One random night, I lay on my bed in my silent bedroom, and I felt that the silence is uncomfortable. Why, I asked myself, that the silence felt sharp, like I prefer the noise of my annoyingly loud dehumidifier, or the muffled sound of traffic in my old apartment?
I realized that the silence was ringing, in a high pitched noise that we all associate with being hit near the ears. My inner voice told myself: “man, you have tinnitus.”
Thinking back, that wasn’t the first time I thought that I have tinnitus, but I was probably in denial for years, or it just got louder. The sad part is that I’m only 26, and somehow, I feared getting tinnitus ever since my childhood.
Even worse, I just ordered a pair of headphones with ANC, and when I don’t play anything through it, the ringing gets very clear.
Was depressed for a few days, thinking that it’s not fair that I got it even though I don’t expose myself to loud noises often, I listen to music at a couple levels lower than my preference, and I don’t turn up my music to drown out noises.
But nothing in life is fair, and to compared to the suffering of others, this is only a mild discomfort. So I’ll try to keep positive about it, and be grateful that I still enjoy a comparatively luxurious life.
I’ll visit a doctor soon though!
Any of you have a similar experience? I’ll be happy to read your stories!
I have had tinnitus all my life, and honestly did not know the ringing wasnt a normal thing until I watched an episode of Archer. Becoming truly aware of it was a terrible day for me.
Generally, it isn’t something that is treatable, but in my opinion it is better to have it at an earlier age, when your brain is more adaptable, as it makes it easier to adapt to the constant ringing, and learn ways to tune it out.
If you need to, get some sort of white noise/nature sound generator and keep it playing during the quiet times, and focus on those noises. I find that tinnitus is worst when you are focusing on it, and the more you think about it, the more you notice it.
One thing I have found to NEVER work is mentally playing with the volume/pitch - those sliders only go up, and stay up until I have focused on something else for awhile.
White noise for the goddamn win.
Brown noise to be exact.
A search for a 15 minute brown noise MP3 track years ago saved me
It’s just like Jesus, even though he’s brown, people keep on making the mistake of assuming that he’s white 😂 Jokes aside, I’ll look into it, I might need it in the office.
If for any reason you don’t quite like the noise video/track, it’s almost trivially easy to create your own white, brown, or pink noise track in an audio editor like Audacity. Then you can adjust the EQ, high/low filters, mix in other sounds, etc and really make it your personalized sleep track for offline listening (good for planes).
iOS can add background sound for dead spots in audio too. I like it for reminding me that the podcast ended while I’m working mindless tasks.
mawp, mawp
lana
Lana
Lana!
WHAT?!?!
~danger zone~
Yes, the awareness is the terrible part, it’s like noticing a smudge on an otherwise perfectly clean surface - not gonna kill you but you’ll keep looking at it 😂
And to be overly positive; at least now I will take an extra good care of my ears - limiting loud noise and all, and maybe I’ll avoid hearing loss in my old age.
Drag can make it go down.