What’s that ringing in your ears? - Marc Fagelson

Travel into the auditory system to explore the constant ringing sensation of tinnitus, why it happens and how to treat it.

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Tinnitus has been bothering humanity since Ancient Babylon, plaguing everyone from Leonardo da Vinci to Charles Darwin. Today, roughly one in seven people worldwide experiences this auditory sensation. So what exactly is tinnitus, and where does this persistent sound come from? Marc Fagelson travels into the auditory system to explore the loss of silence.

Lesson by Marc Fagelson, directed by Zedem Media.

Thank you so much to our patrons for your support! Without you this video would not be possible! Mark Morris, Catherine Sverko, Misaki Sato, Tan YH, Ph.D., Rodrigo Carballo, SookKwan Loong, Bev Millar, Merit Gamertsfelder, Lex Azevedo, Noa Shore, Taylor Hunter, Kyle Nguyen, MJ Tan Mingjie, Cristóbal Moenne, Goh Xiang Ting Diana, Kevin Wong, Dawn Jordan, Yanira Santamaria, Prasanth Mathialagan, Savannah Scheelings, Susan Herder, Samuel Doerle, David Rosario, Dominik Kugelmann, Siamak H, Tracey Tobkin, Dwight Tevuk, Anthony Kudolo, Mrinalini, Yanuar Ashari, Ivan Todorović, Alex Schenkman, Brittiny Elman, Ryohky Araya, Paul Coupe, David Douglass, Ricardo Paredes, Bill Feaver, Eduardo Briceño, Arturo De Leon, Christophe Dessalles, Janie Jackson, Dr Luca Carpinelli, Heather Slater, Yuh Saito, Quentin Le Menez, Mattia Veltri, Fabian Amels, Sandra Tersluisen and PnDAA.

[Sashhh-mkgw]

It only gets worse when you think about the sound itself

[katgor]

One in seven people?! I thought that everyone has that.

[Rin]

5:14 The moment when the sound of the video disappeared was relieving, I wish I could make my tinnitus disappear like that, listen to the sound of silence again, I would cry with joy

[RXjkr]

I've had it for a good 15 years now. I've gotten so used to it that I can only really hear it if I think about it. Kinda like how you can breathe automatically until you think about it and then you take a few manual breaths until you become occupied with something else.

[Novasium]

Someone finally answered that question

[rhqfmpm]

Brain: You going to a quiet room?
Me: Yea
Brain: Wanna hear some sounds that I created?

[TheWorkingAussie]

Yeah, sometimes it definitely causes anxiety and stress. It's like a noise you can never turn off and it gets on your last nerve. I just always thought ringing was normal for everyone.

[ratulbanik]

I have had it since I was 15 y old. Seeing so many of you dealing with the same medical condition that I endure, it gives me a sense of not being alone. This silence is deafening. Thank you TED-ED for bringing us under one roof.

[PrimalKevYT]

I've had it my whole life, i always thought it was very normal but then in 2017 it went from white noise to a beep, i learned to live with it though, heck i don't even hear it as long as i don't think about it.

[creatived]

Me: laying down on my bed

Left ear: sorry, all I can do is

[Wanted]

I’ve never heard of subjective tinnitus before but I’ve definitely had it my entire life.

Whenever I told anyone they’d says it’s tinnitus but usually I was thinking the bad damaging kind but I can still hear really well.

Doesn’t matter where if I stop and pay attention I’ll hear the ringing.

[Ethan-ygme]

Literally one of my earliest memories in life was me wondering why quiet was such a loud high pitched sound, it was always normal to me and I have always thought that was just what quiet was lol honestly I just forget about the ringing entirely usually

[LightningShiva]

This was probably most peoples childhood questions

[Nitrinoxus]

Growing up, I legitimately assumed everybody had a high-pitched ringing in their ear.

[acidrien]

I never even thought about this in this way. I suspected that other people didn’t have this though. I remember as a child having to go get my ears tested, and the ear doctor would put on high pitched sounds like this one through some headphones to test my hearing. I never knew it was a common problem/phenomenon.

[dadbear]

I've always had severe anxiety with panic disorder and tinnitus, when you start having a breakdown that ringing can become deafening.

[tripleshing]

Horror movies:
"It's quiet, too quiet"
Hears the ringing
"There we go"

[SolitaryHipster]

As a kid I'd assumed that this humming\hissing ringing sound was literally the sound of absolute silence as I only could hear it at bed when trynna sleep. But then I learned it was actually tinnitus... :(

[Streek]

My whole life, I thought the faint ringing was normal for all people. Now I’m a bit sad knowing I’ll never know what true silence sounds like lol.

[JoseMolina-ijxx]

I do occasionally hear that odd ringing sound in my ear at random times, but I usually just ignore it. Another odd thing that happens in silence is that I can hear the capillaries in my brain pumping blood or the sound of electricity circulating in my head, too, if I attempt to go to sleep, but it's also uncommon.