Quieting the noise
Many people with tinnitus hear the classic ringing in the ears. For Jennifer Snell, it’s more like a maddening cacophony of some of the world’s most irritating noises.
“What I have in my head nonstop is the sound of fingernails on metal and the sound of a really high-pitched teakettle and the sound of a hiss, like pressure coming through a tiny hole,” says Snell, 48, who lives in Redondo Beach with her husband. They’re both retired from the insurance business.
Patients with tinnitus (pronounced ti-NIGHT-us or TIN-it-us) may also hear buzzing, humming, clicking, pulsing and whooshing. The sounds can seem to come from one or both ears, even the whole head, and they can be intermittent or continuous.
Nobody knows exactly what causes the phantom noises of tinnitus, a condition estimated to affect more than 50 million Americans, about 12 million of whom seek help for it, according to the American Tinnitus Assn.
Tinnitus is commonly associated with noise-induced hearing loss. Other possible factors include cardiovascular problems, jaw misalignment, some medications, earwax buildup, ear and sinus infections, head and neck trauma and, in rare cases, head tumors.
Snell’s noises began in her right ear and throughout her head after she had a root canal in January 2002. “That’s when my life ended as I knew it,” she says.
Not knowing why she was hearing noises that nobody else heard or what to do about them, she holed up at home. “I spent hours sitting in my bedroom closet rocking back and forth with a heating pad around my head and just crying,” she says. “I wrapped my head up and thought that would help.”
But the intrusive noises didn’t go away.
Suspecting there might be something in her ear, Snell tried in vain to wash it away. “I kept cleaning my ear out with baking soda and warm water,” she says.
The noises persisted -- and the anxiety grew. “It’s like being in your house and the fire alarm goes off and it never stops,” says Snell. “It creates an inner anxiety.”
Previously she had run five miles a day, participated in 10Ks and worked out at the gym four times a week. But she stopped exercising altogether when the noises began. The intense anxiety also prevented her from driving. She could barely sleep or eat.
Normally weighing 110 pounds, the 5-foot-4 inch Snell quickly began losing weight, eventually shedding almost 20 pounds.
Desperate for relief, she sought medical help but was shocked at what some doctors told her.
“I went to an ENT [ear, nose and throat doctor] who said ‘You’ll just learn to live with it’ and another who said ‘You’re probably just going through menopause,’ ” she says.
Being told there was no help only fueled her anxiety. “I was just in a panic,” she says.
Her husband suggested an appointment with his primary care physician, Dr. Robert Glazer in Torrance, who, much to her relief, said there was in fact help.
“Most of the time this is something that at some level you have to get used to and come to terms with,” Glazer says. “But it’s not that there’s nothing you can do about it.”
He says it’s important to first rule out any suspicious underlying factors, such as tumors or uncontrolled high blood pressure. With no signs of such problems in Snell, he prescribed an anti-anxiety medication and sleeping pills, and referred her to a therapist for what turned out to be a yearlong course of biofeedback and hypnosis to help her relax and learn to cope better with the noises. When the sleeping pills didn’t help, Snell switched to the antidepressant Elavil, which she says helped her finally get some rest.
She also went for massages to aid relaxation. And because silence can turn up the phantom noises, she began using low background sounds, such as the television and New Age music, to help mask them. At night, she uses a sound box that plays audio of ocean waves crashing, streams babbling and the wind blowing.
There is no single cure-all for tinnitus, no pill or surgery that promises a quick fix. Like Snell, many patients combine various treatments and self-help measures. Additional approaches include tinnitus retraining therapy (a method that uses sounds and counseling to help “retrain” the brain to block out the noises), acupuncture, hearing aids (for people with hearing loss, to bring back ambient noises that help mask the tinnitus), anti-seizure medicines and antihistamines.
Today, Snell is still taking the Elavil and the anti-anxiety medication Xanax. She also practices self-hypnosis and meditation at home and continues to rely on white noise around the clock. She limits herself to one cup of coffee a day, because caffeine is believed to worsen tinnitus.
She’s now much more at ease. The noises in her head haven’t gone quiet, but she has gradually learned how to cope with the tinnitus and minimize its interference with her life.
“I began to view it more as regular noise -- like hearing wind chimes or a car down the street -- and that took away a lot of the fear,” she says.
Snell has resumed many of the activities she enjoyed before the tinnitus started, such as running every day and training at the gym.
Some activities require adjustment. She can’t go out to dinner at busy restaurants because loud noise aggravates her condition. So when she dines out, she goes earlier, when it’s quieter. And with the help of earplugs and special headphones to block loud background noise, she can even accompany her husband to some USC football games.
Some days are better than others for Snell. But the condition doesn’t control her life anymore.
“Now I pretty much view this as a truck going by outside,” she says. “It helps me to realize it’s just noise, and it’s there.”
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Where to get help
* American Tinnitus Assn. For information about tinnitus and listings of healthcare providers in your area, go to www.ata.org or call (800) 634-8978.
* National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders. For information about this and other conditions, go to www.nidcd.nih.gov.
* Los Angeles Tinnitus Group,
a support group that meets the third Saturday of the month (except July, August and December) from 10 to
11:30 a.m. at 200 UCLA Medical Plaza, Room 206A. Contact Nelly Nigro at
(310) 474-9689.
* Self Help for Hard of Hearing People. For a list of local chapters, call (301) 657-2248 or go to www.shhh.org.
