Tinnitus, the sensational perception of sound in the ear or head has been with man since prehistoric era. Known to either be objective or subjective, tinnitus is one symptom that despite years of documentation as a human health issue, there has been little progress regarding its cure. While in some cases, the etiology of tinnitus is obvious (for example the predominance of tinnitus in Hollywood A-listers can be attributable to noise exposure), in others the cause is unknown.
The interesting fact regarding tinnitus is the way the sufferers convey their subjective feeling to their clinicians and other people. They often employ metaphors.
A metaphor is a figure of speech in which an expression is used to refer to something that it does not literally denote in order to suggest a similarity. The earliest first known use of metaphor in English language was during the European renaissance (Ref: WolframAlpha).
One Interesting difference between tinnitus in history and modern tinnitus is that the description in ancient literature was remarkably influenced by cultural factors. Theories such as "bewitched" by Ancient Egyptians, to "sensitivity to the divine " by Asian mystics and common pathophysiology with seizures (the Romans) were some of the reasons progress in tinnitus research stalled during those era. The modern theories of tinnitus generation focused on the anatomical sites of generation such as peripheral auditory structures, brain stem and cortex as well as other non-likely auditory mechanisms. Interestingly, A single theory to explain the heterogeneity of tinnitus is still being awaited
When confronted with the reality of unwanted noise/sound in the ear or head, the patient presents to ear care specialists who in turn are focused on deciding whether the tinnitus is an isolated symptom or coexist with others like hearing loss. However the poor correlation of tinnitus with auditory threshold, the intermittent or fluctuating nature of most tinnitus, the poor correlation of even some of the 'known' etiology with tinnitus (e.g. Only 20-40% of noise-induced hearing loss is associated with tinnitus) and the interesting roles played by the sufferers psychological overlay put the clinician in further quandary while trying to unravel the tinnitus.
Clients suffering from tinnitus, sensing the dilemma facing the clinician generally try as much to help by employing metaphors.
"The humming sound in my ear(s) is like a waterfall".
"My ear is buzzing like some crickets inside".
Now the interesting aspects is the way famous or more sophisticated sufferers describe their sensation.
Michelangelo wrote of his tinnitus: "A spider's web is hidden in one ear, and in the other, a cricket sings throughout the night".
Beethoven the composer described his tinnitus as “My ears whistle and buzz all day and night. I can say I am leading a wretched life.” He had a harsh "roaring" in his ears.
More recently, U2 - a musical group wrote the following song to describe tinnitus:
"...There's an insect in your ear, if you scratch it won't disappear, its gonna
itch and burn and sting, you wanna see what the scratching brings...waves that leave me out of reach,
breaking on your back like a beach, will we ever live in peace? as those that can't do, often have to preach,
to the ones, staring at the sun..."
It's interesting that 2 members of U2 suffered from tinnitus.
And the 2016 Nobel laureate for literature - Bob Dylan - wrote regarding his tinnitus:
"My ears are ringing, ringing like empty shells... (2x)
Well, it can't be no guitar player.Must be...convent bells"
So, while the physical aspect of tinnitus is often over shadowed by the emotional overlay, it is often the resulting construct - the sufferers' attempt to describe subjective sensation using metaphors, that wins the day.
Further Reading
- Hear. Res., 2017 vol. 344 pp. 265-274
- Front Aging Neurosci, 2016 vol. 8 pp. 265
- http://jnnp.bmj.com/content/83/8/765.extract.jpg.
