Everyone on the planet has, at least once in their lives, experienced the sensation of ringing in their ears after they’ve been exposed to a particularly loud noise.  This ringing occurs after the ears are exposed to any kind of loud noise no matter what it is ,a car crash, glass breaking on a tile floor, even fireworks going off too close.  For almost everyone the unpleasant, even annoying ringing will stop after the source of the noise is gone, usually with a minute or so ,the noise is very annoying while it’s happening but forgotten easily once it’s gone.  However, for some people, the ringing (or in some cases the hissing, whistling, rustling or even buzzing depending on the person) doesn’t stop ,even long after the cause of the ringing is long gone.

So what exactly is tinnitus, what causes it and what can set it off?  To put it simply, tinnitus is diagnosed when someone experiences prolonged ringing or other noises in their ears; in most cases, only the person who actually suffers from tinnitus can hear the noise.  Tinnitus occurs when the sensory hairs inside the cochlea of the inner ear become damaged in one way or another; these cells are the ear’s connection to the brain.  All kinds of sounds can set off a person’s tinnitus ,it can be a high-pitched sound or a low-pitched one; a loud noise or a very soft noise; the noise could be continuous or intermittent.

So then how are people supposed to go about coping with tinnitus if they have little to no control over when and where it occurs and even what causes it?  Unfortunately, there are no medications that will help sufferers get rid of their tinnitus; science simply hasn’t advanced that far yet.  Tinnitus occurs in people who have some sort of hearing damage so many people begin to use hearing aids to help not only improve their hearing but dull the annoying noise.  Many people find that using machines that put out any kind of white noise ,or even just having a TV on ,also helps.

Most people also turn to different kinds of therapies to help them cope with tinnitus since medications won’t really work.  Tinnitus retraining therapy helps people train their brains to block out the noise.  In the end, coping with tinnitus is often a case of mind over matter.