Hearing

[Serial_Apologist]

Coincidentally the tinnitus is quite bad this morning.But that’s where the psychological aspect comes in . If I hadn’t gone on the thread I wouldn’t be “aware” of it . The brain seems to filter it out.

My experience exactly, only now, in reading this thread, having had it drawn to my attention. I was used to taking "zen walks" in which my "inner sounds" would be set aside in preference for those in the outer world, and when I first became aware of tinnitus in 1997, following 4 stressful years in adult education, I felt quite suicidal that the inner whistle would now amount to permanent monotonous interference. At its worst I have to turn the volume down lower than I would otherwise enjoy for listening to music.

[Joseph K]

My experience exactly, only now, in reading this thread, having had it drawn to my attention. I was used to taking "zen walks" in which my "inner sounds" would be set aside in preference for those in the outer world, and when I first became aware of tinnitus in 1997, following 4 stressful years in adult education, I felt quite suicidal that the inner whistle would now amount to permanent monotonous interference. At its worst I have to turn the volume down lower than I would otherwise enjoy for listening to music.

I can sympathise with this, though my own reaction to my own sorts of auditory interference hasn't been quite so extreme! I do have some very mild case of tinnitus that doesn't bother me. But over the course over a few years of (for some reason) going to raves, I'm sure this was connected with wax build-up in my ears, since that doesn't really happen any more. The true occasional interference for me is auditory hallucinations, though these disembodied voices are not too common or distracting (and therefore depressing) for the most part. But since the only drugs I now take is literally just my medication (no caffeine etc.) and that this has been the case for a fairly long time now, I think it's evident these low-level no-big-deal auditory hallucinations are probably not going away. I had such a prediction that this might be the case after taking a cocktail of stimulants and psychedelics on my birthday of 2015, and not having had a great time of it. But I ignored it. Pretty stupid really, but what can you do?

[RichardB]

I first noticed I had tinnitus when I was 22 years old although I imagine it didn't just arrive suddenly. Since then I don't think it's got noticeably worse, except that about ten years ago a lower frequency component joined the high whistling ; however at the moment I'm only aware of the latter, somewhat worse than usual today, which seems usually to be the result either of lack of sleep or higher than usual caffeine intake, the two go together of course, and this morning I had to be up at 5 to take people to the airport. I'm not aware of the tinnitus having adversely affected my hearing, at least it hadn't when I last had my hearing tested though that was quite a while ago. Most of the time I don't think about it, which in a real sense means it isn't there. I notice that some people say it interferes with their music listening; for me this isn't the case - I am hardly ever aware of the tinnitus while listening to music, whether loud or soft.

[Dave2002]

I'm not exactly sure what tinnitus is. Sometimes I get high pitched whistles, but they usually go off quite quickly. I can also "hear" a sort of rushing background noise, like low level interference quite often. It doesn't really interfere with my hearing I can ignore it, and then it appears to go away. In terms of "normal" hearing I can still hear well enough to enjoy concerts, and also tell the difference between good recordings and poor ones, good kit and less good. Wearing heaphones regularly almost certainly causes some problems, as does going on aircraft, but as far as I can tell these are not seriously permanent. Driving for long periods also gets tiring, even with a car with very quiet motor noise.

[ardcarp]

I hope no-one minds my latest definition of HIPP...or should I say HIPPBUGS? Hearing Impairment Prevention Possible By Using Gut Strings.

I'm very sorry to hear that so many Forumistas suffer from the tinnitius. I really can't imagine how distressing it can be. Talking of damping down resonant acoustics (which as a singer I really don't like) I went into a jazz/pop recording engineer's studio a little while ago. He does everything by close- miking and mixing. The room itself was pretty much an anechoic chamber, and it felt very bizarre and in fact quite creepy. I wouldn't like to live in one!

[Bryn]

I hope no-one minds my latest definition of HIPP...or should I say HIPPBUGS? Hearing Impairment Prevention Possible By Using Gut Strings.

I'm very sorry to hear that so many Forumistas suffer from the tinnitius. I really can't imagine how distressing it can be. Talking of damping down resonant acoustics (which as a singer I really don't like) I went into a jazz/pop recording engineer's studio a little while ago. He does everything by close- miking and mixing. The room itself was pretty much an anechoic chamber, and it felt very bizarre and in fact quite creepy. I wouldn't like to live in one!

Oh, I do agree, regarding acoustically dead recording environments.

[Dave2002]

Oh, I do agree, regarding acoustically dead recording environments.

I can usually tell just by walking around a room - even a very large one, such as in an art gallery, if the walls have been covered with something which absorbs sound. I find the effect really rather unpleasant.