It's early days yet, but I have stumbled on something which seems to help; for me at least.
My tinnitus mainly characterises as a high-frequency, constant tone. I set about trying to 'measure' the frequency by listening to a range of frequencies and comparing what I was actually hearing with the tinnitus - it turns out it's about 10.5 KHz if anyone is interested..!
To my surprise, I realised that after listening to the signal for 20 secs or so, the phantom tone waall but gone, certainly much less. It came back after ten or fifteen minutes, so I tried again. Same result.
Armed with this, I found a 'signal generator' app for my Andoid phone and did some experimenting. I have found that by using the app to generate an approximate 10.5Khz tone, even at low level, I can reproduce the effect.
I would stress, this is NOT a cure, but it certainly does help me. It works at least well enough to help me get to sleep.
It is early days. I have no idea if it will continue to work, or if there will be any long-term effects, good or bad. I will report back here in a few weeks ! Fingers crossed...
Warning... if you try it, it's at your own risk. Start off with low volume level; else you may damage your phone / hearing / sanity / relationship with your dog. Not necessarily in that order.
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PanPilot
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Interesting ! I discovered that plugging my Oasis sound generator into two large speakers on White Noise mode completly masked my Hyperacusis in my right ear. So astonished I keep the machine on all night long which also distracts my Tinnitus but I know it is only distraction therapy . It is interesting but I would be carefull with your experiment as Tinnitus has awful consequences when it is out of control; On the other hand, if it works for you that's great.
Here we are, day four, and so far so good, it still seems to work. I keep my mobile beside me when I go to bed, and trigger the app when I'm about ready to attempt dropping off. Low level (about 25% volume on my Samsung) for 20 seconds or so is enough, although I may have to do it two or three times in a 15 minute period. My wife laughs - it looks like the doctor on Star Trek waving his medical tricorder around, apparently! I'm sure the neurologists and psychologists would have a field day.
In my case, this isn't distraction therapy - I know all about that, as I have used my bedside radio to help with my hum and hiss for several years now. The constant-tone tinnitus has only started recently. It would certainly make a good torture weapon...
I wish you well with your experiments with sound, I'm in the habituation phase with Tinnitus and it no longer troubles me even when appearing loud. My distracting therapy completly blanks my Hyperacusis all night long and get sound sleep . Furthermore, there is a big difference between two large speakers on a Oasis sound generator to that of a small radio. However,I recognize the positive and bold attempt to do something about your Tinnitus noise and get temporary relief from the hidious noise. Should you consider distraction therapy with your sound machine bear in mind a white noise setting all night introduces a second back ground noise with large stereo noise is very soothing .
Keep me posted on your experiment, its great to get moments of silence but must be annoying to hear it back again.
Hi PanPilot. This effect is quite well known. I've experienced it myself when I was playing around with audio files. Normally the effect only lasts a couple of minutes at most though so if you're getting 10 to 15 minutes you're doing really well. Many people also find their tinnitus has disappeared when they step out of the shower. The white noise sound of the shower has had the same effect. I seem to remember there is a commercial software available which uses something along these lines. It's called Tinnitus Tamer. It plays a series of tones which you can tune to suit your own tinnitus frequency. Like I said, it sort of worked for me but the effect was only for a minute or so, so I didn't keep up with it.
John
The experts are actually looking into this. I read about it a couple of months ago . By recreating the noise we hear and playing it back, our brains learn to ignore it . I haven't tried this but it looks promising
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