Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Tinnitus about to drive me insane....anyone found something that helps?

Basically how it is/was explained to me ; signal gets 'scrambled' in some manner (trauma) and from that point forward the brain is constantly trying to interpet but can't.

Mine is in one side only (no longer have hearing there) trauma was a tumour and subsequent surgery.

Rocky is pretty near bang on from what I see. Fatigue is the worst for me ; more tired the louder the tin.which requires more 'focus' on my part to deal with it .....which leads to more fatigue.Sucks but comes uder the "$h*t happens" ....

Thanks folks....The trumpets are blasting away right now (worse than usual) and I got up to see if there was any response. Appreciate your concern and good to know I am not alone with this.

Will try some of Rocky's suggestions, as well as others. Hope reading Lee24's sniper post is not a contributing factor in all this or I'm sunk.

When I opened this post I was realy hopeing to read about whats helped you guys. Mine has gotten so I cant just tune it out lately and at times it realy drives me nuts.

yes, fatigue does turn up the volume so to speak!

Mine's been gradually getting worse for 5 or 10 years. Always there for the last 2 or 3 years, used to come and go.

I've had it for 10+ years, but in the last two months it has gotten much worse for some reason. On two occasions (the last day and a half right now) the buzzing is so bad you can hardly hear yourself think, much less sleep. Going on two days as of this morning...damn.

I've been dealing with it for the better part of 25yrs. Too many yrs of chainsaws,woodchippers,hvy construction noises,shooting/hunting,etc. Rocky and others have pretty much covered it all. I will add two other things that make it worse,hearing loss and head congestion(head colds,ear infections,sinus infections/congestion).For me it's allergies and irritants. When the noise(mine is like a high pitched electrical whine)starts to get louder I know the congestion is starting so start meds(across the counter or scrip what ever seems to work at the time). I recently started allergy shots.
My wife works for the WV School For The Deaf And Blind. I've known the audiologist there for many yrs. As she tells me,if there's a cure(operation)or med that helps she'd know or will know of it but to date,nothing. I asked her one time that if I were to go completely deaf if the noise would stop and she said no. She did let me borrow a hearing aid for a month and it really helped by letting normal noise over ride somewhat the tinnitus noise. I registered yrs ago with the Tinnitus Foundation and would periodically gets updates from them but haven't for YRS now.
Guess that's about all I can add other than when it seems to get so bad that you don't know how much more you can take,just remember your not alone in your suffering.

You guys are talking me into this! I'm not kiddin' - bzzzzzzzzz.

I had some sinus? infection that went medieval and ended up rupturing my eardrums. Mild ringing before that due to shooting, artillery and whatnot. More annoying after that.


thankfully, the tinnitus is drowned out by the voices.

Much better now.

I used to work for a major hearing aid company but am NOT an audiologist or hearing professional. Having made that disclaimer - some folks do get relief by getting hearing aids.

If you've tried that in the past without success, go try again. The past few years have seem remarkable advances in circuits and programming.

Do some research and find an audiologist/hearing aid dealer who will let you trial the product. If it doesn't work, you've only lost some time!

Many OTC medications will make it worse such as Advil or cold / allergy meds. Try to ween off those if taking them.

Figure a childhood of near constant ear-infections, combined with pressured/ruptured ear drums, farm equipment (tractors, chain saws, mowers, combines, weedeaters, farm trucks, etc.), tons of shooting, USMC assisted firing ranges, explosions, more shooting after the Corps....

At 34, it's constant with the degree of severity intermittent. High frequencies are problematic, background noise is a HUGE problem.

I kind of look at it as a trade-off, though. My eye sight is absolutely sterling (20/15+; very close to 20/10, with a HIGH degree of acuity). So, I get schit for hearing as a balance.

I�ve had it for many years too! Same reasons as everyone else, shooting, heavy machinery, compressors, drilling rigs, etc�and as far as I know there isn�t much you can do about it. However you might be able to control how much it bothers you.

At the risk of getting laughed at, let me share this with you. I suffered with Tic Douloureux (Trigeminal Neuralgia) for many years. The pain was incredible and traumatizing. Medications only helped a little but they were mostly just mind numbing. To combat the pain and still be able to function, I worked at controlling my mind to ignore the pain. For lack of a better name, I called it my Zen thing. I would sit in a quiet dark spot and will my mind to ignore the pain. It took some practice but I was able to achieve moderate success doing that. Surgery at the Mayo Clinic finally alleviated the problem. Praise the Lord.

How this applies to Tinnitus is the same, and works for me. When the ringing in my ears gets to bothering me, I will do the Zen thing and will myself to ignore it. It takes some practice but it really helps if you can achieve it.

Good Luck too you!

Tinnitus is the hearing equilevant of phantom limb pain for amputees. There is no sensory impluse in a frequency range and so the brain makes up a sound. Regular heavy doses of niacin have helped friends of mine but it can make your skin feel like it is crawling until you (maybe) aclimate.

Recent research indicates that personalized music therapy where the music is digitally clipped in the frequency that you are damage can significantly reduce the tinnitus (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 107:1207-1210 (January 19))

I have it also from too much power tool noise. I haven't shot without ear plugs in years.

A friend who had tinnitus badly enough to go to the Shea Clinic in Memphis, spent $800 to find out that 60 mgs of Gingko Biloba taken twice daily gives some improvement in about 80% of the people who try it. He tried it - it didn't cure his problem but it helped him a ton. I don't have it nearly as badly as my friend but I tried it and it helped me. And I'll be a dime to a donut hole that the "Quietus" type treatments have a plain old GB component to them.

It's a cheap experiment (for us, not for my friend!). Get some GB and try it for a month.

Hearing aids didn't help the Tinnitus for me, although I do hear better with them. Unfortunately, it cost me $5,800 to find out that there are a lot of things I really don't want to hear.

Sinus congestion does make it worse, which has been a constant problem lately. Went to see an ENT and found that I have a tumor about the size of a walnut in my sinus cavity. Surgery scheduled this Fri.

I've got it to, I think it's a gun thing.
It being a brain thing, that explains why the cannabis works. Mine gets "better" after chiropractic adjustments. Sounds silly, but it helps.

My hearing has never been great and I can't remember a time when I didn't have tinnitus. I always just thought it was "normal" and learned to ignore it. It's always there, but I never think about it.

Yup. I can remember with extreme clarity the exact moment when I got mine, but not what it was like before then. I'm only exquisitely aware of it when the topic comes up - like now - or when it gets so bad I get debilitated by it.

The most recent event like that was six weeks ago at a wedding reception. Small room, lots of people all shouting to be heard above all the other people shouting, loud music and a few adult beverages. I got physically unable to remain and had to leave. Dizziness, nausea, violent headache, inability to understand speech, sensitivity to light - the whole shebang.

The cause? 1960; my Dad was enamored by the feeding of a then-new Browning Double Auto 12. In the midst of his playing with the feed, he also commented how sweet the trigger was. I knew he'd lost count but couldn't stop him. The muzzle was fortunately pointed perpendicular to me, but was only three feet away - in our living room. Ruined the front door and my ears. Only the door was replaceable. That house is long gone, the shotgun is long gone, Dad is long gone; the tea kettle in my head isn't.

Do you eat the horseradish or stuff it your ears?