Tinnitus treatment and management

Arnie Pye said:
One thing I did that helped me... By listening to something that was "real" (slow, gentle ocean waves), I could imagine myself into the situation of actually being on a lonely beach, in gorgeous weather, with fluffy clouds, listening to the waves while lying on a beach. The beach had some pebbles and a few seashells, as well as a few palm trees. I put effort into creating this relaxing scene. Concentrating on that scene and the wave sound helped me to ignore the drone. I couldn't have done this with white noise because it isn't a sound you can attach to a real life scene.

If I listened to wind, rain, and thunder I could imagine myself anywhere of my choice. But the beach was definitely my favourite relaxing place.
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:thumbup:

This is why I prefer listening to sounds of waves.crashing on a beach or the wind in the trees. I can use my imagination and go for long cliff top or woodland walks..... or a run....or be on horseback!

It becomes a nice relaxing treat rather than a distraction tactic and is all the more effective because of that.
 
Arnie Pye said:
Does your white noise machine play other sounds apart from white noise? Are they pleasant to listen to?
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My machines has 7-8 noises with 2-3 tones for each. The problem is there is a little annoying sound looping behind it, so I need to buy a better one. I actually sleep with a noise that resembles what an oil furnace sounds like. It reminds me of the furnace in my childhood home, next to my room. Not too sexy but it works.

Arnie Pye said:
If you live in the UK could you try getting an appropriate referral in your area?
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I’m in Canada and presently waiting for an appointment with an audiologist. I was told it would take 2 years if I remember correctly. I still have a at least 15 months to wait.
 
Dechi said:
I’m in Canada and presently waiting for an appointment with an audiologist. I was told it would take 2 years if I remember correctly. I still have a at least 15 months to wait.
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I never have high hopes of healthcare systems anywhere, but that made my jaw drop! I'm sorry you have to wait so long. I hope something that is written in this thread helps you in some way, because seriously, it looks like self-help for the tinnitus is your best option.
 
Ravn said:
There's something called Notch Therapy. Explained here:
https://www.signia-hearing.com/blog/notch-therapy-and-how-does-it-help-with-tinnitus/
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I'm sorry, but I don't feel any the wiser after reading that. I understand that people use a hearing aid which does something, but what that something is is not explained in any way.

Edit : I've just found this link, which does actually explain what notch therapy actually involves :

https://quiet-ears.com/what-is-tinnitus-notch-therapy/
 
Arnie Pye said:
I have never given any thought to what my tinnitus frequency is. It wasn't a requirement for learning how to learn to live with tinnitus.
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Arnie Pye said:
Once you know what your tinnitus frequency is, what do you do with the information and how does it help your tinnitus?
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Curiosity mainly for me. My husband was interested some time ago to understand what tinnitus sounds like for me. I couldn’t find anything online that came close to what I hear and didn’t bother with it again.

I hear multiple sounds that are different in each ear. Sometimes a new sound is added quite suddenly. Sometimes a new sound stays, sometimes not. I get curious about trying to isolate the different pitches and determine what they are.
 
My tinnitus does vary from time to time. And since I can no longer hear my tinnitus relaxer gadget with all the nice sounds on it I'm thrown back onto trying anything I can think of to help me ignore the sound. I can't understand or explain it, and I don't have any logic for it, but I've discovered that sometimes I can ignore my tinnitus better if I have ear plugs in. Can anyone else explain why this might be?
 
Merged thread

Tinnitus treatment

I had PVFS in 1992 and kind of recovered 16 years later. Now, about ten years since recovering I suddenly woke up the other night with a loud tinnitus in my right side on my head/ear.
It is constant. I am trying apripirazole which is an antipsychotic and I think someone imporved on it (not necessarily tinnitus though.) I have taken one pill today but the tinnitus is still there. ANyone else tried anything for tinnitus? How did you get on?
 
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Sorry to hear you have developed tinnitus. I have severe tinnitus, with onset over ten years ago.

If it's just starting, my advice would be don't panic and try and remain stress free. Not easy with such a horrendous symptom. But stress and anxiety can make tinnitus worse.

There is no cure for T, as you probably know. No one medication shows consistent positive results, and you'll find people trying different medications that do nothing or make their T worse. There are so many causes of T—perhaps you should see a doctor first to eliminate common causes of temporary T, such as ear wax, eustachian tube dysfunction etc, as well as more serious but less likely causes (such as acoustic neuroma).

