Tinnitus, Deafness and Ear Problems Support Group
This group is for those coping with Tinnitus (ringing ears or ear noise), hearing loss, and all ear issues. Join to find support and get advice from others.
Hey Gang, it's been close to a month and I've come a far way both in figuring out what the F is going on in my head and with my hearing and now i have this to say:
1) Tinnitus - Eh.. not so bad... freaked the heck out of me at first, but already most of the time i sort of accept/forget it... here's what helped:
a) learning almost every guitarist in every professional band has it
b) bono, neil young, letterman, william shatner.. the list goes on.. if they can live public and productive lives, i can certainly shut up and deal too.
c) will-i-am had the best line: "Never bothers me, i just think of it as all the people i've loved buzzing around in my head with me 24/7."
d) i think i've had this a longer time - but never attached such a negative emotion as when it got louder/more consistent with hearing loss.
e) this pretty makes sure i'll never 'sleep through life'.. keeps my consciousness buzzing away
f) according to most theories, it's sounds of our body... not random sounds coming from the ear.. so if this buzzing is my body working, how the hell can i be upset when i hear it!!!?
2) Hearing Loss: Ehhh..... very confusing. One ear hears fine, the T ear hears some things very very low... some things very very loud! It's a combination of hearing loss and hyper-acusis that is way more annoying that the T itself... so i have to ask you my friends who know:
a) will i get used to the imbalanced sound levels?!
b) will my bad ear always hear a pitch higher than the right!? weird.
c) right now i cannot tell where any sound is coming from... ie my cellphone rings on one side of the room, i was going nuts looking right in front of me, i was way way way off... will this get better?!
For me, the hyperacusis and mis-matchd hearing and weird heavy feeling in the bad ear that comes and goes is worse than the T.
That being said:
a) it is sort of a trip.
b) my hyper-acusis STILL did go DOWN in some frequencies and i've noticed people look NICER because i don't hear their footsteps and breathing in my ear.... i now realize i was very very very very very hyper-sensitive to sound for many years... very very very .... i have been unplugging my fridges for almost 10 years because the buzz drives me crazy and yet - i never thought it could be predicating something medical... what an idiot in retrospect! And i cannot believe nobody noticed or gave me the advice it was hyperacusis.
c) i must officially apologize to the hundreds of people i have gotten mad at for talking too loud or banging their doors.. uhhh.. it was me.
if i could get rid of the -rest- of my hyperacusis my ears would be more balanced and i'd be really relaxed. Is it possible to control.
FINALLY: I spent a lot of time not drinking coffee nor smoking the herbs i love to smoke, and it was NOT the answer.... i don't know if it will work forever or for everyone, but my personal feeling is to keep on living the way you like living.. enjoy your coffee and beer or whatever.. forget about the T or trying to change to accomoddate IT... make it accommodate you and you won't notice it nearly as much.
I -thought- avoiding salt was lowering the T.. but even that i am skeptical... the only thing i has figured out helps keep the T low is to shut up... especially the cell phone... it gets my ear ringing like nuts.. but when i'm in the dead silence at night.. no masker.. no background noise or music.... i find that is the best.
Unforunately i think it's a bad idea long-tern, from what i read the best thing would be to continue to listen to the music we love, and fill the old ears with real sound that a brain needs to process and decipher.... the only medical advice that made any sense and was repeated all over the literature (and lord i have read pages and pages and two Tinniuts books 100 pages+ of research) is that our neurons attached to something in our heads when our hearing was shocked... neurons that fire together wire together, so they say, so what makes the most sense at this point is to make sure they do NOT fire together more than they have to... if my ear is listening to real music and working and tv and stuff and working that, i (hope) that will minimize any more neurons wiring together... i think that's how it gets worse over time, focusing on it..
Now I have the most important question of all:
Were the male singers on the X-Factor tonight as bad as I thought, or was it my hyperacusis!?!?! Holy molly, they sucked or my hearing is totally off.
