3/7/2026 at 2:51:18 PM
I've got tinnitus, 38 male.Got it randomly one day this summer.
It's impossible to describe how depressing it is to hear a sound non stop in your ears, night and day, wherever I go or whatever I do, it just never stops.
The brain started filtering it out a bit after months, but it's always there and you're often reminded of it when you're in a slightly more silent environment.
There are days where it becomes especially loud and falling asleep you'd just like to cry or something.
Don't wish it on anybody.
by epolanski
3/7/2026 at 3:21:00 PM
I've had tinnitus for as long as I can remember, so I've never had any negative feelings associated with it. As a kid I just thought it was natural that everyone's ears would ring all the time and would get louder when it was quiet. My ears are ringing right now as I write this.Then I developed pulsatile tinnitus in my early 30s, which means I can hear my heartbeat in my (right) ear at all hours of the day as well. When I tell people about it, I like to describe it like the heartbeat from Poe's The Tell-Tale Heart.
Developing pulsatile tinnitus really affected my mental health for a while, despite living my whole life with a constant buzzing and ringing in my ears. I couldn't get over the fact that there was now this loud whooshing sound in my right ear, 60+ times per second, and my doctors couldn't even tell me why after several MRIs. I thought I was going crazy, or that I'd developed some kind of brain tumor invisible to scans.
I don't have any great advice except to say that eventually (maybe six months to a year) my brain just adapted to the sound and I hardly ever think of it anymore. It's as much a part of my life as the buzzing and ringing I've had since I was a kid. It can be annoying when I'm trying to listen intently for something (my wife is a birder and it's hard to hear things she points out), but it thankfully doesn't affect my mental health anymore.
by nozzlegear
3/7/2026 at 3:37:11 PM
I always had problems with sinuses. I've had a few surgeries and while it's better, it's not good either. I literally had a drill up my nose, in my forehead. They still hurt and pop on their own, many times a day.One day my kid brought a nasty flu from the kindergarten. My otolaryngologist recommended the strongest irrigation stream I can find to clean my sinuses.
Not only did it not help, but it also pushed some goo to the end of my sinuses, which resulted in pulsatile tinnitus.
After about 6 months my kid got sick again, so we all got sick, and I got rid of this tinnitus where I was hearing my heartbeat, by casually blowing my nose. The trick was having a stiff blockage, I guess, so the pressure builds up.
It sounds stupid and probably won't help you, but I wanted to share my story. I had no support from the people close to me and the heartbeat was driving me insane.
I'm sorry you have to go through this. Even though it's not a life-treating condition, it might be a life changing condition (QoL).
by tomwojcik
3/7/2026 at 5:03:46 PM
You sound like me! I have had sinus issues all my life before 17. I even had a surgery at 16 but I honestly don’t think it helped. Now I have the sinus problem a bit under control, aka I still have occasional infections during allergy and cold season. I use NielMed to wash my sinus and I think it helps a lot. Besides that I really don’t know what it would take to fix it permanently. I constantly can feel the mucus dripping down my throat everyday.by mrbonner
3/7/2026 at 8:41:10 PM
Have you considered seeing an allergist to test if you have some environmental allergies? If so, they may be able to recommend or prescribe meds to moderate the effects of those allergies. (disclaimer: I'm not a doctor, just someone else with sinus issues)by drewda
3/9/2026 at 9:13:25 AM
Or as a plan B, you can try hayfever tablets / over-the-counter antihistamines, they're harmless to take (I am not a doctor / this is not medical advice / read the information) but if it's allergies they might provide relief already.by Cthulhu_
3/7/2026 at 9:20:34 PM
I did this 15 years ago. I didn’t feel like it helped much at all. But, that doctor was later on got sued for insurance fraud so it got me wondering if I was scammed as well. I’ll discuss this with my primary physician next exam. Thanks for the reminder!by mrbonner
3/7/2026 at 5:09:34 PM
That story about your Otolaryngologist is insane. It's sad how many times doctors don't really listen to their patients and throw out there generic advice that is harmful.by yibers
3/7/2026 at 7:29:29 PM
I’ve used Navage and it honestly helps whenever I have a horrible sinus infection and the constant post-nasal drip wrecks havoc, affecting my quality of sleep the most (also recommend salt water gargles for sore throat).I have Tinnitus, which I first noticed when I was sick one time as a kid - probably 5-8 yrs old. Thankfully I have no other adverse experiences to report (related to this).
by sheepscreek
3/7/2026 at 9:55:41 PM
I live in EU and bought from the US SinuPulse Elite, so I spent a little fortune on it. It was advertised as the best in class. It's definitely safe as the pressure is just enough, but it did not help at all for my problem. Most of the EU irrigation systems turn it up to 11 when it comes to pressure. I don't think that's safe.Anyway, I think I just have chronic inflammation.
It's not allergy either.
by tomwojcik
3/7/2026 at 9:25:07 PM
You also sound like me I have NielMed. I’m wondering if you used that before and how Navage compares to it? Appreciate the recommendation.by mrbonner
3/7/2026 at 9:31:11 PM
I developed sever allergies to something later on in life (still trying to pinpoint exactly what, all I know is I get random flare ups), and NasalFreshMD is the one you want for serious sinus issues. It's bigger than either of those other devices though. The Navage has this proprietary pod thing going on so either you but their pods or you get a defeat device but the NasalFreshMD just has an open port for you to dump whatever brand of salt (including NielMed refills if you like their formulation) and however much water you want into so is much easier to use. It has three speeds to the Navage's one. (Not sponsored, just a happy user.)by fragmede
3/7/2026 at 6:23:41 PM
Scary story on multiple levels. (Ask your otolaryngologist if Naegleria Fowleri is right for you!)by CamperBob2
3/7/2026 at 3:29:27 PM
I've had tinnitus for as long as I can remember, so I've never had any negative feelings associated with it. As a kid I just thought it was natural that everyone's ears would ring all the time and would get louder when it was quiet. My ears are ringing right now as I write this.I don't know if I have tinnitus. I had strong ringing in my ears every now and then as a kid. I once told a classmate about this, who said I should see a doctor, but I've had it as come up every now and then as long as I can remember.
I now have a continuous beep, but only really hear it when I intentionally tune into it. E.g. I can hear it now because I'm writing about it, but most of the day I simply don't hear it, because I don't tune in to it. Not sure if it was always there or just starting at some age. It is sometimes more present when I'm e.g. sick.
