Is This True? Tinnitus Becomes Chronic After 3 Months?

I'll be the first to admit I believe far too much I read on the web but I've just read something on another Forum where someone wrote that T becomes chronic after 3 months because that's how long it takes the brain to establish a pattern with the sound. Once you have the pattern it will never go away.

I was feeling much more positive before reading that

Any truth to that?

 

What do the sound generators or maskers used in TRT is to try to change that pattern by making the neurons hang around the white noise they generate and create new synaptic connections.. As i know..

 

Nope, some people's T completely gone after 6 months, 1/2 years and up to 10 years (very very rare though).
I think there is even cases with longer period thanks to T's multiple causes anything is possible.
Even if T won't go away by itself, we will have effective treatment within 2-3 years and a cure would not be far.
And my T has reduced 70-80% after more than 6 months now and i believe it will disappear soon.
Let's keep the faith!

 

Thanks @EddyLee - I believe stress is a huge cause with mine so I'm working on reducing that and hoping with fingers crossed that it will reduce mine.
Unfortunately negativity finds a way to creep in sometimes.
Awesome news about yours reducing! I'm aiming for that

 

My mom has two friends who had suffered tinnitus for 2-2.5 years. What they say my mom is they can barely notice it only sometimes now. They both say that they are cured. I know that one of them had T after a stressfull period of when she also had taken antidepressant.

 

Hey Amelia: I think the three-month period is when tinnitus is considered "acute." That is the time period when certain medical interventions, like hyperbaric oxygen treatments, are most effective for some types of tinnitus ( but not all.) I think researchers consider tinnitus chronic at one year from onset.

Regardless, it's just a number. People's experience with the duration of their tinnitus, how long it takes them to habituate, varies hugely, as you can see from posters on this board. Many people have told me that after some time, they really don't notice their T anybmore, which is the same as not having it. My very elderly neighbor next door told me last night that yes, he too once had tinnitus for quite awhile...but it eventually "went away." That could mean it truly vanished or his brain learned to completely ignore it, which our brains can do.

I hear you about the negativity creeping in. I had a couple of loud days this week and was feeling very down. Went to a party last night and could barely talk to anyone, given I had to wear ear plugs. But it's all part of getting used to having tinnitus in your life. It's about accepting and learning new coping skills, just like a diabetic needs to learn how to eat differently and take insulin. Stress is your enemy, so it's good you are working on that. Acceptance, distraction and living the life you want to live are your friends. If cures and better treatments come, which I think they will, great. In the meantime, live in the now and live positive.

 

Amelia you shared my thoughts. I feel stress is a big part for me too.
Just reading book by Kevin Hogan,
Turn the volume down. Mentions 6 weeks as the point of acute.
Just searching for coping skills. Have done some acupuncture but too expensive too keep it up. Just signed up for a meditation class that is suggested for stress, depression and chronic illness. Also,
I find driving difficult, anyone else?

 

I know how you feel but NO, there's no truth to that. I went to an ENT 2 weeks after I got T and he said "this is for life". So, he had decided that my T was chronic (as in the medical term for "will never get well") straight from the get go. No need to say that "doctor" didn't impress me. There's no way of telling how long T will last and NO one at all can say it's for life! What does anyone know about that? No one can tell when anything becomes chronic, it's just a term or expression for something that doesn't go away by giving you a pill or ordering a surgery. Medical people are too narrow minded, they like to think in boxes and those boxes are usually small and have no windows or doors. There's no crystal ball to gaze into for answers about the future so don't trust anyone that says anything is for life or "chronic" as in forever. I don't like the word chronic cause it implies eternity which is meaningless.

We have T, a condition that can have many causes, thus meaning it can come and go as well. It can decrease and increase based on everything from stress, weather and food. It's nothing chronic about that as I see it. So in other words there's no meaning in deciding WHEN something becomes forever - cause nothing really is. I admit I was speculating about these matters myself this summer but as the weeks went by I just threw that luggage away. It was "chronic" if you like for me after a couple of weeks, meaning I had a bad feeling that it wouldn't just stop anytime soon. But that's just my personal feeling, something I felt. I have no idea what so ever how long anything will last. I had a mold for 29 years, one day it just disappeared. Go figures.

Thinking in terms of "chronic" is too devastating for me, not long ago I struggled with that term but I feel I have found a more useful strategy now. I feel by not focusing on eternity aspects I become more hopeful and less stressed. So my advice is to stop chasing an answer to when T becomes "chronic", as mentioned above that expression is very loose and the whole concept is pointless.

 

Great post, Per, thank you.

