'Wowza' to all the Noisy Peeps

My t Story

My name is grae, I’m 60, male, in otherwise good health as far as I know.

I’ve been vegetarian for forty years and I cycle everywhere, I do not drive as I’m claustrophobic.

Having served in HM armed forces and spent 20 years in the music biz, I’ve had a real good dose of loud noise.

My t. started nearly ten years ago, in my left ear initially only noticeable at night when I lay still, after about 10 mins I would get a low pitched intermittent rumbling noise, something like a washing machine, stopping & starting, if I moved my head it would stop, it didn’t happen every night at first, but over the course of 3 months it became more regular

I knew instantly what this was, my dear Mother has had t. for years and often described the noises she was hearing, this was one of them.

Just before my t started I had been getting treatment for a spinal problem, my therapist who was totally alternative had moved to Spain to setup a clinic, he advised me to get over to see him as fast as I could, he explained that I had a fairly tight window to get treatment before the t. manifested into a permanent routine, he thought this happened after 60-90 days after which time t. was difficult to correct

Unfortunately, as I was making plans to visit his new clinic, I was unceremoniously dismounted from my bicycle in central London by some un-caring vandal driving a black BMW, I was unable to read his number plate upside down during my short flight to the unforgiving tarmac whereupon I lost consciousness, my attacker fled the scene leaving me no opportunity of redress.

Suffering a fractured skull, broken wrist, broken arm, broken collarbone & various scuffs & scrapes, I was unable to make the journey to Spain to see my therapist in time and my t became progressively worse and permanent plus all the attendant difficulties, loss of concentration, lack of sleep, anxiety, diminished appetite, over-sensitivity to noise, loss of patience, increased claustrophobia and lastly & importantly the loss of the ability to meditate which I had practiced the previous 30 years.

At first I sought help with my GP, after several visits to the local ENT clinic I was fitted with a ‘white noise masking’ ear device, similar to a hearing aid, it did not work in the slightest degree & I abandoned it after 4 months, next step was a tinnitus research program run by the local university, this confirmed I had something wrong with my left ear, it failed the pressure test and I was exited from the program.

Then about a year down the line the headaches started, again on the left of my head around the ear, my GP was concerned and sent me for MRI scans, this showed the skull area behind the left ear was considerably thicker than on the other side, He was convinced there was little that could be done.

Discussing the issue with my Mother I discovered that not only her Mother but 5 of my Aunts also suffered the problem, it was a well known ‘heirloom’ in my family…Ho Hum indeed, what a legacy.

The next 4 years saw me trying any & everything from Hopi candles to Cranial Sacral Therapy, Chinese herbal potions to Blue Laser treatment, nothing worked, CDs, Drugs, Pills, books & tapes by the boatload, nothing, Acupuncture to reflexology....nada

Trying a different tack, I studied the Neurophysiological studies by P J Jastreboff, this helped me greatly in understanding the mechanisms of t. but alas aided me not one jot in solving it.

Currently bio-feedback is my next project, I have just started with this avenue and would welcome any suggestions or advice others members may offer.

I constantly hear from all directions…’there is no cure’, I simply do not believe this, t is such a personal/individual condition with so many variants and possible causes that a generic cure is probably not realistic, but some folk have mastered it and regained their silence, trouble is they then return to their ‘normal’ life and don’t look back… leaving the rest of us chickens still in the coop, I was talking to a chap who had t. most of his life, then banged his head on a low hanging beam, knocked himself out, but when he came round his t. was gone & never returned.

Sorry this has been such a long story, I have omitted much of the detail for brevity, but for the longer term I shall persist, I do have hope and I shall find my cure or die trying, maybe the latter, but I’m still young..heh…heh, so onward & upward.

My blessings and commiserations to all of you ‘seekers’, may you all find your cure and when you do, please give us a nod.


Thanks for sparing the time for my story.


grae

 

it would be wonderful if people who have recuperated came back and told their story!

 

They have. You can find the posts here under success stories. https://www.tinnitustalk.com/forums/success-stories.47/

I have recovered from tinnitus prior to my relapse. It took about a year. For some people it takes longer. The first thing you need to do is deal with your emotional response to tinnitus. Once you have done that habituation should happen naturally. However, if you continue to stress about it, then your brain will continue to perceive it as a threat and you won't habituate or the process will take significantly longer.

When I was habituated I only ever noticed my tinnitus at night in my room when I was going to sleep. I simply employed a low level sound masker that played for an hour to help me drift of to sleep. When this was playing I didn't notice the tinnitus. I was habituated and enjoying life for up to 5 years until my relapse in October of last year. My problem was I wasn't taking the precautions I should have, and allowed my ears to be regularly exposed to sounds greater than 85dp without ear protection on a weekly basis. Something I regret now, but a lesson I have learned and won't do again. So once I have re-habituated you can be sure that I won't be back other than to offer support.

I am not 4 months into tinnitus now. I have a problem with re-activity as my ears are still quite sensitive. Given time the re-activity will subside. The healing aspect takes quite awhile. Anyway, the point is I wake up in the morning and don't notice my tinnitus until I listen for it. Meaning, I can be lying there perfectly oblivious to this noisy sound in my ear until I remember about it and then I hear it. When you are habituated you never think of it, so you never have that problem. The only times you will encounter it is in very quiet locations or when you are tired/stressed.

Tinnitus feeds on emotion. One of the common themes I have read from the success stories is about how people have stopped allowing their tinnitus to influence their emotions. The loudness or position of the ringing is not a factor in determining whether one can habituate, as evidenced by some of the people that have posted their success story and explained the sound of tinnitus to be like jet turbines or positioned inside their head.

Good luck with the habituation!