Hearing aids not recommended

[SueX]

So...I have pulsatile tinnitus, eustachian tube dysfunction - a common story here I guess! Anyway the ENT has said I do NOT need hearing aids. I thought hearing aids always helped with tinnitus. What am I missing? I do have one sided hearing loss though it's not too bad.

[happyrosie1]

One couldn’t say that hearing aids ALWAYS help with tinnitus. I believe that most people find that, as the real world is clearer, the phantom world of tinnitus fades a bit into the background.

Lots more information on the website of the charity Tinnitus UK.

[SueX in reply to happyrosie1]

Thanks that's helpful.

[daverussell]

Hearing aids do help with masking, but they take time to adjust. You can become too dependent on hearing aids, and when not wearing them. I had the same battle with my audiologist and pursued them as I do have some hearing loss.I upgraded my hearing aids to include masking feature, but I became too dependent on it. On balance, I find living with Tinnitus easier than running away from it. This includes actively listening to it in quiet moments.

If I need to mask my tinnitus I wear headphones. The best way is to go for a walk and listen to the background noise including nature of traffic.

[SueX in reply to daverussell]

Hello - that's very interesting. I had been told that you can become overdependent upon hearing aids but I guess it does depend on how much hearing loss goes alongside the T. I have been working with a psychologist, as recommended by the ENT doctor I saw, who is trying to teach me to not run away from Tinnitus. Brilliant that you have mastered that. When you say you wear heaphones if you need to mask the T, what kind of headphones? Do you mean noise cancelling ones (but that i assume would make the T worse), or headphones so you listen to music and that of course distracts for a while?

[daverussell in reply to SueX]

Yes, I use noise cancelling to listen to music if I'm working. I'm a software developer which means I tend to avoid interacting with people. They help in many respects, but again I try to avoid becoming dependent on them.I find listening Tinnitus and reasoning about it, is probably the best coping mechanism. When I say reasoning, I mean it just noise.

[SueX in reply to daverussell]

I love your approach to T. I have tried to say to myself htat it's just noise...but then it changes in frequency or intensity for me, or one ear does something different to the other. And that scares me. I've taken a lot from what you say and I'm going to try some of those things - I really like the notion of 'accepting' the T as being there but if/when it does get overwhelming to put yourself in an environment with noise around to give some temporary relief.

[Kellythecat-74 in reply to SueX]

I aways use head phones while I sleep .Otherwise all I can hear is the T so I listen to talk programs. Mostly during the day I just let T do what it does and keep myself busy and distracted.

[Hel_C]

I would suggest talking to an audiologist about the hearing loss and whether they consider you need to wear hearing aids, I wear them and do not find that they have a huge impact on my tinnitus.

[Tal-r789T]

I have hearing loss. Without HA I cannot hold conversations as I can't hear what is being said. I am told my T is a side effect of the loss of my hearing. Without HA my T becomes louder - this affects my ability not to focus on the T. Before I had ha the T became very loud and I became very anxious.Ha are not designed to be a remedy to T, but to deal with hearing loss. Modern devices have maskers, but they never worked for me other than the radio and mine don't include this functionality, and are very individual in effectiveness.

[Wimple]

I have pulsatile tinnitus too and have just started wearing hearing aids. Initially I found it masked it well but now I’m getting more used to them it’s coming back - or to put it another way I’m becoming aware of it again. I suspect everyone’s experience is unique.

[Beesmac]

I have severe hearing loss so need to wear hearing aids however they do not help with my tinnitus. My tinnitus will always try to rise above any external sounds. If I’m having a bad day I take my hearing aids out and sit in a quiet room. I avoid noisy environments whenever possible. I think we are all different. I lost my hearing in my right ear over night. I think I could cope better with almost total deafness far more than having to endure my musical ear syndrome !!

[MobilePhoneandStress]

NHS supplied my hearing aids. Theory is they re-train your brain to listen to the hearing aid's white noise, not the tinnitus. They help when it's quiet in my study, which is otherwise screaming pulsing pressure and an electricity sub station buzzing at 3 streams.

It's shocking we're all suffering, and nobody can diagnose or resolve it. I'm convinced it's radio frequency damage from electrical devices eg mobile phones.

