Forever hopeful

Hello @Forever hopeful
I’m so sorry your going through this …. Sending prayers x try and stay calm
I am sure you will get better, have faith x

If there's one thing I learned from long time members on here, is that tinnitus can vary wildly in the short term. Short spikes can be alarming and depressing, but they don't necessarily reflect the long-term trend. Which hopefully will be a downwards one!

Spikes can last a while and fluctuate rapidly. It'll eventually settle down. Please try too keep a positive mindset while this is happening, I know it's hard to do when it's loud and unruly but it'll get better in time.

Good morning @Forever hopeful, I hope you have more improvement today

Happy to hear that! Any improvement is good improvement :)

Yes! Great to hear :)

@Forever hopeful my audiologist recommended the " Resound tinnitus relief" app for masking if you are still looking for something to help with T. You can create your own sounds and mix and match. If you've not come across it already.

Had it for years and I’m using it now. I do use the mix and match. Thanks.

@Forever hopeful maybe try zoloft again on a lower dose and see how you get on with that?.

@Strawberryblonde. I’m considering but I was just reading some literature around tinnitus and SSRIs, particularly around the extra serotonin in the brain and how that can actually contribute to Tinnitus. I feel like we are damned if we do and we’re damned if we don’t.

Yeah it's a minefield when it comes to things like this unfortunately. Sometimes people benefit form ssris greatly, others it goes the opposite way.

If I end up in a loud event I say I took the best decisions with the knowledge I had at the time or that the situation was out of my control. Because it's one of these 2. It helps actually not being very reckless with your hearing as if you're healthy.

@BrOKeN_1 Can you come live me and tell me this every day? LOL the loathing and anxiety is making it worse. That’s what I feel when I first open my eyes in the morning.

Try to let it go. Be loving and compassionate with yourself. You wanted to live a bit; to enjoy something. You thought it through, you rightly took precautions. Unfortunately, things happen. Don't blame yourself. Look forward. Be positive like you were before. Focus on other stuff, as you have been doing. x

Life can certainly be and feel unfair at times @Forever hopeful ...but at one point, down the road, I feel certain that you will get better again. The only way is forward.

It's the luck of the draw with these things in life. It robs you of enjoyment and being carefree especially enjoying yourself at a party.

Hey, my birthday was on the 24th. Happy belated birthday

Thanks. That is a good idea. Are you on the US? Did your doc order it that way?

Hi,

Yes I am in the U.S.
My doctor is a complete idiot and told me there was no way to get a suspension made. I called a compound pharmacy and they told him how to write the prescription.

Maybe it was the stimulation of everything going on being it was a celebration? It should hopefully calm down soon.

I wore my earplugs constantly, which just made me focus more on my tinnitus because I could hear it louder. Just such a drag. 17 days out and no improvement. I am become so phonophobic, waking around with my decibel app constantly.

I notice my T more cause of constant ear plug (filtred) use when out and about. I think that's feeding my fear of the T cause I keep hearing it. It'll take a while to sort itself out and when the fear/worry subsides the T may go down to a more comfortable level once more. Just the it one day at a time :) sorry you are going through this.

Since it's impossible to block out, I listen to nature sounds and birdsong and try to focus on those sounds instead of my tinnitus.

I used crickets, but when those no longer worked, I turned to lower-pitch "babbling brook" sounds. Nothing high pitch to compete, but lower pitch to distract.

I still use my crickets at night. As much as they don't block out the reactive T completey. I still concentrate on it enough to distract me from my ringing ear and I managed to fall asleep last night and woke up once in the night. Chamomile tea and lavender spary was also used.

But like what did he say?

@Forever hopeful do you feel more relieved now you have been given more information regarding your situation?

@Strawberryblonde Yes.He made no promises. He did alleviate my concerns around hearing protection, which helped my guilt as I didn’t think I was getting enough protection. But he showed me I was based on his own testing of the same earplugs. He reinforced that my anxiety was perpetuating the spike because I wasn’t letting my brain do its job to settle it.

This forum is double-edged sword.

@Eliska, I’ve been trying to stay on the success stories but now I think I’ve officially read every single one 5 times. It’s all good till you see negative comments about someone having a success story.
I’ve also started meeting with the audiologist who is a tinnitus expert and actually running information that’s promulgated on the site by him. It is amazing that there is so much misinformation out there.

@Forever hopeful I also mainly read success stories however its too easy to slip down to horror stories and negative comments. But I get it, most members here on this forum are suffering and desperate.
For my mental health is better to stay away from forum as much as I can although my mind is occupated by T or by thoughts about T most of my waking hours.

