Tinnitus - A Ringing in my Ears.
This site is about my personal journey with tinnitus, how I got it, the pain and suffering I went through initially after I got the ringing in my ears from a loud explosion in Sri Lanka in 1992 and how I now deal with it happily.
(Click here once to hear the sound I've got in my ears all the time (except when I'm sleeping) and turn your speakers up to ten. I'm not kidding)
You can understand how that noise could have easily turned me into a headcase...and why I needed to find ways to deal with this extreme noise. This site offers mostly free ways to do so.
The Journey: I've written this site as after 14 years of having extreme tinnitus I didn't think there was enough good information out there for people who have this intolerable ringing in their ears and ways to reduce the sound..
Or at least information written by someone who has extreme tinnitus and can offer ways to deal with it from a personal perspective. Please be strong as there is hope of a total cure for tinnitus in the coming years.
The creation of this site and the research I have done has being cathartic for me in the sense that I have managed to exorcise a number of bad habits I thought I had got rid of long ago.
Importantly it's brought me in contact with a range of new natural treatments and indeed new friends who also have tinnitus and have found their own ways of dealing with it like Canadian concert pianist Paul Tobey who has written "A Practical Guide to Tinnitus Free Living".
About Simon
My name is Simon Healy and you'll find information on this site that will offer you ways to not only relieve the ringing but in some cases permanently reduce it so you hardly notice it. I am the CEO of a non profit organisation that works primarily in Asia building and managing telecentre 'schools' for disadvantaged youth called www.OrphanIT.org
I'm also the managing director of an international Search Marketing firm called OutsourcingTo.us
Some of the key areas I've covered in this site are:
- What tinnitus is
- Tinnitus Cure - There IS Hope!
- How To Deal With Tinnitus When You First Get It
- Immediate Relief For The Ringing In Your Ears
- Longer Term Treatments For Tinnitus
- How I Got Tinnitus
- What Tinnitus Sounds Like
- How To Tell If You Have Tinnitus
- What Causes Tinnitus
- Tests For Tinnitus
- Tinnitus Prevention
- Tinnitus Treatments
- Mentally Dealing With Tinnitus
- Tinnitus Retraining
- Laser Treatments
- Hypnotherapy
- Herbal Treatments
- Vitamin Based Therapies
- Homeopathic Treatments
- Conventional Medicines
- Other Tinnitus Treatments
- Dealing With The Stress Of Tinnitus
- Getting Enough Deep Sleep
- The Importance Of Diet With Tinnitus
- What Causes Tinnitus\
- The Importance Of Exercise With Tinnitus
- Increasing Your Immunity System To Combat Tinnitus
- Tinnitus Associations
- Support Groups In Your Area
- Solutions to help you immediately deal with Tinnitus
- Ways to avoid getting it
- Solutions to help other loved ones you know deal with it..or deal with you
- The best solutions others have found in dealing with tinnitus
- What methods myself and others believe are not worth your time
- The latest news about complete tinnitus cures on the horizon
- Plus my monthly newsletter with this information compressed
LATEST NEWS: I'm currently working on a new service for tinnitus patients worldwide which is a personalised tinnitus masker and can be downloaded from the net. I plan on making it customizable for the different kinds of tinnitus sounds you or your friend/s have. Join the newsletter to stay up to date with this service. It'll be worth it.
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I am lucky enough to live in a rainforest jungle in Byron Bay in Australia (really) and the noise outside my house is a cacaphony of cicadas, crickets, dozens of birds and ocean waves crashing in all day and night.
I actually moved here because of my tinnitus in order to mask the sounds ....and it works like a dream. |
Unfortunately I'm not here for half the year so I created some masking tracks which i take away with me when I'm on assigment in Asia or wherever. I can play this on my computer, iPod or Cd player and it relaxes me immensely.
This is without doubt the most effective tinnitus treatment I've personally found after 14 years of searching and trialling:
Paul Tobey's simple and powerful tinnitus healing methods that can be used as soon as you download them........immediately and literally.
