Tinnitus can have many causes, including ageing, loud noise exposure, illness, injury and infection. It can also be a side effect of some medication.
Roy Hunt’s tinnitus occurred after a workplace accident.
A long-distance truck driver, he was loading a forklift truck on to a low-loader in April 1993 when it fell over, trapping him underneath. His left ear was partially severed.
“While my ear was sewn back on and I was only in hospital for a week, it was about six months later when I tried moving heavy machines again that I really noticed the tinnitus. I’d describe it as a buzz, something like the static you get between radio frequencies.”
Roy noticed that if he stayed in a quiet environment he could hear the noise and cope with it, but if he returned from a day in a noisy environment it was almost intolerable. He was forced to pursue a more academic lifestyle due to his tinnitus, he says. As well as enrolling in an Open University course in 1995, he began helping his wife, Helen, to run their stationery shop instead of truck driving.
NOISY MACHINES made it worse
One week he had to help his Dad out by driving a dragline.
“It was a really noisy machine used for clearing silt from ponds in quarries to help with the processing of gravel. From the first day I got into it, it affected me badly,” Roy says.
“When I’d come home the noise in my head would rocket. I got aggressive and angry because I felt that every day I was doing the work I was actually harming myself and getting worse.
“After a few days, I reluctantly told my father that I couldn’t do the job because the noise was getting to me. He understood because in the past I had never minded being on those machines. I felt bad about that – he was 30 years older than I was and there I was having to leave the job and come home because I couldn’t stand the noise anymore.”
However, the couple’s stationery shop closed after four years in business, so Roy had to consider new work options.
“My father and I went back into the crane hire business again and I bought myself miner’s quality ear muffs in the hope that they’d help. They were the best muffs you could get but I found that they filtered the sound so much that I didn’t have the same sense of what I was doing. I realised that they were only a stop gap as I was getting severe headaches too. So, in the end, I just focused on organising the work and doing the books rather than driving the crane.
“The tinnitus was making it all too difficult for me. The minute I sat down to my dinner in the evening the noise started. It was there all along but the noisy environment during the day made it so much worse.”
WHAT CAN HELP IF YOU HAVE TINNITUS
Roy has experimented over the years to find ways of alleviating his tinnitus.
“A radio in the background helps,” he says. “There are a lot of factors that come into play. Listening to TV means you won’t focus on the noise. I used to find that the tinnitus was worse in winter too. I don’t know why that was but the colder it was the worse the noise was. One thing I found helpful when I was trying to get to sleep was to rub my hands in circular motion on my ears for four or five minutes.”
Roy believes that he has now accepted his condition.
“I’ve accepted it because I’ve adapted. I’m involved in freelance journalism now but my biggest regret is that I had to leave long-distance driving. It was work I enjoyed.”
TINNITUS RETRAINING THERAPY
Roy has had the benefit of TRT (Tinnitus Retraining Therapy) provided by DeafHear, the charity that supports those with hearing problems.
“It has been a big help. They explain to you how your hearing works and what exactly is going on in your head and how you can habituate (get used) to it over time, to some degree.
“The goal is to retrain your mind to accept the noise and adapt to it. The noise won’t go away but by focussing on something else you won’t hear it as much.”
Tinnitus is difficult to explain to people, he adds.
“You can’t show the problem to anyone so no one can tell how bad it is. I suppose that goes for a lot of complaints, but it did totally change the course of my life because I had to give up being a truck driver. Even though a modern lorry is quiet, whatever is in it – whether it’s the vibration through the wheels or the fact that on long days you’d have the window down and you’d hear the traffic hammering by all the time – it makes the tinnitus worse, so I’m just better off staying away from it.”
WHAT IS TINNITUS?
Tinnitus is the term for noises that are heard in the ears or in the head. It affects one in 10 Irish people.
IS THERE A CURE?
Occasionally, the cause is treatable. Antibiotics can clear up an infection of the middle ear, wax can be removed and minor surgery can sometimes help.
If there is permanent damage to the function of the inner ear hair cells there is currently no wonder drug or operation that will help.
HABITUATION - WHY WE TUNE OUT SOUNDS
Generally, the brain listens to all the sounds going on around us and then decides which ones it wants us to listen to.
Normally it ignores sound that it thinks aren’t important, such as clocks ticking or traffic, for example. That’s because our brains are bored listening to these particular noises so they just ignore them until they become unimportant. This is called habituation.
When something new happens, like a problem with our hearing, the brain sometimes forgets to cancel out sounds or it focuses on certain noises by mistake. Sometimes silence makes tinnitus worse and noisy environments can trigger it.
WHAT WILL HELP?
Your doctor can refer you to an ENT (ear, nose and throat) consultant. Treatments may include:
• A hearing aid – this may mask or reduce tinnitus.• A tinnitus masker often known as a white noise generator. This looks like a hearing aid and generates a gentle sound to divert listener’s attention from the tinnitus. • Relaxation therapy such as stress management and relaxation CDs• Counselling – an essential part of successful tinnitus management.• Medication for anxiety, sleeping problems, depression.• Surgery for abnormalities in blood or muscles in or near the ear.TRT
Tinnitus Retraining Therapy (TRT) is now available at all the DeafHear centres around the country.