I have no idea if other people have this kind of permanent beep as well, because I never asked anyone.
(I just asked my wife and she doesn't have it.)
by microtonal
3/7/2026 at 6:37:53 PM
> I have no idea if other people have this kind of permanent beep as well, because I never asked anyone.We do. I've had tinnitus all my life, or at least I can remember it as far back as about four years old or so. It sounds to me like the whine of an old CRT. I thought it was just normal until I learned it wasn't. I used to think as a kid that it was what the Simon and Garfunkel song "The Sound of Silence" was talking about. Luckily for me it's just something that's always been, so it doesn't really bother me. I have no idea what it would be like to not actually hear anything at all. The one time I was in a sound isolation chamber, it just made my tinnitus scream.
My neighbor developed tinnitus later in his life and it drives him crazy. I definitely feel bad for him, and others who are similarly afflicted by it.
by technothrasher
3/8/2026 at 6:59:43 AM
I can't hear 15KHz tube whine anymore, but my tube whine-like tinnitus that has been there as long as I can remember is still there. It seems odd, to me, to be "hearing" a sound that's higher-pitched than the sounds my anatomy can actually perceive, but here I am.by EvanAnderson
3/8/2026 at 3:05:25 PM
I have something similar, I tend to describe it to people as a light tinnitus. It's a permanent high tone, but I don't usually notice it unless it's very silent around me or I intentionally tune into it, and even then it's not very loud. Never mentioned it to a doctor. I think I know which loud disco I got it from when I was about 7.by gpvos
3/7/2026 at 4:59:38 PM
You have tinnitus.by borski
3/7/2026 at 6:12:56 PM
That's not really tinnitus, I used to have that before I got tinnitus.Tinnitus is like 30-50 times the volume of that, depending on how rundown I am or whether I have a cold. For me it's predominantly in one ear, though does sometimes change.
What he's describing is fairly normal and is just to do with blood pressure in your ears, from what I've subsequently read.
by mattmanser
3/7/2026 at 6:20:54 PM
A clear example of the No True Tinnitus fallacy.> Tinnitus is a condition when a person hears a ringing sound or a different variety of sounds when no corresponding external sound is present and that other people cannot hear.
by arcanemachiner
3/7/2026 at 6:28:58 PM
> What he's describing is fairly normal and is just to do with blood pressure in your ears, from what I've subsequently read.That’s called tinnitus. And I agree, it isn’t rare. From TFA, roughly 15% of people have it (that report it).
Sounds like you may have severe tinnitus, which is more rare, limited to 1-2% of people.
by borski
3/7/2026 at 7:42:07 PM
There are different forms of tinnitus, due to there being different causes of tinnitus.Some people even have multiple frequencies of tinnitus at the same time.
by j45
3/7/2026 at 3:26:58 PM
Eye floaters are like that. They don't go away but you get used to them being there.by glimshe
3/8/2026 at 6:35:25 AM
Eye floaters can definitely go away. I believe they can break up and break apart and dissipate or be absorbed by the body a bit. Or maybe they just float way off to the side of your vision where you don't notice them anymore.by SirMaster
3/8/2026 at 3:09:34 AM
Some of us don’t, but for about $2k they will drain the fluid out and refill will floater free materials.Changed my life, I thought I was living in a small crowd of fruit flies.
by AstroJetson
3/8/2026 at 4:09:26 AM
Really? I asked my last ophthalmologist if there was anything to be done about my severe floaters, and he said "no", and that I'd just have to live with them. What's the name of the procedure you had, and what are the downside risks?by eszed
3/8/2026 at 5:01:35 PM
There are probably high risks of damaging the retina, and there is an increased risk of cataracts, if I remember correctly. Both my eyes had a vitrectomy during retinal surgery and it is really great to live without floaters. But I can imagine doctors will not want to do it just by itself.by jorgen123
3/8/2026 at 6:51:02 AM
It's called vitrectomy. There are risks and that's why they generally only consider it for really severe cases. Look it up.by glimshe
3/8/2026 at 9:50:55 PM
Thank you! Glad to know what to look up.To be honest, I don't know where I'd rank on an objective severity scale. My floaters often make it difficult to read, and I've got one that can lodge in the wrong place for long enough to make driving feel a little scary. That's maybe not bad enough - given the risks, which I don't know right now - to argue against it. I'm not necessarily questioning the doctor's judgment - he's maybe right! - just mad that he didn't even tell me about this procedure.
by eszed
3/9/2026 at 9:15:21 AM
Given it makes it hard to read and actually makes driving dangerous it sounds like it's bad enough to warrant treatment. Get a second opinion, mention trouble reading and unable to see properly while driving.by Cthulhu_
3/8/2026 at 5:07:44 AM
I believe there is also "Laser vitreolysis", which seems somewhat disputed.I have similar issues and 5 years in, problems are only getting worse (perhaps combined with pigment dispersion syndrom making it worse, but not on the path to glaucoma, at least not yet).
by necovek
3/7/2026 at 5:24:38 PM
I do hear my heartbeat from my left ear. The ear doctor said that the ear can be sensitive to the blood flowing from nearby arteries, and that there's nothing to do. Stress affects the heartbeat volume. I just got used to it, but it can be annoying sometimes, especially when you're trying to enjoy the silence.The doctor also told me that it's not an ear problem, but rather a brain problem. The brain is supposed to filter out this noise, in the same sense that it filters out the sounds from a (normal) digestion, our breathing, etc. I do have some (undiagnosed) hypersensitivity, so that sounds consistent to me.
nozzlegear: it gets better with time, the less you think about it. I know it's not a great consolation, but trust me, train yourself not to think about it, and it will go away for extended periods of time (and will come back from time to time)
by carlesfe
3/7/2026 at 8:24:34 PM
This is the first time I heard that this is an issue where the brain isn't filtering out noise properly. This explains why I have had tinnitus, the sound of breathing, whooshing in the ears from my heartbeat, etc. audible to me for as long as I've been conscious and have never understood why everyone else seemed to be really disturbed by what I consider to be supremely normal. Except I also have a sensory processing disorder that makes my brain unable to filter input well so I also come off as sensitive to touch and able to pick up smells well. Because I grew up with all this though I have normalized it enough to function.by KittenInABox
3/7/2026 at 8:40:49 PM
I have this also in the left ear for about a year or so. I self-diagnosed it as eustachian tube related [0] and should really see a doctor, but I also got pretty used to it by now. Only now and then it gets a bit annoying when the sound become more 'whooshing' than 'a clock ticking in the room'.In my right ear I have another sound regularly, that I went to the doctor for, and she immediately said "Oh, tinnitus, nothing you can do". But I'm pretty sure it is something else. It feels like spasmic tiny muscle fluctuating against my eardrum, and gets triggered by a low-frequency sound, esp. when at rest. Stops after 15-30 mins.
