

Over the last year or so I've developed really bad hyperacusis, this coupled with misophonia had made me severely suicidal, I even contacted the local mental health services and autism charities.

I've reduced that by wearing coloured lenses, I had been diagnosed with irlen but I see it as a little bit woo, however the coloured lenses have really worked.

My theory - I have a sensory fuck-it-bucket - I'm bombarded by all this crap every day, and if it overflows I'm under real stress, by reducing overload from other senses my bucket fills much slower, and the sound and tinnitus doesn't seem to affect me so much.

Strange to think that a £16 pair of cheap glasses has saved me.

Things I've done to try prevent it getting worse:

* iOS has a limit volume option - that's on permanently.

* I use a speaker on soft volume in the room when wfh rather than headphones when listening to music.

* I have ear plugs on my keys for when I end up going out to music events and festivals (I use Alpine, partner uses Loop). This made a huge difference and I'll go to bed without ringing ears.

* I try have days where I don't listen to music. At first it was weird, now I'm quite used to it.

* Online meetings, keep the volume low where possible.

1. I always set my volume to the lowest setting possible. I do not trust what Apple says about the 'safe' volume because it still is quite hard. And I am using it with Airpods so I think it should be right, but I still put it lower.

2. At home I always use speakers and almost never headphones, for that exact reason.

3. I always carry earplugs for loud music. (funny story: I went to a bar a few weeks back in Korea and everyone in the group (koreans) asked me at some point if I had some medical condition with my ears since I was wearing earplugs. It just is not used at all there).

4. I try to do meetings with my speakers instead of my airpods, does not always work of course.

5. I often go to sleep with some noise, be it TV, Youtube or Spotify.

They work really well to dampen loud sounds and, importantly, they let conversation through, though it sounds muffled. But you can feel the difference. They are much better than using foam ear plugs, which muffle everything.

I used to go to a lot of concerts without any ear protection, when I was young and dumb. I REALLY wish I had these things back then, since I've acquired mild tinnitus as a result.

Now I carry them on my keychain all the time and use them even in restaurants and bars or whenever I'm some place where I have to speak at an elevated level.

I tried many including the Eargasms and never found a comfortable fit. So I got molds and custom ear plugs from Westone.

They are so comfortable and high quality they often improve the quality of the music at a concert.

My only regret is not getting great ear plugs sooner, as I recently developed mild tinnitus from DJing and going to lots of clubs and concerts.

The good news is that with the ear plugs I have returned to all my previous behaviors and the tinnitus is not getting any worse and actually mellowing out.

I’ll check out the ones with custom molds. Thanks for the suggestion.

My wife has a friend who told her just a few days ago that her husband has had some success toning his done by chewing Bay leaves. I've not tried that yet, but I will soon.

From what I've read there is still no "cure". But those two things may contain a clue that's worth looking for.

Perhaps the most notable attempt at a cure was Frequency Therapeutics, whose efforts were promising, but unfortunately didn't pan out.

There's a constant churn of biotech companies trying to solve this, as curing tinnitus (and/or hearing loss) would be a goldmine, but no one has really gotten anywhere yet.

If you want to stay on top of it, the /r/tinnitusresearch is a pretty good hub, and there are a few mailing lists out there.

That said, over time I found that ceasing to follow all the promises and inevitable disappointments helped me better achieve the only real "treatment" we have right now, which is accepting it and slowly learning to live with it.

When there's a real deal cure, you'll know about it. Until then, I suggest not paying attention to the churn and the extremely dubious "treatments" out there.

I read about the Frequency Therapeutics stuff, and saw the initial promise and subsequent disappointment. Oh well, maybe next year :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yDCox-qKbk

I have/had Tinnitus (it’s nowhere near as bad as it was 7/10 to it’s current 1/10). It’s been gone 7-8 years now.

1. I listen to music much quieter, and let my ears adjust.

2. This is the weird part. I would get itchy all the time, random pin pricks I’d feel often. I read about monks who meditated so long they could turn off their hearts. So I sat in bed for 3 months (before going to sleep) and tried really hard to look at where I felt an itch and see it was my body was wrong. There was no reason to give me a cue to itch. Nothing was happening.

I can easily ‘feel’ the pin pricks if I desire but don’t anymore. It’s like a weird mental trick. I can also feel mosquitos and really anything touch me and no longer get false cues.

Anyhow I suffered from tinnitus and did the normal suggested stuff but it didn’t work. So I remembered the time I got rid of my itching and tried to replicate what I did.

