I have tinnitus and have had it for over forty years. I got it mainly from flying in helicopters and large multi engine patrol aircraft. The real kicker was having to stand next to two cylinders that had to be blown down as a part of quality readiness program. The two cylinders each had 750 cubic inches of volume at 5500 PSI. Blowing them down took about 2/10ths of a second. It was like standing next to 2 155mm cannons with no hearing protection. I have been left with a constant ringing in my ears and it took a long time to get used to it.
I had a great deal of difficulty to get to sleep because of the ringing. I also lost my high frequency hearing. Several years ago I purchased a device that was a white noise generator. It could also be programmed to simulate wave action, a running stream, a rainstorm and several other sounds. The device could adjust the volume and intensity as well as the frequency of the waves and the rain. It was fantastic when trying to get to sleep. Once asleep, it kept you under.
I gave the device to a friend who just had a baby. She said the baby would go to sleep in a matter of minutes. I contacted the manufacturer and they stopped making the device. I had given up hope until last week when I found a similar device in a Canadian tire store. Although it was not programmable it did have ten different sound tracks and it is totally digital. It took me several days to get my wife to allow me to play it in the bedroom but now she is hooked on it as well. This device is made by Conair and may be available in England. It does not run continuously as it has a 1-hour timer
These things are available for $39.94 Canadian. This includes Canadian taxes and air parcel post to either europe , the UK or, Oz or NZ. . There is one problem and that is it can’t be operated from the mains in the UK or Europe as it is designed to work on 110VAC. However, it has its’ own battery pack internal of the device. (Batteries not included)
If anyone is interested contact me via email and we’ll talk.
[ 12 November 2001: Message edited by: Lu Zuckerman ]