 

No most studies have come up with 1 year.
That's how long you have for your Tinnitus to go and this is the main reason I am confident mine will due to it going from ring to air sound in just 1 month.
Tinnitus changes and stuff sure there's ups and downs.
Great days,good days,bad days.
But here's the thing think of it this way.
Before Tinnitus there was something else in your life that bothered you.
We will always have bad stuff to deal with but that means we will also always have good stuff too and most of the times the good outweigh the bad.
Your Tinnitus can go, it's random a lot of people go all negative and say "It's unpredictable how can you know it will go" to them I say if it's unpredictable how can you know it will stay.
I have bad days and good days just like anyone else, I'm habituating slowly and getting used to it.
In just one month I went from high pitched intrusive tinnitus with heavy hyperacusis and suicidal thoughts to air tinnitus with no hyperacusis what-so-ever and generally as happy as I was before Tinnitus.
Hang it there dude.
All in all I give it about 3 more years till we have something that lowers Tinnitus substantially if not earlier.
In about 10 maybe maybe less a cure I hope.

 

Before Tinnitus there was something else in your life that bothered you.

Nailed it.

 

Thanks
It's not like I'm habituated yet far from it, I still have panic attacks albeit rarely.
The only thing that makes Tinnitus worse than say not having a girlfriend is that I can go out and get a girlfriend while I can't go out and get a pill for Tinnitus...YET.
Soon, I've been reading up on Tinnitus research and stuff and when you look at the progress they have made from 2012-2014 its astonishing.
Trust me when I say this in 10 years max a cure for Tinnitus is going to be found.
It may end up being the most useless thing ever like chewing some 146th type of weed that grows somewhere in bloody Africa that nullifies the signals or something.
There's also stem cell research which looks really promising.
Then you got AM-101
Mute Button (which will kick ass if it works as they have intended it to)
Then you have all the breakthroughs in Brain science (can't remember the name).
The cure might end up being some surgery on the brain, for instance I like the idea that they will develop a little implant that will basically block out the phantom signals.
You go they place a small chip in your brain and voila sweet silence.
There is great hope especially for us who are young and shit we got nothing but time (sry for the older dudes don't mean to be mean).
Something will come or perhaps there already is something and we just don't know it yet (which is extremely likely).
What about that Brazilian drug for people with drinking problems I read somewhere that it turned down if not cured Tinnitus in 87% of people who took it.
I think it's undergoing trials or something.
Point is just like worrying about when you will die,your job,your wife,your cat Tinnitus will fix itself.
Also for anyone reading this if you're worried about your Tinnitus turning up don't be.
While this website is GREAT it's filled to the brim with people who haven't done so well with Tinnitus.
The dudes who are happily living with it or have had it go away on its own are chillin' right now in silence rather than posting stuff about something they would rather just forget.
There's a dude on this site his name is Srdjan he's from Serbia like me, he has had his noise induced Tinnitus bugger off after 6 months or so.

 

I know doctors point to a year as chronic. But I have never seen any studies or heard of research statistics that point to this one year marker. @jazz ?
When does tinnitus exactly get coded in the brain? Nobody knows. You hear of tinnitus going away for some after 2 years. I know of a couple of people where it went away after 20 years - not habituation, completely gone.

 

There's really not general research rather statistics.
Most of the people who have had their Tinnitus go away say it went away after 1 month to 1 year.
There are cases where it went away even after 1 year but there aren't much of those.
As for those that it went away after 20 years, it might just be that they got used to the Tinnitus so much and it became such a low priority, actually a non priority sound that after that much time the brain just might have said fuck it and let the sound go.

 

Where are these detailed recorded medical statistics? Have researched high and low to find something valid on this. Not sure enough people stick with their ENT long enough to even record that one year mark. Most usually leave after the first appointment after the old "learn to live with it, there's nothing we can do" statement.

 

They aren't recorded.
Up until 2-3 years ago medicine couldn't give 2 shits about Tinnitus.
When you go to a hospital most doctors will just stuff you with some 300$ drug or something and send you on your way.
They can't do that for Tinnitus.
They can help by sending you to an audiologist at least then you get answers and tests and have peace of mind so you can move on eventually.
But no they don't like doing anything other than putting through some bullshit new drug that cures the flu while giving hair loss.
The 1 year mark is what I have mostly gathered around the internet.
A lot of people I have seen say their Tinnitus went away >1 year.
Some say more, some say less.
What I'm saying is sadly their is no direct research.
It's only what I have read and therefore deducted myself.
Next to that do you really think if yours went away you would be rushing to your ENT to tell him? I wouldn't I'd be happy as hell and never ever utter the word Tinnitus again, I wouldn't come back to this site and I sure as hell wouldn't post about it.
That's the point most of people who have had theirs go away just moved on, so did the habituated people.
It's like when your car brakes for instance, you research on it, go to the mechanic and have it fixed.
But when the car is fixed you won't be dropping by the mechanics everyday now would you?

