Tinnitus Survey Results and Tinnitus Forums

Many people have experienced that ringing in our ears at some time during their life. It could be during a rock concert, standing next to a loud speaker in a club or firing a gun to name a few.

Loud and excessive noise is one of the most usual causes of hearing loss.

Now imagine you hear this ringing in your ears all the time and nobody else could hear it! One of the areas sufferers will find support is from Tinnitus Associations and Online Forums. See the list below or type in Tinnitus Associations and Forums into your local google.

This is the situation a person with tinnitus must learn to live with. This Tinnitus is the experience of hearing a sound in your ears or head without any other external stimulus.

The different noises heard by tinnitus sufferers can range from a ringing, whistling, rushing, whining, hissing through to a statacco rumbling. Some people say that the sound is like an industrial machine or a vacuum cleaner and some even say its ounds like a jet aircraft engine. The latest research shows that that tinnitus hits about 1% of the whole population.

How Common is Tinnitus?

According to many studies done over the last 5 years it is generally reported that tinnitus is not an illness but rather it is a symptom of a form of dysfunction in the auditory/hearing system of the ear. And in the vast majority of patients it appears to start with a disorder in the ear like an infection or loud noise damage.

"Personally I am only too familiar with these symptoms as i have had extreme and prolonged Tinnitus for over 14 years now. I hear a constant high pitched ringing in both ears and it has never stopped once in 14 years aside from when im asleep and even then it usually wakes me up at least once a night.

Often the sound will seem to oscillate and mix into several ringing sounds which just drives me crazy sometimes. When that happens I put on my masking sounds as well as listen to music like a bach concerto or something relaxing. Initially I found it very difficult to cope with and I initially suffered from depression, isolation, stress and insomnia.

This is not unusual I have since found out by visiting various tinnitus forums and apparently most of the problems associated with tinnitus are psychological with sleep disorders being very common with prolonged tinnitus."

Survey Results

Some of the surveys carried out have covered such issues like the effects the condition has in the early stages and the level of satisfaction experienced from the responses of various medical professionals. generally it was found that the local doctor who was the first person to be seen by the patient.

Astoundingly over 35% of people usually say they are unhappy with the responses given by their GP. Approximately another 1/3 said they were reasonably happy with the responses and the remainder expressed no opinion.

After their initial visit most patients were then referred to an ENT (ear, nose and throat) specialist or audiologist. This really shows us that there is not really much a local GP can do with the options they have available to treat tinnitus and in many cases even understand Tinnutus according to these studies.

A few of the comments made by those surveyed included:

-My doctor knew very little about tinnitus and said simply 'you'll just have to deal with it'. (This is exactly what the first doctor I saw said....almost word for word)

-The GP said I was probably just imagining the noise.

-the doctor said 'you have to accept that conditions like this as part of getting older'.

-My doctor has tinnitus himself and was able to point in the right direction in regards to getting Leanonin to sleep better and also told me about masking (GREAT Doctor).

-My doctor was of great help to me and sourced information and leaflets for me. (GREAT Doctor).

-My doctor was supportive but couldn't do anything to help (There needs to be more awareness for Doctors.)

It's important not to blame medical professionals as they didn't create the situation which is why if you are not getting the answers you want to hear from your doctor it is probably going to be far more beneficial initially to go to a Tinnitus association in your area or go online to a Tinnitus Forum.

Most Tinnitus Associations have forums you can joing. Just click any of the links to find out more details below.........

International Tinnitus Organisations

www.iths.net International Tinnitus and Hyperacusis Society
www.ata.org American Tinnitus Association
www.oetl.at Austrian Tinnitus Association
www.tinnitus.asn.au Australian Tinnitus Association (NSW) Ltd
www.tinnitusvic.asn.au Tinnitus Association of Victoria
www.tinnitusyhdistys.fi Finnish Tinnitus Association
www.france-acouphenes.org French Tinnitus Association
www.tinnitus-liga.de German Tinnitus Association
www.tinnitus.hu Hungarian Tinnitus Association
www.nadp.ie/irish_tinnitus_association.html Irish Tinnitus Association (ITA)
www.hlf.no Norwegian Tinnitus Association
www.tinnitus-liga.ch Swiss Tinnitus Association
www.tinnitussa.org Tinnitus SA (South Australia)
www.eutinnitus.com European Federation of Tinnitus Associations

For those people who saw an audiologist these surveys found that very few reported any level of success with hearing aids and other devices and it appears that the audiologist usually just concern themselves to monitoring the audiometric assessments and other diagnosis of the hearing problems. generally they didn't provide advice on dealing with tinnitus.

Experience with doctors

Whilst a healthy 80% of people who have prolonged Tinnitus actually went to see an ENT specialist only 20% approximately of these people said they were happy with the response they received. The rest were bluntly - unhappy and some of the comments received included these ones below:

-Doctor said 'I'm too busy and don't have time to listen to your tinnitus story'.
-Doctor said 'you'll just have to get used to it'.
-Doctor said 'you're getting older and you will simply have to deal with it. Its not harmful.
-Doctor did everything he possibly could and even sent me for X-rays.

These studies indicate that a significant part of the international efforts in developing tinnitus therapies is focused on the area of counselling even though only about 10% of the people surveyed actually said they had looked for help from a psychologist, psychiatrist or counsellor.

About 50% of those surveyed tried some form of of complementary tinnitus therapy and acupuncture was the most common treatment with other treatments like yoga, reflexology, aromatherapy, herbal treatments, drug treatments, Reiki and osteopath also being tried..

Unfortunately it is widely accepted that these treatments won't fix tinnitus but will offer relaxtion and some element of relief.

Ridicule and suspicion for Tinnitus sufferers

These studies often refers to people's 'habituation' (this is the term that describes 'getting used to tinnitus'). Approximately 20% of people said they hadn't been distrurbed by their tinnitus. A further 20% said to start with they hadn't been troubled but later developed anxiety. A further 40% said that initially they were distressed but have now 'learnt to deal with it'ie they have habituated. About 20% also said that they simply can't accept the condition and struggle with it daily.

Some excellent suggestions were put forward by the surveyed people including the fact that most people with tinnitus don't talk about it to others as they felt that they wouldn't or couldn't understand the situation. A few people even felt that talking about their Tinnitus left them prone to ridicule.

To counteract some of these issues they were asked what kind of services they thought were needed for tinnitus patiemnts and over 20% of them thought a local clinic where diagnostic and treatment options would be made available.

Another 20% wanted mutual support of various kinds from counsellors and also from places like online Tinnitus forums and offline tinnitus associations. About 10% wanted to be able to see a medical person with an interest in (or actually with) tinnitus.

Paul Tobey's powerful tinnitus healing methods.

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 steps 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.