Careers, Home, and Family Life With Tinnitus

How has T effected every ones careers, home and family life? T has raised a lot of questions and I'm constantly thinking about my future with my family and what impact it's going to have. This aspect was the most devastating to me in the very beginning. I'm wondering how those of you who've managed and adjusted to live as normal as possible lives?

 

Wassup Jay!? I see you have been dealing with T slightly longer than me. Similarly, in the beginning (first 6-8 months), I was devastated!! I thought my life was over, in fact I almost decided to end it! I couldn't work for a time, and when I did my productivity was lame. I was such a psychological and emotional basketcase that I essentially shutdown with my wife and kids. Everything sucked!

But around the end of last year, I started to pull out of the tailspin I was in, and started clawing my way back into life. Bay Jan. this year I was functioning again as a husband and Dad (not at full capacity, but 75-80%). I was back at work and doing really well. I was enjoying life again!! In all honesty, I was pretty shocked Jay! I had resigned myself to the fact that the rest of my life was going to suck! Yet out of the blue, I was living again! Truly a blessing!

Now my T is the same as it's always been (high pitch/volume), even as I type right now. But I am able to deal with it. It's there, but I have accepted it and decided to, I hate to say it but, live with it. I would say that as of today I am living my life at 80% of what it was before the onset of T. Not totally ideal, but sooooooooo much better than it was a year ago!! I am an active husband, Dad, friend, and businessman. So thankful!!

(But, I would still like it to go away!! )

I wish you peace my TT friend!!

Jeff

 

I asked a similar question

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/thread...althy-marriage-with-tinnitus.4986/#post-49445

Tinnitus has changed my Marriage life, Family life and career.
It has made all three a struggle to maintain.

 

Jeff has said it all. I went through similar experience and for a time being a programmer analyst I was wondering how people could run programs I wrote during the tough days. I could hardly stay alive let alone focussed enough to write codes. LOL. But today I am also back to normal and functioning effectively in all aspects of my life. There is life, a good life, after T for sure.

 

Oh, I pray for the same outcome.

 

Hey JEFF!
My T started in early Spring 2012 and lasted only about 8 or 10 weeks or so. It was mild, I dismissed it as being a one time incident and moved on with my life. Fast forward to 2014 to the same time in Spring, I got T again but a lot louder and I panicked. It's been 10 weeks now (today actually) and it has subsided to some degree but I can't help but think about it becoming permanent at it's current level or in the future.

Thanks for your input!

 

Hi Jay,

Mine did effect me for a bit, took the edge of happiness away and made me a bit miserable at times. I'm through that now, still hear it loud and clear, good days and bad days etc, but I'm not far from my old self. Home life is fine these days.

I also changed my job because of it, had worked in a noisy environment and over-using foam earplugs gave me Hyperacusis. I went into a more boring office based role instead.

Over time you adjust, I found that I moved on and no longer resent the things I can't do. There's still a hell of a lot that I can do.

 

I have had tinnitus now for 9 months, high pitched, I am doing everything I used to do now, and feeling good, when I think back to the beginning, I would never of believed I would be in this position, I was a total wreck, probably on the verge of a nervous breakdown , affecting all my family,, and here comes the bombshell!, my wife got hold of me one afternoon and said, ken pull yourself together and stop being a pansy, I have had tinnitus for years and never told anyone including you, so pull yourself together, and from that day I have made remarkable progress.

 

Kenny, you literally just made me Laugh Out Loud dude!! I am stoked you are doing well and that you have a kick ass wife!!

 

Jay, let's remain hopeful it just goes away like last time!! Weird it comes on in the Spring. Do you suffer allergies in the Spring?? Wonder if there is some correlation?

Be well!

 

Yes im very allergic to tree pollens. Its number one on my list of reasons too.

 

What do you consider a noisy environment, decibel wise?

 

Hi,

I have a similar story, just a bit longer - I've had T for 32 years now - I'm 47. I had to change careers and now work in Finance/IT - all very quiet. I realise now that I did have Hyperacusis but didn't know it - that was a bigger problem than the T. Thesedays, a noisy environment is louder then normal conversation. So no cinema, clubs or pubs (unless very dull)...

 

Do you still have H?

 

My whole life is ruined, wasted.....
I went from having one horrible noise to having two, each ear different noise.
My husband blames me for being negative!!!!
Hmmmmm....can somebody please tell me what's positive in going from bad to worse

 

I just know. It's like an in-built noise meter, instinctively I'll keep away from certain sounds. It's as much about frequency as it is sound level; some frequencies feel a lot harsher than others at comparable volume levels.

I often think of construction guidance though, average of 85dB for 8 hours will cause damage. The time taken to cause damage lessens the louder the sound.

 

Out of curiosity, can't T people use hearing aids to cope with T? I read that most T comes with some degree of hearing loss so isn't hearing aids going to help us not "hear" the noises? My audiologist told me that I can start wearing the hearing aids even if I have non relevant sensorineural loss to prevent further damage because she thought Hearing loss gets worse with time and T makes hearing loss worse with time( I giggled in my mind at her belief) . She compared it with the vision glasses and how it prevents further damage if worn regularly.Also if hearing aids could have given relief from the noise, everybody on here would have used them to escape the noise and this board probably wouldn't have existed. Correct me if I am wrong

 

It is very hard to function normally when your spouse wants to do things that
"normal" couples want to do like go to social events,clubs,weddings graduations
etc... and all you are worried about is how loud it will be. You cannot blame
your spouse many times they do not understand how bad this condition is and
they suffer along with you. Try to live like you always did while protecting your
ears.