same.

If I can get rid of the persistent high pitched whine in my left ear my QoL will go through the roof.

My hearing is not particularly bad, and my tinnitus tends to come and go depending on the environment. Still, I would love to resolve it once and for all. It's a pretty common condition too.

tinnitus is not always related to hearing, I got mine after my jaw dislocated, I still got my hearing checked just in case and it was completely OK.

Beta-blockers give me tinnitus. Unfortunately you can't choose not to take them when it's convenient...

I’d love to know what silence is like.

Same. Doesn't bother me at all, it's just background noise, but it's not true silence.

I used to play in bands and go to a lot of concerts without earplugs (mistakes of youth). I’ve had tinnitus for almost 20 years, and I am so used to it now that it’s a non issue. That said, it drove me crazy in the beginning.

I used to play in bands and go to concerts without earplugs too, and one of my favorite pastimes is listening to music on loud volumes. Yet I've never developed tinnitus.

I guess I'm just lucky, or my hearing is just so sensitive that what I consider "loud" is actually fairly quiet. I know that I've had problems actually hearing sounds in band practice without using earplugs - I'd just hear a bunch of noise, and often lose the beat because of the inability to hear other musicians clearly.

30+ years of midwest raves did me in. One sound system had 1MW bass bins - have been to some with ~40ft x ~15ft of bass bins. Only one ruptured ear drum in all of that time (Regis - didn't even seem that loud) - that's the ear that is the worst. Doesn't bother me, other than anxiety about potential neurological effects.

Wait 30+ years of raves? In my mind’s eye you’re now a mulleted 45 yo Java dev at MedLab International creeping out the twenty something hotties, offering them glow sticks and Molly and telling them how you went to see Chemical Brothers before it was hip.

Well, actually, true silence (as in an anechoic chamber) can be maddening.

True silence makes people to experience auditory hallucinations usually. So like tinnitus, but I guess less predictable, and less consistent

Have you ever been in one? I visited the one that Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK) had at Marienlyst in Oslo. This is before I knew anything about anechoic chambers and the sort.

It was called The Dead Room...

The first thing I noticed is that I had to speak a lot louder to be heard. But the most unnerving thing happened when we finally stood still in there.

I could hear my blood run through my own veins.......... So out of sheer panic I started moving and talking again lol.

This room was in the basement, and was secluded from all the other rooms in the building. The control room was even two stories up from the studio. They used it to record special samples that had to be completely "dead," as in no echo or reverberation on it outside the instrument itself. By they looks of it they also used it for Foley recordings, because there was some surfaces in there and some pans of powders and sand.

i worked for a company once with a large (10’ sided cube) and very high-quality anechoic chamber and would go in there on lunch breaks to mediate, was fantastic. (never had audio hallucinations.) i was young and had no hearing issues which probably helped.

There is this tapping on your head trick[0] that legitimately works for many people (me included) to clear up your tinitius but only for a few seconds after it. If you are curious what silence sounds you can try it.

0. https://www.reddit.com/r/videos/comments/3oauru/if_you_have_...

Woah thanks for sharing! it works although the total silence is a little unnerving

Some generators on https://mynoise.net/ have strong anecdotal evidence of at least temporary clearing of tinnitus. There's even https://mynoise.net/Albums/view.php?album=TinnitusRelief

YMMV.

Be careful with these. My friend had to see a specialist after extended use of mynoise because it made his tinnitus much worse to the extent that it was almost intolerable.

Yeah, I tried them when they started and for me it didn't make my tinnitus worse, it just made me notice much more when it's there because suddenly I had breaks from it, and THAT was worse. I used them a few times and quit because of that.