Tinnitus sufferers beg you to stop putting the "ear ringing" sound effect in every game

[Swamp Fox]

I'm begging you. We are begging you. Lately you can't watch a movie, tv show or play a game without an extremely high pitched "ear ringing" sound coming out of nowhere. This is done because the jarring, high pitched sound causes a psychological reaction.

Now imagine that you are fighting off suicide every day of your life because you have crippling tinnitus, and you literally always hear a high pitched whine like that at a volume so loud it feels like someone is screaming directly into your eardrum.

When tinnitus sufferers hear this "ear ringing" sound that is now in everything, it causes the symptoms to flare up. The sound in our brain gets louder. Our ears hurt, it causes psychological distress and our day, week or month is ruined. For some sufferers who have acclimatized to their disease, a sudden "ear ringing" whining sound can bring it right back. So much suffering and it can just instantly come back.

So I'm begging you....why does using an item cause a loud and shocking sound that physically and psychologically hurts me, when I can have no expectation that that will happen? This isn't a sensitivity, this is a disease and hearing the sound activates it. Please remove that ear ringing sound and replace it with a more creative, gave-a-damn-to-try, appropriate sound effect for use of the pliers. I suggest something that involves twisting celery stalks.

[YotsuMD]

There are so many disorders/phobias/whatever in the world that it's literally impossible to produce any media that will be able to take all of them into account. It's unfortunate for the people suffering from the crippling varieties of them, but it really isn't realistic to expect the world to change for their benefit, or people would have to make horror games without anything scary in them. I've had tinnitus myself all my life, and it can be exhausting. The only real way to manage it is to distract yourself from it with other noises, as paying attention to the ringing will only make it worse.
If you really suffer from it so badly that you're literally considering ending your life, then it's your responsibility to seek help, because this sounds like a problem that goes far beyond a 2 second long sound effect in a game. Demanding a game dev to change their product by basically placing your life and mental well-being in their hands is just straight up toxic.

[Nico]

I feel for OP. That must really suck to deal with, though at the same time I also like the sound effect. Having that high pitched ringing sound effect be toggle in video game settings would definitely be good as an accessibility feature, and I'm sure the reason such a simple setting isn't already prevalent is because of lack of awareness.