by rapnie
3/8/2026 at 2:16:47 AM
Huh. The more you learn. Thanks, I think I may have this too.by sebmellen
3/7/2026 at 8:27:58 PM
Wait... This is not "normal"? I thought everyone has that...by Bombthecat
3/7/2026 at 4:56:28 PM
I'd say i'm sorry to hear about your 60 beat per second heart rate but by the time you read this you are surely dead. RIPby idiotsecant
3/7/2026 at 6:04:31 PM
60 bps is a fine HR, if you are implying it isn'tEdit: WHOOPSIE DAISY
by kylecazar
3/8/2026 at 12:13:53 AM
Yeah, 60hz isn't a pulse, it's a bass hum. It means you are a robot operating in the US and you have a poorly filtered power supply.by saltcured
3/8/2026 at 1:45:05 AM
I’ve been meaning to get my power supply checked, but my robo-kid needs a memory upgrade and have you _seen_ RAM prices lately.On the plus side, plenty of employment opportunities in the US these days. They’re offering us all the former meatbag jobs :)
by pixelready
3/7/2026 at 6:54:07 PM
You’re thinking of one beat per second, i.e. 60 beats per minute. 60 bps is not possible, but if it were, it wouldn’t be survivable.by antonvs
3/7/2026 at 6:14:15 PM
Heart beat is usually measured in bpm. All the charts top out at 200. 360 bpm is certainly problematic for a human.by toast0
3/7/2026 at 6:38:00 PM
3600 bpm would be even more problematic.by Marsymars
3/7/2026 at 8:28:29 PM
Even techno would be slower :)by Bombthecat
3/7/2026 at 6:22:45 PM
That's 3 times the heart rate of a hummingbird.by zargon
3/7/2026 at 6:58:47 PM
Upvoted for the edit. :Dby rkomorn
3/7/2026 at 9:37:03 PM
Haha, woops! I meant 60 beats per minute of course.by nozzlegear
3/8/2026 at 7:06:57 PM
Same here, had a low level ringing in my ears for as long as I can remember. I really only notice it in quieter rooms, and pretty much have to sleep with some kind of white noise going in the background. Sleeping in a dead silent room is really tough for me.by scuff3d
3/7/2026 at 3:39:01 PM
I got a high-pitch ringing tinnitus when I was about 18-20. I went from being a person that falls asleep in <5 min to needing at least 1h + needing a background radio/white noise/stream to fall asleep. I sympathize and recognize everything that you reflect on here. I felt kind of "depressed" the first year.But no matter how cliché it sounds, it does get better with time. The brain does get better and better with filtering it. I also discovered that my tinnitus gets worse with caffeine, stress and lack of sleep. In periods when I live a overall "healthy" lifestyle in respect to sleep, stress, food, working out etc. I forget that I have tinnitus. When I sleep to little and/or when I'm stressed, it comes back full force. I have totally cut out caffeine, which also happened to help with my migraine.
Now ~15 years later I'm in my early thirties and I rarely think about it tbh. However, after a bad cold about 5 years ago I got a secondary tinnitus which is a low-frequency humming. This set me back and cased me some sleepless nights but I have adapted to this as well.
The thing I miss the most is the concept of "total silence". I do envy my fiancé sometimes if we're out in the woods or whatever and I know that she can just relax while "hearing nothing".
Let time do its work and experiment with your body/health to find what makes it lessen. Chances are that de-stressing, sleeping well and eating and working out does make it better.
by BOSIG
3/7/2026 at 5:55:46 PM
> But no matter how cliché it sounds, it does get better with time.For some, perhaps, but mine (25+ years) has not improved one jot. At best I've learnt to manage it with masking sounds (thanks to MyNoise) but it's always there waiting for a quiet moment.
Might be to do with how well your general auditory circuitry was working in the first place, mind - e.g. I've always had the "two noises at once tend toward garbage in my brain" problem (which made most social conversations almost impossible. FUN TIMES.) Given that implies my brain was already fairly borked for auditory processing, that might have an impact on whether it can eventually cope with tinnitus and/or whether it is more susceptible in the first place[0].
[0] Although I am 99% sure it's due to a large amount of loud gigs in small venues without any ear protection causing "mechanical damage" tinnitus.
by zimpenfish
3/7/2026 at 6:40:34 PM
WRT “mechanical damage” — I feel you. Standing in front of the stage feeling your organs vibrate in time to the music is fucking magic. I won’t say that it’s worth the tinnitus, but I am happy I have some memories of a trade-off, you know?FWIW I still go to shows sometimes, and stand right in front of the stage to feel my eyeballs vibrating. I wear good ear protection, though, and feel no pain. Even though the music isn’t quite the same.
by sonofhans
3/7/2026 at 9:46:19 PM
> I wear good ear protection, though, and feel no pain.Yeah, I've got a variety of Etymotic "concert" ear plugs (mainly ER20s), a collection of Loop ear plugs, some from Flare (titanium, aluminium), and various other of differing construction that live in my "gig bag" (small bag that holds phone etc. without causing security to freak out.) I find that if I don't wear ear plugs at a gig or even the cinema, I'll have terrible pain overnight and I'll be useless the next day.
(Hell, even bus or train journeys can require ear plugs some days.)
by zimpenfish
3/8/2026 at 12:44:47 AM
It sounds worse for you than for me, and I’ll tip out some scotch in your honor next time I have some.by sonofhans
3/7/2026 at 7:46:00 PM
Sorry to hear this. I similarly woke up one day with bi-lateral tinnitus at about an 8/10 in loudness. Thought I was going to lose my mind.After about 9 days one morning the right ear completely resolved and the left ear was at about a 5/10.