[SueX in reply to MobilePhoneandStress]

It's still odd though isn't it - I mean how does the brain learn to 'accept' white noise from a hearing aid but not the actual Tinnitus itself. Yes my study is an electricity sub station too! It's the changing frequency and intensity that freaks me out!

[Kellythecat-74 in reply to MobilePhoneandStress]

I think you are right. My T always gets worse after a session on this home computer.

[happyrosie1 in reply to MobilePhoneandStress]

I’ve had T for 60 years and this was certainly before mobile phones, and there wasn’t much radio frequency about in the 1960’s.

[D-w-L2023]

From the comments on this and other threads it seems that HA help some and not others. I've been wearing Phonak (NHS) aids for over a year and my tinnitus has not changed. I've tried various settings on the app but no change. I previously had some very expensive ones from Amplifon that I really didn't get on with. The sound was dreadful and despite being adjusted several times by Amplifon I gave them back during the free trial.

[RP1944]

Hi Sue, I have tinnitus and my hearing aids to seem to help block it out. It’s always worse when I take them out. Best wishes.x

[PABLR]

It seems odd to me that you can become too dependent on hearing aids. If they're helping you to hear better, well isn't that what they're for? I suspect if your ENT says you don't need hearing aids and you're only at all deaf on one side, then hearing aids probably won't help you to mask the tinnitus as your own hearing is already doing that to some extent. I would ask the question of your ENT. Maybe you can send a message to him or her?

[SueX in reply to PABLR]

Thank you, very helful. Yes I do need a bit more information from the ENT so will seek that out.

[BlackSwamper]

I have found the hearing aids to be helpful with my tinnitus up to a point. They are especially useful when outdoors walking—-the multiple sound sources tend to take my mind off the ringing/whooshing/thumping sounds. The hearing aids were a necessity as I have asymmetric hearing loss, with my right ear having only about 20% left and my left 85%. That makes it challenging to achieve a balance between my right and left ears (my upper range is essentially gone in my right ear, so the HA will feed back if not fully inserted). The biggest negative is that the tinnitus can be much more intrusive when I remove my HA’s. I usually remove them an hour and a half before bedtime to get myself habituated to the increased perception of tinnitus that results.

[cheapo]

From what I know, hearing aids may help with any tinnitus due to allowing you to hear more outside sounds OVER the tinnitus, so you're able to focus more on the extra sounds.

[Tinker2015]

I have suffered Tinnitus since 2010 eventually went into the background hardly noticed it then last summer started with a new noise in my right ear started of quiet then it would raise in volume it was awful thought my head was going to explode. Was referred to Ent. I had balance issues too. I saw him he referred me to audiologist for tinnitus therapy at the time when it started really loud I was very anxious so it got worse then decided to stop worrying about it and I to,d myself get used to it it’s not going anywhere infact I used to listen to it at night falling asleep the audiologist told me that I had congestion which was probably causing it as my hearing had changed. The only time it goes loud is when I get worked up about something it doesn’t stop me sleeping I just get on with my life it will always be around but I know it won’t go away but you can eventually let it go into the back of your mind if that’s the correct phrase. It’s coming from the brain it knows I got hearing problems so it’s letting me know.

[cheapo]

Something I have both read about and been told by several audiologists is that in many people T can become exaggerated by emotion. The best way to explain that is that your subconscious kind of see sthe T as a threat, and even as something very near to you physically. This then causes your nervous system to want to listen harder, but as there is not necessarily anything there, it listens harder still. So it becomes a viscious circle. About 10 years ago I tried to make a copy of my tinnitus sound using a free program called Audacity. It'a a brilliant piece of software and free to download. The result of several weeks of messing about was uploaded to freesound.org

freesound.org/people/hear-n...

I alsoput together a "pack" of sounds that could possible help others to relax.

freesound.org/people/hear-n...

Some of them are quite short, but many "players" can loop a file so it's non stop.

[MobilePhoneandStress]

T + pressure always worse after pc work ? Me too. Our eyes + brains are all getting ** by visual digital and volume of data overload. Plus relentless electro radio frequency attacks from everywhere around us. What's it all doing to us?