Couldn’t you sleep due to that irritating and unremitting buzzing in your ears? Are you trying to read a book but couldn’t even grasp its content due to lack of concentration? Don’t you just hate the feeling of having to go home after a long and tired day, only to realize it is more exhausting to stay in a place where silence takes place? Even libraries are now off limits?! This is really infuriating!
People would normally think that life is such a struggle, but it really isn’t life itself that makes it difficult and such a struggle. It is how you actually perceive life. If people would just complain about their flaws, downfalls, pain or miseries, it is because they are dwelling too much on the negative side of life.
In the case of tinnitus patients, the vast majority are having a hard time coping because they dwell too much on the sound of tinnitus instead of being grateful that they actually have ears. They would normally think of tinnitus as an annoying sound rather than accept that it is part of their daily life. They would feel hopeless because there is no cure, rather than feel lucky that there are treatments to reduce the pain of having to endure that nuisance.
There are several treatments for tinnitus which lessens the incessant tinnitus sound.
But because we are dealing with annoying sounds, one of the established treatments is the sound therapy. With sound therapy, the objective isn’t to get rid of tinnitus but to learn to get used to it and reduce the sound of tinnitus through other sounds.
Every tinnitus patient has different severity in terms of occurrence and though specialists are following the same principles of the established treatment protocols (sound therapy, relaxation therapy, cognitive-behavioral therapy, etc.), the effectiveness of each treatment would still vary depending on the case.
There are people who couldn’t handle the severity of tinnitus and in fact, one was reported to have stabbed himself to death last November 2011 for not being able to sleep. He was a rock band fan and his name was Robert McIndoe. Read Tinnitus of Then Crooked Vultures Fan Robert McIndoe led to Suicide: NHS Condemned
From what happened, it was an eye-opener for music artists to start using ear plugs because one of the causes of tinnitus is the exposure to loud noises. For this reason, tinnitus is an occupational hazard to artists like Noel Gallagher from Oasis, Coldplay’s Chris Martin, Will.I.Am from Black Eyed Peas, Embrace’s Danny Mcnamara and even Beethoven complained, “”my ears whistle and buzz all day and night.”
Tinnitus is most noticeable in a quiet environment which is why most people suffer from the sound of it during their sleep. For this matter, while they’re trying to sleep. Sound therapy uses sound sources to dominate tinnitus.
Below are the sound sources used for therapy:
In the ear devices (ITE)
- Sound generators – these devices mask the tinnitus sound which is why it is also known or called as “maskers.” Frequencies are typically 100-8000 Hz which provides quite a number of benefits for tinnitus patients.
- Combination instruments – these combine both hearing aid and sound generator in one piece of wearable unit.
Tabletop sound machines
These are sound machines that play environment sounds like rain, wind, ocean waves or waterfalls. You can find an equipment with auxiliary devices or input jack for headphones.
CD and DVD
There are definitely recordings of nature and environmental sounds (ocean waves, rainforest, summer night) that are available in stores.
You may not totally get rid of your ringing ears but you can learn to live with it and make your life less miserable.