Very, very, very long story short, I did a ton of digging and experimenting and realized it was related to a neck injury (a lot of people with whiplash have short-long term tinnitus). Over a year of physical therapy later, the tinnitus in the left ear is usually gone and only flares up if I lift weights with poor form.
If you've had a neck/shoulder injury in the past 1-2 years, it's something I'd look into.
by anonym00se1
3/7/2026 at 8:37:44 PM
Now that is interesting, thank you for giving me a new angle to look into. Never thought that there might be a relationship with other things other than just my ears.I know I can make it instantly worse by clenching my jaw, so that should have been a hint already.
by jacquesm
3/8/2026 at 12:58:07 AM
When you say clench, do you mean clench the muscles (i.e. as if biting down), or do you mean jutting your jaw forward?There is a well known phenomenon among people with (at least some types of) tinnitus that moving the jaw forward increases the sound, but that this also makes the tinnitus go away for a bit. The way my ENT explained it, it has to do with how your brain calibrates sound. Pushing the jaw forward makes the sound louder, which also causes your brain to adjust your hearing to be less sensitive. Or something like this.
With some types of tinnitus, there is a specific connection to the temporomandibular joint. My understanding is that the causes tinnitus are poorly understood, however. There are many hypotheses, but little solid evidence.
by atombender
3/8/2026 at 2:47:25 AM
Biting down.by jacquesm
3/7/2026 at 8:54:59 PM
TMJ disorders are linked to tinnitus because of the nerves that run near it. In my case, if I force an underbite I can make both of my ears ring but I don't have any TMJ issues.There are some physical therapists (also dentists) that focus on maxillofacial dysfunction and TMJ disorders, so that's an avenue to go down as well.
The other two common reasons for tinnitus:
* Hearing damage (gunshots, explosions, etc.) and those are not reversible as of yet
* Ototoxic drugs. When I last did research on it it years ago, like hearing damage from gunshots, was also irreversible.
by anonym00se1
3/7/2026 at 11:25:38 PM
Can confirm.I've had like 2/10 tinnitus for all my life, can't remember the last time I heard "silence".
Got a C5/C6 hernia a year ago, about 6 months after that MASSIVE tinnitus in my right ear and clear increase in the left. Like "can't hear shit" levels of noise.
Eventually I figured out that doing a basic shoulder workout + going on a walk eased it off in a few hours. A month ago, due to a doctor's suggestion, I discovered that taking muscle relaxants just before going to sleep a bit, I've woken up with maybe 3-4/10 tinnitus a few times.
Definitely a neck thing.
by theshrike79
3/8/2026 at 2:01:13 AM
If you have one in your area, I'd recommend seeing a PT that has their CFMT from IPA. It's a pretty specific form of PT that looks for deeper root causes of issues and that's the PT that was finally able to help me figure out and resolve mine.by anonym00se1
3/8/2026 at 5:53:27 PM
What kind of physical therapy did you do for it? I suspected mine is neck related too.by yesitcan
3/9/2026 at 12:55:51 AM
I saw a CFMT PT and they addressed two things for me:1. Laterally sheared and rotated vertebrae in my neck that were causing compression and tension on nerves in my neck
2. Elevated first rib, which was also compressing and tensioning the nerves.
I was incredibly skeptical that PT would fix it even though I was sure it was related to my neck/shoulder. After a few sessions of working to push my first rib back down to where it was supposed to be and also press (quite hard) on my neck vertebrae to move them back into a normal position, the tinnitus went from a 5/10 to a 2/10.
The problem I had was getting the rib and vertebrae to stay put. They would, as a result of lifting things or sleeping funny, slowly start to revert to their original positions causing the tinnitus to get louder again. The PT gave me several exercises to help strengthen muscles to keep everything in place.
by anonym00se1
3/7/2026 at 3:14:55 PM
I got it about ten years ago and it drove me absolutely insane for a few months until I just accepted that I would have it. Then a weird thing happened: my brain stopped paying attention to it. Now I mostly only hear it when I think to myself, “do I still have tinnitus?” and try to listen for it. It’s still there, I just don’t care anymore. I had no idea that even what you hear can be such a subjective experience until I went through this, but it makes sense. You do this all the time when you tune out ambient sounds and conversations to focus on something.by jarnagin
3/7/2026 at 5:28:48 PM
This is my experience. It normally doesn't bother me, and I didn't think about it until I read this article, so now it is driving me crazy. Please let's stop posting articles about Tinnitus unless the article describes a CURE. Thanks.by jaybrendansmith
3/7/2026 at 6:43:03 PM
Perhaps you could learn to not read those articles?by NetMageSCW
3/8/2026 at 3:47:06 PM
Don't think of an elephant.by jaybrendansmith
3/8/2026 at 2:33:55 AM
This is 100% my experience. Like, reading this thread right now, I notice the ringing in my ears. But otherwise I go months without thinking about it.by nolanl
3/7/2026 at 8:02:44 PM
Try this1. put your thumbs on your ears
2. rotate your hands so your index fingers are on the base of your skull, middle fingers just above
3. now put your index fingers on your middle fingers and "snap" them down on the muscle at the base of your skull some 10-15 times
4. if your tinnitus goes away or reduces, it's caused by muscle tension instead of nerves
This blew my mind when I first tried it, but looked into it and it makes total sense: we all work on computers all day, necks get fatigued, and the impact forces the muscles to contract until they force-release, alleviating the tension-caused tinnitus.
by mieubrisse
3/9/2026 at 10:12:21 AM
Yeah, I've never had tinnitus last more than a minute or two thanks to this, however I rarely get it and I imagine those afflicted pathologically will get zero mileage out of it, but I am curious.by jpfromlondon
3/7/2026 at 10:02:36 PM
My nervous system is damaged, unfortunately, therefore it's still here! I appreciate the tips though!by ramoz
3/7/2026 at 8:07:14 PM
I’m struggling to visualise this, do you have any references with images?by ymhr
3/7/2026 at 8:46:33 PM
I never heard of the above, but I also have my own method that I discovered one night on some tinnitus forum:1. Straight body, drop your head all the way down, chin to your chest. 2. Place the palm of your hands on your ears, blocking them, with the fingers to where the back of your neck touches your scalp. 3. Tap your fingers on your stretched, rigid neck muscles.
