After years in the building industry, Dougie knows how damaging noise can be. But nothing prepared him for the tinnitus that now impacts his life. Living in Cambridgeshire with his wife Sue, Dougie works part‑time and keeps active on the golf course, but tinnitus has become a daily challenge he can’t switch off.
Here, Dougie shares how it began, what helps him, and why hearing protection in construction matters.
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Noticing tinnitus after a period of stress
I have Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and asthma, so during Covid I was high-risk and had to be very, very careful. I’d stay in my room on my own and my wife Sue would feed me toast under the door (which did help my diet I suppose!). I was out in the garden one day and I had a heart attack. I ended up in hospital for six days which, during Covid, was frightening.
Just after the pandemic, I noticed this high-pitched ringing and hissing in my ears. I thought it was a cold and I’d try to blow my nose, or I’d hold my nose and blow my ears out, like when you’re on a plane. But it didn’t go away.
From quiet to unbearable
When it first started, the tinnitus was very quiet. Then I noticed that it was getting louder and more regular, probably because I was listening for it.”
It’s got worse over this last year. Some days it’s really loud. I’ll put the television on to take my mind off it, but sometimes I’ll hear the tinnitus instead of the television.
If I had a broken hand, I could go to the doctor and he’d put me in a splint and it would get better. But with tinnitus, there’s nothing you can do to turn it off. Sometimes it’s so loud that I think that my wife must be able to hear it too, but she can’t. It can be quite frightening. Some days, it can really get you down.
When it’s bad, I try to concentrate on something else. I’ll get on the floor and play with the cat – I’ll do anything to distract me from it. Sometimes I can’t just sit in the house, so I’ll get up, put my coat on and go for a walk down the road.
What my tinnitus sounds like
If I could paint a picture of the tinnitus, I’d say it’s like water from a hose pipe constantly running into a swimming pool. It’s always there. On a good day you’ve got the quiet sound of the water going in, the small ripples in the water.
But on a bad day when you’re under stress, it’s like you’re squeezing the end of the hose pipe, forcing the water out, which makes a bigger sound and bigger ripples. That’s when you want to do anything you can to get back to normal, so that the water’s running normally again.
Keeping busy on the golf course
There are times when my tinnitus doesn’t bother me because I’m keeping busy. Working helps, and so does golf. I get out on the course for three and a half, four hours, come back in and have a drink with the boys. That all feels good because it takes my mind off my tinnitus.”
I’ll get home and it’s quiet, and that’s when I’ll hear the tinnitus. I’ll think, ‘Oh, that was good. I haven’t heard that at all today because I’ve been so busy.’
Separate bedtimes
They say that if you want a good night’s sleep, there should be no television – no blue light before bed.
But I have to go to bed with some noise in the room because for me, silence isn’t golden – it’s the worst thing. So I’ll go to bed early, put the television on and listen to that, and hopefully I’ll drop off. Sue doesn’t like going to bed with the television on, so she has to come up later. It means we don’t have much time together in the evenings.
Night‑time anxiety and finding distractions
Sometimes the tinnitus wakes me up in the middle of the night. It’s half three in the morning, pitch black, no noise, nothing going on. I’ll lie there listening to it and I’ll start getting panicky and anxious, worrying that the ringing will drive me mad. That’s when I want to talk to someone – I want to have that human interaction and reassurance that I’m not going to go mad. But I can’t wake Sue up at three or four in the morning.
My daughter Holly got me a gadget that plays music and white noise, and I’ve got two little speakers beside my bed. So sometimes I’ll lie there listening to that. Torrential rain is probably my favourite of the different sounds.
But there have been times when the tinnitus is so loud that I’ve thought, ‘I can’t put up with this. I have to get up.’ I can’t put the television on in the bedroom because that’s not fair on Sue. So I’ll go downstairs and watch some sort of comedy, like Would I Lie to You? or Mock the Week. Thank God for all the repeats on Dave on Sky!
I’ve always loved comedy and making people laugh. I’ve stood up in a pub and told jokes for two hours straight over Sunday dinner. Hearing laughter makes me happy.
Hearing protection in the building industry
When I entered the building industry in the 1970s, I was using very noisy tools like saws and cartridge guns for fixing timber to metal. You could be using those guns all day, and every time you shot it, the metal would give off a high-pitched ring. In those days, you might have found a pair of earmuffs on the site, but generally, there wasn’t any hearing protection. So that might be linked to my tinnitus.
I think things have moved on tremendously since then. We’ve got so many regulations in the building industry nowadays. Protection is mandatory at 85 decibels, and we try to enforce it.
I’ll say to people, ‘Get your defenders on, mate. You don’t want bloody ringing in your ears like I’ve got.’”
What a cure for tinnitus would mean
A cure for tinnitus would be life-changing for me, as I’d get a good night’s sleep. It would help my relationship with Sue, because we’d have more time together in the evening. She involves herself as much as she can and says she wishes she could take the tinnitus away from me, but she can’t, bless her.
If someone told me they had tinnitus, I’d tell them to get checked by a doctor and then go and look at RNID’s tinnitus guide. There’s all sorts in there to help you manage it and there’s advice for your family members too. It reminds you that you’re not alone.