I sat and listened to ‘true noise’ and untrue ‘noise’ and it wasn’t instant relief but over 2-3 weeks it went to level it’s at now. I only notice it if I desire. It’s louder an extremely quiet environment but I swear it’s almost like I can hear my blood pump.

Listen to really low noise. Quieter than whispers. Then up and up. Train your ear to understand sound and not sound. Then go back down again. Sadly the truest quiet will cost you (some place remote with no bugs or wind) but I did it fine at home because I could remember before I had tinnitus. Earplugs I think don’t work because you hear your blood pump.

Anyway I’m sorry you’re suffering and I know what I wrote sounds really dumb/unbelievable but I do pretty good on prediction markets… ;) it might work for you. Very weird - no proof in the literature but it worked me.

-(I did the itch cue training around 12 or 13, tinnitus around 22) -(I didn’t use any drugs)

I started to get upset, then I just mentally recalibrated. The pain was a feeling, a bit of information being transmitted up my nerves to my brain. I just relaxed and listened to the bee sting, not as a pain sensation, but just as a sensation. It turned my mind from going "OW OW OW" to "Oh, that's what venom feels like."

I honestly feel like that completely changed my pain tolerance for the rest of my life.

Basically acknowledging it as part of the background noise let me stop concentrating on it as much.

On the other side I worked out what makes it worse - lack of sleep being one, if I stay up too many days watching Netflix then I'll get bad tinnitus, same for hangovers.

It's meant to be linked to inflammation so being more healthy, getting more sleep and putting yourself under less stress all help.

It's hard though - rn I have terrible tinnitus, and of course any reminder of it can bring it back, it'll fade until I scroll past this article again.

The main things for me were

- take a major break from djing and clubs. I was playing out a lot - get great earplugs. I have westone custom molds - talk to friends about it

In talking about it I have been absolutely shocked to learn how pervasive hearing problems are.

Lots of friends have some form of tinnitus and some have shared major problems like major tinnitus from playing drums a long time or loss of sound in one ear from rocket explosions in the military. All was a complete surprise, I just assumed everyone’s hearing was great.

This greatly helped with my initial depression which presumably was causing me to focus on the sounds more rather to accept and ignore it.

Health problems are coming for all of us. Take great joy out of whatever health you do have, try to reduce harm from unhealthy habits, but have fun too.

I recommend using ear defenders whenever possible in louder environments. They're much more powerful than earplugs and much cheaper. A 30 decibel reduction for $30 is quite realistic.

Twenty years ago I gave up hearing aids.

But the tinnitus stayed with me.

I accepted the tinnitus.

It can be triggered easily, for example from very loud noises (120 dB and more), or just thinking about tinnitus. While writing this post I got tinnitus.

Usually I hear moaning swelling up and down.

Sometimes I hear high-pitched explosions.

Rarely I hear what I call cat music, a surprising and arrythmic melange of different noises.

When I hear tinnitus, I try to listen to it. Especially the cat music is interesting.

The explosions are not so nice. They sometimes work like audio jump scares.

The moaning is sometimes soothing.

My tinnitus is a kind of hissing, predominantly at a very high pitch. I'm in my mid 40's so grew up around CRT TVs. I think it's about the 15kHz horizontal refresh frequency, which makes me wonder whether my brain was trained at a young age to expect CRT TV sounds to be around and now it's just a permanent artefact, like a noise cancellation circuit that's gone wrong.

I find it gets worse if I'm run down, or eg. If I drink too much alcohol, or if I wear headphones for too long.

If I think about it, I can hear it at any time, but generally it's not too bad. I know it's not very helpful, but acceptance of it and shifting focus to other things definitely helps me, to the point that it usually fades away and is generally not noticeable at all.

My hearing in general is fine, although I have always struggled a little with understanding people unless they’re facing me. I can hear them just fine, I just can’t always parse what they’re saying. Maybe related, maybe not.

I should be thankful at least because mine never bothers me. Like GP I thought this was something everyone experienced.

Most likely you'll habituate to the sound (as I have). What was once a living nightmare will become (miraculously) a non-issue. Occasionally, as one person said it even becomes "comfy" - or as I told my wife recently, it's just the sound that the world makes when you're alive. Really, it's not much different from other signal processing affects in other senses. If you close your eyes and concentrate you can see visual noise. It's also there when you open your eyes (floaters for example). But you don't worry about that because it's commonplace. Sound seems different because it's new - but it will become the same type of thing.