This is my number one recommendation for healing tinnitus. It's very similar to how I personally have found ways to deal with my extreme tinnitus but Paul has gone one step further and put it into a package you can use right now to help you. Paul's two tinnitus relief programs for example will absolutely change forever the way you deal with your Tinnitus. Remember I know about treatments as I've been researching them for almost 14 years since I got the extremely loud ringing in my ears in an explosion in Asia and his eBook and audio seminar have done wonders giving me relief and healing just over the last few months.
His original healing product is called "A Practical Guide to Tinnitus Free Living". This is an eBook and audio recording in which he shares some practical and truly enlightening information on how to live a 100% Tinnitus-Free Life.
I highly recommend his easy to use methods. Paul is a Canadian concert pianist, composer, entertainer, motivational speaker and former tinnitus sufferer himself.
I was almost in tears of joy when I finished reading his book the 1st time because I just wished I had this information so many years, anxious days and sleepless nights ago.
I spoke for a few hours with Paul on Skype in early March 2008 to understand more about his methods and he really does have a great system with some very easy to use ways to get rid of your tinnitus or at least make it A LOT easier to deal with. He's an extremely inspirational and personable guy.
One thing that really stuck out in my conversation with Paul was his philosophy of focusing on what you want spiritually, mentally and emotionally and how the physical changes will follow. This is a guy who's just walked over 800 kilometres on a trek through Spain over 60 days. Paul filmed about 60 hours of footage along the Camino de Santiago for one of his documentary projects. This was a journey of personal development for Paul and when you read his eBook you will see the sheer simplicity and beauty of Paul's methods of dealing with Tinnitus.
His most recent product is a 90 Minute Äudio Seminar that I feel may just contain the most powerful tinnitus information ever assembled.
You can download it today and start healing immediately.
This seminar was recorded on March 14th 2008, when Paul Tobey appeared as guest speaker at the Canadian Hearing Society's London Tinnitus Treatment Support Group. Click here to find out more.
Tinnitus - A Ringing In Your Ears - Are there treatments for tinnitus and can you stop or reduce the ringing in your ears? The answer is yes.
What I have found absolutely crazy is that in asking doctors for 14 years if there are any new treatments or alternative healthy ways to get relief, their knowledge on the subject is generally so limited. Even specialists I've seen have little information on effective and healthy ways of dealing with the ringing in my ears.
The symptom of tinnitus represents one of the most elusive mysteries facing hearing health care professionals worldwide today. "Tinnitus is a often heard as a ‘Ringing in the Ears' and is a psychological noise which describes the medical terminology for a ringing, roaring, buzzing, whistling, hissing or other high pitched sounds heard in the ears or inside the head of a Tinnitus sufferer. This ringing noise can be in one or two ears, can be heard constantly or sometimes just occasionally and is usually very annoying and stressful for a person with Tinnitus."
How Common is Tinnitus?
It has been estimated that over 60 million people have constant or extreme tinnitus worldwide. Many people experience the occasional ringing in the ear or other sounds inside their head at some time or another during their lives. This may triggered by the loud volume of a rock concert, a loud noise at work, gunfire, or an explosion near to the head just to name a few .
Tinnitus masking software and how it can reduce your stress levels
This site offers several years of research I have undertaken looking at and trying a wide range of potential cures and primarily tinnitus relief. For example as I'm writing this I am listening to the best tinnitus masking software I have found to date called Tinnitus Masker Pro. This software literally drowns out even my extreme ringing in my ears the whole day I'm working at my computer and I even have a CD and MP3 version that I have created so I can play it in my car and my iPod whilst I'm doing other stuff like mountain bike riding, walking, at the gym, etc
The decision to Quit smoking has also had a BIG decrease on my levels of Tinnitus
I've created a number of tracks and the dominant theme I've used for my personal situation is a background compilation of jungle sounds, crickets, cicadas, about 30 different birds, a running stream, ocean waves and wind. This combination effectively masks the constant ringing I have in my ears. If I turn this track off and it's quiet the ringing returns with a HUGE roar. You can listen to some of these freely here
What is the cause of tinnitus?
