I have tinnitus. I don't recommend it

I feel terrible because I never did anything wrong. I never went to a concert. I never worked around loud things for prolonged periods. I never listened to music too loud. I have tinnitus. It seems to go up in intensity when my TMD acts up, but it never goes completely away. Mine isn't nearly debilitating, but I worry that it's going to get worse with time.

I have tinnitus from an inner ear injury from snorkeling/free diving. Tinnitus can be caused by clenching your jaw or otherwise stimulating your jaw muscles. My ENT told me the nerves for the muscles are extremely close to the nerves for hearing. One thing I try when my tinnitus acts up is making sure to keep my jaw relaxed.

I have had tinnitus for as long as I have been forming memories. As a child I called it "the sound of silence" and thought everyone heard it.

Never bothered me much. Its much worse now at times. Still doesnt bother me much

I'm in the same boat for the most part. Always had tinnitus, for as long as I can remember. Doesn't bother me at all.

However, for the past 3 or 4 years, during spring, I get much worse tinnitus in my right ear for a couple weeks. It appears to be caused by some kind of blockage in my inner ear due to the inevitable viruses we catch during the winter. It's louder and a lower pitch (around 3 kHz, unlike my 10+ kHz normal one), and even though it's not the first time this happens by now, it's still extremely annoying. It's harder to just ignore, and my mind immediately starts thinking "what if this lasts forever?"

So I can imagine that for those who develop tinnitus at adulthood, it can cause a lot more distress, because they lived the "before".

I had some nasty eustacian tube blockage this winter and some tinnitus during the worst of it.

You might try alergy meds (pills or nasal inhalers) to try to clear that up. I wouldn't expect it to do anything for your chronic tinnitus though.

Same for me, is it weird I'd go so far as to say... I like mine? I like the name "the sound of silence" for it - I kinda feel like I use it as a "plane" to think on top of somehow or something. For me it kinda...whirrs up almost, till I'm fully enveloped by my thoughts and imagination, at that point the tinnitus is gone and I'm in unbridled thinking mode,I quite like the whole experience personally. I'm scared it will get debilitating like others have described, but it's never bothered me.

lol, i distinctly remember calling mine "the sound of life" when i was younger. the metal shows didnt help it too much but its how it goes

I've had tinnitus since my teen years, half a century ago. At least, what I normally hear is, I assume, tinnitus, but it comes in two forms. There's a constant sort-of grey noise, not too loud (definitely softer than people talking in the same room), which wavers in amplitude over a sub-second period. The more annoying form is a pretty pure sine wave, much louder, which thankfully is more infrequent. Not really sure if that quieter form is something everyone gets, or an actual tinnitus form. Anyway, after 50+ years, it's not a big deal to me.

I wonder about a genetic component. I've had the "sound of silence" for as long as I can remember. I don't remember how old she was, exactly, but my daughter confirmed she was experiencing something similar at a pretty young age (under 5 y/o). We were always very careful with her hearing (to the point that we had very small earmuffs we'd have her wear in potentially loud situations), so I don't think it's the result of physical damage.

I'm sitting alone in a quiet room typing this and I've got a cacophony of >12kHz whine going in both ears. The left is slightly louder and lower than the right. It's not debilitating but it would be really neat to hear actual silence once in awhile.

I played w/ doing hearing range tests on myself and my friends using an old NEC V20-based laptop during my high school days (mid-90s). I wrote a little BASIC program that played sounds of increasing frequency and asked you to report if you could hear the sound. Sometimes it indicates it's playing a sound when it isn't. By playing (or not playing) sounds repeatedly I would build up a "score" for the user's high frequency hearing response.

I have notes showing I could hear between 16 and 17 kHz back then. Today I struggle to hear more than 12 kHz. Interestingly, my tinnitus presents frequencies high than I can actually hear now.

Its the same for me. Its always been there. I've also done a lot of activities over my life that make it worse, like playing the drums, attending very loud electronic music parties, and motorcycling without earplugs. It's just a low-level background sound that is part of my life, and I'm lucky enough to be able to tune it out most times. But reading this post and going through this thread has made it a lot worse.

Interestingly, my five-year-old was complaining about ringing in her ears being distracting at bed time, so I wonder if it is genetic too.

you could have gotten tinnitus from medication. some medications (quite a few of the stronger antibiotics) are known as being ototoxic. my tinnitus started while taking antibiotics for a bad infection. I cant prove it was my antibiotic, but the antibiotic was ototoxic

In my twenties, I was slowly developing tinnitus, it was driving me nuts.

I work with computers a lot and my spine was paying a price. In my late twenties I started working out and doing yoga and later pilates to strengthen my back and straighten my spine. My tinnitus went away. Something was being pinched in my neck, causing the tinnitus.

I'm not sure this is your problem, but it might help someone out there.

I have noticed that my traps and everything around it feel a lot better when I work out. Hopefully I can continue to work out, despite recent minor injuries.

I'm starting to find correlations that make me feel regret...

I've started wearing a night guard/TMJ splint, by the recommendation of a dentist. It helps a lot in preventing my jaw from locking up during the day. Have you given that a show to try and alleviate some pressure from the area?

I think this is the cause of mine. An audiologist said my actual hearing is remarkable and recommended protecting it, so I don't think it's hearing loss.