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I've had tinnitus for as long as I can remember, so I've never had any negative feelings associated with it. As a kid I just thought it was natural that everyon

I've had tinnitus for as long as I can remember, so I've never had any negative feelings associated with it. As a kid I just thought it was natural that everyone's ears would ring all the time and would get louder when it was quiet. My ears are ringing right now as I write this. Then I developed pulsatile tinnitus in my early 30s, which means I can hear my heartbeat in my (right) ear at all hours of the day as well. When I tell people about it, I like to describe it like the heartbeat from Poe's The Tell-Tale Heart. Developing pulsatile tinnitus really affected my mental health for a while, despite living my whole life with a constant buzzing and ringing in my ears. I couldn't get over the fact that there was now this loud whooshing sound in my right ear, 60+ times per second, and my doctors couldn't even tell me why after several MRIs. I thought I was going crazy, or that I'd developed some kind of brain tumor invisible to scans. I don't have any great advice except to say that eventually (maybe six months to a year) my brain just adapted to the sound and I hardly ever think of it anymore. It's as much a part of my life as the buzzing and ringing I've had since I was a kid. It can be annoying when I'm trying to listen intently for something (my wife is a birder and it's hard to hear things she points out), but it thankfully doesn't affect my mental health anymore.

glimshe 8mo ago
Eye floaters are like that. They don't go away but you get used to them being there.
- AstroJetson 8mo ago
  Some of us don’t, but for about $2k they will drain the fluid out and refill will floater free materials. Changed my life, I thought I was living in a small crowd of fruit flies.
  - eszed 8mo ago
    Really? I asked my last ophthalmologist if there was anything to be done about my severe floaters, and he said "no", and that I'd just have to live with them. What's the name of the procedure you had, and what are the downside risks?
    - necovek 8mo ago
      I believe there is also "Laser vitreolysis", which seems somewhat disputed. I have similar issues and 5 years in, problems are only getting worse (perhaps combined with pigment dispersion syndrom making it worse, but not on the path to glaucoma, at least not yet).
      - deleted 8mo ago
        [deleted]
    - glimshe 8mo ago
      It's called vitrectomy. There are risks and that's why they generally only consider it for really severe cases. Look it up.
      - eszed 8mo ago
        Thank you! Glad to know what to look up. To be honest, I don't know where I'd rank on an objective severity scale. My floaters often make it difficult to read, and I've got one that can lodge in the wrong place for long enough to make driving feel a little scary. That's maybe not bad enough - given the risks, which I don't know right now - to argue against it. I'm not necessarily questioning the doctor's judgment - he's maybe right! - just mad that he didn't even tell me about this procedure.
        Cthulhu_ 8mo ago
        Given it makes it hard to read and actually makes driving dangerous it sounds like it's bad enough to warrant treatment. Get a second opinion, mention trouble reading and unable to see properly while driving.
    - jorgen123 8mo ago
      There are probably high risks of damaging the retina, and there is an increased risk of cataracts, if I remember correctly. Both my eyes had a vitrectomy during retinal surgery and it is really great to live without floaters. But I can imagine doctors will not want to do it just by itself.
- SirMaster 8mo ago
  Eye floaters can definitely go away. I believe they can break up and break apart and dissipate or be absorbed by the body a bit. Or maybe they just float way off to the side of your vision where you don't notice them anymore.
microtonal 8mo ago
I've had tinnitus for as long as I can remember, so I've never had any negative feelings associated with it. As a kid I just thought it was natural that everyone's ears would ring all the time and would get louder when it was quiet. My ears are ringing right now as I write this. I don't know if I have tinnitus. I had strong ringing in my ears every now and then as a kid. I once told a classmate about this, who said I should see a doctor, but I've had it as come up every now and then as long as I can remember. I now have a continuous beep, but only really hear it when I intentionally tune into it. E.g. I can hear it now because I'm writing about it, but most of the day I simply don't hear it, because I don't tune in to it. Not sure if it was always there or just starting at some age. It is sometimes more present when I'm e.g. sick. I have no idea if other people have this kind of permanent beep as well, because I never asked anyone. (I just asked my wife and she doesn't have it.)
- borski 8mo ago
  You have tinnitus.
  - mattmanser 8mo ago
    That's not really tinnitus, I used to have that before I got tinnitus. Tinnitus is like 30-50 times the volume of that, depending on how rundown I am or whether I have a cold. For me it's predominantly in one ear, though does sometimes change. What he's describing is fairly normal and is just to do with blood pressure in your ears, from what I've subsequently read.
    - arcanemachiner 8mo ago
      A clear example of the No True Tinnitus fallacy. > Tinnitus is a condition when a person hears a ringing sound or a different variety of sounds when no corresponding external sound is present and that other people cannot hear. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tinnitus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tinnitus
    - borski 8mo ago
