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I have tinnitus. I don't recommend it

(blog.greg.technology)
185 points gregsadetsky | 5 comments | 21 May 25 22:50 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source
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plaidfuji ◴[22 May 25 02:55 UTC] No.44058336[source]▶
I “got over” mine after many months of “tinnitus meditation” (there’s a short book on this written by a guy who has some crazy disease that causes extra-bad tinnitus). Basically, you meditate by purposefully focusing on your tinnitus. It starts to flip your brain’s response from one of fear to one of relaxation. Even within the first session, you’ll find that when you try to focus on the noise for as long as you can (use a timer and start with 5 mins), you eventually get distracted and think about something else, even if just for a moment. Then you realize that your brain isn’t “forced” to notice it - and the more you practice this, the better you’ll get at noticing it and gently pivoting your attention back to.. the rest of the world. The noise never goes away, your ability to ignore it just improves over time.

The book is a quick read and helpful: https://a.co/d/ckOzbSq

I no longer meditate as often, but when I do, it’s actually still quite effective. I now see it more as a “retreat” of sorts - I can just kind of dissociate and let the ringing take over. Reading this article brought it back, incidentally.. but I’m ok with it. Once you fully surrender to the noise, you can start to let go of it. It’s the mental resistance that makes it hard to deal with.

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sheepscreek ◴[22 May 25 04:28 UTC] No.44058794[source]▶
I’ve had it since I was a kid. One day I just noticed how strange it was that silence sounded like this. I was maybe 6 or 7? Eventually just got used to experiencing silence like this. However, I usually only become aware of it when I’m alone - more so indoors at night time.
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no_time ◴[22 May 25 06:28 UTC] No.44059317[source]▶
But that isn’t tinnitus right? I noticed mine right around the same time and I call it the “aether noise”.

To me, regular tinnitus (which I also had for a few days after concerts) could be matched and recreated with a tone generator, and is much more “in your face” despite being the same volume by the end of my ears healing.

Aether noise on the other hand sounds multi tone, not a buzz or a hum. I have not yet managed to recreate it. I can hear it all the time if I can focus on it, but it only calls attention to itself in dead silence.

Do you have visual snow by chance too?

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1. t34t4hthh ◴[22 May 25 08:06 UTC] No.44059827[source]▶
Not OP, but yes! I've had the exact same "symptoms" my entire life.

- A faint multi-tonal background "hiss", only apparent during silence, never goes away but is quite relaxing. I'm hesitant to even call it tinnitus - Visual snow. I have early memories from at least 5 or 6, staring at the blue sky and noticing it's not pure (I see blue as everyone else, but with a very transparent layer of static)

I have attributed it to something "off" in the sensory filtering part of my brain

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2. circularfoyers ◴[22 May 25 09:14 UTC] No.44060287[source]▶
It's so subtle I've for a long time wondered if it's something most people experience and don't notice, or they assume is normal, just because unless I think about it I don't really notice it either. I have been known to focus on details more than others do. Not sure if this contributes to my seemingly heightened sense of smell as well. But not being able to experience what others experience, makes me wonder if I'll ever know.
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3. laszlojamf ◴[22 May 25 10:03 UTC] No.44060500[source]▶
I always thought that was just blood flow in the ears. Would make sense if that would cause _some_ noise.
4. no_time ◴[22 May 25 10:30 UTC] No.44060642[source]▶
heh welcome to the club I guess. I always knew it’s not only me, even though nobody knew what i was talking about when explaining these symptoms.

Not quite tinnitus, much less drastic than anyone describing their diagnosed visual snow symptoms. Could be a very mild case of VSS or an yet to be named condition.

5. no_time ◴[22 May 25 10:49 UTC] No.44060755[source]▶
>It's so subtle I've for a long time wondered if it's something most people experience and don't notice, or they assume is normal

I wondered this myself too. One thing I do know is nobody was able to relate from friends and family when mentioning this. Visual snow syndrome (which according to affected people online can be very disabling) was only first described as late as 2015 according to wikipedia. So we may never know at this pace.