Am I hearing things (you don't) ????

Prof, I misspoke earlier in regard to TRT. I know very little about it but often suggest to my patients that they can try it since there isn't significant risk. Most have not found it worth the trouble.

In this discussion I had confused it with a form of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). Sorry if I caused confusion but I was primarily referring to CBT.

In regard to your observations on the mental aspect of tinnitus, well, I agree. Mine tends to be worse when I'm stressed, tired or sick. And I'm learning to mentally 'attenuate' the perception but it is far from foolproof. 

It has never been an issue in regard to sleep. I run a small floor fan in the room and that masks it fairly well.

In the past, when I would have those sudden bursts of very loud ringing I had the luxury of having one of my partners look at my ear drum and/or perform a quick tympanometry. Always normal.

I have not had formal audiometry but informally it is clear that it is mild presbycusis (old ears) and just high frequency and primarily just on the left.

As usual Geoff interjects meaningless snide remarks that are neither helpful, insightful, asked for or original. All pretty much to let us know that he knows more about this (and everything else) than anyone else. And yet........still fails to make sense about half the time. And even with his superior knowledge (I will not say intellect) typically fails to help anyone in any meaningful way. And I know I shouldn’t have said any of this because 1. He seems to have no insight. 2. Doesn’t understand why most everyone thinks (knows) he is an @$$. 3. Even worse....like most trolls....he loves the attention and this was what he was after to begin with.

And prof....please don’t encourage him to get a puppy. What do you have against puppies? ;-)

I am a physician and can tell you that prof is pretty much right on the mark. I have minor hearing loss (left worse than right), chronic 24/7/365 bilateral tinnitus and hyperacusis on occasion. At a recent concert there was a very high pitched sustained guitar cord that actually triggered a very brief dizziness and slight nausea even through ear plugs.

The truth is there is very very little that can be done about tinnitus. And the origin of tinnitus is still unknown but there are theories as listed above. There are some rare anatomical problems with the otic bones that can be corrected surgically but I’ve only seen that once in close to 30 years in medicine. That is why the ENT usually tells you to learn to live with it. And audiologist can test your hearing, many ENTs have them in house.

Most other remedies for tinnitus, as seen on the internet, as snake oil. I personally believe that TRT and CBT can help people deal with tinnitus, particularly those who get stressed out about it. Most of us who have it become aware at times when we are not ’hearing’ it when in fact our brain just isn’t paying attention to it. That tells me that ’brain training’ can be useful and studies support this. I kind of do my own version of it and it helps sometimes.

I do recommend a visit to the ENT if you have new onset or worsening tinnitus but don’t be upset when they tell you there isn’t anything they can do. Its just a fact. Also see the audiologist is a good idea to find out exactly what your hearing loss is like.

There is an experimental treatment called repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation that showed some promise in a small study but that’s been a few years ago and no new progress has been made that I’m aware of.

There are always trolls. The best thing to do....is not what I did....but not to reply at all. Thus the 'removed' posts. The moderator removed a couple but I removed several more of mine. I just have to keep reminding myself that nothing, and I mean nothing, upsets a troll more than being ignored.