Tinnitus :(

I have had tinnitus for about a year now, its getting worse, I have a permanent ringing in both ears but worse in the right, it can be very loud and cant sleep at night without meds, I am always tired, dizzy, my head pulsates, my concentration is bad, cant listen to radio or music as it really annoys me, and it seems that when out my ears seem to absorb all noises around me and likes to replay them constantly and it just gets louder, high pitched squeals( like when a microphone gets to close to its speakers) these can bring me to my knees. Whats weird is my hearings good most of the time, as long as I keep myself and surroundings quiet. Cant wear headphones( found out when getting tested) I collapsed, it was like being in a closed room everything was loud and echoing, not fun. Just writing this is depressing

 

Welcome. It is difficult to deal with tinnitus. But you seem to have symptoms of hyperacusis also. Every normal sound seems loud and piercingly hurtful. A few years back, I had ultra high pitch dog whistle T. Then severe hyperacusis joined in the misery. Life was tough and desperate. I thought my good life would be over and that I would never be able to overcome T & H. But today I live a normal and productive life, enjoying it abundantly. T is not an end game. So don't despair and don't lose hope. I wrote my success story and listed many helpful points which have helped me turn around from endless T suffering. For brevity I list the link below. Many other members get better too and write their success stories. Hope you read as many as you can to help boost your spirit. Take care & God bless.

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/from-darkness-to-light-how-i-recovered-from-tinnitus-hyperacusis.3148/

 

Hi Louise. I'm so sorry that you're having such a difficult time. We all know here how devastating tinnitus can be and feel.

It's good that you have meds to help you sleep, and hopefully a good doctor supporting you? I know psychiatrists can get a bad rap, but if you find the right one just having someone to listen can really be comforting. I know it helped me a great deal and as a bonus I had someone to monitor me and answer my questions in detail when I was getting help with the more severe anxiety, depression and sleep issues I faced in the first year or so of my T. I know Dr. Hubbard (on this forum) has a really helpful website for his practice, so that might be something to read. He has tinnitus so perhaps if it's a financial option for you, you could look into asking him about a phone conversation: http://cognitive-behavior-therapy.com/tinnitus-hyperacusis/

I rarely, if ever, use headphones anymore, and at first this felt like a major sacrifice (I used to wear them daily), but now it doesn't bother me anymore. Tinnitus is a traumatic change in a lot of people's lives (at least everyone who is on TT) and that takes a long time to adjust to, be patient with yourself.

I don't know much about your specific case, or how you feel it's gotten worse, but for me the anxiety was the worst. I eventually adjusted to the sound, but things like calm yoga, mindfulness and playing video games (or those online kind of lumosity like brain games) helped to distract me and calm my nervous system. It's really just about distracting your conscious mind while your brain adjusts to classifying tinnitus as background noise.

If you have the dizziness etc. I hope you go check things out with a doctor to rule out anything physical that could be helped/causing your T.

We're all here for you to vent, ask questions etc. Hang in there.