[oblio]

There are a ton of weak sounds I'd want to hear.

A baby's (or toddler's) voice, the meowing of a newborn kitten, quieter sections of my favorite songs, the sound of a car that's backing my way while I'm not looking in its direction...

[cableshaft]

I don't care about that as much as never hearing silence, or near silence, without a constant ringing sound. Man do I miss the "sound" of silence.

And no, that one Tinnitus trick of thumping the back of your head with your fingers that everyone shares doesn't really work for that, at least not for me. For me it just turns the volume down on the ringing a slight bit, and even then only lasts about 30 seconds, which isn't really worth it.

[stewarts]

I, too, miss silence. My tinnitus is in one ear and is like a roar of cicadas/grasshoppers with an extra harmonic an octave above that that gets louder as my environment gets louder. Then unfortunately stays at the elevated volume for a good duration afterwards.

[k__]

I see.

I still hear pretty well, I just also hear a constant high pitched sound, but it isn't very loud.

[kibwen]

Some people have tinnitus worse than others, making it harder for them to ignore. In addition, some people become acclimated to it; my tinnitus used to make it impossible to sleep without some form of white noise, but nowadays I only remember that it's there when I read comment threads about people discussing their tinnitus. Time for some white noise...

[itsmartapuntocm]

Same here. Reading about people anguishing about it online only made me sink further into despair about it. And white noise, while it helped at first, eventually became sort of a crutch and didn’t really help me get over it in the long term.

What eventually worked for me ironically was reading a study that the vast majority of people with tinnitus do improve over time, whether it’s an actual reduction in the noise or at least the perception of it. Tinnitus is funny in that it bothers us because the brain sees a sound it is creating itself as a threat, and eventually it learns to longer treat itself that way.

Mine did eventually get better. I don’t know if it actually got better, or if I just stopped caring about it so much. But I do enjoy silence again because for me, this is my new form of silence. It’s still there in some form, and some days like when I’m stressed it is noticeably louder. But it no longer bothers me.