Tinnitus just doesn't sound like Santa's sleighbells!

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Mine is like yours Greyduster , and I find stress makes it worse.

I've had tinnitus for about 20 years. I was aware of it one morning on waking and it sounded like the hum or the droning noise of a nearby factory - some sort of industry or roadworks - and I honestly thought the noise was coming from outside, rather than
in my head.
It's become much louder over the years and I tend to play music during the day when I am at home, but I can't drown it out.
How I'd love to be able to return to the sound of silence. It really is intrusive.

I have it too, I sometimes lose it for a while but it’s fairly constant over the last year or so My daughter has had it for years I can only describe mine as a low metallic buzzy sound

oldmumnewgran. You have my sympathy, I have tinnitus in both ears, it drives me mad. I wish I had the ability to 'tune it out' but I can't it is constant. I have hearing aids purposely for tinnitus with added white noise so I hear the addition and my own orchestra all day. When I remove my HA's at night the tinnitus volume just goes up.

DD has it as the result of an accident with a motorcycle ridden by a boy straight at her on a path in her teens. She copes with it by distracting noises, eg. Ear buds with podcasts etc.

I have had it for years, a hissing noise in one ear and a hum in the other. Radio or television when I’m at home

Mine is like walking through a jungle, snakes hissing & crickets. My husband said that sounds relaxing 🙄 not at 5am its not.
Given an earpiece to wear from the tinnitus clinic, which is supposed to mask it. It does help a little.

Mine is constant too, high pitched ringing but I do block it out somehow, though when I read about it I can hear it, though if I wake in the night usually around 3-4 its very loud so I put an audio book on with an barbed in one ear and I fall asleep again.

Ear bud not a barb

I've had tinnitus for years. A hissing sound. I manage to block it out most of the time but I miss lying in bed listening to the rain on the windows.

I also hear a mechanical whirring sound with tinny musical overtones, mostly in the late afternoon and on and off all night. I only hear it in my own apartment. I thought it was one of the neighbors playing horrible music, called the building engineer to check what was doing this, and he came up and didn't hear anything. So I'm assuming it's tinnitus. (My hearing is otherwise good.)

I bought a little white noise machine online, very inexpensive and kind of fun to play with. It has about 16 different sounds. Some of them do drown out the unwanted noise at night.

Mine’s a pulsing high pitched whistle. Like others, I can forget it during the day when there’s noises around, but as soon as it goes quiet he’s back. It’s in tune with my heartbeat so can be really annoying.

I have no idea what silence sounds like, as I've had tinnitus for 20+ years. I have found that my hearing aids help reduce it to a certain extent, but having heard the word it's now blaring away! It's amazing what you can get used to living with!

Had it for decades. A high pitched whistle all on one high note. That I can live with, but in the past I have also had pulsatile tinnitus, absolutely horrible, you hear your heart beat pulsing in one ear with the volume of a pile driver. Thank goodness the episodes only lasted a month or so, got no sleep and exhausted.

Yep, had it too, for decades. Probably a product of being a bit of a rock chick back in the day, posing in front of speakers taller than me, and thinking a good gig is one where your ears feel like they’re stuffed with cotton wool afterwards. My bro in law was a keyboard player in one of the bands we hung out with, and he has it too. We used to say that you can stand on a hill in the middle of nowhere and all you can hear is your tinnitus. I just put the radio on if it bothers me at night. But it is a bit annoying if I am out in the middle of nowhere. It would be lovely to hear silence!

I have tinnitus in both ears and wear hearing aids to help with this. Mine is a high pitched whine a bit like the old noise playing with the testcard picture on b/w tv. It gets worse when I have attacks of vertigo. I have learned how to live with it as there is no cure sadly.

I've had it for a few years now and it can be a bit annoying if I want to sit in total silence. In fact, that's the only issue I have with it - not being able to hear absolutely nothing sometimes.

For me, it's like a continuous gust of wind, or an industrial fan constantly humming. At the same time, there's a high-pitched whine. I'm fortunate that I can ignore it. I hear it, I just treat it as background noise and ignore it. Easy when I'm concentrating on something (such as typing this reply), or listening to something like music or the television, or even reading a book. I don't hear it when there's background noise like traffic when walking about, or people chatting.

I realise it's different and difficult for other people who have it, but ignoring it is the only way I know how to live with it. Luckily it works most of the time and it never keeps me awake or disturbs my sleep. I do sympathise though with anyone who struggles with it as it is relentless.

That sounds really tough tinnitus can be exhausting, especially when it keeps you from sleeping. I’ve heard that some people find relief with soft background noise or white noise to mask the ringing. You might even try exploring different calming sounds on SoundButtonsPro.com to see if something helps ease it a bit.

Message deleted by Gransnet. Here's a link to our Talk guidelines.