Ring the Irish Tinnitus Association number on 01-8175-700 to get details of your nearest DeafHear office as well as to receive information, help and advice.
The website for the Irish Tinnitus Association is www.deafhear.ie. Email ita@deafhear.ie
>> Information
DON’T FEEL ALONE – GET SUPPORT
Jean Scott, chair and founder of the Irish Tinnitus Association, says that self-help groups for those with tinnitus are very important.
“We want to ensure that people with tinnitus don’t feel alone with the condition,” she says. “This is particularly important for the elderly and those living in isolated locations.”
In all cases of tinnitus, Jean says, appropriate counselling is essential. This should be combined with relaxation techniques to alleviate the fears and anxieties that people may have about their tinnitus.
“The worry that tinnitus may indicate serious disease, or advancing deafness, can usually be met with reassurance that tinnitus is harmless and that the common, natural sequence is for people to get used to it so that, in time, it becomes much less noticeable and intrusive,” she says.
Jean, who has tinnitus herself, is also vice-president of the British Tinnitus Association.
WHERE CAN I GET PRODUCTS To HELP?
Tinnitus maskers, CDs and accessories can be ordered through www.DeafHear.ie/shop. There are two new more expensive products on the market now aimed at helping those with tinnitus – the Mutebutton and Sound Relief. But what is the Irish Tinnitus Association’s standpoint on them?
Jean Scott says: “The Irish Tinnitus Association has been supportive of any research undertaken in the treatment of tinnitus. In this regard, we are, in our terms, cautiously optimistic in our approach to all scientifically based research into treatments for tinnitus. We are a small organisation of unpaid volunteers and one of our aims is to provide information on the condition of tinnitus. We make no claims of either medical or scientific expertise in the area of tinnitus and therefore have a policy that we do not endorse any specific tinnitus products or treatments.
“While it is wonderful that these two devices are now available in Ireland, if anyone requests information on them we pass on the following details:
• www.mutebutton.ie (audiology partner the Neuromod Clinic 01 6459497 and• www.restoredhearing.com (Sound Relief – BT Young Scientists Award winners 2010).”DATES FOR YOUR DIARY
• Tinnitus Awareness Week runs from 8-12 February. The focus is Raising Awareness of Tinnitus in Childhood. • 20th anniversary meeting: The Irish Tinnitus Association, Saturday 28 May 2016 at Ashling Hotel, Parkgate Street, Dublin 8. There will be a lineup of international speakers. See www.deafhear.ie
Tinnitus can have many causes, including ageing, loud noise exposure, illness, injury and infection. It can also be a side effect of some medication.
Roy Hunt’s tinnitus occurred after a workplace accident.
A long-distance truck driver, he was loading a forklift truck on to a low-loader in April 1993 when it fell over, trapping him underneath. His left ear was partially severed.
“While my ear was sewn back on and I was only in hospital for a week, it was about six months later when I tried moving heavy machines again that I really noticed the tinnitus. I’d describe it as a buzz, something like the static you get between radio frequencies.”
Roy noticed that if he stayed in a quiet environment he could hear the noise and cope with it, but if he returned from a day in a noisy environment it was almost intolerable. He was forced to pursue a more academic lifestyle due to his tinnitus, he says. As well as enrolling in an Open University course in 1995, he began helping his wife, Helen, to run their stationery shop instead of truck driving.
NOISY MACHINES made it worse
One week he had to help his Dad out by driving a dragline.
“It was a really noisy machine used for clearing silt from ponds in quarries to help with the processing of gravel. From the first day I got into it, it affected me badly,” Roy says.
“When I’d come home the noise in my head would rocket. I got aggressive and angry because I felt that every day I was doing the work I was actually harming myself and getting worse.
“After a few days, I reluctantly told my father that I couldn’t do the job because the noise was getting to me. He understood because in the past I had never minded being on those machines. I felt bad about that – he was 30 years older than I was and there I was having to leave the job and come home because I couldn’t stand the noise anymore.”
However, the couple’s stationery shop closed after four years in business, so Roy had to consider new work options.
“My father and I went back into the crane hire business again and I bought myself miner’s quality ear muffs in the hope that they’d help. They were the best muffs you could get but I found that they filtered the sound so much that I didn’t have the same sense of what I was doing. I realised that they were only a stop gap as I was getting severe headaches too. So, in the end, I just focused on organising the work and doing the books rather than driving the crane.
“The tinnitus was making it all too difficult for me. The minute I sat down to my dinner in the evening the noise started. It was there all along but the noisy environment during the day made it so much worse.”
WHAT CAN HELP IF YOU HAVE TINNITUS
Roy has experimented over the years to find ways of alleviating his tinnitus.
“A radio in the background helps,” he says. “There are a lot of factors that come into play. Listening to TV means you won’t focus on the noise. I used to find that the tinnitus was worse in winter too. I don’t know why that was but the colder it was the worse the noise was. One thing I found helpful when I was trying to get to sleep was to rub my hands in circular motion on my ears for four or five minutes.”
Roy believes that he has now accepted his condition.
