Report: Tinnitus No. 1 disability affecting veterans, active-duty service members

A recent report from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs revealed more than 10 percent of all veteran disability claims in fiscal year of 2011 were due to tinnitus, an early sign of hearing loss.In the military community, the most common cause of tinnitus is noise exposure, said Navy Lt. Amy McArthur, a Naval Hospital Camp Lejeune audiologist. Tinnitus is commonly described as a ringing in the ears, and can vary in degree from an uncommon, annoying occurrence to a constant, distracting and sometimes painful ringing noise. Read More HERE

I wonder how many British veterans suffer from Tinnitus? Mine is the worst it has ever been, I have it 24/7 and can only sleep due to sleeping pills, although they are wearing off and I'm finding it harder. The thought of having this forever is terrifying, but probable, PTSD & Tinnitus is not a good mix, I really don't know if I can carry on, there is no help, only medication and counselling.


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PTSD plus Tinnitus Make Everyday Noise Tough to Take

When Marc Fagelson, PhD, a professor of audiology at East Tennessee State University, noticed that some of his tinnitus patients rated themselves as more troubled by the condition than others, he completed an extensive chart review. These patients all had one thing in common: post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).“The first inkling I had that there might be some kind of relation came from clinical experience observing the patients I saw in the VA clinic,” Dr. Fagelson said. “The ones who had PTSD almost invariably were more bothered by their tinnitus than the patients who didn't.”Interactions between a person's psychological state and tinnitus are known to exist with respect to depression, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and a variety of other conditions. What makes the connection between tinnitus and PTSD special is the presence of overlapping neurological associations. Read More HERE

I have Tinnitus and PTSD and I'm sure having PTSD makes it all worse. I was given two hearing aids, I tried them but they didn't make any difference. I keep having panic attacks about hearing this awful noise for the rest of my life, most days the thought of suicide is in my mind, but I want to fight it but it seems impossible, I have had tinnitus for years but I used to only hear it when it was very quiet like at bed time, now its all the time. I recently went to a New Year party with my wife, I didn't drink and drove, there was a group playing and a lot of the people sat around the tables moved to the next room so they could talk, even with this loud group playing I could still hear my Tinnitus. I don't know what else to try, I do my Blog to keep myself active and walk my dog but my life is one big noise in both ears, I feel like I have been cursed.


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Tinnitus Update

Yesterday I went for my appointment at my local Audiologist department and a lovely lady fitted me with two hearing aids, they take some getting used to but I am persevering with  them, also she is sending me in the post two White Noise Generators, its good that I can get these on the NHS as I have looked at private firms and the cost for these would have been in the hundreds of pounds. Each hearing aid is set up for my relevant hearing loss, so I don’t have any volume controls, which I think is a good thing as I would probably have them set wrong, as for the WNGs I need to make sure when I use them that they are set below the noise of my Tinnitus. As for this Blog , Blogger have set up a new dashboard and it wont allow me to schedule posts which is very annoying as I now cant schedule when I am away from my PC , like last years holiday of two weeks which I successfully scheduled, trying to contact Google is practically impossible, I have left a message of their forum, so if there is no Mil Babe early in the morning you know why! Does anyone else use Blogger and have this problem?