How tinnitus apps helped me find my own peace and quiet
by Corey Whelan
Illustration by Christopher Cruz
As a health writer, I often find myself succumbing to something akin to medical student syndrome: the constant worry that I have the condition I’m writing about. Every twinge is obviously cancer, every cough? Tuberculosis.
During the pandemic, I wrote many articles about hearing loss and tinnitus — two conditions that go together with regularity. When a good friend got severe tinnitus from an ear infection and didn’t leave home for months, I was officially sunk and convinced that somehow, someday, I too would get this awful condition. Unlike my earlier, unfounded fears of dreaded illnesses waiting to spring on me, tinnitus actually did show up — and so did solutions that helped me to cope.
What is tinnitus?
In subjective tinnitus, only you can hear the phantom sounds your brain creates. Illustration by Christopher Cruz.
Tinnitus is an audiological and neurological condition. According to the American Tinnitus Association, it affects 25 million adults in the United States.
Katie Koebel, M.Cl.Sc., an audiologist and senior manager of Audiology for HearingLife Canada explains that tinnitus is not a disease but, rather, a symptom. “Tinnitus is the perception of sounds that are not produced by sources outside of the body. Tinnitus sounds are a ‘phantom’ auditory perception that is generated somewhere within the auditory pathways,“ she explains.
The exact mechanism that causes tinnitus is not fully understood. A leading theory is that damage within the inner ear alters the communication pathway between the ears and the brain. Since less external sound reaches the brain, it compensates by creating internal sounds.
Tinnitus is often referred to as “ringing in the ears,” but tinnitus takes the form of whooshing, hissing, clicking, and for some, music. In my case, I have a veritable orchestra of rings, swooshes, and something undefinable that I’ve always thought of as the sound of liquid silver.
The vast majority of tinnitus cases — around 99% — are subjective. If you have subjective tinnitus, only you can hear the phantom sounds your brain creates. “Subjective tinnitus often, but not always, coexists with hearing loss. Often, damage to the auditory system causes both hearing loss and tinnitus. Sometimes, that damage doesn’t as yet impact hearing, but does cause tinnitus,” explains Dr. Melissa Heche, AuD, CCC-SLP/A, FAAA, doctor of audiology and clinical voice and swallowing pathologist at New York Speech and Hearing. Other causes of subjective tinnitus include ear damage from loud noise exposure, ear infections, medication side effects, and TMJ disorders.
In a small number of people, tinnitus is classified as objective. The most common type of tinnitus that often presents objectively is called pulsatile tinnitus. These sounds often parallel your own heartbeat, and can even be heard by a healthcare provider through a stethoscope. Pulsatile tinnitus is caused by problems within the carotid artery or jugular venous system. It dissipates when the underlying condition is fixed.
You can have tinnitus in one or both ears. I started noticing it in my left ear after a two-month odyssey that included a loud MRI, ear infections, and a COVID-19 infection — good times! When the dust settled, the ringing started. A pragmatic and empathetic doctor gently steered me away from obsessing about My Tinnitus Origin Story, which may or may not have had anything to do with any of those things. Instead, she guided me toward a future of hope and coping, which, for me, included heavy reliance on tinnitus apps.
Tinnitus treatments and how apps help
For some tinnitus sufferers, masking and meditation apps can help them reduce the attention they give the noise they hear. This also helps to reduce the anxiety that can make tinnitus symptoms worse. Illustration by Christopher Cruz.
Hearing aids, with or without apps, are the first line of defense for people who have tinnitus coupled with hearing loss. Hearing aids work by amplifying sound vibrations that enter the ear. “If you can bring back the audibility of external sounds through hearing aids, a patient’s internal sounds of tinnitus will be less noticeable to them,” explains Gemma Gray, MSc AuD, who is a director at HCP Learning and Development at HearUSA. Many hearing aids can be used to connect to dedicated apps that contain tinnitus tools.
I wasn’t a candidate for hearing aids, so my doctor recommended a mixed bag of treatments that included app use. The apps I used were an indispensable tool that helped get me through those early days of how will I live with this panic.
Like lots of people with tinnitus, I had trouble shifting my concentration away from the noise, which only makes everything worse. The more you notice the noise, the louder it gets. And that fuels anxiety, which can make tinnitus worse. To break this vicious cycle, I landed on a combination of masking and meditation apps.
For masking, I used a white noise app with a large library of water sounds, usually at night. I alternated between sounds like ‘gentle waterfall’ and ‘running shower.’ There is also a kitten purring sound that I found soothing, but admittedly might not be a good fit for everyone. During the day, I leaned on plain old ‘white noise’ and ‘electric fan.’ Those sounds helped tinnitus fade away, which allowed me to work without distraction.
Stress and anxiety management are key pieces of tinnitus treatment for many people. I used Headspace for guided meditations and anxiety relief.
Some apps, like Oto, include personalized coaching and tinnitus retraining therapy tools that support habituation by teaching the brain to ignore tinnitus sounds.
There are many excellent apps out there for tinnitus relief, so explore, play, and find what works for you. Dr. Heche recommends the Resound Relief app, which contains sound therapy tools in addition to meditation and relaxation exercises. However, she cautions that apps may not be enough to support habituation or provide complete tinnitus relief, especially if your condition is severe.
But what about a cure?
Tinnitus currently has no cure, but that’s not as bad as it sounds.
When I was first diagnosed, what panicked me at first was thinking about the nevers. I’ll never hear silence again. I’ll never be without tinnitus noise in the background of my life. But you know what? I hardly notice it now. Sometimes it gets intense, like after I sat through a very loud performance of Top Gun: Maverick (thanks, Tom!). But now I know I can control my perception of the sound and that the intensity will eventually die down. It may take minutes, hours, or even a day or two, but it always eventually fades and that knowledge brings me some degree of in-the-moment relief.
I used to daydream about winning the lottery and using the money to create a tinnitus-cure think tank. Maybe I’ll actually do that one day, but for now, the highly effective tools and strategies that make living with tinnitus bearable have my gratitude.
App use, as well as the passage of time, has helped my brain chill out about my flowing silver phantom noise. I may always have it, but it doesn’t have me anymore. And my friend who didn’t leave her house for months? She’s out and about now, going to clubs and dancing on tables. It doesn’t have her, either.
Don’t worry about the nevers — they really don’t exist. You can live with tinnitus. Stay calm, believe you’ll be ok, and keep looking for the solution that works for you.