"Fucking Tinnitus"

The tinnitus I have seems to cover the spectrum of sounds. There’s ringing in multiple high frequency notes stacked on top of each other. Half steps, whole steps, quarter steps, micro steps. There’s usually one note that’s loudest but that changes. Along with that, there is the almost electrical hissing, digital noise. And along with that, a buzz, a hum and sometimes clicking.

My tinnitus is always there.
I have named the sounds in my head "The Screaming Angels".

If you’re like me, out of sheer desperation you have gone online and done the search. “How do I stop tinnitus”?
Instantly the page fills with ads and links to quick fixes and YouTube videos.

I can honestly say I’ve tried dozens of products and techniques.
I’ve tapped, I’ve massaged, I've candled, I’ve rung, I’ve hung, I’ve gummied, I’ve oiled, I’ve carefully placed a clove of garlic in my ear.
None of it got rid of my tinnitus and the garlic just made me hungry.

I encourage you to try out every one of the recommendations you find online, as long as your are careful.
Who knows?
Maybe you are one of the small percentage of people that get some benefit from these “quick fixes”.
More power to you.

However, chances are you won’t get benefit from this stuff because tinnitus is much more complex than any pill or quick-fix.

Maybe sometime in the future we’ll find a quick, easy solution but for now, it’s mostly up to us...

"Over 50 years ago, Heller and Bergman demonstrated that if 'normal' people (with no known cochlear disease) were placed in a quiet enough environment, the vast majority of them would experience sounds inside their head. They concluded that tinnitus‐like activity is a natural phenomenon perceived by many in a quiet enough environment (Heller 1953).”

"Oh my god, for the last 30 years, when I turn off the lights at night it's like, 'Eeeeeeeeeeee."'
-Dave Grohl: Nirvana/The Foo Fighters/Rock God

Download Breathing Practice for Hearing and Tinnitus

What is tinnitus and why won't it away?

To understand tinnitus, it's important to understand this:
The ear turns physical vibrations into electrical signals, the brain turns those signals into what we perceive as sound.
Tinnitus is almost always related to some miscommunication between the ear and the brain, but the causes can vary.
The most common causes of tinnitus are exposure to loud sounds, infection, illness, congenital issues or direct damage to the ear or brain.
It can reveal itself in many different ways, volumes and consistencies and those can change over minutes, hours, days, weeks and years depending on a variety of factors.

The common misconception is that tinnitus is caused by damage to the mechanics of the ear.
The more accurate description would be that tinnitus is the brain's response to physical hearing issues. Similar to the Heller quote above, the brain will often begin to create "sound" when there isn't any.
This helps explain why tinnitus can be one of the first signs of upper register hearing loss. The brain is trying to compensate for the lack of communication with the damaged high frequency cochlear hairs.
The fact that tinnitus is neurological (comes from the brain, not the ear) is what makes it a very complicated issue.
For instance if you have tinnitus, you've probably noticed it more, simply because you are reading about it right now.

The question of whether the tinnitus is “real” or not can actually end up being detrimental.
It doesn’t really help solve the problem. If you keep telling yourself that the ringing in the ears is purely physically caused, then you’ll keep believing that there are only physical solutions to the problem.

Reminder: Tinnitus is the brain’s response to the damaged hearing, not the cause of it.
And this is why these quick fixes generally don't work.

So what can be done to reduce the effects of tinnitus?

The Tinnitus Manifesto

Opening the Conversation About Musicians and Hearing