Tinnitus: Analogies That Aid Understanding

People who do not have tinnitus often find it hard to understand the issue. It is also true that people who have not studied Physics have a hard time understanding it. Physicists often use analogies to accelerate learning. Likewise, people with tinnitus can use analogies to raise awareness and accelerate understanding. Here are some analogies that I've used. Analogies creates a word picture.

Blades of Grass: Defining Tinnitus
This analogy may help you to explain your tinnitus to someone.

Imagine that the hairlike cells inside of the cochlea (middle ear) are like blades of grass submerged in fluid. The grass blades flow with the fluid. When a sound event happens, the fluid flows over the blades and stimulates particular blades to send signals through a coaxial cable called the vestibular nerve to the auditory center of the brain, where the signal is interpreted as sound.

If some of the grass blades are cut then the brain tries its best to interpret the absence. The brain often produces a ringing sound, a cricket sound, or a wind sound. This is tinnitus. The sound that the brain produces will continue until either the auditory center of the brain is inhibited from producing the sound  or the blades can re-grow. The problem lies in the fact that the grass blades are non-regenerative. They will not grow back. No pill will make them grow back. There is no surgery to replace the blades or inhibit the auditory center of the brain.

We know that the sound is generated by the brain as a result of the damaged auditory system because there was a study that called for the participants, who suffered from tinnitus, to have their vestibular nerves cut. The researchers disconnected the cochlea from the brain by cutting the coaxial cable that connects them. The result was deafness and louder ringing. Why? Because the brain was detecting no grass blades at all and was signaling a bigger problem.

Just because the brain is the culprit of the sound does not mean that the sound is imaginary. We have to think of the brain as part of the auditory system. Only then are we seeing tinnitus through the proper lens.

Trapped in the Car: What It Feels Like to Have Tinnitus
This analogy may help you to explain what it feels like to have chronic severe tinnitus, to someone else.

Imagine being trapped in your car and it is wedged in between rocks. It is inaccessible and inescapable. The car alarm is sounding. Your well intended friends, family, co-workers, and treatment team come by and try to offer you advice on how to escape. One friend says, "Just think positive!" That doesn't help you to escape. A treatment team member shouts, "Go to your imaginary happy place!" That doesn't help. A co-worker shouts, "My uncle Joe was in the same situation once, he just ignored the sound and it magically disappeared! Try that!" That doesn't help you to ignore the annoyingly loud car alarm. Another member of your treatment team manages to get pills into the car for you. The pills don't help you to escape the car or remove the sound of the car alarm. You begin wincing in agony. Another person shouts, "See what happens when you don't wear hearing protection. This is your fault! You got yourself into this situation." That certainly doesn't help at all.

Suddenly, you see firefighters arrive and you feel relieved. You think that you are going to hear those magic words, as in, "Don't worry. We will have you out of the car and away from the alarm in no time. We can do this." Instead a firefighter leans toward the car, shakes his head left to right, and says, "We can't get you out. We are sorry. None of our tools work. But stay hopeful. Someday we will be able to get you out when the right tool is invented. Until then, just stay put."

You are stunned. Imagine in this day and age that there is no cure for chronic severe tinnitus. It is true.

That is what it feels like to have chronic severe tinnitus. You never really escape from the car alarm. You never have a quiet moment. The quieter the room, the louder the tinnitus. This is why insomnia, depression, and a weakened immune system can be the results of the stress of being trapped in the car with the car alarm. It is also why some people with severe chronic tinnitus begin to struggle socially. We are trapped in a car at every family event, at every celebration, at every business meeting, at every social event and we have to act like we are not in order to keep our careers and our relationships in tact.

Two Guitars: Why Tinnitus is Different for Everyone
This analogy may help you to explain why your tinnitus is different from someone who has a milder form. These are the people who say, "I have tinnitus and I just ignore it." or they say, "I have tinnitus and I just use a fan to mask it." (P.S. I used to be one of these people until my tinnitus became severe in 2009 and has not relented since). What they are really saying is, "What is wrong with you? Why can't you just be...MORE LIKE ME?"

Every tinnitus sufferer has an annoyance threshold. If the tinnitus gets louder it becomes harder, if not impossible, to simply ignore. It may get beyond what a masker can safely mask without doing more damage. Without further a due...

Two Guitars:
Two guitar players pick up guitars to begin playing together. Each guitar is out of tune. Each guitar has to be tuned by a player. Each guitar needs unique tuning, specific to how out of tune that it is, before it can be played.

The auditory system can be likened to a guitar. Each tinnitus sufferer has a different level of damage and in different parts of the auditory system. The auditory system may be functioning properly regarding all sounds except a certain range.

When that unique range is stimulated by certain sounds it can make the tinnitus worse, temporarily or permanently.

Therefore, it makes sense that tinnitus is different for everyone. It makes sense that some people's tinnitus is louder than others and that some cases of tinnitus are acute (short-term) and others experience chronic (long-term) tinnitus. It makes sense that some people are sensitive to certain sound frequencies. It makes sense that people respond differently to their tinnitus. It makes sense that each tinnitus sufferer experiences varying levels of hearing loss.

Each tinnitus sufferer has one thing in common, our ears are simply out of tune. The level to which we are out of tune is the variable.