Tinnitus The Loudest Silent Thief of Time
Day 3 of 100 days of writing consecutively.
Tinnitus is the always screaming noise I can hear in my head regardless of where I am at or what I am doing
The sound for each person is different for all who experience this condition. Mine is a constant tone of what I describe as approximately 1400 Hz no matter the time day or night and what I am doing.
1400 Hz Sine Wave Sound Frequency Tone
The thief is what I call it. It robs me of sleep, creativity, focus and time but even amongst those things and the mind games it plays with me I am able to adapt. That is the will power and drive of human beings.
I have had it for nearly 25 years of my adult life and have tried many things to manage it as there is no known cure or silencing of it. The struggle is very real to focus each day on tasks and in conversations as it’s always there robbing my attention and focus.
There are times that the tone will drastically increase further exacerbating the issue. Oftentimes I keep some kind of other noise, focus music, brown noise, sounds of nature to mask the sound. You can run but you can’t hide from it. It’s still there. It will cause terrible migraine headaches that only sleep can suppress if you can get to sleep and stay asleep to suppress the headache.
I have stopped consuming caffeine for periods of time trying to figure out some relief and no dice. I still drink coffee and tea. I would give up both in a heartbeat if it would help. I haven’t seen any difference in changing diet, using hearing aids or cognitive behavioural therapy.
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I am one of over 700 million people in the world that battle this everyday.
Tinnitus (Ringing in Ears): Causes & Treatment
Approximately 30% of US military veterans experience tinnitus as a result of their frequent exposure to loud noises.
Military & Veteran Statistics | Hearing Loss & Tinnitus
This causes and increases anxiety and depression for many of us with this condition. I don’t say this in a way for any sympathy. We all have our struggles in life; it is how we manage them that make the difference.
When I write I use focus music to drown it and to get hyper focused on the writing and tones being played in the Sony WH-1000XM5 Wireless Noise Cancelling Headphones | WH1000XM5/B .
It only masks it and it will compete with the sound from the headphones. The tricks it plays in your mind are very tiresome.
There is the balance of listening to something loud enough to hopefully drown it out and not doing any more hearing damage. I am not sure what it is as I already have hearing loss too.
Mindfulness is an uphill battle all the time with tinnitus. I am experimenting with different types of meditation to begin to hopefully have some mindfulness. That is another writing someday on how those are going and what it is doing for me.
I haven’t always had this condition and remember a time what it was like without it and I would give anything to experience that type of peace and quietness again.
How do you manage your tinnitus?
