Deaf or Insane?

I have this ringing in my ears for more than 3 years. Maybe even more than 5 years. The kinda thing you have after goin’ to a concert: a high pitch tone and the sensation of slight pressure on your ears. Now, I’m not the kinda of guy that believes that ignorance is bliss, so I thought it was about time to see a doctor about this.

I didn’t have high hopes. My ears had to endure a lot of loud noise over the years: way too many concerts, many hours in large computer rooms, etc. I’ve done some reading on the matter and I am afraid that my hearing suffered permanent damage from all of that noise. I was even expecting my hearing to be less than average.

Much to my surprise, the hearing test showed that my hearing is just fine. That was sort of a relief. But even though I hear the test tones just fine, the ringing was often 10 times louder than the test tones. The bad news is that the doctor confirmed my fears: the ringing is probably due to damage to my inner ear and it is never gonna go away. There is no medication that will solve the problem. The ringing can be suppressed with anti-depressive medication.

Conclusion: my hearing is OK, the problem resides between my ears. I guess that makes me a little insane, or doesn’t it?