I spent the 80s and 90s working in loud punk bars. While I wasn’t a big drinker, I definitely enjoyed some good weed on the weekends. I might have a genetic predisposition since my father suffered from it too. Now, the ringing is so intense it’s interfering with my sleep and everyday talk. It’s rough. I recall there being almost no solutions for my dad back then. What are the current options? Is there anything out there actually worth trying? Signed, Awake but not in Seattle.
26 Likes
I use a fan for sleep. If that doesn’t cut it, I move to the couch and put on some boring TV.
There’s some excellent ambient audio on YT, like white or brown noise. The Dalesnale channel is great! He has some solid tracks; I usually download them for offline listening. It really helps.
I’m another 90s concert veteran. I’m practically deaf, and any quiet moment is ruined by the constant hissing in my ears. My hearing is at the point where I’m always asking ‘what?’ when people speak to me. I can ignore it sometimes, but once I notice it, it’s incredibly loud in my head. How did we get here? We were supposed to be the cool generation! We’re Gen X, for crying out loud!
My professional life was split between the military and heavy construction, with a four-year college stint in the middle. I rely on background white noise to keep the ringing from becoming unbearable. I failed my exit hearing test from the army miserably. Honestly, I barely passed the entry one, and I blame Sony. The Walkman was a death sentence for ears, and we almost had bone-conduction tech instead. I knew guys with ‘bone phones’ who loved them for skiing, but the Walkman killed that off. I never heard of them again—barely heard anything again, actually! I dated a girl who worked in loud clubs; she’d press the ear flap down and talk into it so I could hear her perfectly. Anyway, my solution is white noise.
I have severe tinnitus from years around loud planes in the Air Force. I always need a fan at night to provide white noise. We even take a travel fan with us everywhere, including a battery-powered one for camping.
Oh man, I definitely do. I’ve been using EarProMax lately and it seems to help a bit.
I actually assumed this was standard until just a few years back. I’ve had this cicada-like buzzing in my ears for my entire life. I’m 51 now and just accepted it as part of life until a friend pointed out it wasn’t normal. It does make conversations tricky; I can hear the sound of voices but struggle to process the words without asking people to say them again. I think I just coped by believing everyone heard it.
I just deal with plain old vertigo.
It arrived with menopause, migraines, and stress. It’s a constant whooshing sound. When my headaches are bad, I can press the bone behind my ear to make it stop and start.
Mine is hit or miss. Today is pretty bad. Sometimes it pulses with my heart or causes flashes in my peripheral vision.
It’s 10% of my VA disability. My wife’s dog has a high-pitched bark that really triggers it. Good times. At least I still have most of my hearing.
Too many concerts (The Melvins were so loud my friend saw spots), bikes, ATVs, guns, and a noisy career. It’s constant and loud, but I’m used to it. I do okay on tests because I can distinguish the ringing from the pulses. I used a frequency generator site and found mine is at 3,685Hz.
I once tried magic mushrooms and the ringing actually ceased for about 20 seconds. That brief moment of total silence felt like those YouTube clips where deaf children hear for the first time. I don’t live in a place where they’re legal anymore, otherwise I’d definitely look into it further. I’ve dealt with tinnitus for as long as I can recall.
Has nobody tried Xanax?