Tinnitus Week: How to spot it and support for those with the condition

Local TV

National charity Tinnitus UK is calling for more to be done to help support the 7.6 million people in the UK living with tinnitus. New research reveals a fifth of those living with the condition have experienced thoughts of self-harm and even suicide. But what exactly is Tinnitus? Well, Tinnitus UK describes it as ‘ultimately the sensation of hearing a sound when there is no external source for that sound. Someone with tinnitus may hear ringing, buzzing, hissing, whistling or other noises. Tinnitus can be there all the time or come and go.’

Transcript

00:00 Well, tinnitus is a really individual condition, so how people experience it varies from person

00:09 to person. For some people it's just maybe a passing annoyance, but for those that it

00:16 hits, it can hit very hard and it can have a big impact on their emotional and mental

00:24 well-being.

00:25 National charity Tinnitus UK is calling for more to be done to help support the 7.6 million

00:30 people in the UK living with tinnitus. New research reveals a fifth of those living with

00:35 the condition have experienced thoughts of self-harm and even suicide. But what exactly

00:40 is tinnitus? Well, Tinnitus UK describes it as ultimately the sensation of hearing a sound

00:45 when there is no external source for that sound.

00:48 And for some people, the pressure and the stress of living with tinnitus can lead to

01:04 thoughts of hopelessness and helplessness and even sadly, to thoughts of harming themselves

01:12 in some way.

01:14 Tinnitus Week tends to be held in the first week of February, this year falling between

01:18 the 5th and 11th. The week is hoped to educate the public about the causes, impact and management

01:24 of tinnitus.

01:25 It's any noise that you are hearing that isn't coming from an external source. And again,

01:33 the quality of noises that people can hear can vary. It can be hissing, it can be ringing,

01:38 it can be buzzing. It can even be snatches of music, something called musical tinnitus.

01:44 And for that, it can be really random. It's not like necessarily an earworm. You can hear

01:49 bizarre things. So if you're hearing noise and it's not an external source and nobody

01:55 else is hearing it because some people do worry that it's their neighbours or a factory

02:00 or air conditioning, nobody else is hearing it, then it's likely to be tinnitus.

02:06 Police UK also found that 85.7% of respondents who suffered from tinnitus suffered from sleep

02:11 disturbances with 8 out of 10 reporting low mood or anxiety.

02:17 But there are some common causes. One of the main preventable causes is exposure to loud

02:25 noise. So that can sometimes, yes, it can be listening too loudly to your headphones

02:31 or ear buds, whether that's music, whether that's gaming, whether that's your favourite

02:36 Netflix. But people can lose their hearing for a number of reasons, and that includes

02:41 getting older. Tinnitus is more common as we get older. Yeah, I mean, carers and people,

02:47 I mean, tinnitus can have an impact. Like say if it's impacting somebody, how they feel,

02:53 how they're living, then that's going to have an impact on who they're living with and who

02:56 they're interacting with. So all our support is open.

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