In the meantime, perhaps you can use sound therapy to draw your attention away from your T, and mask it.
 
The covid vaccines are known for causing sudden tinnitus. According to the World Health Organization the Pfizer vaccine has been found to be responsible in 80% of the people reporting vaccine induced tinnitus.
 
Jonathan Edwards said:
New onset one-sided tinnitus should be investigated even if often no cause is found. It is unlikely to have anything to do with PVFS or ME. I would recommend getting specialist advice.
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It's common in both ME and LC. Some after vaccines too, although it's still unclear whether it's vaccines alone, or the immune system's reaction to the vaccine. Temporary in some cases, chronic in others. It's one of the most common frustrations I see and it's always dismissed by clinicians. Neurologists are especially useless and insulting at it.

Medicine is unaware of this because unasked questions are unanswered, but it definitely has something to do with PVFS/ME whatever, a common consequence of infections.

This post has been copied and the following discusssion is being moved to a new thread
Is tinnitus an ME symptom? - Discussion of evidence
 
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Have you started any other meds recently.
One of my relatives traced their tinnitus to prescription medication ..
 
rvallee said:
It's common in both ME and LC.
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No it isn't. Lots of people with ME may have tinnitus but there is no evidence that tinnitus is caused by whatever causes ME.

This is exactly what this forum should not be about - assuming that symptoms can be attributed to ME when they may well be due to something else that is important.

One sided tinnitus requires investigation so the poster should seek medical advice, even if no specific cause is found.

This post has been copied to the new thread.
 
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My tinnitus started when I was 17, ME onset was when i was 20, so.not connected.

Of course when in PEM, or when I've overdone things so possible prePEM, the tinnitus often becomes more intrusive.

No doctor has ever offered comment or help therefore I concluded many decades ago that not only is there no treatment but GPs don't appear to.believe it is a real 'thing'.
 
Woozy said:
I had PVFS in 1992 and kind of recovered 16 years later. Now, about ten years since recovering I suddenly woke up the other night with a loud tinnitus in my right side on my head/ear.
It is constant. I am trying apripirazole which is an antipsychotic and I think someone imporved on it (not necessarily tinnitus though.) I have taken one pill today but the tinnitus is still there. ANyone else tried anything for tinnitus? How did you get on?
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Hi @Woozy, I hope our discussion of the big picture around tinnitus and symptoms hasn’t been too OT (off topic) for you.

I notice you said that this started recently and suddenly.

And that you’re currently not suffering from PVFS? (I only ask that bit because some people on this forum find it almost impossible to leave home so that unfortunately gets in the way of properly assessing every new symptom. But I think you are able to get to a doctor or pharmacy and are just checking your options?).

Most of the response you’ve had refers to chronic tinnitus
but if it’s just happened, it can be a lot of much simpler acute things (you could have got a bit of water in your ear or wax, or it could be something significant in your circulatory system that needs urgent attention, or it might just be something that happened in the night and it’ll fade in a few hours..). Yes, it’s possible it’s a minor infection too.

So, if it’s doable for you, a one-sided sudden onset ringing in the ears is worth having a doctor take a look at. Ideally sooner than later.

(I hate getting new symptoms, it just looks like a mountain of work. But this one looks worth at least the one check-up)

I just dealt with this exact symptom in a relative and we cleared it in a few hours with swimmers’ ear drops (due to difficulty getting to help we tried this first).

I hope it turns out to be something simple and acute. Those are always so much easier to identify.
(Definitely worth the effort as, for example, an ongoing ear infection can really take a toll!)

If a doctor is hard to get to, I find (in my country) that pharmacists can help with a lot of this stuff, and help identify what more, if anything needs to be done.

And if it turns out to be a more chronic situation, one that doesn’t have an easy answer, we’ve got more discussion here.

Hope this helps!
 
hi everyone. I just read your posts. So I think I will ask my GP about this tinnitus, which is less severe now than a few weeks ago. However, I do not feel the aripiprizole
did anything much so I have stopped it now. I used to get a lot of tinnitus when I first got PVFS in the 90s but it eventually went away. So there is hope for everyone I believe.
 
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