Just sharing it here since it has helped me and it doesn't help to have many techniques to battle this.
by potatototoo99
3/7/2026 at 8:53:04 PM
Put your hand like this: https://static1.bigstockphoto.com/9/5/2/large1500/259859530....
But with your thumbs closing your ear orifices.
Now you have to hit the back of the neck with the tip of your middle fingers, and to get a harder hit you "snap" the fingers, putting the finger like "fingers crossed" position, and the pressing the middle finger towards the head. You should hear a big "thump!" inside your head.
It aleviates the tinnitus for a few seconds, but more likely due to the stapedial reflex than anything related to neck muscles.
by otherme123
3/7/2026 at 8:09:55 PM
sounds similar to a masseter muscle massage https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VnV7wUxst0by nickphx
3/7/2026 at 4:51:57 PM
My dad had tinnitus and it bothered him relentlessly. He was constantly following potential new treatments, talking to doctors about it, etc.I have it too. I've taken the approach of truly accepting it: "I will hear these sounds the rest of my life, and I'm truly okay with that". As a result it doesn't give me anxiety or bother me, and I find it helps it fade into the background. The more you focus on it (and let it bother you) the more it stays in the foreground.
I know the advice of "just learn to be okay with it" is easy to communicate but very hard to actually do. I found mindfulness meditation helped me learn to accept things without judgement, including the presence of my tinnitus.
by newt_slowly
3/7/2026 at 11:32:10 PM
My ear doctor suggested the myNoise app[0] for me, specifically the Neuromodulator and Brown noise sounds.The Neuromodulator[1] is a random-ish noise field that ... confuses? the brain after a while and lets you forget the tinnitus - at lest temporarily. The noise isn't "real" it's the brain generating it due to faulty signals, so giving it a bunch of noise helps somehow.
Brown noise[2] was specifically suggested for older people as it has more stuff in the frequencies we still hear naturally :D
As a happy coincidence my partner AND dogs sleep better with the brown noise on, they all tend to wake up to the smallest of noises - this helps with it.
[1] https://mynoise.net/NoiseMachines/neuromodulationTonesGenera...
[2] https://mynoise.net/NoiseMachines/whiteNoiseGenerator.php
by theshrike79
3/8/2026 at 12:59:28 AM
I used to use brown noise, but I find that rain/ thunderstorm sounds are better. It's a noise that your brain is used to ignoring, and other sounds blend into it - even if they are almost as loud -while with the more homogeneous brown and white noise, it has to be louder than the sounds it's trying to mask.Having said that, I'm not sure how well it would do for high pitched tinnitus.
Edited to add - now listened to the neuro modulator, nice one.
by ajb
3/8/2026 at 5:57:19 PM
The fact that we have to tell ourselves these affirmations is just a failure of modern medicine.by yesitcan
3/7/2026 at 3:19:20 PM
Just wondering do you think you got tinnitus or was it there and you suddenly started noticing? I don't know I got it around 20y ago but I'm honestly unsure if it was one or the other because it became worse and worse the more I started focusing on it. Eventually it subsided. I can still hear it if I listen for it (as I just did now and I can hear a distinct 'bruising' kind of sound) but there's literally months between I even think of it or notice it. There have been studies that lots of 'normal' people notice tinnitus when they enter a sound-proof room. What helped me was just taking long showers - I literally couldn't hear a thing during the shower and some time after. And it seems the 'drown out' period would last longer. And just knowing something would stop it somehow made me ease more into it and maybe reduced the fear that had been programmed into my brain. I also did omega 3 and gingo biloba (just low doses) and felt like it had some effect. Was there any trigger and how 'loud' do you perceive it?by accounting2026
3/7/2026 at 5:13:02 PM
I've always had tinnitus, but it used to be that I could only hear it in absolute silence, but it was a medication that triggered mine to go from barely there to screaming banshees in my ears 24x7x365. It sucks to know that I will never truly experience silence again, but my brain does tune it out most of the time. But it's mostly noticeable at night. Mostly.by spl757
3/7/2026 at 3:23:16 PM
I think I got it.I also recall the days before I listening to music a lot with earplugs at rather high volume, like, 6/7 hours per day multiple days.
That's the only out-of-the-ordinary thing I did leading to it, it might be related or completely unrelated, who knows.
by epolanski
3/7/2026 at 3:19:34 PM
I'm really sorry to hear that.I once read something about the prevalence of depression in people with tinnitus. I was surprised by it, but I didn't really consider how disruptive it must be when you're accustomed to not having it. By contrast, I've had it basically my whole life. I remember laying awake at night, listening to the deafening ringing, thinking about how weird it was that silence isn't silent. It wasn't until later that I knew my experience isn't the norm.
I'd love to have a treatment or cure. Especially for folks like you that truly suffer from it.
by mynameisash
3/7/2026 at 3:41:57 PM
> silence isn't silentBlindness isn’t “no sight” or pitch black, there’s visual snow.
If you pay attention, you can always feel your muscles/joints. Sometimes I smell burnt popcorn, but not usually, but maybe that’s because smell is always present. Similarly always taste saliva.
Also see sensory deprivation experiments. We don’t seem able to experience “absence of sensation”.
by armchairhacker
3/7/2026 at 7:47:35 PM
As I fall asleep the blackness of what I see suddenly disappears. I would describe it exactly as the absence of sensation.Unfortunately my mild tinnitus doesn't stop at the same time.
by interloxia
3/7/2026 at 6:42:15 PM
This is not analogous to tinnitus. I remember before and after tinnitus, and it’s as different from visual snow as real snow is from an ice pick in your ear.by sonofhans
3/7/2026 at 8:46:39 PM
[dead]by throwaway613746
3/7/2026 at 3:15:20 PM
You'll get used to it. 42 male here. Started at 12-13 years of age. Barely notice it anymore. Some things (lack of sleep, extreme stress, some medicines/drugs) accentuate it a bit, but it's annoying at best, not interfering. I also produce music, so I don't think it has affected my hearing. So you'll be good. Stop worrying.Oh, use a fan based white noise machine (or a loud fan) during sleeping, really drowns it out.
by whatsupdog
3/7/2026 at 3:20:24 PM
I also should have mentioned this; despite having tinnitus my actual hearing is very good, and yeah a white noise or fan does wondersby deejaaymac
3/7/2026 at 3:20:06 PM
Also got tinnitus here. Woke up with it about 5 years ago. I'd recently had COVID and was also on a strong medication. But I've been a lifelong insomniac so this article has me wondering.I can only sleep when there's another noise in the room for frame of reference, otherwise the tinnitus feels like the loudest sound in the universe. My current solution is an air purifier on its audible middle setting (basically white noise with a use), and a humidifier in winter.
by randerson
3/7/2026 at 7:20:59 PM
I have it too.It suddenly came one day I was more stressed than usual. Stayed since then.
