Frustration with Tinnitus

I am 38 yrs old and have tinnitus for 5 months. I believe my tinnitus triggered by extreme stress I had back in March 2012 or one time loud music in July 2012. The ringing started soon after that. It's very frustrating and hard to cope with and have seen many different doctors from my PCP to Audiologist, ENT, Neurologist and all have said sorry there is no cure or nothing we can do to help! Currently, I am seeing a Chiropractor Neurologist who is giving me treatments about one month now and trying to help, but so far my tinnitus still the same. I feel hopeless at this point and desperately seeking other ways of treatment. The tinnitus honestly has taken over my life and my moods gets irritable. Hard to sleep and stay positive. I had my health check with blood work and everything is normal and no loss of hearing, no ear infections or wax. Current Chiropractor doesn't seem to think I need CT scan/MRI. He has tested me.

Could somebody please out there help?? I need to talk to ppl with same problems that I can understand Tinnitus. Thank u very much for reading this as I am always searching online for remedies and tried for 2 days now Apple Cider Vinegar mix with water and drink it 2-3 times/day . I pray and hope to find relief from tinnitus.

 

Reeta, I wish I had an answer to your question....but I can relate to everything you've said. The hopelessness, the frustration with being told there are really no treatments prooven effective, and the horrible feeling that there is no cure. Daily I try to find ways to keep anxiety levels low seeing as it is prooven to worsen with stress, but that in itself is much easier said than done. As I sit here drinking my stress reliever tea, hoping it works. ...trying to never lose hope. ..this coming from someone who has suffered for almost 10 years now.... but there is still a part if me that believes. ...sending positive energy your way. Jessica

 

Thank you Jessica and hope ppl on this forum can help us with info on Relief from Tinnitus. It's hard to really think there is no cure. I don't understand why medical research team don't take Tinnitus seriously in finding cures. Others don't understand the suffering till you are the target. At least a broken bone can be cured but Tinnitus can't.

 

Hello Reeta, my sympathies. I really know how you feel and how difficult it can be to cope. My tinnitus has also started in july 2012. I've done a plenty of things to get rid of T, there was an improvement even but the T didn't ever go away completely. Still I was unable to name the cause of my tinnitus, there are some culprits but I think I won't ever be sure.

This is just a question - have you ever had RTG of your spine? My ENT doctor ordered it and I have a confirmed lordosis of upper neck that can be a possible cause of tinnitus. I am not saying it is the case with you, but my hearing tests have also turned out normal.

 

Hello Fish, I have gone to 2 ENT doctors out of my network plan cuz I have Kaiser and felt seeing private doctors was better, but neither one seemed to show any concern or give me advise or further testing, I felt like being in tears. I am seeing a Neurologist Chiropractor and I know he is doing his best to help me with my T. He does adjustment on my neck and spine.. also this may sound funny he has me do this remedy.... (My ringing is mostly on my right side ear) so he asked me to do this 2 times a day get a hairdryer and blow directly on my left side of body (arm/leg) and also tap the left knee / 4 times a day (the way a doctor checks ur leg reflex). Maybe this helps something with the nerves. My T came on from stress, but I won't be able to get rid of my stress if I continue to notice these noises. I am in tears as I am typing this message. any outside noises, TV, hairdryer or after taking a shower makes it worse.

Tell me about the diagnose of ur upper neck, what can be done? I know u mentioned things that eased ur T, what did u do?

 

Dear Reeta,

English is not my first language but I will try my best to explain - upper neck lordosis is a spine deformity caused by various factors. One can either be born with it or develop it in the later years, for example because of accidents or unhealthy lifestyle, office work, too little sports etc. Natural spine shape is something like "S" and lordosis means the upper neck part is deformed. This causes neck muscles to strain and block the bloodflow. It can cause headaches, numbness of face and limbs, vision problems, tinnitus and in some cases even loss of consciousness. In my case I feel slight numbness of the right arm and have headaches occasionally. And of course I have T.

To find out if you have any problem with your spine, you need RTG scan. It cannot be confirmed by any doctor without it.

Lordosis can be improved with exercise, sleeping flat (I use just one small cushion) and avoiding sitting for extended periods of time.

As to what improved my T, I honestly do not know and I don't want to give false information. Thing is I am not 100% sure what is the cause of my tinnitus so I cannot really tell which treatment in particular was effective. Among the things I have tried are:

- upper neck exercises and sleeping flat
- 4 months of betahistine use and 1 month of memotropil
- treating my allergies and nasal congestion
- using "notched" white noise masking sound
- I used xanax occasionally to calm down
- AM-101 treatment. More about this in my old thread: https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/the-whole-truth-about-my-t-and-how-i-treated-it.696/

I have a proof on paper that it went down in volume ;-)

One thing that I am sure has helped was changing my attitude towards T... It is not going to kill me, I can move my attention away from it by doing daily activities, thus effectively I no longer hear my T at those times.

