Ive had tinitus for about a month now and its making me insane music doesnt sound like it used to be and i hear it everywhere. Can i even still use headphones or will it frym ears and make it worse . Pls help
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I have tinnitus and have been to various doctors and researched various “cures”. I believe there is no cure for permanent tinnitus. The best advice I received was to find a way to simply accept it as a fact of life. I have, and it doesn’t bother me that much any longer. For me, the worst is silence. All I hear is the ringing. I have a white noise generator for going to sleep, and music via headphones has been a wonderful distraction. Tinnitus is what brought me back to the headphone hobby. I wear headphones most of the work day and it has really increased my quality of life.
There are websites that help you identify your tinnitus frequency, so that you can adjust music to accommodate those frequencies
Watch your caffeine & sugar intake and lack of sleep. All these can magnify your tinnitus. And don’t focus on it.
Hi! I also have tinnitus since a year and a half ago. I hope i can help a bit.
First of all, go to see a doctor as everyone said. If the first doens’t help, try another until you exhaust all the possibilities. Depending on the root of your tinnitus, it can be cured (sadly, most of the times it can not, but a lot of times it can), so it’s good to try that.
Second, if music doesn’t sound like it used, it can be two things: you have ear damage, which means you need to go see a doctor, or it’s psychological. Something similar happened to me, and the solution was to stop using headphones for some time. Like, 3 months or more. After that it was okay.
Third, i’ve been able to use headphones almost without issue. I need to EQ my DT 770 pro or else they make my ears ring more if i use them for too long, but with EQ it does the opposite, i think because it lowers my anxiety. It may be different for you.
Forth, find a masker that works for you. Just google tinnitus maskers in youtube and try until you find one that masks your tinnitus. You don’t have to use it with headphones necessarily, i use them a lot for sleep. Use it when you feel like you can’t handle your tinnitus anymore or is distracting you too much. To me, it helped a lot with being able to live as i did before my tinnitus.
Fifth, if it’s making you go insane, i recommend you taking therapy. Cognitive conductual is very helpful to learn to live with tinnitus. The first couple of months are going to suck, like, REALLY suck, but it does get better. Go outside, keep your hobbies as difficult as it can be, and overall take care of your mental health. If you let it take you down, it will make everything worse. With time, you simply learn to ignore it.
Finally, i insist, if you haven’t, go see a doctor. Sadly, a lot of times it doesn’t help, but others it does, and it’s important to try.
I also have tinnitus and my 660S were a godsend. I don’t LOVE the sound signature but it beats having my ears ring the whole night after a studio session. It made it so much more manageable.
Fellow tinnitus sufferer here for about 15 years, but it has intensified over the last four or five years. A few tips:
- Time to get real: There is no cure, man. If you have tinnitus due to true ear damage and not wax or other obstructions, you will have it forever. You’ll need to learn coping strategies. Sorry to break that news.
- Protect your remaining hearing at all costs. Wear quality plugs to shows. Wear quality plugs when using power equipment. Use quality plugs anywhere there’s sustained loud noise.
- Stay up on your sleep and exercise. That can reduce the severity of tinnitus. Caffeine also is a big trigger for some people.
- Do NOT use IEMs. Shoving sound directly into your ear canal is not good for your hearing or for tinnitus.
- ANC can help tinnitus sufferers because you don’t need to turn up your headphones that loud due to noise cancelling.
- Limit your time with headphones and keep the volume down. Sucks, but your hearing and ear health are more important.
- Find coping strategies. Find ways to relax and/or block the sound. White sound machines help; I usually run a space heater or fan in my office, depending on the weather. That constant noise helps mask the tinnitus. Walking amid natural sound helps. But the biggest step is realizing tinnitus almost certainly is not going away, so don’t drive yourself nuts hoping it will magically disappear. It won’t. So, try to use whatever coping mechanisms work for you.
I wish you well, friend. Tinnitus sucks, and I wouldn’t wish it upon anyone. But you can learn to live with it. I would cry buckets of joyful tears if the noise in my ears ever stopped, but I also have learned to cope with the sound and not let it drive me nuts.
Tinnitus is permanent unfortunately. There is no cure because it’s physical damage to the micro structures of your ear due to loud sound. I’ve had tinnitus for over 20 years. It sounds like a high pitched constant ring that never goes away 24/7. You just learn to live with it. PROTECT your hearing!
Stop listening to stuff. Go see a doctor.
I went to a doctor and she said my ears were dirty af and she cleaned them and said wait a couple of weeks and see if the sound went or not. It didnt so im going to get a scqn on myears or sum like that and see what the root problem is
Be sure to rest your ears too. Give them a break from loud noises for a week or two and see how things are.
Might be good to get a hearing test too to see if there’s any issues and establish a baseline.
See below threads for info on what to do with tinnitus/hyperacusis/etc.
I am not a medical professional though, so just ask your local ENT (Ear, Nose, Throat) doctor for actual medical advice (go to the younger doctors as they’ll actually know of tinnitus and won’t recommend you pseudoscience/etc. stuff to deal with it). But they’ll probably tell you the same thing: you have to bear with it for the rest of your life (if it’s not temporary tinnitus/etc.).
Visit places like /r/tinnitusresearch for hope though as it looks like there’s gonna medicine/products/etc. releasing within the next 5/10+ years that will at least reduce or alleviate the more common causes of tinnitus. Search up Susan Shore’s research and stuff.
