Sidney Edward Britton of Hitchin, Hertfordshire, is still trying to cope with tinnitus, 18 years after it first began.
It’s not loud noises but the deafening silences that bother him the most. And now that he’s retired, the 65-year-old is struggling to live with the symptom. Even as he fights for sanity, the father of two is appalled at the lack of awareness about tinnitus and the lax attitude towards funding for research into its causes and cures.
Sydney is not sure if a lifetime spent working on building sites was responsible for his distress, or if it was hereditary since an aunt suffered from tinnitus and so does a cousin. But he remembers getting a severe head cold that caused dizziness in January 1989. Thereafter, a whistling sound developed in one ear that refused to go away. It later became worse and spread to both ears, becoming a hissing and a singeing sound, like “the sound of silence turned up several times”.
“The first four to five years was hell”, recalls Sidney. “It was absolute despair. I started cowering from noise. I became deeply depressed and suicidal. My two children were teenagers at the time, and it was terrible for them and for me. I remember a family holiday to Devon turning into a nightmare.”
Eventually, it was loud noise that helped him cope. Work in the daytime was fine, but the silence at home after work was difficult to deal with. “I tried everything, from white noise generators to hearing aids and tapes or CDs playing water and wave sounds. But the tinnitus maskers just add to the noise, while the hearing aids sometimes make the din louder. Water sounds work for me, and I still use them. I’ve learnt that it’s best to just let go. The more you try to combat tinnitus, the worse it gets because a subconscious fear builds up,” Sydney adds.
If there were more funds for research into the causes of tinnitus and treatments for it, then he would know for sure how he got it and maybe even get better over time. “People don’t realise how bad it is because they haven’t had it,” he says.
The UK-based charity Action for Tinnitus Research focuses on funding medical and scientific research in pursuit of a cure and raising awareness is a key part of its work. Operations director Nick Doughty said: “It is estimated that over five million people in the UK are affected by tinnitus and it can have a devastating effect on their quality of life. Not enough information is available about the very complex symptom and we are one of the few organisations determined to do something about it. We are committed to funding leading edge research and providing practical information to health professionals for the benefit of sufferers,” he added.
For more information on Action for Tinnitus Research, logon to the website at
www.tinnitus-research.org, e-mail help@tinnitus-research.org or telephone 0115 925 4065
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