Mine has gotten worse lately, morning, all day, and night. In the evening my on the porch my wife says, "listen to all the crickets"... "what crickets"? This morning about dawn she said, "the birds are really loud this morning"... "what birds".  All I hear is a high pitched frequency. I cannot describe it because I've never heard anything else like it. I hear things at lower frequencies but I need some relief. Has anyone tried that stuff they advertise on TV and radio. I've read that valium helps but I don't need anything like that... but I am beginning to get ready to try anything.

If you know anything that will help... thanks.

J

I have read when you are hearing what sounds like a certain frequency the brain is in a sort of feedback mode and is locked onto that one frequency.

Try listening to either white or pink noise for about ten minutes. Not loud try 80 dB or less. Because noise contains all frequencies while you are listening to the noise, the brain looses track of the one frequency it was locked onto before. So when you turn the noise off you should find you are in silence now and not hearing anything or individual frequencies now. I suppose it depends on the type of tinnitus you have. It may only work for that very specific frequency type of tinnitus.

Wow, thanks Jeff. That sounds easy enough. I'll let you know! 

J

jbow


Mine has gotten worse lately, morning, all day, and night. In the evening my on the porch my wife says, "listen to all the crickets"... "what crickets"? This morning about dawn she said, "the birds are really loud this morning"... "what birds".  All I hear is a high pitched frequency. I cannot describe it because I've never heard anything else like it. I hear things at lower frequencies but I need some relief. Has anyone tried that stuff they advertise on TV and radio. I've read that valium helps but I don't need anything like that... but I am beginning to get ready to try anything.

If you know anything that will help... thanks.

J

This is just my opinion, but I beleive it's due to solar flares and electromagnetic noise. I don't have tinitus that I know of and I am experiencing the same increase in high frequency noise. With all the cell and cordless phones we are surrounded with, you have to realize that electromagnetic solar waves can excite the waves these devices use as well as introduce their own high frequency noise. If a solar wave is exciting a cell phone system which is strung all over the world, it's liable to create an atmospheric standing-residual wave that fades slowly throughout the 24 hour cycle.

I've had tinnitus pretty bad for at least 15 years. Mine is comprised of 2 or more extremely high pitched frequencies, rather like the sound of escaping gas. I think it was basically noise damage, from the early 90's rave scene and extended listening to music on headphones at high volume. 

I had a big crisis about it about 12 years ago, during which I was surprised to discover that most of my friends have it to some extent as well. I think we all screwed our ears a bit back then! It could also be related to drug and alcohol use - it's not just ear related but brain related as well. There are many different causes of tinnitus. For some people it's tension in the neck and jaw. For other's, it's the sound of blood wooshing around their head. Some people even have "objective tinnitus" which is actually a sound in the ears that other people can hear if they listen closely enough. 

I think the thing to remember is that tinnitus is very common, and that your brain can learn to live with it. Despite mine being quite loud it doesn't really bother me much at all, unless I'm in total silence. For that reason I always have a fan or something on when I sleep. 

There are preventative measures - alcohol and caffeine can make it worse. Smoking weed can make it seem worse although that might just be that it makes you more aware of it. Eating a healthy diet can help. As much natural food as you can. Make sure you're getting enough zinc and magnesium - most people are deficient and those minerals are important for ear health. Magnesium can protect your ears from noise damage and indeed the military has done research into using it on troops who have experienced loud noises in battles and in training. 

The list of musicians who have tinnitus is huge. Noted sufferers include Chris Martin, Pete Townsend, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Robert Plant, Barbara Streisand. You can get it from one noise related incident. For Townsend it was when Keith Moon blew his kit up on TV with him standing right next to it. For Andy Patridge of XTC it was when a careless studio engineer triggered a snare sample in one ear at full volume. For William Shatner it was a stage explosion when filming an episode of Star Trek. 

You might want to look into notched frequency therapy. It works best for tinnitus of lower frequency because you have to be able to identify the frequency of your tinnitus accurately. It involves listening to white noise or music with that frequency notched out. Apparently this has been shown to greatly reduce the volume of tinnitus, if you do it for a few months. 

Don't worry too much about it though. There's no reason why it should affect your life if you take the right frame of mind. And I'm pretty confident a cure is not far off. There have been some advances recently. 

are you sure you didn't swallow mini transmitter virus?

seriously though, check your trigger points around the neck and  head.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17956784

quite often something simple like massage can help.

Can somebody get that bell!

Jeff I tried a pink noise generator and it didn't help, I could hear the tinnitus above the pink noise. I sleep with a white noise generator every night and have for years, not for the tinnitus but to mask outside noises like dogs barking etc. If my wife gets up before me she will turn it up quite a bit so I don't think it is going to help... but thanks!

Crg, you cold be right, I hope not.

Sharke I do have head and neck problems and degenerative disk disease especially around T1 and have been on meds for it for about 10yrs, I suspect the pain meds. It seems to be equal in both ears so I don't think it is from some loud noise, though I have listened to my share of loud music... that was mostly when I was younger and I didn't have it then. I did have a huge earwax buildup about a year ago, i was appalled. A PA pulled a plug of wax the size of a cigarette butt out of one ear and one almost as big out of the other, I had no idea it as in there. It could have damaged the little hairs in my ears. 

Most of the time I don't notice it but it seems to be getting worse. I notice it most when it is quiet. I will look into taking some mineral supplement and try to see a ear doctor. 

If I find something that works for me you bet I will post it.

Thanks,

J

seriously though, check your trigger points around the neck and  head.

I will. I have tension headaches a lot, my neck cracks and pops when I roll my neck. I had a massage therapist tell me once that I had the most tension in my shoulders than anyone she had ever worked on... that could be a real problem. 
Thanks for the help. I could use a massage. "Love you long time"... J/K I've never been to an AMP... not going either.


J

I think in a lot of people it's a combination of things. Pain medication, even aspirin, has been found to be a trigger in some people. Also certain antibiotics. Earwax is the cause in some people, but not many. It could still be loud noise even if you have it in both ears - you could get it from headphone use, and if you're at a loud gig then both ears are pretty much taking it equally. 

I tell as many people as I can to look after their ears. If you've ever come out of a gig or a club with your ears ringing, then that is a sign of permanent hearing damage. It may subside after a day or two, but it builds up. I remember seeing a documentary in the UK years ago in which they had a noise expert take his equipment into a pretty average nightclub. He left after a few minutes, saying that if you spend longer than 10 minutes in that place, you are damaging your hearing without a shadow of doubt. 

Wear ear plugs at gigs and rehearsals, especially if you're standing near the drummer! I wear plugs on the NYC subway because the noise levels are dangerously high. Also avoid extended loud listening when you're mixing, whether on monitors or headphones. Headphones can be particularly dangerous, I would always keep them relatively quiet. I know the temptation is to crank it, but what I've found is that if I turn it down, although it's a disappointment at first, my ears quickly get used to it and I don't even notice.