It is still there and I wish it was gone, but I can live with it for now. I am full of hope for the future treatments. I am sure somebody will find a cure eventually... I just know it. Stay strong Reeta we will be fine!

 

Reeta,

You are in the right place for some positive feedback. To make you feel better, I got my Tinnitus back in June 2012. I am a VERY panicky, nervous and worrysome person. T is the LAST thing I needed to get. I've been under a great deal of stress, but my T is from my upper cervical area. I am sure stress is a combo making it worse by having bad thoughts and thinking this is it, this is the end of my life. IT'S NOT!!!! DO YOU HEAR ME CLEARLY? IT'S NOT! If I can and have gotten through this for the past 7 months, then you can too! You will have ups and downs, good and bad days. It's like this other lady posted, Tinnitus is REALLY about the perception of what the brain is interpreting. I am going to try this, she recommends playing things like Ocean and soft rain sound, shower sounds, etc, play it so you can hear it to where it almost mask your T but not fully. You need to still hear your T a little that way your brain can start pushing it back to your subconscious or wherever it goes, but the idea is, you need to hear both, just hear the T slightly lower than you hear your masking sounds. Do that as often as you can.

I have a smarthphone so I downloaded Pandora. I choose Ocean Sound Collection and it plays all things that resemble ocean sounds, etc. If you can at work, place your phone next to you and play the sounds, but enough that you can still hear the phone ring, people talking, etc. At night time, I put my phone in between my husband and I and he doesn't mind because it's soothing sounds. Eventually your brain will gravitate towards the soothing sounds. I JUST READ THIS ON THIS SITE, SO EVEN THOUGH I AM TELLING YOU THIS, I WILL START DOING IT AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE.

We can/YOU can do this. We're here to get you through this and you'll be fine. If it gets really bad, go to your neurologist or ENT and tell them that you have SEVERE TINNITUS and you can't take it anymore and they will prescribe to you something like Xanax 1 mg: 1-3 times a day and Ambien 10mg makes you fall off to sleep VERY naturally. I know we don't want to pop pills, but you need to do what you can to help you cope for the time being until you get this under control and learn to habituate.

P.S. There has been ALOT of research for Tinnitus that I think within the next few years will be available to us, keep your fingers crossed.

Remember, we're here for you!!!!


Julia

 

Best advice here: "One thing that I am sure has helped was changing my attitude towards T... It is not going to kill me, I can move my attention away from it by doing daily activities, thus effectively I no longer hear my T at those times." My OPINION - CT scans, MRI, etc., just money in the doc's pocket so they can go fishin' for a solution. I saw a good chiropractor for years (and a few bad ones) to treat a chronic back condition, so I tried to find one in my new home town that could honestly propose an effective tinnitus treatment, particularly since mine is somatic (I can change the pitch through neck and jaw movements). Zip, zero, NADA. They say they'll try, but not one would attest to or insinuate empiracle evidence of favorable results.

Most people who've had any success at all seem to find their own subtle ways of making the condition bearable.
Good Luck,
Paul D

 

Reeta----Hi, how are you? I'm in a similar situation. I'm 37 and I've had my T for about 4 months now. Currently seeing a chiropractor who thinks he can help my T because of subluximation? (sp?) So far, I'm not sure it's helping, but I'm willing to give it a try since it's covered by my insurance so why not, right? I had bloodwork done over the weekend and I have my physical next week. I'm actually hoping that they find something (how sad is that?) like high cholesterol or early diabetes since these have been known to cause T and I can tackle these head on and give a face to my T. I had the MRI and a complete auditory tests and my hearing is perfect and no damage with my ears or brain with the MRI scans. I never do anything loud--no concerts, or never had recurring ear infections or the sort so I'm a bit confused as to how I just woke up one morning with this symptom.
So here I am now----on daily supplements, and trying to excercise more. That's something that's benefited me---the excercise. It's generally great for us, and it helps keep the mind busy and gets the body tired for rest/sleep at night. Anything I can do to keep moving, I'll try to do because I know it'll just get my body tired at night. I love using the humidifier at night along with the "white noise" app which I listen to crickets or ocean waves combination of different sounds. I wish everyone well here. Thanks for all the suppport. Good luck Reeta! You're not alone!!!