“I’ve accepted it because I’ve adapted. I’m involved in freelance journalism now but my biggest regret is that I had to leave long-distance driving. It was work I enjoyed.”
TINNITUS RETRAINING THERAPY
Roy has had the benefit of TRT (Tinnitus Retraining Therapy) provided by DeafHear, the charity that supports those with hearing problems.
“It has been a big help. They explain to you how your hearing works and what exactly is going on in your head and how you can habituate (get used) to it over time, to some degree.
“The goal is to retrain your mind to accept the noise and adapt to it. The noise won’t go away but by focussing on something else you won’t hear it as much.”
Tinnitus is difficult to explain to people, he adds.
“You can’t show the problem to anyone so no one can tell how bad it is. I suppose that goes for a lot of complaints, but it did totally change the course of my life because I had to give up being a truck driver. Even though a modern lorry is quiet, whatever is in it – whether it’s the vibration through the wheels or the fact that on long days you’d have the window down and you’d hear the traffic hammering by all the time – it makes the tinnitus worse, so I’m just better off staying away from it.”
WHAT IS TINNITUS?
Tinnitus is the term for noises that are heard in the ears or in the head. It affects one in 10 Irish people.
IS THERE A CURE?
Occasionally, the cause is treatable. Antibiotics can clear up an infection of the middle ear, wax can be removed and minor surgery can sometimes help.
If there is permanent damage to the function of the inner ear hair cells there is currently no wonder drug or operation that will help.
HABITUATION - WHY WE TUNE OUT SOUNDS
Generally, the brain listens to all the sounds going on around us and then decides which ones it wants us to listen to.
Normally it ignores sound that it thinks aren’t important, such as clocks ticking or traffic, for example. That’s because our brains are bored listening to these particular noises so they just ignore them until they become unimportant. This is called habituation.
When something new happens, like a problem with our hearing, the brain sometimes forgets to cancel out sounds or it focuses on certain noises by mistake. Sometimes silence makes tinnitus worse and noisy environments can trigger it.
WHAT WILL HELP?
Your doctor can refer you to an ENT (ear, nose and throat) consultant. Treatments may include:
• A hearing aid – this may mask or reduce tinnitus.• A tinnitus masker often known as a white noise generator. This looks like a hearing aid and generates a gentle sound to divert listener’s attention from the tinnitus. • Relaxation therapy such as stress management and relaxation CDs• Counselling – an essential part of successful tinnitus management.• Medication for anxiety, sleeping problems, depression.• Surgery for abnormalities in blood or muscles in or near the ear.TRT
Tinnitus Retraining Therapy (TRT) is now available at all the DeafHear centres around the country.
Ring the Irish Tinnitus Association number on 01-8175-700 to get details of your nearest DeafHear office as well as to receive information, help and advice.
The website for the Irish Tinnitus Association is www.deafhear.ie. Email ita@deafhear.ie
>> Information
DON’T FEEL ALONE – GET SUPPORT
Jean Scott, chair and founder of the Irish Tinnitus Association, says that self-help groups for those with tinnitus are very important.
“We want to ensure that people with tinnitus don’t feel alone with the condition,” she says. “This is particularly important for the elderly and those living in isolated locations.”
In all cases of tinnitus, Jean says, appropriate counselling is essential. This should be combined with relaxation techniques to alleviate the fears and anxieties that people may have about their tinnitus.
“The worry that tinnitus may indicate serious disease, or advancing deafness, can usually be met with reassurance that tinnitus is harmless and that the common, natural sequence is for people to get used to it so that, in time, it becomes much less noticeable and intrusive,” she says.
Jean, who has tinnitus herself, is also vice-president of the British Tinnitus Association.
WHERE CAN I GET PRODUCTS To HELP?
Tinnitus maskers, CDs and accessories can be ordered through www.DeafHear.ie/shop. There are two new more expensive products on the market now aimed at helping those with tinnitus – the Mutebutton and Sound Relief. But what is the Irish Tinnitus Association’s standpoint on them?
Jean Scott says: “The Irish Tinnitus Association has been supportive of any research undertaken in the treatment of tinnitus. In this regard, we are, in our terms, cautiously optimistic in our approach to all scientifically based research into treatments for tinnitus. We are a small organisation of unpaid volunteers and one of our aims is to provide information on the condition of tinnitus. We make no claims of either medical or scientific expertise in the area of tinnitus and therefore have a policy that we do not endorse any specific tinnitus products or treatments.
“While it is wonderful that these two devices are now available in Ireland, if anyone requests information on them we pass on the following details:
• www.mutebutton.ie (audiology partner the Neuromod Clinic 01 6459497 and• www.restoredhearing.com (Sound Relief – BT Young Scientists Award winners 2010).”DATES FOR YOUR DIARY
• Tinnitus Awareness Week runs from 8-12 February. The focus is Raising Awareness of Tinnitus in Childhood. • 20th anniversary meeting: The Irish Tinnitus Association, Saturday 28 May 2016 at Ashling Hotel, Parkgate Street, Dublin 8. There will be a lineup of international speakers. See www.deafhear.ie 
SHARING OPTIONS