Tinnitus sounds vary vastly among people and can range from a mild occasional ringing sound to a constant and ever-present state or extreme tinnitus which is what I have. Many people state that their tinnitus is so bad that it interferes with their daily quality of life.
Doctors and hearing specialists have many theories about how tinnitus occurs but there is no generally agreed scientific consensus as to its origin. Tinnitus sufferers like you and I know differently. We know we have it !
Some causes of tinnitus result from a loud noise (as in my case from the explosion), a blow to the head, taking lots of aspirin, an anemic condition, heavy stress, impacted wax in the ear canal, hypertension, certain medicines, tumors and other loud noise exposure. Many people are affected by tinnitus but have no hearing loss whatsoever however there are others with significant hearing loss.
My tinnitus is worse at night. Why is this?
Everyday activities whilst you are at the office or out and about combined with background sounds often tend to make your tinnitus seem less noticeable but at nighttime when your surroundings are usually quieter your tinnitus may sound constant or louder. We'll cover ways to relieve this on this site.
Ok so it sounds like I've got tinnitus. What do I do next?
The very 1st thing you should do if you have a constant ringing in your ears and believe you are suffering from tinnitus is to get a medical evaluation and a hearing test done by an accredited health professionals or hearing specialist. When my accident occurred I was overseas working and had to wait 3 months to see a specialist Doctor at the Royal Victorian Eye & Ear Hospital in Melbourne, Australia.
The Doctor put me through an exhaustive set of hearing tests and concluded that I had extreme Tinnitus which was the direct effect of a very loud and noisy explosion of a firecracker that was thrown near my head by an over exuberant guy at a religious street festival I was passing by in Hikkaduwa, Sri Lanka in 1992.
The Doctor's assessment was gloomy and banal...…"Sorry no cure…..don't really have any relief, try these sleeping tablets, see you later!" At least however I knew what I was up against and what I needed to research to find out more about the problem and potential cures and relief.
This is why it's so important to have a medical examination to determine if there is an underlying condition causing your tinnitus or if it has occurred as a result of hearing trauma or massive hearing trauma as in my case. My eardrum and left eye were actually bleeding for 3 days after the accident so it's important to seek help if you have this kind of trauma.
What causes your tinnitus to become worse?
You should definitely stay away from exposure to loud sounds like loud rock concerts, guns, power tools, motorcycles etc as these can make your existing tinnitus much worse. Additionally excessive intake of alcohol, cigarettes, caffeine, stress and fatigue can also make your tinnitus worse.
Some options for tinnitus treatment include:
Try Paul Tobey's "A Practical Guide to Tinnitus Free Living". Paul focuses on what you want to achieve spiritually, mentally and emotionally and how the physical changes will follow. This was a journey of personal development for Paul and when you read his eBook you will see the sheer simplicity and beauty of Paul's methods of dealing with Tinnitus.
Tinnitus Maskers - These look like a hearing aid and produce a specific band of noise (ringing sound, bell, white noise, cicadas or even a hissing sound) which the person perceives as a better sound than the tinnitus ringing. In certain cases people can experience a reduction and even complete removal of tinnitus after they have been using the tinnitus Masker for some time.
Hearing Aids - this allows the user to hear background sounds in the environment and these will often remove the focus away from the tinnitus ringing.
Biological Feedback - This is where a teacher shows the patient various relaxation techniques which allow the person to control their responses to stress. Usually this kind of treatment is provided by a Psychologist.
Drug Therapy - Often used by patients and may include sleeping tablets, valium, anti-depressants and other types of drugs. Tinnitus drug therapy addresses anxiety, depression, insomnia and sleep deprivation.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy - A method that assists the sufferer to identify negative thought processes and behaviors and recreate them into positive outcomes. This is a very good method as it directly addresses the way in which you actually deal with tinnitus and cope with it on a daily basis.
Tinnitus Retraining Therapy - Another method similar to Cognitive Behavioral Therapy that shows patients how to suppress the often very debilitating effects of tinnitus