I often catch myself falling asleep thinking: maybe when I wake up tomorrow, it’s gone. Just to wake up the next day and hear it again.
It’s very annoying. But I have learned to live with it. Some days are better some are worse.
by baxtr
3/7/2026 at 3:11:09 PM
Don't worry: you will get used to it in a couple years and won't even notice it.by bookofjoe
3/7/2026 at 3:12:31 PM
I have had it since I was 13 (60 now). The base noise is filtered out unless I listen for it, but ion occasion I get a temporary deafness, followed by almost a popping sound, then a LOUD tinnitus at a different frequency which slowly fades.Sometimes I get a new frequency. Since 2000 it has gotten worse, since 2020, much worse. But changing my environment seems to effect it for better and worse.
No doubt mine is connected to my mental illness and probably temporal lobe seizures.
by Noaidi
3/7/2026 at 3:27:22 PM
Avoid complete silence (a bit of white noise or other background sound helps to mask it for some people), and try to avoid threads like this. Anything that makes me actively think about tinnitus is the absolute worst trigger, suddenly making it seem really loud after barely noticing it for weeks/months.The brain definitely seems to get better at filtering it out over months/years though, at least until something makes you focus on it
by bluescrn
3/7/2026 at 6:50:39 PM
Same with itching. Reading about itching can trigger days long events for me.by jamiek88
3/8/2026 at 2:32:02 AM
I've had tinnitus for almost a decade now. It gets better.The first six months were hell because I kept focusing on how awful it was. Eventually you stop noticing it. It just becomes part of the background – like how the sky is blue, grass is green, etc.
I strongly recommend reading "Living with Tinnitus" by Laura Cole. Tinnitus is a very poorly-understood condition, but hearing about the experiences of others helps a lot. I hope you feel better soon. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/37707931-living-with-tin...
by nolanl
3/7/2026 at 8:14:39 PM
Got it a few years ago. In my 30s as well. God how it used to bother me, i’d have the whitest noises to the point where it depressed how loud it all was, white noise included.Went to the doctor, did all those rounds. Once I saw the endemic existence of CBT and other psychotherapies as treatment it dawned on me that I might have to reconsider my relationship with this.
In reality I just got used to it and live with it. I have a tiny white noise sound that is always on my headphones while i work that is just enough and that covers me most of the day, but honestly even if I sit in an electric car that is fully stopped and it’s as loud as it’s gonna be, I notice it, absolutely, but it doesn’t really cause distress anymore.
by antoniojtorres
3/7/2026 at 5:45:27 PM
I’ve had tinnitus since I was maybe 5 years old, maybe from my frequent ear infections at the time? I remember discovering it during nap time and noting that silence had a high-pitched, discordant set of tones to it. But I thought it receded when normal sounds, like people talking, tv or music, or wind occurred. It was just the sound of silence.I still have it, and now I know what it is. I think it’s worse now, but I can still unconsciously ignore it most of the time, although knowing what it is and that it’s aberrant and not something everyone hears has made it psychologically more irritating than when I was young.
by skygazer
3/8/2026 at 5:51:52 PM
You just haven’t habituated yet.Source: have tinnitus for 2.5 years. Got used to it after 1.5.
by yesitcan
3/7/2026 at 6:35:33 PM
Oh, that blows, I’m so sorry. I’ve had it 40 years; I hear it now, louder than anything else in the room.But mostly I don’t. You do really get used to it. It won’t get better, but you will.
by sonofhans
3/7/2026 at 3:10:07 PM
I don't have tinnitus, but I live about a mile from a major highway. Depending on the time of day, the wind, the temperature, etc, it can carry the road noise directly to my yard. It doesn't bother my wife or my kids, but I hate it.When it gets to be too much, though, I can just go inside, and that's not something that you can do with tinnitus.
I'm sorry that you're going through that, that must be terrible. Have you tried adding white noise?
by fullstop
3/7/2026 at 4:38:49 PM
Fellow tinnitus haver here.The worst thing you can do is fixate on it. To avoid that, you want to make it so that you never hear it. Play some noise whenever you need it especially when sleeping. Then, over time, learn to accept it. And then the craziest thing happens: it does actually get better. You don’t just get used to it, it actually improves. It’s a profound connection of mind and body.
by idontwantthis
3/7/2026 at 3:20:30 PM
I've had it for a few years now. One time I got a throat infection and it amplified to a slightly louder volume. It went down to its original level a few months later, but the time when it was slightly louder was scarier than when it first appeared. I was worried it was going to keep increasing.by abhijat
3/7/2026 at 3:13:24 PM
I'm on the exact same boat. Same age and got it randomly this Summer. Are you able to modulate the pitch by moving your jaw sideways or wide opening it? Would be great to bounce off some ideas. I'll drop you an email if that's OK.by themdonuts
3/7/2026 at 4:20:23 PM
Just moving my jaw doesn’t affect mine, but moving it to the side and flexing whatever muscles involved in that motion are definitely makes mine louder, just for a second.I’ve always wondered if that implied there must theoretically be a way to cure or reduce it by reducing pressure in there through surgery or stretching or something. I’ve done a bunch of neck stretches in the past that I think mostly relieved my anxiety about it, but may have helped. My motivation to fix it has gone down a lot though as I’ve gotten used to it.
by cgag
3/7/2026 at 4:43:31 PM
Yeah I wanted to take action before I get used to it. But it seems chances are slim of getting it fixed. I think I never read about anyone who came out of it.Anyways, I've been to the oto doctor and after a few visits, tests and ct scan he believes it might be due to my jaw and bruxism I have at night. Not ear related. Next stop for me will be to visit a maxilo facial doctor.
by themdonuts
3/9/2026 at 4:00:25 PM
I can often fix it yawning, do you notice this too?by palla89
3/7/2026 at 7:10:45 PM
Have you checked your hearing?A friend of mine has tinnitus and found out he has bad hearing. Hearing aids fixed zmthe tinnitus.
