About 25 years ago, my right ear started to ring and hasn't stopped since. It's at a very high pitch after a few months, eventually it didn't even bother me anymore. I just moved on with my life. That ear is a nuisance anyway. There's constant pressure in it. I have the sensation of a bubble on that side of my head. Hearing in it is poor. High pitched ringing that wasn't really very loud wasn't much by comparison.


About a year and a half ago, my other ear started to ring. The ringing was a lower pitch and seemed significantly louder. It made it difficult to hear much of anything else. I did some google searching to find hope for relief and I found messages in forums of sufferers contemplating suicide to be rid of it. I had similar thoughts and finding that other sufferers felt the same way made it seem more rational.

I had surgery on my original bad ear about 25 years ago. That's another long story. Essentially, I had a perforation in my eardrum that had gone untreated for years. It made a mess of my poor ear. I had an ear infection constantly for years before the surgery. Anyway, I'm supposed to see an ENT regularly because of it.

My ENT has asked about ringing in my ears in the past and I always told him that it didn't bother me. On the first visit after the explosion of ringing in my previously happy ear, I told him about it and explained it was unbearable.
He mentioned sound therapy with an audiologist and explained that it would alleviate it if I wanted to go that route. Then he suggested that I first try a supplement called lipo flavonoid. He claimed that it was the only supplement or medicine of any kind that has shown to be effective in studies. I decided to give it a shot.

After about a month or taking it, either the volume level of the ringing decreased or it simply didn't bother me as much anymore. I could surely hear it, but I decided it was okay.
For about a year, I've taken it as instructed. The ringing persists, but it's not so bad.

About a week ago, my current bottle emptied and I had forgotten to order more of it. I decided to see what would happen. Days passed and the ringing was still manageable. It was exciting because it looked like the reduction in annoyance was possibly permanent and that I no longer needed to pop those pills. Then last night, the noise exploded in that ear again. The ringing seemed almost deafening.

Anyway, I'm now even more sure that lipo flavonoid is helpful for me, at least. If you are a sufferer of tinnitus, I recommend giving it a shot. My ENT explained that it's not helpful for everyone. If it doesn't help after a few weeks, give up on it.

Since I had been spoiled for so long with tolerable ringing, I decided to check to see if there were any tinnitus sound therapy apps in the google play store.
There were several. On a whim, I decided to check out this one by spikything.com that cost $3:


It works!

I used it for about an hour while reading before going to sleep last night. During that time, the loudness of the ringing noticeably reduced. My understanding is that I'll need more time to get the full effect, but it seems wonderful so far. It's so great that I had to share it.
It aims to produce a tone of the same frequency of the ringing in the ears and then surrounds it with static. The user configures the frequency. It's not easy to get just right, but I apparently matched it close enough to find a benefit.