Pat Naughton, from Cork, “became acquainted” with his tinnitus in 1993. “We have been close ever since, inseparable even. We get along together but I can’t say we are friends.
“In the years since, I suppose we have come to an accommodation of sorts,” he says of his approach to coming to terms with it. “It’s based on a simple agreement: don’t trouble me too much and I will ignore your squatting on my property.”
He says this “arrangement” has worked fairly well over the years, with his tinnitus sometimes only making a bit of noise in the evenings or when he is ill or out of sorts.
He has also long since accepted that his tinnitus isn’t going to go away. “Funnily enough, he quietened down quite a bit once I stopped fighting him.”
As well as being a senior member of the Cork Tinnitus Association, Naughton is also the author of The Quest for Quiet: People's Experience of Tinnitus in Ireland, a research study published in 2004 on behalf of the Irish Tinnitus Association and funded by the National Disability Authority. He surveyed 73 people on their experiences of tinnitus, covering such issues as the effects of the condition during the early stages, and satisfaction with the responses of various medical professionals.
“The most significant negative finding was the lack of awareness of tinnitus and of how distressing it can be on the part of most medical professionals.”
Naughton says that as well as raising awareness of the condition, all tinnitus support groups are particularly keen to counter the common advice that nothing can be done for sufferers.
The most significant positive finding from the study, however, was that for the great majority of people, tinnitus becomes less of a problem as time goes by, he says.