Hi all,
I just developed a ringing in my right ear.  It is high pitched and never
goes away, although I can forget about it sometimes.  I can hear computer
monitors when they are displaying nothing.  I believe the cause is stress,
including my son's autism diagnosis, a daughter that I thought might be deaf
(but turned out not to be), and the general stress of having a newborn
starting July 27.  I think it started when I took my two older kids on a
camping trip and got a max of 30 minutes sleep.  I am almost 36, and my body
just feels like it was not designed for this abuse.

I went to the ENT and he said I had no hearing loss.  I had an MRI, which I
have results this week, although the ENT told me it is most likely that it
will reveal nothing.  I'm trying to develop coping strategies, tell me what
you think.

1.    No checking by putting my finger in my ear as an earplug.  I have
noticed that the action of checking on tinnitus actually causes tinnitus,
especially increasing the stress level.  Before this, I made a rule that I
could listen for my tinnitus only about 1.5 seconds.  I believe that
listening for it causes it to come.

2.    I tried Ginko 2X per day, but didn't really see anyting in 4 weeks.
Maybe it helps at night.  Actually, it's probably the placebo effect.

3.    I will wait for my tinnitus to go away, or expect it to get better.  I
don't even expect to not notice it.  Maybe these things will happen, but
hoping for them makes the situation worse.  I thought that when my situation
improved and my stressors improved, the tinnitus would go away, but that
sort of fuels the anxiety.

4.    My goal is to program myself to believe that I can have joy an
fullfillment in my life regardless of this sound in my ear.    I want to
believe this, and believe this is possible, so I think that a hypnotist
might be helpful giving me such a suggestion.  Because this is where the
willpower really comes in.

5.   There is some sort of auditory retraining therapy, which seems the most
effective.  This is what I think my ENT will recommend.  I'll try anything.

6.    As for masking, I know they have hearing aids and that is great.  But
I wanted to try other therapies before I try to cover it up.  I read another
poster in another newsgroup that used a signal generator to create a tone
that was slightly lower in frequency than his tinnitus and it worked great
for him.  I was thinking of trying the same sort of thing, since I have
access to such equipment.

7.    I know, change my lifestyle.  But with 3 young kids, I am either at
work or watching kids and feel trapped in the situation.  We have no family
here and my wife also feels overwhelmed.  I have no free time.  I do my jump
rope 120 times after I get out of my car to work, and that's about all the
exercise routine I have time for.  I tried online weight watchers, and
perhaps this could help.  I have heard cutting salt can help with tinitus.

8.    These things make my tinnitus worse:
   (1)  Paying attention to it in any way, shape or form
   (2)  If I drink more than alcholic drink  I'm not a drinker, but
sometimes                 other people from work buy me some.  I am getting
more strict about             just saying no and getting water.
   (3)  When I come near any sort of monitor or TV set, I hear the high
pitched sound and it reminds me of my tinitus.  Besides reminding me, I
wonder if it agitates it as well.
   (4)  Baby screaming, because it keeps me from concentrating on anything
for too long.
    Here's things that make it better:
   (1)  My CPAP machine makes white noise at night, and I have no
problems sleeping.
   (2)  Any noise like crickets chirping or outdoor noise helps.  I think
the logic is that I reason that everybody hears these and are not bothered
by them, so why am I bothered by my tinitus.  It gives me satisfaction being
able to walk away from any sound and make it go away.
   (3)  Airplane jet engines completely mask my tinitus, but I have heard
that they can agitate this.  I do not know for sure what my situation is.
   (4)  Computer games are great, because they require my attention and
give me something else to focus on.  For that matter, thinking about
something else is the best way to deal with tinnitus for me, but that's not
always easy to do.
   (5)  Reading what others post and venting by writing long posts like
this.  On that topic, I probably should finish this up.

Any other suggestions to help cope with tinnitus?