Low Hum in Right Ear

[quarky]

I often hear what I'd describe as a background noise like strong wind when things are quiet.
I used to refer to it as the cosmic vacuum cleaner.
I thought it had something to do with being a 60's casualty.

Sometimes i hear a very high-pitched noise which I can't place in space, but not often.
I thought it was possible that I was actually hearing some of the plethora of modern background noise.

 

[Trent Wray]

I often hear what I'd describe as a background noise like strong wind when things are quiet.
I used to refer to it as the cosmic vacuum cleaner.
I thought it had something to do with being a 60's casualty.

Sometimes i hear a very high-pitched noise which I can't place in space, but not often.
I thought it was possible that I was actually hearing some of the plethora of modern background noise.

A 60's casualty? Really? Are you still coming down? LOL

When I lived in Olympia, WA (arguably still a hippie town), there was this guy who lived in a mobile home on some property he owned, and he always let us dump our leftover material there (landscaping). He always wore this beautifully shiny purple robe, and could often be seen walking up and down the streets with his robe on, barefeet, and hardly anything underneath. He had that "still coming down" smile on his face as he maneuvered around town.

We all called him the Glimmer Man lol

 

[Miss_Kitt]

I think that we will see an increase in tinnitis and also in hearing loss over the next decade or two, as the ubiquity of computers (a common source of constant sound), air condition units (ditto) and the earbuds for iPod, personal CD player, cellphone, etc. begin to produce long-term damage.

Speaking from personal experience, the level of volume for background music in restaurants; for sound in movie theaters; for car stereos and TVs; and for conversation, seems to have risen versus a decade ago. This seems odd, since at my age I'd expect some mild hearing loss to make things seem quieter!

It is ironic that at the same time that we are seeing regulations for ear protection against industrial noise, the self-inflicted (or environmentally inflicted) noise levels appear to be rising. I think nearly everyone has experienced the car behind or next to you at the stoplight whose stereo is so loud that you can hear it through its closed windows; your car's closed windows; and over the engine noise and stereo in your own vehicle.

I wonder if there are studies on this out there? I'll have to take a look and check on it.

Later, MK

 

[Floyt]

I've had constant tinnitus, pretty loudly, in one ear since a diving accident three years ago, and have found to my ongoing gratification that it just doesn't bother me. I can go for weeks at a time without once being conscious of it. I know other people who are being driven nuts by varieties that are apparently a good deal less noisy. So it's strongly dependent on personal annoyance threshold, too. If you can bring yourself to just not mind the tweeeeeeter, it makes things a lot easier

ETA - it's pretty much ruined my ability to triangulate singing skylarks, tho... have to rotate like a radio tower and zero in on regions of highest monaural song intensity.

 

[Andrew Wiggin]

<woo>Your control implant is malfunctioning, and you're hearing the waves we beam down to control it. Nothing to worry about. Stay right where you are and the men in black will be by shortly to implant another one. In the meantime, wrap your head in tinfoil and crouch in the corner farthest from the windows.</woo>

Seriously, I'll second the folks who have said to take this to a specialist doc.

A

 

[23_Tauri]

That's what I meant by doctors making things worse if they don't understand. Jonathan Hazell is an ENT specialist who has made a particular speciality of tinnitus and hyperacusis. That's his web site I was linking to. He sorted me out and good. I really do recommend reading it, and preferably before you're on the edge of a nervous breakdown.

Rolfe.

Hi Rolfe. Funnily enough, my sister is a clinical audiologist. Her advice was along the lines of the Jastreboff Neurophysiological Model and the information given by Hazell et al on the website: that it is one's judgement of the noise, and what one associates it with (good or bad etc), that will dictate how much it interferes with one's life.

It seems stress related in my case for sure, and that will have cognitive feedback mechanims: "I'm stressed because of x, the noise in my head is louder, making me more stressed, so I focus on it more" etc.

 

[23_Tauri]

<woo>Your control implant is malfunctioning, and you're hearing the waves we beam down to control it. Nothing to worry about. Stay right where you are and the men in black will be by shortly to implant another one. In the meantime, wrap your head in tinfoil and crouch in the corner farthest from the windows.</woo>

I did think that maybe I hadn't been securing my tin foil hat securely enough to prevent penetration of the NWO psychotronic mind-control rays.

 

[Andrew Wiggin]

Actually, you might want to wear a gas mask too. Google 'Air Loom' for an example of an early gub'mint mind control device...

A

 

[GlennB]

Mine is right ear only, and sounds like the very high pitched background whine of a badly tuned radio. Definitely not a musical noise.

A hearing nurse (mandatory testing when I worked in the quarrying industry) also found some high-frequency hearing loss in that ear. After checking out my exposure to loud sounds over the years she homed straight in on the rifle shooting I did while in the cadets at school. We used ancient Lee Enfield 303's way back then, no ear protection, and all us kids went home with pain in the ears at the end of a day on the ranges. These days we'd sue the school.