I can't remember a time when I haven't heard the ringing high pitch sound in my head. I thought everyone heard it when I was a kid, until I found out that no one else did.

"Do you hear that?" 
"Hear what?"

Hmmm… I finally stopped asking and decided that I was better off not broadcasting about that I heard things that no one else heard.  It wasn't till I was about 17 that I found out I wasn't insane.  Fortunately, having heard it since, I assume birth…  my coping skills are a part of my everyday existence and I have learned to ignore it's constant presence most of the time.  I have daily episodes however that blast my head far louder that the normal ring. Those episodes absolutely disrupt my thoughts and activities to the point where all I can focus on is the excessive ringing and wait for it to die back down to a manageable level again.

The quiet times are the worst.  Quiet time is not quiet for me, in any way.  Falling asleep seems next to impossible most nights and likely why I can't turn my thoughts off very well, I assume it's one of my coping mechanisms.  Distraction, other noises, and simply ignoring is how I deal with it. 

I feel for anyone who has this condition, but mostly for those who hear it louder than I do.  If the sound I hear during the blast episodes was full time, I'm pretty sure I would qualify for insane by now.  40 years of this and counting… there is no cure and I can't see there ever will be one.  It's not tangible, it can't be seen or heard by physicians.  There are no physical mechanics to be cured that we know of.

If people only knew the reality of Tinitus, they would not do the things that are known to actually cause it.  Protect your ears people, seriously.  You don't want this life.  Make kids spend a school day with the sound I hear in my head piped in over speakers.  Tell them to do their schoolwork and ignore it.  At the end of the day turn it off and ask everyone if they'd like that to be their life for real.  I think it would stop many from blasting the music that causes this.  I really do.  If those who normally hear actual silence knew what it was like and the reality of living every day employing coping mechanisms just to be able to get by…  Well, just don't do this to yourself.  For most, it actually can be prevented.  Unless you're born with it, that is.

Put your ear up to a tube style TV and turn it on with no volume.  Welcome to my life…