An important part of getting better is accepting that (likely...) you're not going to get better. And then, after just being with it for a while and not trying to push it away, you realize that it's not so bad - you get better. Just let life suck for a while. My experience hasn't been pleasant, but I've learned a lot about the nature of life. Fair trade. Wouldn't want to do it again, but glad to have done it.

If you perceive it as dangerous threat, the brain amplifies it. If you perceive it as a neutral presence, the brain ignores it. Ive used pretty ridiculous imaginative tricks to convince my brain that it’s a benign presence, and it’s worked. Noise masking is vital for me in the early stages.

At it’s very worst it was loud enough to hear during a jet flight taking off and would mask normal conversation. Now I can meditate in a silent room and barely notice it. I don’t notice it when I lie down to sleep.

Not all tinnitus is psychological: I’ve also had somatic tinnitus, a very low throbbing hum in one ear. That was extremely challenging , and the tinnitus talk forum provided a theory and solution that worked. It was caused by jaw tension, solved by sleeping with a dental guard.

No idea if the long-term quiet environment played a role, but I also occasionally would supplement with sublingual b12[0] methylcobalamin supplements.

It's impossible to say what's responsible, there's far too many variables. Maybe just time passing since quitting riding motorcycles is all that was needed.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitamin_B12_deficiency (search in page for tinnitus)

https://www.healthline.com/health/medications-that-cause-tin...

https://www.webmd.com/migraines-headaches/features/aspirin-a...

Mine was from getting squeezed from flying with a sinus infection. I got rid of mine almost completely most of the time with hyperbaric treatment. I had the journal article saying this is common practice in Germany that I used to convince my ENT to refer me to a hyperbaric chamber, but I can't seem to find it.

My whole life I'd cleaned my ears with q-tips. I knew I shouldn't as it's written right on the package. I'd stopped doing that after I was told not to by countless people.

Fast forward a few years and I had tinnitus. Went to an ENT, told him of my symptoms, and mentioned a story about my great grandmother's hearing being impacted by ear wax build up. He tells me "Well, we'll take a look but chances are you're going to have this the rest of your life".

As he takes a look in my ears I hear him mutter, "Oh, we're going to fix this right now". He promptly fishes two plugs of ear wax out of my ears. Ringing resolved 15 minutes after that.

I asked him what should I do to prevent this? He said "You could come back and I fish them out again, or you know... you could use a q-tip to clean your ears on occasion"

Edit: he did mention that once the build up is bad enough you can't clean it out on your own. That cleaning it on your own could push it further in, causing damage.

If you are lucky enough to have a diagnostic, then the priority is to treat the disease. This may alleviate the hearing loss and sometimes the tinnitus. In some cases tinnitus may completely disappear (for example in the case of a viral infection affecting the auditory nerve). But often tinnitus remains and you have to live with it. Anyway having a diagnostic is in itself a relief.

If you do not have a diagnostic, I guess you have to learn to live with it. It may be more difficult in this case. After all it is not the end of the world. Many things are worse than this. It can be hard to sleep at times. Doing sport improves sleep. It can be hard to hear people during meetings. Sometimes you will have to ask them to repeat. You can seat closer to the main speaker. You can prefer to connect remotely with a good headset.

I have a disease of the hear which for sure won't improve. In a sense this is a relief because I stopped "monitoring" my tinnitus so closely, maybe 7 or 8 years after my diagnostic, and 2 years after my second surgical operation. It does not keep me awake at night.

That's it. It's not permanent, but I can forget it's there.

I know some people have really bad tinnitus, and that's different, but typical mild tinnitus is almost completely ignoreable after a while.

Anyone else? I've only ever heard of people acquiring it over the course of their lives, but I know I was born with it.

It doesn't really bother me, since its been normal for me since before I was even forming memories.

I suspect that's what happened to me at least. I think I actually did have it earlier in retrospect, it was just so quiet it was easy to ignore.

For the past four years though? Not so much. I can train my brain to ignore it still, but I need to be pretty focused on other things and/or cover it up a bit with ocean noises or be in a room with ambient noises or something. In a quiet room and I'm not really focused on something else, though, it's quite obvious and can get kind of loud at times.

I just thought everyone heard that high pitch TV tube sound all the time.

When cartoons would show "ringing in the ears" with a bell, I thought that's what they meant - that you heard an actual bell sound. I never knew that I was hearing "ringing" all the time.

