The bugs in my head (tinnitus)

[Chimerix]

In MPV's promo post for Superbleck featuring Summer, someone mentioned the sound of the bugs. It's something I've noticed in, well, virtually all MPV videos, which is just a product of the environment.

What's annoying is that they almost exactly match the sound that I hear inside my head at all times. The pitch of the ones inside my head is just a little higher, but otherwise, it's the same noise. Yep, tinnitus. It's weird because, while I watch an MPV video, I don't notice the bugs very much, it's easy to tune them out. But as soon as I am done, I am MUCH more aware of the incessant droning between my ears.

I was diagnosed less than a year ago, but honestly, I don't know how long before that it started. I didn't realize it until my boo and I were watching TV one night, and I complained that the bugs sure were being loud. She looked at me with a puzzled expression and asked "What bugs?"

Anyway, if any of you have ever wondered what tinnitus sounds like, there's one answer!

[dlodoski]

I have experienced tinnitus for about 10 years now. It peaks during periods of high stress and/or elevated blood pressure.

A friend of mine, who had a much longer career in audio than I did, once described it as the sensation you experience when underwater. I had never related it that way, but he's right. At least it's a way to describe the ringing/buzzing/metallic/tingly sensation.

I have learned to live with it - especially with the knowledge that (hopefully) when I finally settle down into a more mundane situation, it will abate.

I don't have a medical background, but I do think that for most men (women are blissfully immune from this sort of thing for the most part), the severity of tinnitus is related to the same sorts of things that aggravate permanent hearing loss. It's probably genetic to a certain extent as well.

William Shatner is actually responsible for putting a popular face on tinnitus, although his is unusual in that it traces to a specific event on the set of the Star Trek TV series (a 'bomb' went off very close to his head).

[Fred588]

See:

http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-cond ... c-20180349

[Duncan Edwards]

Anyway, if any of you have ever wondered what tinnitus sounds like, there's one answer!

Having spent my entire life in Middle Tennessee I may have had tinnitus for years and been unable to tell. From April until late October it always sounds like that.

Visitors always talk about the bug problem but of course the natives are used to it. I'm sitting on the couch watching things land on my laptop screen as I type this. Actress Katy Segal lived here for several years before retreating back to SoCal. She listed bugs as one reason why.

[QuicksandMania]

Mine sounds more like a high-pitched ringing around the clock. Most likely this started on the farm as a boy spending hours weekly around loud farm and workshop machinery working with my father. My father's hearing now in old age is totally shot. Mine is reduced noticeably and getting worse with age.

[Chimerix]

Anyway, if any of you have ever wondered what tinnitus sounds like, there's one answer!

Having spent my entire life in Middle Tennessee I may have had tinnitus for years and been unable to tell. From April until late October it always sounds like that.

Visitors always talk about the bug problem but of course the natives are used to it. I'm sitting on the couch watching things land on my laptop screen as I type this. Actress Katy Segal lived here for several years before retreating back to SoCal. She listed bugs as one reason why.

Being a Louisiana boy, I grew up with the insects singing me to sleep on warm summer nights. It never started bothering me until recently, when I realized that it's moved inside my head.

It's a strange thing. 20% of the population has tinnitus, but there is no treatment. Despite what Fred said, none of my research showed a difference between men and women, but even if there were, I'm on the wrong side of the fence for it to matter

There are, of course, all manner of "not real science" claims for cures. Including acupuncture. I've had some minor success using acupuncture on physical ailments (tendonitis in particular). It's certainly worth a try!

[Chimerix]

Mine sounds more like a high-pitched ringing around the clock. Most likely this started on the farm as a boy spending hours weekly around loud farm and workshop machinery working with my father. My father's hearing now in old age is totally shot. Mine is reduced noticeably and getting worse with age.

I blame rock and roll. Went to many, many concerts. Always reveled in the volume, laughed at how my ears rang for days afterwards.

[Fred588]

I thin k it was Dave who cited a gender factor and not me but that does agree with what you will find at the Mayo Clinic page I referred to.

Speculatively, I would suggest that it be remembered that sensory PERCEPTION is the brain's interpretation of input, in this case presumably coming from the ear or ears. This should mean that while something to do with the ear itself MAY be involved (and be thus amenable to treatment) the symptom could be arising in the sensory cortex or in any other part of the very complex system of sensory perception. For example, there is a part of the brain that regulates how much we pay attention to certain input. This is why, for example, people who live on cow ranches will report they do not smell the cows until someone brings up the subject. If the symptom arises from anywhere other than the ears then treatments involving the ears will do nothing, except perhaps lighten one's wallet.

Anyway, if any of you have ever wondered what tinnitus sounds like, there's one answer!

Having spent my entire life in Middle Tennessee I may have had tinnitus for years and been unable to tell. From April until late October it always sounds like that.

Visitors always talk about the bug problem but of course the natives are used to it. I'm sitting on the couch watching things land on my laptop screen as I type this. Actress Katy Segal lived here for several years before retreating back to SoCal. She listed bugs as one reason why.

Being a Louisiana boy, I grew up with the insects singing me to sleep on warm summer nights. It never started bothering me until recently, when I realized that it's moved inside my head.

It's a strange thing. 20% of the population has tinnitus, but there is no treatment. Despite what Fred said, none of my research showed a difference between men and women, but even if there were, I'm on the wrong side of the fence for it to matter

There are, of course, all manner of "not real science" claims for cures. Including acupuncture. I've had some minor success using acupuncture on physical ailments (tendonitis in particular). It's certainly worth a try!

[Mynock]

I'm thankful mine is only noticeable when it's really quiet out. A little white noise like a fan or the hum from my aquarium drowns it out for me.
You ride right? I found that loud pipes and/or wind noise at high speeds are something that aggravates it for me.

[Chimerix]

Speculatively, I would suggest that it be remembered that sensory PERCEPTION is the brain's interpretation of input, in this case presumably coming from the ear or ears. This should mean that while something to do with the ear itself MAY be involved (and be thus amenable to treatment) the symptom could be arising in the sensory cortex or in any other part of the very complex system of sensory perception. For example, there is a part of the brain that regulates how much we pay attention to certain input. This is why, for example, people who live on cow ranches will report they do not smell the cows until someone brings up the subject. If the symptom arises from anywhere other than the ears then treatments involving the ears will do nothing, except perhaps lighten one's wallet.

The working theory, as I've gleaned it from numerous available sources, seems to be that the brain does not like an absence of stimuli. So, if your hearing is damaged and you no longer are receiving that stimulus, or at least not enough of it, the brain compensates by fabricating a sound. There are other factors which can exacerbate tinnitus, including stress, but it is overwhelmingly tied to hearing loss. The brain compensates, of you want to call it that, by introducing perceived sound.

If there's a name for the overall phenomenon, I've not found it yet, but it seems to me that this is akin to people who have lost limbs having phantom sensations, or people who have gone blind "seeing" phantom colors. I have some nerve damage that rendered part of my neck and throat paralyzed. That area is numb, I can't feel any tactile sensation when I touch it, but sometimes it causes me pain.

Brains are funny things.