In the meantime, maybe try ASMR while you’re idle or not playing actual music/videos.
Try listening to ASMR while you sleep with TWS earbuds. It’s like white/background/etc. noise, might help you sleep more.
Maybe try magnesium glycinate too. Note that supplements are mostly snake oil like the audio hobby, but magnesium is a proven thing (can help with brain fog, anxiety, sleep issues, etc.), use the glycinate version so that you don’t get diarrhea.
IEMs for soundstage, noise reduction, ASMR, et cetera (this has a lot of ASMR channels and videos in the middle of the text): https://www.reddit.com/r/HeadphoneAdvice/comments/13mp70a/wanna_dip_my_toes_into_iem_territory_budget_is_80/jkwnhyg/
See if these ASMR/binaural/etc. videos make your ears ache, sometimes it’s because the treble and so on of the IEM/etc. is too boosted and so it’s too sharp. Use parametric EQ right now (through (Peace) Equalizer APO, Neutron, UAPP, etc.) to reduce it, or ya turn down the volume a bit.
3D Sound Studio, “🎧 ASMR 3D whispers for sleep and relaxation 🎧” video, released about a week ago, the AI/people talking are immediately on the left and right ears, sometimes alternating between: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bax9OBZHKas.
3D Sound Studio, “🎵 this is what 32d music sounds like…🎵” video, released also about a week ago, a rap type of mix: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_suVn2-CNhM.
3D Sound Studio, “⏰ ASMR 1 Hour of 3D Sounds for Sleep and Relaxation - No Talking (wear headphones)” video, an hour of the sounds they used for their earlier videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrp87PfM4x0.
3D Sound Studio, “ASMR for headphone users (3D Binaural Audio)” video, a recent video with a more music-focused intro: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrp87PfM4x0.
That 3D Sound Studio channel has AI stuff or like cyberpunk/horror/etc. elements, but it’s real good for experiencing the soundstage/imaging/etc. of your current IEMs/headphones/etc.
Everything basically related to noise reduction, like Etymotics and Sennheiser IE 200, ear tips, volume control, hearing health, et cetera: https://www.reddit.com/r/headphones/comments/17wy08i/92_db_average_for_2_years_how_fucked_am_i/k9lkx16/ and https://www.reddit.com/r/headphones/comments/17xjcs9/people_who_like_etymotics_have_you_ever_tried/k9o4v19/
Info about measuring decibels, hearing health, et cetera here: https://www.reddit.com/r/headphones/comments/11a4cpm/are_few_second_peaks_into_8285_db_still_safe_when/j9riw7q/
Read this as precaution if getting Etymotics IEMs, here’s a bit more info on IEMs, dongles, volume, hearing health, earwax cleaning, et cetera: https://www.reddit.com/r/HeadphoneAdvice/comments/uk341f/er2se_ear_damage/i7ndank/
Headphones, IEMs, and reducing PC/room noises: https://www.reddit.com/r/headphones/comments/12yxyqs/question_about_open_back_headphones/jhq4mj6/ and https://www.reddit.com/r/headphones/comments/180g4q8/confuseddissapointed_with_hd_560s_my_first/ka5zuym/
Some IEMs with good noise reduction: https://www.reddit.com/r/headphones/comments/17znbiw/which_items_provide_the_best_noise_isolation_not/ka0vzm2/
See a doctor.
Also if it’s permanent you simply just have to live with it. Sucks but that’s how it is. Luckily mine is only triggered by certain sounds.
Same, I get a lite ringing for idk 10 second or so every now and them. Not often. But that’s the beginning of tinnitus. I figure some high pitched sound or another triggers it. I firmly believe having ANC helps, because what people seem to do is jack up the volume to drown out external noises. So canceling the external noises and learning what dB you’re listening at, you shouldn’t get tinnitus if you’re not listening at what 80db for hours at a time, and you enjoy your music the more.
I have tinnitus when I dont have enough sleep
I always have a low background level of it, but being really tired definitely ramps it up a lot.
Tinnitus can’t be fixed as far as I’m aware. It’s nice to drown it out in music (don’t blast it and cause more hearing damage). Every now and then if I’m listening for prolonged sessions with moderate-loud music, my tinnitus will act up, but nothing permanent. Not to say it won’t be permanent if, again, you’re blasting music at incredibly volumes. Also, brightness in speakers can be an absolute killer for my tinnitus. The best way to “deal with” tinnitus for me is not thinking about it; the more it’s on my mind, the more irritating it gets. I’ve had tinnitus for as long as I can remember, so I wish you the best of luck!
yeah don’t blast music into your ears you’ll damage your ears
also you probably have to learn how to cope with it as it’s most likely permanent
These exercises helped my tinnitus: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-SZ1r1dnho
Definitely see an ENT and limit your listening to shorter sessions and healthy volumes as well.
Like everyone else said go to your doctor and ask them to check your ears to make sure you don’t actually just have a sinus infection, I have very slight tinnitus (can’t hear it over my liquid cooled pc) in my right ear and I thought it had gotten worse recently despite all my precautions but luckily just a sinus infection with fluid in my ear causing the extra ringing.
A thing that works for me when I had it for a bit was this weird thing. Hold your earlobe, shake it or do fast movements. Guides on YouTube, it really worked for me, dumb as it may “sound”. Can’t hurt to try, perhaps it will help you as well.