Another friend has the same, but no aids yet.
by chinathrow
3/7/2026 at 3:19:13 PM
I've had tinnitus longer than I can remember (33m) and I also have moderate visual snow also as long as I can remember. Sadly, I have no tips on tuning it out, but I'd do anything for a cureby deejaaymac
3/7/2026 at 3:31:08 PM
Same thing here , but triggered by tiredness/stress. If I sleep a lot and well, then it somehow fades until I’m tired again.I assume my brain is somehow able to filter it out, unless it’s too tired/busy.
by Agingcoder
3/7/2026 at 9:38:13 PM
The more you think about it and the more negatively you think of it, the worse it gets. I know it's easy to say, but the secret is just to not care about it.by thrance
3/7/2026 at 8:34:55 PM
That, and you simply hear the sounds in your environment worse and/or selectively depending on how they interact with the tinnitus. It's a massive nuisance.by jacquesm
3/7/2026 at 8:41:50 PM
The worst has to be in movies or TV shows when they play this ring after something happens (car accident / loud bang / etc). It's like it doubles the tinitus amplitude and it's excruciating. Every time I see this in a movie I am both disappointed for the lazy trope as well as immediately think to myself there's no way the sound designer of this movie knows what tinitus even is.by magic_hamster
3/7/2026 at 8:53:14 PM
My main gripe is that some of the people that I interact simply won't believe it and can't be arsed to speak up a little so I can actually hear them.by jacquesm
3/7/2026 at 7:43:03 PM
I got it on a plane ride at 15, due to blasting music on headphones.Terrible first 2 weeks, then just kind of faded into the background. Humans are very resilient. Well, I am, I guess :)
by heraldgeezer
3/7/2026 at 2:55:54 PM
Got it similarly. 7-8 years ago. Probably from ANC. It used to feel loud, now I have to remind myself to hear it. There is light at the end of the tunnel.by nurettin
3/7/2026 at 3:07:52 PM
Mine started when I was 12 for no apparent reason. A visit to the pediatrician, a hearing test that found my hearing was normal, and that was that. 65 years later (I'm 77) it's EXACTLY the same in pitch and volume, a loud high-pitched whine that doesn't bother me in the least. Once I got used to it and realized it was a permanent thing, it ceased to be annoying or a problem, probably when I was in high school. In my case ANC was most definitely NOT the cause (in 1960). Unless the Russians were already testing their Havana Syndrome weapon in Milwaukee.... One more thing: aspirin and/or caffeine make mine significantly louder for a few hours, though it's still not bothersome.by bookofjoe
3/7/2026 at 3:03:29 PM
From ANC? Active Noise Cancelling?Doesn't seem to be a thing?
by tjoff
3/7/2026 at 3:25:06 PM
Apparently, there is no scientific evidence that ANC is or is not causing tinnitus.ANC reduces background noise, which typically allows users to listen at lower volumes, thereby reducing total sound exposure to the ear. So if the user adapts their volume, that would lead to less risk of tinnitus. This works for me :)
But there are lots of people on forums suggesting that there is a link between tinnitus and ANC. One reason could be that ANC headphones allow you to listen very accurately to inner auditory signals, and if you already had some tinnitus, you might start to notice it.
by smokel
3/7/2026 at 5:39:33 PM
I developed tinnitus a year ago (I'm in my early 30s). I was living in an environment where it was noisy in the morning so I took to wearing sound cancelling headphones and earplugs to sleep.A few weeks into it I noticed a persistent ringing and I thought it was some sort of electrical wine in an old house. A week later I realized it was permanent so I cut out my sound cancelling sleep routine, but the tinnitus has stayed.
by kettlecorn
3/7/2026 at 3:21:17 PM
I got tinnitus before ANC was a thing, and I've never been able to comfortably use it for more than a short period of time.Whenever I do, I swear I feel increased pressure on my ears and my tinnitus temporarily gets worse. I've often wondered if I imagine it, but hearing from others here makes me think it isn't so strange.
by zdragnar
3/7/2026 at 7:45:04 PM
Oh weird, I also perceive an increased pressure on my ears, but it's only with my over-the-ear headphones when turned on. My in ear ANC headphones don't do the same.Slight tinnitus here but had it for as long as I can remember.
by ikjasdlk2234
3/7/2026 at 3:04:50 PM
Yes it feels like I got it from ANC. Might not "be a thing", just coincided with my ANC use. It is my data point.by nurettin
3/7/2026 at 3:15:56 PM
Did it start around the covid/ WFH time? There are a few theories1. Airpods or ANC
2. WFH ->. Less movement -> stiff muscles around neck and head -> head trasnfer frequencies changing
3. Covid vaccine
by Tsarp
3/7/2026 at 5:30:30 PM
I know some people blame the covid vaccine. I had tinnitus before the vaccine and it got louder when I took the vaccine and then got quieter later. But it gets louder with other medications too. I suspect anything that causes inflammation can increase tinnitus symptoms, and the covid vaccine does temporarily increase inflammation. This could easily push someone who hasn’t noticed their developing tinnitus over the edge and suddenly they notice it and associate it with the vaccine. What they don’t know is that they might have noticed their tinnitus 2 months later if they hadn’t taken the vaccine. Statistically, I would expect there to be lots of people, like maybe as much as one or two percent of the population (which amounts to a few million people in the US) who might legitimately associate their tinnitus with the covid vaccine, even if the vaccine actually had nothing to do with it.The same explanation goes for ANC - when you cut out all the noise, suddenly it’s way easier to notice the tinnitus you already had.
There might be something with the neck stiffness idea. I do get the feeling my tinnitus lessens when I’m using cervical traction and doing neck stretching regularly.
by dahart
3/7/2026 at 3:21:41 PM
See this is why we can't have cheap tinfoil.by nurettin
3/7/2026 at 3:42:59 PM
1. Without noise you become more aware of your tinnitus.2. WFH -> Less movement -> Decreased blood flow can contribute to the onset of tinnitus.
Long exposure to high volumes causes hearing damage. Many people set volume on headsets too high to hear better.