      > What he's describing is fairly normal and is just to do with blood pressure in your ears, from what I've subsequently read. That’s called tinnitus. And I agree, it isn’t rare. From TFA, roughly 15% of people have it (that report it). Sounds like you may have severe tinnitus, which is more rare, limited to 1-2% of people.
tomwojcik 8mo ago
I always had problems with sinuses. I've had a few surgeries and while it's better, it's not good either. I literally had a drill up my nose, in my forehead. They still hurt and pop on their own, many times a day. One day my kid brought a nasty flu from the kindergarten. My otolaryngologist recommended the strongest irrigation stream I can find to clean my sinuses. Not only did it not help, but it also pushed some goo to the end of my sinuses, which resulted in pulsatile tinnitus. After about 6 months my kid got sick again, so we all got sick, and I got rid of this tinnitus where I was hearing my heartbeat, by casually blowing my nose. The trick was having a stiff blockage, I guess, so the pressure builds up. It sounds stupid and probably won't help you, but I wanted to share my story. I had no support from the people close to me and the heartbeat was driving me insane. I'm sorry you have to go through this. Even though it's not a life-treating condition, it might be a life changing condition (QoL).
- mrbonner 8mo ago
  You sound like me! I have had sinus issues all my life before 17. I even had a surgery at 16 but I honestly don’t think it helped. Now I have the sinus problem a bit under control, aka I still have occasional infections during allergy and cold season. I use NielMed to wash my sinus and I think it helps a lot. Besides that I really don’t know what it would take to fix it permanently. I constantly can feel the mucus dripping down my throat everyday.
  - drewda 8mo ago
    Have you considered seeing an allergist to test if you have some environmental allergies? If so, they may be able to recommend or prescribe meds to moderate the effects of those allergies. (disclaimer: I'm not a doctor, just someone else with sinus issues)
    - mrbonner 8mo ago
      I did this 15 years ago. I didn’t feel like it helped much at all. But, that doctor was later on got sued for insurance fraud so it got me wondering if I was scammed as well. I’ll discuss this with my primary physician next exam. Thanks for the reminder!
idiotsecant 8mo ago
I'd say i'm sorry to hear about your 60 beat per second heart rate but by the time you read this you are surely dead. RIP
- kylecazar 8mo ago
  60 bps is a fine HR, if you are implying it isn't Edit: WHOOPSIE DAISY
  - toast0 8mo ago
    Heart beat is usually measured in bpm. All the charts top out at 200. 360 bpm is certainly problematic for a human.
    - Marsymars 8mo ago
      3600 bpm would be even more problematic.
      - Bombthecat 8mo ago
        Even techno would be slower :)
  - zargon 8mo ago
    That's 3 times the heart rate of a hummingbird.
  - antonvs 8mo ago
    You’re thinking of one beat per second, i.e. 60 beats per minute. 60 bps is not possible, but if it were, it wouldn’t be survivable.
  - rkomorn 8mo ago
    Upvoted for the edit. :D
  - saltcured 8mo ago
    Yeah, 60hz isn't a pulse, it's a bass hum. It means you are a robot operating in the US and you have a poorly filtered power supply.
carlesfe 8mo ago
I do hear my heartbeat from my left ear. The ear doctor said that the ear can be sensitive to the blood flowing from nearby arteries, and that there's nothing to do. Stress affects the heartbeat volume. I just got used to it, but it can be annoying sometimes, especially when you're trying to enjoy the silence. The doctor also told me that it's not an ear problem, but rather a brain problem. The brain is supposed to filter out this noise, in the same sense that it filters out the sounds from a (normal) digestion, our breathing, etc. I do have some (undiagnosed) hypersensitivity, so that sounds consistent to me. nozzlegear: it gets better with time, the less you think about it. I know it's not a great consolation, but trust me, train yourself not to think about it, and it will go away for extended periods of time (and will come back from time to time)
- KittenInABox 8mo ago
  This is the first time I heard that this is an issue where the brain isn't filtering out noise properly. This explains why I have had tinnitus, the sound of breathing, whooshing in the ears from my heartbeat, etc. audible to me for as long as I've been conscious and have never understood why everyone else seemed to be really disturbed by what I consider to be supremely normal. Except I also have a sensory processing disorder that makes my brain unable to filter input well so I also come off as sensitive to touch and able to pick up smells well. Because I grew up with all this though I have normalized it enough to function.
- Bombthecat 8mo ago
  Wait... This is not "normal"? I thought everyone has that...
- rapnie 8mo ago
  I have this also in the left ear for about a year or so. I self-diagnosed it as eustachian tube related [0] and should really see a doctor, but I also got pretty used to it by now. Only now and then it gets a bit annoying when the sound become more 'whooshing' than 'a clock ticking in the room'. In my right ear I have another sound regularly, that I went to the doctor for, and she immediately said "Oh, tinnitus, nothing you can do". But I'm pretty sure it is something else. It feels like spasmic tiny muscle fluctuating against my eardrum, and gets triggered by a low-frequency sound, esp. when at rest. Stops after 15-30 mins. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patulous_Eustachian_tube https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patulous_Eustachian_tube
scuff3d 8mo ago
Same here, had a low level ringing in my ears for as long as I can remember. I really only notice it in quieter rooms, and pretty much have to sleep with some kind of white noise going in the background. Sleeping in a dead silent room is really tough for me.

