Who here has Tinnitus, how are you managing?

At this time, there is no known "cure". There is only management of the symptoms. Some people have irregular heart beats, and some of those get severe anxiety if they concentrate on the heart beats, even though doctors confirm their specific irregularity is not harmful. Others dont even notice it.
Tinnitus is similar. If you have it, manage it. All individuals will need to find their own ways of managing it. There is no one way fits all. As mentioned, some notice drinking coffee or diuretics make it worse. Others drown it out with noise. I know I need some background noise to keep mine managed. When I get to the desert areas and there is literally no noise around, my ears ring like crazy. I have to turn on a stereo or something to occupy my mind, keeping attention away from the tinnitus.
I too have hearing aids. A couple different configurations of them for wearing headphones or not. They can clear up speech when in conversation, but they also can be un-nerving when driving. That's my own issue, not everyone else has that same issue with hearing aids. Hearing aids, real hearing aids, are not amplifiers. They are not supposed to just up the volume, they are supposed to clean up the input sound. Again, in some cases, that works, or works well enough to get one by. But in other cases, when there is no speech coming in, the hearing aids can bring a clarity to certain sounds around yourself that even without tinnitus would not be normal. This can cause issues from mild anxiety to confusion or even disorient a person in some cases.
If you ever want to try an experiment for you manual transmission guys, cover your tachometer, then put in ear plugs and headphones with music. Then try to drive. Some may have already done this and had no issues, though I'd need proof. But most will miss more shifts than they try to make. Our ears and the hearing they grant us, is a powerful gift. Once we loose the hearing, we enter a whole new world of trying to learn how to cope in life all over again.

 

Actually the noise is coming from the brain from hearing loss. Xanax helps calm the brain which calms down the ringing. My wife has had it for years and has been on Xanax for years.

 

I never heard of before until recently a buddy of mine was telling me he has it. I feel fortunate because I've been around loud equipment all my life. My trouble is a pinched nerve but I dunno what would be worse though. Hell I'd almost trade my pinched nerve for tinnitus if it meant I could roll out the bunk without first having to down a handful of Tylenol and ibuprofens every day.

 

Not one to have myself on meds but if it doesn’t have a few pages of side effects, I might look into it.

Thanks

 

The old clich'e "the grass is always greener on the other side" comes to mind. Both are terrible things to deal with. I just wish I could take tylenol or advil and get the ringing to stop.

 

Well Tylenol and ibuprofen helps ease some pain but it never really all goes away and you have to eat more of them thru out the day. Getting old sucks. 3 or 4 years ago I never really thought about having good health, just took it for granted. Things could be a helluva lot worse I guess.

 

You try Aleve?

Lot of people I know swear by it, even my sister who is a physical therapist.

 

No, never have. I'll give it a try.

 

My sister says you have to give it a day to start feeling the effectiveness. 1 pill every 12 hours, after about 24-36 hours you start to feel the relief. I use it when I throw my back out setting up the loading ramps.

 

Actually Aleve and ibuprofen can make it worse if taken to much of it and taken for long term.