Welcome to The Buzz
A space for real stories, honest reflections, and small victories from life with tinnitus and hearing loss.
Here you’ll find comfort, perspective, and maybe even a laugh or two as we learn to live a little more peacefully with that damn noise.
The Day I First Heard the Ringing
By Marie
I still remember the moment it started ... That rushing, high-pitched sound. I wasn’t sure what to make of it at first. I looked around the room, thinking it was the fridge, the lights, something out there.
But it wasn’t. It was in here. In my head...? I was only 15. Maybe everyone heard noises in their ears sometimes. I really didn’t know. At first, I told myself it would pass. Maybe I was just tired. Maybe I’d been listening to music too loud that week, although I knew I hadn’t. But by the next morning, it was still there. A noise that didn’t belong. No off switch. No logic.
When It All Began
I was mucking around at home with my siblings. We were jumping around the living room, dancing, and bickering. All of a sudden, I fell over because I felt dizzy. It was strange. I couldn’t stand or walk, so I had to lie on the sofa and wait for the doctor. Before the doctor arrived, I was sick, and the dizzy feeling eased a little.
My parents were terrified.
That day turned out to be my first experience of Ménière’s disease, a condition that affects your balance. It’s unbelievably difficult to live with.
I was lucky that when I started working, I had the freedom to rest when I needed to. I worked locally, so if I had a dizzy spell, I’d go home, sleep for two hours, vomit at some point, then head back to finish my duties. It went on like that for a few years.
Thankfully, the Ménière’s fizzled out around twenty years ago. I still feel a bit queasy when I’m stressed, and I get that awful sense of impending doom. It remains one of my biggest fears ... that it could come back.
The Fear Stage
If you have tinnitus, I know exactly what’s running through your mind. What’s happening? Will it stop? Will I ever have silence again? I went down the same rabbit hole, pre-Google! These days, you might be frantically searching for answers, trying every remedy, desperate to make sense of it all. You’re spiralling into “WTF?” thoughts.
The truth is, that first stage is the hardest. You’re not imagining it. You’re not losing it. You’re just hearing something your brain hasn’t learned how to process yet.
My First Small Coping Steps
It took me a while to realise that panicking and worrying made everything worse. The more I listened for the ringing, the louder it became.
So my first steps weren’t fancy. They were simple, and they helped.
- I stopped chasing silence. I added soft background sounds like rain, gentle music, or a fan. It gave my brain something else to focus on and brought instant relief.
- I started breathing differently. Slow, steady breathing helped calm the stress response that made the sound spike.
- I reminded myself: this is not forever. The sound may stay, change, or fade, but my relationship with it is what really shapes how I feel day to day.
Acceptance (and a Second Noise)
If I could go back to that first week, I’d tell myself:
"You’re going to be okay. The sound will feel less intrusive once you stop fighting it."
The best thing you can do is accept that it’s there. That’s where your battle with tinnitus ends. I know this works because five years ago, a second sound started in my other ear. This time, I told myself, “Let’s just deal with it. There’s no battle here.”
Getting used to a second noise wasn’t easy. I’d say it was even harder — maybe because I was older, maybe because I was just tired. But the acceptance came faster, and with it, a strange kind of peace.
What’s Kind of Weird Now
You may not believe me, but I now fall asleep listening to my tinnitus. Yes, really. It’s become my own personal white noise. I no longer need distractions. Tinnitus isn’t the end of silence. It’s the start of learning a new skill — the ability to tune out what doesn’t matter. Including, sometimes, annoying people. Win-win.
Over to you
If you’ve just noticed your tinnitus, what’s helped you so far? Or if you’re further along this journey, what do you wish you’d known at the beginning?
Thanks for joining me.
Please remember: you are not alone.
You might be under-represented, but never alone.
Take care,
Marie
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I do not offer medical advice. I am not a doctor or a medical professional.
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