 

@EddyLee Is your tinnitus noise induced ? acoustic trauma ?

 

I am getting more and more days where I don't hear my tinnitus, been a few nights recently where it seemed to disappear completely, that is such a great feeling, but I am not holding my breath, it always returns, almost like its playing tricks on you, I do have hope like most of you that there will be a cure sometime in the near future

 

Yesterday I was watching a movie and at some point i checked for T and it was not there. 3 seconds after it turned on again. I wonder whats that? Is it me turning it off via habituation or it actually turns on and off?

 

No.

Dr. Stephen Nagler

 

Thank you @Dr. Nagler
If there is one thing more annoying than t, it is the time frame 3 months, 1 year given when t is apparently supposed to become coded in the brain, when nobody really knows, and no research statistics or studies seem to have been produced to this point. Please correct me if I am wrong, or if you think there is an average time frame when this coding/setting in takes place.

 

@Lisa88, I have been at this for some twenty years now. And if I have learned anything at all, it's that the only predictable thing about tinnitus ... is it's unpredictability.

Dr. Stephen Nagler

 

You just made my morning @Dr. Nagler I'm having a rough weekend T wise and this has given me some positivity!

 

Hello Amelia,

I noticed this post from 2 years ago. How are you doing now?

I have had T for 9 weeks and still struggling with it but doing pretty well all things considered. -- Can't wait until it quiets down. -- Even by 1/2 would be fine with me..

 

I'm not even sure why Im back on here, out of curiosity I suppose.

I can tell you this, I have had t for a little over a year now. The first few months really sucked, I can't deny that. I didn't believe anything anyone said, habituation was impossible in my mind. But as time went on, I realized that maybe habituation is possible. I was starting get to that point where I wouldn't notice T for a day, before hearing it again and being like "oh yeah, I still have this".

Over a year into it now, I have weeks of not noticing it and even when I do notice it I forget about it almost instantly again. It really pretty much like being cured, I've been back to my happy normal self for a really long time now. I know this maybe harder for others to achieve, because everyone's T is different, but I'm just sharing my story.

Hang in there and you'll be a-okay.

 

Thanks Anton. I'm glad that you still check in on occasion to help out us "newbies".

I guess I just need to stay busy and stop focusing on it. -- I was doing pretty good until I hit 9 weeks last Tuesday and realized that I haven't really had any improvement from all the supplements that I am taking. -- I'm starting to think that the supplements really don't do anything and TIME is probably the sole mender for T.

Your encouraging post is much appreciated. -- What did you get your T from?

 

No Idea really, it just popped up out of nowhere one day. I've been to a dozen ENT's and have had MRI's, hearing tests, everything always came back normal.

-Edit: I've tried a dozen supplements, nothing ever helped so I just gave up and let time do the healing. It's pretty normal to have a string of good weeks and then have a bad one like you are having now. It's all a part of the process.

 

Okay. Good to know. Thanks again Anton!

 

The 3 month 'give up hope T disappearing' is a myth: acute, subacute & chronical tinnitus are simply statistical definitions without functional meaning, as told me my ENT. I've been having T for 8 months now after a media otitis in April. In June my ENT reported me my right ear lost 4% of hearing... In August, another ENT reported almost the same result 3 months after T appeared, telling me that there won't be hope for my ear to recover after 3 months - certainly because some ciliated cells of my inner ear died under inflammation pressure due to the viral infection) and that I will have to habit to my T... As my first ENT asked me in June, I went back last week, 8 months after my T started, for a new check... And what a surprise: my right ear has definitely recovered hearing! Ok, maybe not fully on very high frequencies (not checked by me ENT) for the moment, but apparently the more high hearing frequencies are, the more it takes time to recover. I was despairing my inner ear (ciliated celles) was definitely damaged by viral otitis as thought the 2nd ENT I consulted in August but that's clear it's not the case. During all this time I've read many testitmonies about people recovering from T after more than 3 months: 8 months, 2 years, 4 years and even 15 years. Never believe someone ensuring you you will have your T for the rest of your life: absolutely nobody can know. Keep back in your heart the small glow of hope about recovering and until that forget your T for what is the most important: life, your family and friends!

 

10 months in and i'm still hoping for recovery. I can't live if I don't have hope of recovery.