glimshe 8mo ago

Eye floaters are like that. They don't go away but you get used to them being there.

AstroJetson 8mo ago
Some of us don’t, but for about $2k they will drain the fluid out and refill will floater free materials. Changed my life, I thought I was living in a small crowd of fruit flies.
- eszed 8mo ago
  Really? I asked my last ophthalmologist if there was anything to be done about my severe floaters, and he said "no", and that I'd just have to live with them. What's the name of the procedure you had, and what are the downside risks?
  - necovek 8mo ago
    I believe there is also "Laser vitreolysis", which seems somewhat disputed. I have similar issues and 5 years in, problems are only getting worse (perhaps combined with pigment dispersion syndrom making it worse, but not on the path to glaucoma, at least not yet).
    - deleted 8mo ago
      [deleted]
  - glimshe 8mo ago
    It's called vitrectomy. There are risks and that's why they generally only consider it for really severe cases. Look it up.
    - eszed 8mo ago
      Thank you! Glad to know what to look up. To be honest, I don't know where I'd rank on an objective severity scale. My floaters often make it difficult to read, and I've got one that can lodge in the wrong place for long enough to make driving feel a little scary. That's maybe not bad enough - given the risks, which I don't know right now - to argue against it. I'm not necessarily questioning the doctor's judgment - he's maybe right! - just mad that he didn't even tell me about this procedure.
      - Cthulhu_ 8mo ago
        Given it makes it hard to read and actually makes driving dangerous it sounds like it's bad enough to warrant treatment. Get a second opinion, mention trouble reading and unable to see properly while driving.
  - jorgen123 8mo ago
    There are probably high risks of damaging the retina, and there is an increased risk of cataracts, if I remember correctly. Both my eyes had a vitrectomy during retinal surgery and it is really great to live without floaters. But I can imagine doctors will not want to do it just by itself.
SirMaster 8mo ago
Eye floaters can definitely go away. I believe they can break up and break apart and dissipate or be absorbed by the body a bit. Or maybe they just float way off to the side of your vision where you don't notice them anymore.

microtonal 8mo ago

I've had tinnitus for as long as I can remember, so I've never had any negative feelings associated with it. As a kid I just thought it was natural that everyone's ears would ring all the time and would get louder when it was quiet. My ears are ringing right now as I write this. I don't know if I have tinnitus. I had strong ringing in my ears every now and then as a kid. I once told a classmate about this, who said I should see a doctor, but I've had it as come up every now and then as long as I can remember. I now have a continuous beep, but only really hear it when I intentionally tune into it. E.g. I can hear it now because I'm writing about it, but most of the day I simply don't hear it, because I don't tune in to it. Not sure if it was always there or just starting at some age. It is sometimes more present when I'm e.g. sick. I have no idea if other people have this kind of permanent beep as well, because I never asked anyone. (I just asked my wife and she doesn't have it.)

borski 8mo ago
You have tinnitus.
- mattmanser 8mo ago
  That's not really tinnitus, I used to have that before I got tinnitus. Tinnitus is like 30-50 times the volume of that, depending on how rundown I am or whether I have a cold. For me it's predominantly in one ear, though does sometimes change. What he's describing is fairly normal and is just to do with blood pressure in your ears, from what I've subsequently read.
  - arcanemachiner 8mo ago
    A clear example of the No True Tinnitus fallacy. > Tinnitus is a condition when a person hears a ringing sound or a different variety of sounds when no corresponding external sound is present and that other people cannot hear. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tinnitus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tinnitus
  - borski 8mo ago
    > What he's describing is fairly normal and is just to do with blood pressure in your ears, from what I've subsequently read. That’s called tinnitus. And I agree, it isn’t rare. From TFA, roughly 15% of people have it (that report it). Sounds like you may have severe tinnitus, which is more rare, limited to 1-2% of people.

