# Tinnitus // 19-3-19

I intended to whine about my tinnitus, then while digging through
gopherspace I found a new entry from [xmanmonk][1] and that put it again
into perspective. So I'll just write not whine!

Tinnitus is as diverse as people, I guess. Mine is less of the beeping or
whistling type (as the meaning of tinnitus might suggest), but rather kind
of a strong damping of certain intermediate frequencies in combination
with a low pitched hum and a high pitched continuous noise.

I have it since about 2003 (IIRC) when I was in my first job after studies
and let myself get stressed too much. One day, it started all of a sudden
like all the other cases of short-time tinnitus a lot of people now and
then get (and which disappears after a minute or so) -- and remained.
Of course I immediately understood the reason, but after it went away
some days later, I did not take it seriously, and just continued with my
exhausting way of hard working. So it returned about two weeks later,
and stayed since then; as if to drive home the point of "ok, so you
thought we were joking? well, then we stay here to make sure you will
always remember to better take care of your health!"

Fortunately, in my case it's not very loud, so I don't notice it during
normal conversation and everyday life. But when it's quiet, or in loud
environments, I always notice it. In a certain way, I'm grateful for
the regular reminder. To keep my work-life balance, in newspeak.

.:.

[1]: gopher://sdf.org:70/1/users/xmanmonk/