I used to play in bands and listen to live music a lot, so I got my hearing tested a few years ago. I have no damage at all. Surprisingly, I have better hearing for my age in some frequencies.

The theory I subscribe to is that it's structural - like, a blood vessel that's just really close to I dunno, something in my ear that is constantly stimulating some sound sensing nerve or whatever.

It's been constant, kind of annoying, but not worsening. I'd go nuts if put into a silent room. Fortunately, the world is not completely silent. But I prefer to sleep with white noise or a fan. Sometimes it just fades into the background, but if I think about it (like I am right now) it's really noticeable.

I don't consider it a problem, but it would be nice to get rid of it.

I might as well note that anecdotally, barotrauma makes the tinnitus better temporarily. Maybe there is an explanation -- traumatic tinnitus can be at least alleviated by going into an overpressurization chamber immediately after the traumatic event. It seems like even after the fact, a pressure difference has temporary effect. For example, my tinnitus feels better after ascend on flights, even though in this case it's underpressure.

The best motivational video that I still think of after 10 years is this: https://youtu.be/eOU0JhkHY3w

There are many possible causes for tinnitus, and looking for a singular solution to solve it all may be a fruitless errand. Even if someone found one, it may not correspond to your root causes.

I've noticed my own tinnitus seems tied up with muscle strain in my neck and shoulders. A frequent trigger is when I turn my head very quickly--a sudden bout of ringing starts in the corresponding ear. I've also seen my tinnitus wind down when I take the time to stretch those muscles, get massages, get acupuncture, etc. The solution here requires upkeep, not a singular, one-time expense. At least in my case.

Except for a single night: November 12, 2022. For about 8 hours I had no tinnitus. (Sadly, it came back the next morning.)

The only unusual thing about that day was that I'd had an MRI (Brain and Cervical Spine, with contrast) for unrelated (and thankfully pointless) reasons. But somehow it fixed my tinnitus for a few hours??

Back in 2019 I had a Meniere's Protocol MRI and CT Scan to diagnose my Meniere's Disease. Gadolinium contrast. No effect on my tinnitus.

After a bit of reading I came across rTMS as a possible mechanism for temporary relief of tinnitus - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3563643/ - which the MRI that day would have induced. (Can't explain why the previous one had no effect, but the paper suggests that the literal motion and direction of the magnetic resonance matters).

A Uni nearby where I lived was even doing clinical trials. But I was dealing with another health issue at the time, and life got busy, and I've since moved interstate. I have no idea how it works or if it's just some incredible coincidence. But one day soon I'll go exploring down the rTMS path and see if I can consistently get tinnitus relief.

Like others in the thread, I've heard of plenty of other snake oil things. And my tinnitus is really not bad enough that I need to consider anything right now. But if tinnitus relief is a real thing one day, my money is currently on rTMS. Just far too big a coincidence for me to ignore.

... but not through any conscious method or effort. In fact, this post just "reminded" me of the fact that I had regular and occasionally severe tinnitus over the course of many years. Mine started in high school and persisted well into adulthood. Possibly rooted in a couple of concussions I suffered in reasonably quick succession, possibly too much time under headphones too loud.

Right now, I have to think hard to even recall the sensation, which I take as a pretty strong sign that I haven't suffered it for quite some time. Anecdotally, I can say that I haven't used headphones to listen to music in probably 15 years, and I'm gentler in general with the volume knob now than when I was 15-25. Nothing else jumps out as a possible contributor.

Hopefully this reminder about the condition's existence doesn't trigger a relapse. I'm terribly prone to suggestion.

Had a mild(?) case of tinnitus from about 17 to 20 years of age. Haven't really even thought about it since then but in my case the prime suspect was probably loud music. During that time period I was super depressed and angry at the world so I used to listen to loud heavy metal music nearly all day every day from my earbuds.

I stopped doing that because of the tinnitus, but it lingered on for long enough such that I can't draw a clear link between the music and tinnitus. Other potential suspects have been quitting dairy, cigarettes and weed, which I also quit in that same time period as the loud music.

If I had to guess, it was probably damaged stereocilia as @RelativeDelta mentioned.

Thankfully there are other more professional conscientious sound editors that do not do such 'plunder' to our auditive system. I just keep my fingers crossed that they will keep their good common sense, which unfortunately has not been the case in a recent high budget film that was released recently :/

I'm not convinced it's an entirely physical issue though. Our brains can filter out all kinds of excessive external stimuli both visual and from other senses so why not that ringing also?