I've got a strong pulsatile tinnitus¹, which means I can hear a strong whooshing sound (like wind) matched to the rhythm of my heartbeat. It's in my right ear and lasts all day, all night, day in and day out for the last three or four years. When I tell people about it, I like to compare it to the Edgar Allan Poe story "The Tell-Tale Heart," where the narrator hears the heartbeat of a person he murdered coming from beneath the floorboards, and it grows louder and louder. Then I laugh it off and say "at least I'm not that crazy!"
Jokes aside, my tinnitus used to bother me horribly. It used to be all I could focus on, not just because it's loud and distracting at times, but because it triggered a severe case of health anxiety². I went through my regular GP, who referred me to an otolaryngologist and audiologist; that person found nothing physically wrong with my ear (which is usually the case for tinnitus) and referred me for an MRI; the MRI threw a big wrench in the works by discovering a brain tumor which turned out to be benign – a simple pituitary tumor which I just need to keep an eye on every few years. But again, still not the cause of the tinnitus.
Anyway, long story short, no cause was ever found for me suddenly developing this pulsatile tinnitus nearly overnight. It took a couple months to adapt to the new, constant sound in my ear, but I hardly notice it anymore unless I'm straining to hear something³. When I'm focusing on something like playing a video game, watching tv or listening to an audiobook, I don't notice the tinnitus at all. If the sound really starts to bug me, I've saved some brown noise tracks on YouTube that are particularly effective at drowning out the frequency of the whooshing sound.
¹ I also have the "regular", high-pitched whistling tinnitus, but I've had that most of my life.
² I've always had a health anxiety, learned behavior from my mother. This post makes me sound like a basket case, but I promise I'm a fully functional adult and these ailments I'm describing are trifles at the moment!
³ My wife and I have started to get into birding, so it does interfere a bit with my ability to hear some birds. More specifically, it interferes with my ability to locate where they are, I can't quite figure out if they're above me or behind me sometimes.
Jokes aside, my tinnitus used to bother me horribly. It used to be all I could focus on, not just because it's loud and distracting at times, but because it triggered a severe case of health anxiety². I went through my regular GP, who referred me to an otolaryngologist and audiologist; that person found nothing physically wrong with my ear (which is usually the case for tinnitus) and referred me for an MRI; the MRI threw a big wrench in the works by discovering a brain tumor which turned out to be benign – a simple pituitary tumor which I just need to keep an eye on every few years. But again, still not the cause of the tinnitus.
Anyway, long story short, no cause was ever found for me suddenly developing this pulsatile tinnitus nearly overnight. It took a couple months to adapt to the new, constant sound in my ear, but I hardly notice it anymore unless I'm straining to hear something³. When I'm focusing on something like playing a video game, watching tv or listening to an audiobook, I don't notice the tinnitus at all. If the sound really starts to bug me, I've saved some brown noise tracks on YouTube that are particularly effective at drowning out the frequency of the whooshing sound.
¹ I also have the "regular", high-pitched whistling tinnitus, but I've had that most of my life.
² I've always had a health anxiety, learned behavior from my mother. This post makes me sound like a basket case, but I promise I'm a fully functional adult and these ailments I'm describing are trifles at the moment!
³ My wife and I have started to get into birding, so it does interfere a bit with my ability to hear some birds. More specifically, it interferes with my ability to locate where they are, I can't quite figure out if they're above me or behind me sometimes.