1) Tinnitus - Eh.. not so bad... freaked the heck out of me at first, but already most of the time i sort of accept/forget it... here's what helped:
a) learning almost every guitarist in every professional band has it
b) bono, neil young, letterman, william shatner.. the list goes on.. if they can live public and productive lives, i can certainly shut up and deal too.
c) will-i-am had the best line: "Never bothers me, i just think of it as all the people i've loved buzzing around in my head with me 24/7."
d) i think i've had this a longer time - but never attached such a negative emotion as when it got louder/more consistent with hearing loss.
e) this pretty makes sure i'll never 'sleep through life'.. keeps my consciousness buzzing away
f) according to most theories, it's sounds of our body... not random sounds coming from the ear.. so if this buzzing is my body working, how the hell can i be upset when i hear it!!!?
2) Hearing Loss: Ehhh..... very confusing. One ear hears fine, the T ear hears some things very very low... some things very very loud! It's a combination of hearing loss and hyper-acusis that is way more annoying that the T itself... so i have to ask you my friends who know:
a) will i get used to the imbalanced sound levels?!
b) will my bad ear always hear a pitch higher than the right!? weird.
c) right now i cannot tell where any sound is coming from... ie my cellphone rings on one side of the room, i was going nuts looking right in front of me, i was way way way off... will this get better?!
For me, the hyperacusis and mis-matchd hearing and weird heavy feeling in the bad ear that comes and goes is worse than the T.
That being said:
a) it is sort of a trip.
b) my hyper-acusis STILL did go DOWN in some frequencies and i've noticed people look NICER because i don't hear their footsteps and breathing in my ear.... i now realize i was very very very very very hyper-sensitive to sound for many years... very very very .... i have been unplugging my fridges for almost 10 years because the buzz drives me crazy and yet - i never thought it could be predicating something medical... what an idiot in retrospect! And i cannot believe nobody noticed or gave me the advice it was hyperacusis.
c) i must officially apologize to the hundreds of people i have gotten mad at for talking too loud or banging their doors.. uhhh.. it was me.
if i could get rid of the -rest- of my hyperacusis my ears would be more balanced and i'd be really relaxed. Is it possible to control.
FINALLY: I spent a lot of time not drinking coffee nor smoking the herbs i love to smoke, and it was NOT the answer.... i don't know if it will work forever or for everyone, but my personal feeling is to keep on living the way you like living.. enjoy your coffee and beer or whatever.. forget about the T or trying to change to accomoddate IT... make it accommodate you and you won't notice it nearly as much.
I -thought- avoiding salt was lowering the T.. but even that i am skeptical... the only thing i has figured out helps keep the T low is to shut up... especially the cell phone... it gets my ear ringing like nuts.. but when i'm in the dead silence at night.. no masker.. no background noise or music.... i find that is the best.
Unforunately i think it's a bad idea long-tern, from what i read the best thing would be to continue to listen to the music we love, and fill the old ears with real sound that a brain needs to process and decipher.... the only medical advice that made any sense and was repeated all over the literature (and lord i have read pages and pages and two Tinniuts books 100 pages+ of research) is that our neurons attached to something in our heads when our hearing was shocked... neurons that fire together wire together, so they say, so what makes the most sense at this point is to make sure they do NOT fire together more than they have to... if my ear is listening to real music and working and tv and stuff and working that, i (hope) that will minimize any more neurons wiring together... i think that's how it gets worse over time, focusing on it..
Now I have the most important question of all:
Were the male singers on the X-Factor tonight as bad as I thought, or was it my hyperacusis!?!?! Holy molly, they sucked or my hearing is totally off.
Your hyper-acusis should improve. Mine did over a period of about six months. The best thing, ironically (and this is what my ENT, head of a large, highly ranked teaching hospital said) for hyper-acusis is to expose yourself to sounds. Not ear-splitting sounds that will do further damage, but sounds that are well within normal range but a bit sensitive to the hyper-acusis ear.
I didn't believe this at first, but in fact, it has worked for me and my hyper-acusis is much better. Also, a safe threshold of sound enrichment is important to the health of one's ears in general.