One random night, I lay on my bed in my silent bedroom, and I felt that the silence is uncomfortable. Why, I asked myself, that the silence felt sharp, like I prefer the noise of my annoyingly loud dehumidifier, or the muffled sound of traffic in my old apartment?
I realized that the silence was ringing, in a high pitched noise that we all associate with being hit near the ears. My inner voice told myself: “man, you have tinnitus.”
Thinking back, that wasn’t the first time I thought that I have tinnitus, but I was probably in denial for years, or it just got louder. The sad part is that I’m only 26, and somehow, I feared getting tinnitus ever since my childhood.
Even worse, I just ordered a pair of headphones with ANC, and when I don’t play anything through it, the ringing gets very clear.
Was depressed for a few days, thinking that it’s not fair that I got it even though I don’t expose myself to loud noises often, I listen to music at a couple levels lower than my preference, and I don’t turn up my music to drown out noises.
But nothing in life is fair, and to compared to the suffering of others, this is only a mild discomfort. So I’ll try to keep positive about it, and be grateful that I still enjoy a comparatively luxurious life.
I’ll visit a doctor soon though!
Any of you have a similar experience? I’ll be happy to read your stories!
It’s just like Jesus, even though he’s brown, people keep on making the mistake of assuming that he’s white 😂 Jokes aside, I’ll look into it, I might need it in the office.
If for any reason you don’t quite like the noise video/track, it’s almost trivially easy to create your own white, brown, or pink noise track in an audio editor like Audacity. Then you can adjust the EQ, high/low filters, mix in other sounds, etc and really make it your personalized sleep track for offline listening (good for planes).
iOS can add background sound for dead spots in audio too. I like it for reminding me that the podcast ended while I’m working mindless tasks.