3. Many people are diagnosed with tinnitus every day, and some are bound to have it discovered after a vaccine shot. In the same way, some people will have tinnitus discovered after COVID. That doesn’t yet prove causation.
by zigzag312
3/7/2026 at 3:07:24 PM
I personally believe active noise cancelling is a direct cause of tinnitus. This is just a personal belief though and I have no direct evidence. I've heard a lot of anecdotes corroborating this.by functionmouse
3/7/2026 at 3:04:40 PM
You're killing me with your acronym. That's a recurring thing here, so don't feel bad.by bookofjoe
3/7/2026 at 7:00:00 PM
Active Noise Cancelling (headphones, earbuds etc.)It probably doesn’t cause tinnitus, but people grasp at straws about this kind of stuff.
by antonvs
3/7/2026 at 7:58:01 PM
I'm 35, I very suddenly got tinnitus about a year ago. Like, I remember one day I didn't have it, and when I woke up the next morning I did. I went to an ENT hoping that it would be an earwax impaction or something, but nope. I got a hearing test, thinking maybe I'm getting older and it's a side effect of that, but nope, my hearing was actually slightly better than average for someone my age. I got an MRI thinking it might be a tumor but nope, no tumors in my head that the MRI could see [1]. At this point I think the medical consensus for my tinnitus is "shrug".Mine fortunately isn't that bad; it's in my left ear, and about 95% of the time I can ignore it. It sounds almost exactly like the high-pitch squeal that CRTs make when you have them on without any input. The biggest thing for me now is that I can't really deal with "silence" anymore. I pretty much always have YouTube running, or some music playing, or some audio of rainstorms of thunderstorms going, because otherwise the squeal can be maddening. Fortunately, in 2026 it's never been easier to find a nearly infinite supply of ambient noise, so I can deal with it.
I'm extremely lucky that it doesn't appear to have disrupted my sleep much. I know some people have had their tinnitus ruin their sleep and I am in the happy few where that isn't an issue. I can go to sleep with the noise in my left ear and it doesn't take much longer than it did before I got the tinnitus.
I'd much rather it not be there, and I was really hoping it would go away after a few months, but after a year I suspect that it's something I am just going to have to live with for the rest of my life. I'm 35 now, and hopefully I got another fifty years or so left, so for the large majority of my life it's just going to be something I'm stuck with. I've just kind of come to terms with it.
[1] I mean, in net it's probably good that there aren't observable tumors in my head. At least I don't think I have brain cancer.
by tombert
3/7/2026 at 11:57:30 PM
have it too. no idea when i got it, probably a very long time ago. having said that i don't really care and mostly don't notice it. but if i think about it, then i hear a constant feeeeeeeee...eeep. but then i just forget about it. and that's coming from somebody who is very noise sensitive.by raffael_de
3/9/2026 at 2:22:47 PM
Isn't tinnitus some kind of bone or cartilage related thing?by lofaszvanitt
3/7/2026 at 5:04:00 PM
A lot of people hear a slight hiss. Is that tinnitus? Faint enough that it's not noticable 90% of the time.by sgt
3/7/2026 at 5:17:16 PM
Any noise you hear that is not a real sound that others can hear is tinnitus. The actual experience for people with the condition varies, for some it's a hiss, for some it's a tone, for me it's a really loud, multi-tonal, warbling sound between 11khz and 15khz. If anyone has tinnitus and wants to know what frequency it is that you your brain is perceiving just go online and find a tone generator and start increasing the frequency until the sound from the speakers suddenly disappears. That's the frequency of your tinnitus.e: btw tinnitus is considered hearing damage.
by spl757
3/7/2026 at 6:45:26 PM
How does this work in combination with age related hearing loss? At some point you will lose high frequency sensitivity in that 11-15Khz range. Would be nice to get some benefit from that, but I assume the tinnitus itself will not go away even if it hangs out at that frequency?It also means the above experiment will not work since you lose the signal before you reach your tinnitus frequency.
by martinpw
3/7/2026 at 10:17:23 PM
Honestly though, a hiss that you can hardly notice is maybe technically tinnitus, but not a problem at all. Actual tinnitus would drive anyone crazy, I bet.by sgt
3/7/2026 at 8:04:03 PM
For me, it's a very distinct ringing. Like in the movies when there's some explosion/shock scene and there's a very persistent ding that happens after the explosion or whatever - it's what I hear constantly.by ramoz
3/7/2026 at 5:07:17 PM
i have it for more than 12 years. 8 years ago, I began to dont give a f“““ anymore. I now can go days and weeks without hearing it. Even when reading in silence. Sometimes, when my brain decides to losten to it again, I immediately start to distract myself. Sometimes for hours, until „I forget“by lmf4lol
3/7/2026 at 5:28:36 PM
I got it late Feb 2020. Wasn't great to have that sound haunt me through the rest of the isolation.by escapecharacter
3/7/2026 at 4:50:50 PM
It gets better,I promise. It becomes an annoying companion,but you develop ways to forget about itby Fire-Dragon-DoL
3/8/2026 at 2:30:43 AM
Eventually you stop hearing it unless someone mentions it.by cryptonector
3/7/2026 at 4:45:32 PM
I wont call it anecdotal evidence but i am told, in "traditional" Greek medicine,tinnitus is a symptom of constipation.Its told you fix constipation, your ringing ears will get fixed.
I know its not 100% but try to fix your bowel movement if it isn't working properly already.
by 2Gkashmiri
3/7/2026 at 7:02:28 PM
Who could have imagined that “traditional” Greek medicine was bullshit?Tinnitus sufferers tend to experience symptoms their entire lives. Do you genuinely think that they’re all walking around continuously constipated for decades?
by antonvs
3/7/2026 at 6:36:29 PM
Similar, I went past an event that was playing unusually loud music last may. I ended up with tinnitus and hyperacusis.I don't know which is worse, but the combination has me contemplating euthanasia on a regular basis
by amarant
3/7/2026 at 4:57:39 PM
Don’t let it get to you like this.by ramoz
3/8/2026 at 5:50:55 AM
Consider using a TRT[1] Tinnitus hearing aid. It was prescribed me by my ENT doctor and it provides me with great relief. My Tinnitus is persistent and extremely loud. Loud enough that I couldn't get use to it even after many years. I'm not sure what would be the procedure for you to get one in your country. It is not a cure, but it made my life immensely better. I wished I had gotten it sooner. Good luck!---
[1] Tinnitus Retraining Therapy
by bananamerica