tomwojcik 8mo ago

I always had problems with sinuses. I've had a few surgeries and while it's better, it's not good either. I literally had a drill up my nose, in my forehead. They still hurt and pop on their own, many times a day. One day my kid brought a nasty flu from the kindergarten. My otolaryngologist recommended the strongest irrigation stream I can find to clean my sinuses. Not only did it not help, but it also pushed some goo to the end of my sinuses, which resulted in pulsatile tinnitus. After about 6 months my kid got sick again, so we all got sick, and I got rid of this tinnitus where I was hearing my heartbeat, by casually blowing my nose. The trick was having a stiff blockage, I guess, so the pressure builds up. It sounds stupid and probably won't help you, but I wanted to share my story. I had no support from the people close to me and the heartbeat was driving me insane. I'm sorry you have to go through this. Even though it's not a life-treating condition, it might be a life changing condition (QoL).

mrbonner 8mo ago
You sound like me! I have had sinus issues all my life before 17. I even had a surgery at 16 but I honestly don’t think it helped. Now I have the sinus problem a bit under control, aka I still have occasional infections during allergy and cold season. I use NielMed to wash my sinus and I think it helps a lot. Besides that I really don’t know what it would take to fix it permanently. I constantly can feel the mucus dripping down my throat everyday.
- drewda 8mo ago
  Have you considered seeing an allergist to test if you have some environmental allergies? If so, they may be able to recommend or prescribe meds to moderate the effects of those allergies. (disclaimer: I'm not a doctor, just someone else with sinus issues)
  - mrbonner 8mo ago
    I did this 15 years ago. I didn’t feel like it helped much at all. But, that doctor was later on got sued for insurance fraud so it got me wondering if I was scammed as well. I’ll discuss this with my primary physician next exam. Thanks for the reminder!

idiotsecant 8mo ago

I'd say i'm sorry to hear about your 60 beat per second heart rate but by the time you read this you are surely dead. RIP

kylecazar 8mo ago
60 bps is a fine HR, if you are implying it isn't Edit: WHOOPSIE DAISY
- toast0 8mo ago
  Heart beat is usually measured in bpm. All the charts top out at 200. 360 bpm is certainly problematic for a human.
  - Marsymars 8mo ago
    3600 bpm would be even more problematic.
    - Bombthecat 8mo ago
      Even techno would be slower :)
- zargon 8mo ago
  That's 3 times the heart rate of a hummingbird.
- antonvs 8mo ago
  You’re thinking of one beat per second, i.e. 60 beats per minute. 60 bps is not possible, but if it were, it wouldn’t be survivable.
- rkomorn 8mo ago
  Upvoted for the edit. :D
- saltcured 8mo ago
  Yeah, 60hz isn't a pulse, it's a bass hum. It means you are a robot operating in the US and you have a poorly filtered power supply.

carlesfe 8mo ago

I do hear my heartbeat from my left ear. The ear doctor said that the ear can be sensitive to the blood flowing from nearby arteries, and that there's nothing to do. Stress affects the heartbeat volume. I just got used to it, but it can be annoying sometimes, especially when you're trying to enjoy the silence. The doctor also told me that it's not an ear problem, but rather a brain problem. The brain is supposed to filter out this noise, in the same sense that it filters out the sounds from a (normal) digestion, our breathing, etc. I do have some (undiagnosed) hypersensitivity, so that sounds consistent to me. nozzlegear: it gets better with time, the less you think about it. I know it's not a great consolation, but trust me, train yourself not to think about it, and it will go away for extended periods of time (and will come back from time to time)

KittenInABox 8mo ago
This is the first time I heard that this is an issue where the brain isn't filtering out noise properly. This explains why I have had tinnitus, the sound of breathing, whooshing in the ears from my heartbeat, etc. audible to me for as long as I've been conscious and have never understood why everyone else seemed to be really disturbed by what I consider to be supremely normal. Except I also have a sensory processing disorder that makes my brain unable to filter input well so I also come off as sensitive to touch and able to pick up smells well. Because I grew up with all this though I have normalized it enough to function.
Bombthecat 8mo ago
Wait... This is not "normal"? I thought everyone has that...
rapnie 8mo ago
I have this also in the left ear for about a year or so. I self-diagnosed it as eustachian tube related [0] and should really see a doctor, but I also got pretty used to it by now. Only now and then it gets a bit annoying when the sound become more 'whooshing' than 'a clock ticking in the room'. In my right ear I have another sound regularly, that I went to the doctor for, and she immediately said "Oh, tinnitus, nothing you can do". But I'm pretty sure it is something else. It feels like spasmic tiny muscle fluctuating against my eardrum, and gets triggered by a low-frequency sound, esp. when at rest. Stops after 15-30 mins. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patulous_Eustachian_tube https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patulous_Eustachian_tube

scuff3d 8mo ago

Same here, had a low level ringing in my ears for as long as I can remember. I really only notice it in quieter rooms, and pretty much have to sleep with some kind of white noise going in the background. Sleeping in a dead silent room is really tough for me.