It's almost certainly my own damn fault I have it, but after at least 35-40 years dealing with it,tinitus sure as hell isn't my friend.
Mine is high pitched, and varries in intensity but has gotten worse lately. Sometimes it makes jus existing down right hard, but usually it's only moderately annoying and I can mostly ignore it.
I've tried an assortment of sound based methods to mask it or train my brain to tune it out, but nothing has worked more than fleetingly.
The only thing that reliably gives me a break is if I can really focus on something. Music (passive or active), cooking, and programming are the most reliable, but sometimes reading, gaming, or good conversation works. Usually, though, everything is done with a constant backing track of flyback transformer whine.
Wear hearing protection, kids, or you may well live to regret it!
what the author is advocating for "befriending tinnitus" is a well established form of therapy (Acceptance and Commitment/ACT), it's generally very effective because avoidance or compensatory behavior ("trying to make the tinnitus go away / distract myself") is teaching the brain that tinnitus is a problem and is only going to increase the kind of alertness that leads people to focus on their tinnitus. It's the same way with insomnia, people who try to produce sleep efforts tend to worsen their insomnia, you need to befriend being awake.
There's a big psychological component to tinnitus that sustains itself because people view tinnitus as a problem, that's often larger than the physical impairment.
It's not even clear that for most sufferers that there is a physical impairment at all. I went to a Tinnitus clinic in Berlin and was surprised at how little is known about it even now and how much is likely psychological (or more inside the brain than the ear).
Amateur musician with mild/moderate high frequency tinnitus here. I was treated with exposure therapy, and while I hear the sound (less now than before) it doesn't bother me any more. I would recommend a book called "Living Well With Tinnitus". Good luck!
I developed tinnitus in my right ear about 5 years ago. I remember exactly when it started. I was welding up a tailpipe repair on my car, and in the next bay over my brother was running the lawnmower to adjust the carbs. The exhaust was basically blasting directly into my right ear from a distance of about 10ft. I don't recall it feeling excessively loud at the time, but afterwards for about a two years I had really bad occasional ringing and occasionally I could hear "rushing" sounds very loudly.
About 3 years ago I used a borescope and some tweezers as a sketchy endoscope and pulled out a hair that had somehow wedged itself in my ear canal. I don't recall how I figured out this plan, but it worked. The tinnitus has never returned since then.
I have no idea whether there's any causal connections between any of these events. It's a big mystery. But TBH I don't really care that much, I'm just super glad it's gone.
I remember about twenty years ago reading a method on a forum somewhere for dealing with tinnitus to create temporary relief. Many folks claimed to experience relief from trying it. Maybe it will help you?
Even if you have tinnitus, wear hearing protection for sure.
Unfortunately, I have a connective tissue disorder, which is the cause of the tinnitus and the cause of my hearing loss as well. The more my hearing loss goes, the more apparent the tinnitus is. IF you're in a position where it isn't a health related issue, you can prevent it from getting worse, or at least reduce the pace that happens at.
I have an orchestra of it going on with the high pitches, those that sound like a vacuum going off in another room and hearing my own pulse. I do miss silence!
Mine is most likely from cumulative exposure to loud noise w/o protection before I was 20 (power tools, firearms, fireworks, live rock, punk, & heavy metal, etc.). That or the time I had a bad ear infection with a perforated ear drum (possibly cause by a Cacophony show in a little dive bar).
I used to hear my own pulse, especially when I would meditate, but no chance of that now, with my constant companion high pitched whine.
Stress, excessive alchohol, loud noises, or extended use of earplugs as noise suppression are all sure fire ways for it to make it more severe, but at least the latter isn't as bad, helps avoid the effects of loud noise, and usually the levels go back to "normal" soon after. Excessive alcohol is easy enough to avoid, so that just leaves stress. That's ... less easy to avoid.
Sorry to hear about your particular affliction. At least if it were just one sound it'd be a little easier to occasionally mask or tune out.
One thing that happens to me during particularly bad flare ups (like right now -- is it just me or does thinking about it make it worse?) is that I think I hear things nearby, but it's either mishearing something faint or complete audio hallucinations. One annoyance on top of another!
And yes, the best time to start wearing hearing protection is before your first exposure to potentially damaging noise, but the next best is now!
Mine is high pitched, and varries in intensity but has gotten worse lately. Sometimes it makes jus existing down right hard, but usually it's only moderately annoying and I can mostly ignore it.
I've tried an assortment of sound based methods to mask it or train my brain to tune it out, but nothing has worked more than fleetingly.
The only thing that reliably gives me a break is if I can really focus on something. Music (passive or active), cooking, and programming are the most reliable, but sometimes reading, gaming, or good conversation works. Usually, though, everything is done with a constant backing track of flyback transformer whine.
Wear hearing protection, kids, or you may well live to regret it!