He said he’s had it forever. Even before he went to college and had subsequent concussions while playing football. He said it was far worse during college and has improved over the years. He still get spikes if he has a cold. But he can sit in a loud restaurant and if he listens for it, he says he can hear it.

Oh, so he has it from TBI and not from cochlear degeneration, so of course loud environments don't affect it at all.

Might be quiet high frequency T, than actually loud T

@makeyourownluck I have not really noticed any improvement. It’ll be two weeks tomorrow since my T increased. I will also be finishing my high-dose steroids on Saturday. What strikes me is just how high frequency it is.

Some people report louder tinnitus when on steroids. Maybe things will calm down after they leave your system. I have my fingers crossed for you.

@makeyourownluck. Well, I’ve never had that problem before. But it could also be that steroids leads to increased anxiety and higher anxiety makes you more vigilant about listening for the noise. So maybe once they clear maybe the noise will reduce somewhat.

We are all different @Forever hopeful, so give it time. Please read my post in the link I sent you: Can I habituate to Variable Tinnitus? As I previously mentioned to you, start using low level sound enrichment to help reduce your oversensitivity to sound. All the best.

@Michael Leigh, I have read your post and have been following your suggestions. I do find that the low level sound does spike my tinnitus. Or at least I feel like it does. Which has never happened in the past. I think it’s the least noticeable when it’s completely quiet. That is something I’ve never experienced before. So I goes this is hyperacusis.

Silence, quiet rooms and surroundings aren't good for oversensitivity to sound, hyperacusis or tinnitus @Forever hopeful. Therefore, I advise trying to use the lowest volume possible for sound enrichment even if it's for a little while. It's important that you persist with it and take things slowly as this is the only way to overcome what you are experiencing.

Just my personal opinion, but fluctuation at this stage appears like a good sign! It could be your spike starting to settle naturally and not the klonopin.

Oh I pray I do pray

Please click on the link below and read my post: Can I habituate To Variable Tinnitus? You might find it helpful.
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/can-i-habituate-to-variable-tinnitus.47279/

I am so sorry. I know you have been dealing with this for a while. Yesterday I was looking through old posts from 2021 all the way back to 2015 of mine. Interestingly how many people are no longer on the site even from a year ago. Hopefully majority are getting better.

Don't be sorry. We are in this together X

They MyNoise app has many choices, and in many of them one can control the frequency band. Personally, I use the rain noise with just the two higher frequency bands on.

Thanks

@InfiniteLoop. Got the app. Surprisingly a blend of violet and pink noise seems to provide me the most relief. Which is really interesting because normally I don’t like those sounds. I’m usually more interested in nature sounds. But today was the first day that I felt like I had a little relief with some masking and sound therapy. Thanks.

Thank you.

Somebody (I forget.. my bad) turned me on to the tinnitus calmer beltone app. Try it out maybe. I'm really liking the breathing/meditation exercises. Plus it's free!

Thanks. I appreciate it.

OK that does sound positive. It is often hard to know what the case is with any degree of confidence. A lot of us are trying to help but a lot of the time we are just passing on information we have picked up somewhere. Personally, I irrigated my own ears 6 months ago and have no idea if I screwed up or not with excessive pressure - and I probably never will know whether I am the cause of my own ongoing T.

Well that may be true in your opinion. But he’s a man who suffered from and studied tinnitus for over 40 years and is out living his life. He also has a medical degree. So far, I have met one person on the site who actually went to med school. And no audiologists. Just saying.

@Stuart-T, I am sorry to hear. It’s hard to know sometimes what happened and why. My husband has tinnitus. He never protects his ears. It also doesn’t bother him. I don’t get it. I would be happy if it were lower pitched. Easier to mask.

Hello @Forever hopeful
It will get better,,,, I’m so sad that this has happened to you….
Just give it time x

I know that it takes time but is awful while waiting / not knowing. Hearing test in 3 weeks Hoping no change. I had no temporary hearing threshold change. None of the usual sxs you have after a concert because I was wearing ear protection. My husband, who has T, wore no ear protection. He had a 10 minute hearing threshold change He didn’t even think the concert was that loud.

I do not. Why?

You’ll be surprised to know that my ENT also has tinnitus. Their advice is always been go live your life and use noise protection.

I'm newer to this and if the T ever gets stable, lowers or goes im happy to abandon quite a few noisy things in life. Hearing protection doesnt stop heavy thrum, deep vibration sound. Goes right through. Hope you are feeling better. Hugs and support.

In my experience excess ear protection actually made my T much worse (I am a builder). Seems that what we view as protective noise reduction, our brains may well view as even more hearing loss which causes a spike/reaction, especially when used for long periods.