It's been driving me nuts now for as long as I can remember - and its defiantly getting worse. Tinnitus is the 'umbrella' term for this, but as far as I can find out that just refers to the symptoms - not the cause.

I short what I experience is 24/7 noise in my head (doesn’t feel like its in my ears) the various noises constantly 'shift' there levels and intensity making it very difficult to ignore. At any one time it feels like at least half a dozen tones are present.

Quite often I will get what I call 'spikes' from no where loud high pitched short very annoying bursts, they wake me up all the time, can be very off-putting if I’m concentrating.

Reading this, some may think I’m going prematurely deaf - I can assure that is very much not the case, my hearing is very good indeed - in fact my last hearing test was perfect, zeros across the top of the chart, I heard every single tone. The audiologist said that was rare among children let alone me (aged 26) - and that technically he could not test my hearing as it may be possible for me to hear even more than his tests permit!

So I’m just sorta throwing this one out there hoping a few of you may come back your personal experiences.

p.s. Lighthearted remarks concerning my mental state also welcome, as that seems to be a matter of option among people who know me personally!

Peace!!!!!

I get a rining in my ears occasionaly. It will start faint, get louder and only last about a few seconds.

I was also a Machine Gunner in the Marine Corps, so that could explain a lot also.

I've hit my head more thab a few times! but nothing like firing machine guns, what makes your ringing come and go and mine perminant!! grrrr

might want to look up tinnitis (or is it tinitis) and see if that might be the problem.

That must be annoying for you.

Have you had your ears checked out?

Same as Jackcash im also ex military however i have this 24/7.

I put it down to the amount of Rifle, Machine gun, Grenade, Mortar and Launcher fire i have done in my career.

Yes you are issued with hearing protection but the problem was whilst wearing it you could then not hear any orders being shouted over the battle by your Section or Platoon commander. Most lads would rip them out after 5 mins. Bit of a catch 22 im still paying the price for

Originally posted by JackCash
That must be annoying for you.

Have you had your ears checked out?

Yeah a number of times - even got sent to a 'hearing theropist!' short of a brain scan thats as far as the NHS take it!

Its prob equally annoying for the doctors!

I experience ringing in the ears also. I have responded on other threads about this as well. I personally feel that it has something to do with preparation in some form.


Jack of Blades, I enjoyed the thread you linked, and marked it as a favorite to look at after work.

Edit to add:
Been checked out by the doctor and have no tinitus and my hearing is excellent especially in the higher decibals.

[edit on 19-3-2007 by interestedalways]

I have the same thing. Constant ringing in the ears 24/7. The intensity definitely varies, but it's always there. At first I thought it was all those concerts I've been to, but as the original poster stated, when I had the complete hearing test done, I passed resoundingly. At that point I was "officially" diagnosed with tinnitus. I thoroughly expected some loss due to so much high volume exposure etc., but didn't turn out to be the case.

Over the years, I've learned to tune most of it out, but there are times when it's just exasperating and occasionally painful. No rhyme or reason, just happens.

Now_Then, I have ringing in my ears almost daily, typically when I'm inside but not always...

I also have perfect hearing, been to the doctor before and I have no problems in that department.

I probably do have it most of the time, but same as surfinguru I can tune it out most of the time...


bs

Originally posted by Now_Then
I've hit my head more thab a few times! but nothing like firing machine guns, what makes your ringing come and go and mine perminant!! grrrr

I have a constant ringing but somehow seem to be able to control it. It no longer annoys me at all. Most of the time I don't even realize it is happening.

I really experience an intensification of the ringing when I am meditating. It gets extremely loud but I am also able to ignore it. What I mean is that it does not disturb the meditation at all.

If you are looking for medical explanations then you already have it with your first assumption. However, if you are looking more for the unconventional reason then you will come across it while exploring the world of meditation and spirituality. If you really want to go way off of the charts of the norm (well, the norm according to those that do not believe) then you may want to look into supernatural contact or non-terrestrial contact.

Those are pretty much all of the causes I have come across. Ultimately it will be up to you to figure it out. I too have perfect, or even a little above normal, hearing. Maybe that has something to do with it. Maybe while I am meditating I am eliminating all of the distractions that help to minimize the ringing during my normal waking hours. Maybe...

I don't get ringing, but sometimes when I hear a bird chirp, instead of hearing a high tone, I hear a basslike thumping instead.

This is usualy when I wake up in the morning and my sleep dokter said that its normal for me because my blood pressure drops to 100/55 and heartrate to 30-50 bpm (depending on my dreamstate) when I'm in bed, the thumping sound instead of high tones is because even my hearing organ is in such a relaxed state that my eardrums aren't tensed somehow (didn't even know that was possible).

I got a sleep dokter because I sometimes (4 or 5 times a year or so) goto bed, get into a lucid dreamstate (which I seem to have mastered), then instead of continueing dreaming, waking up or getting into the normal dream cycle, I move into full REM and get stuck in there untill 12 to 18 hours later, I don't even wake up if someone tries to shake me awake, this is usualy paired with dehydration based splitting and pounding headaches that last till noon, you know those kinds of headaches where you can actualy feel and hear your brain mudge left and right when you tilt your head left and right.

Why I say this is that I thought the cause of most hearing of hums, thumps and ringing was either caused by high bloodpressure or diabetics. The dokter told me that hums and ringing is indeed usualy caused by bloodpressure or diabetics but that the replacement of high pitched sounds with thumps, while normaly your hearing is 100%, is caused by extreme low blood pressure and a highly relaxed state of every muscle and system in your body.

I haven't been diagnosed by a doctor but I believe I have tinitus resulting from a concert two years ago. I walked out of that place deaf in my right ear for several days.

Now I just have a constant ringing and a little hearing loss in my right ear. It's hard to focus on voices when there's a lot of background noise which means I'm really bad on the phone if my environment isn't quiet.

I've read ginkgo helps.

This is really good guys, I'm reading everything here with TONNES of interest.

CHEERS!!!

Originally posted by apc
Now I just have a constant ringing and a little hearing loss in my right ear. It's hard to focus on voices when there's a lot of background noise which means I'm really bad on the phone if my environment isn't quiet.

Yeah know what you mean about being on the phone and background noise - I worked in a big busy callcentre for a while, drove me totally nuts

[edit on 19/3/2007 by Now_Then]

I hear ringing when there's a cathode ray tube monitor or TV on somewhere near me... but I guess that's more of a high-pitched squeal... is the ringing much different from that sound? (I'm assuming most people can hear that CRT squeal)

Originally posted by Harlowe JNkinz
I hear ringing when there's a cathode ray tube monitor or TV on somewhere near me... but I guess that's more of a high-pitched squeal... is the ringing much different from that sound? (I'm assuming most people can hear that CRT squeal)

If most people experiance this the same way I do there are a number of tones at any one time, a very common one is that CRT squeal tho - I find that one to be one of the more comfortable ones as it is fairly constant hence eaiser to tune out.

Not most people, just the ones that can hear high enough tones.

Only way to know how well and how high you really hear is by having your ears checked professionaly imho.

Or if you have a speaker system that has the ability to play high tones correctly (and especialy doesn't cut them of) just pass some sin waves trough them starting at 20hz up to 30khz and see how high you can hear. Most people can hear up to 20khz.