Tinnitus is real. Your relative is not making it up or inventing a story. Tinnitus is not insanity. Tinnitus is a combination of ear damage and brain function. The damage is in the ears. The ringing or buzzing is how the brain interprets the damaged cells or missing hairs in the auditory system. It is hard for people to understand or empathize with tinnitus sufferers because most family members and friends have never suffered from it.
People try to relate tinnitus to their own mild ringing that they experience from time to time. NO! Tinnitus is not that. Severe tinnitus is like having a high-pitched bull-horn going off in your ear 24 hours per day, seven days per week, 365 days per year. It is exhausting.
When hearing loss begins as a result of tinnitus, that can be even more exhausting because the sufferer has to fight to not talk too loudly over the tinnitus and hearing loss. That is hard to learn. Keeping the voice at an even tone is exhausting. Friends and family, my best advice to you is to be sympathetic and try not to add unnecessary stress to the sufferer. Stress can kick off the tinnitus and make it even worse.
One way to tell if your friend or family member has tinnitus is to listen for vocal pitch and tone. If the sufferer insists that he or she is talking at a normal pitch when it sounds like yelling to you then that person is likely suffering from a tinnitus flare up.
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1 comment:
Thanks for your info. I too suffer from tinnitus. It seems to be getting worse and starting to affect my sleep. I've been gullible and though others had a solution. I read the book Tinnitus Miracle and even went through the steps suggested. No help. That makes me more depressed. Any update on your journey?
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