Tinnitus and VM - any strategies to share?

Symptoms 🌡
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Hi all - does anyone suffer from tinnitus and/or ear pain/symptoms with their VM? In addition to my visual dependence problems (dizziness/shaky vision), on my bad days, I have a cyclical (every 2-3 minutes) buzzing tinnitus in my right ear (my right side is my problem side). Wondering if there are any strategies to relieve this symptom - realizing the my VM is the underlying cause for this and as I treat and hopefully stabilize my VM the tinnitus will improve. Thank you!

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I’m a lefty, lol - it sounds like it’s from my left ear.

So I completely empathise with you, it’s horrid, especially so initially.

The strategy for me:

  • Time - the perception of it and how much it annoys you does in any case dissipate over time
  • Eliminate or at least minimise caffeine and sugar!
  • Focus on sleep hygiene.

I’ve had it for so long now that it really doesn’t bother me as much and the one aspect of it that has improved a lot is how much less it distorts sounds - there was a period when I couldn’t enjoy playing the piano any more because the distortion of some of the notes was just too much.

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Yes, I have been suffering from persistent tinnitus in my right ear for years, along with dizziness, vertigo, and imbalance.

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Hi Rose - what strategies have you used to improve your symptoms especially the tinnitus? My tinnitus comes and goes in intervals, is accompanied by reduced visual acuity (aka dizziness) but lasts for only 3-5 seconds. When I’m having a bad day, the intervals can be quite short - sometimes every 3- 5 minutes. I’ve heard that white noise, or relaxing music in the background can help distract us from the tinnitus. Thanks for sharing and wishing you more dizzy free days. Amanda

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Single Sided Deaf in left ear, so I guess I’m a Lefty as well. I’ve been this way for 30 years. As time has gone on, I’ve lost hearing in the higher frequency range in my right ear, much like most people as they age. I’m 74 now and have a Behind The Ear hearing aid for the right ear and a Bone Conduction hearing aid for the left side by sending the sound picked up on the left side to the right ear using the bones in the skull.

I’ve learned to ignore the tinnitus only from years of growing accustomed to it. My brain has learned to filter it out so that it is ignored. I now only hear the tinnitus on a few occasions:

  • When it is extremely quiet.
  • When it is very loud. On these occasions, the tinnitus is accompanied by hyperacusis.
  • When I hear it mentioned in a conversation, read it somewhere or it’s brought to my attention in some way or another.

I’m told this is Habituation. whatever you call it, there isn’t any magic pill or exercise, there was just years of becoming used to it.

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