My Tinnitus Has More or Less Been Gone for Four Months

Why would I need a masker when my T has been completely gone?

 

Using sound enrichment is not "masking tinnitus" I thought you read my posts? If you did then you have missed the very basics of tinnitus habituation and long term recovery. You are throwing away your stick before you have gone over the hill. Trust me, your tinnitus hasn't gone even if it's low it is patiently waiting in the background, dormant until you do something stupid. Like using headphones or going to a venue where loud music is played. Then, your tinnitus will return with a vengeance that you wouldn't believe.

I read one of your earlier posts asking: What is severe tinnitus like? I hope you never find out because it can be your worst nightmare. Am I scaring you? I certainly hope so! I am very pleased for you @Raphael7713 that you have habituated. It wasn't long ago that you visited this forum in a lot of distress. I and other members helped you and it's good to see you are much better.

Please read the post below to realise the benefits of using a sound machine for "sound enrichment" at night. Not to mask the tinnitus.


Anyone with tinnitus particularly if it is intrusive, should avoid silence especially at night. This is mentioned throughout the TRT (Tinnitus Retraining Therapy) book written by Professor Jastreboff. In fact silence is considered to be harmful. The brain and auditory system never switch off. When we are asleep or in quiet surroundings, the brain has the ability to increase its background activity. In doing so it will also increase the tinnitus making it louder and more intrusive. By using low level sound enrichment, it supplies the brain and auditory system with sound and thus, helps prevent the brain from increasing its own background activity. Over time it the tinnitus is suppressed.

This is particularly evident in people that tinnitus due to hearing loss. When the brain is unable to hear certain sounds/frequencies from the outside environment, it will turn up its internal gain to hear those sounds/frequencies. In doing so tinnitus can develop and over time become more intrusive. Once a person is fitted with a hearing aid/s, the brain no longer has to work so hard turns down its gain (volume control) and over time, the tinnitus is reduced too.

Sound Machines

I have recently been asked about the benefits of using a sound machine after someone read my post on another thread, please find it below. Sound Oasis makes the best sound machines in my opinion and they are specifically designed for people with tinnitus although anyone will benefit using one. The quality of their digital sounds will be far superior to any homemade sounds that you compile if your intention is to use them for sound enrichment.

A sound machine can be used night and day but do their magic best when we are in deep sleep. It supplies the brain and auditory system with sound enrichment. Over time, the tinnitus is pushed further into the background making it less intrusive and will make the path to habituation easier.

I have three Oasis models. The S-650 is very popular and the one I usually recommend people buy. It comes with a variety of sounds on two sound cards. Additional cards can be purchased. The S-850 travel, is more expensive and compact. It has 18 on-board digital sounds and doesn’t use cards. Some people might be bothered by the clock’s blue backlight at night-time. It dims but cannot be turned completely off; the S650 backlight can be set to switch off automatically.

The S-5000 is the top model. Larger and more sophisticated than the others and can only be mains operated. It uses a three-speaker system, that has a subwoofer for increased depth and definition to the sound. According to Oasis, over 140 on-board sound combinations are possible. It has FM/AM radio and an external sound source can be selected via the auxiliary input. There are a host of other features.

The purpose of using a sound machine is to have it playing in the background without drawing attention to itself unlike a radio. For this reason, music mustn’t be used at night for sound enrichment, as it will draw the Brain’s attention and delay habituation.

In my opinion and the advice of Professor Jastreboff, developer of TRT. Sound enrichment particularly at night should be used by anyone that has intrusive tinnitus. I would go as far to say, it is imperative to do so if you want to help yourself. Over time you will get used to having sound around you both during the day and night. I find it strange to be in a very quiet room now having used a sound machine for so long.

Michael

PS: Many people have contacted me after they have habituated to their T and stopped using sound enrichment at night, only to find their tinnitus becoming intrusive again. The rule of thumb: avoid quiet rooms and surroundings especially at night by using a sound machine.

 

You don't. You also don't need sound enrichment. Enjoy your silence!

 

You are right that it can come with a vengeance, but I when I worked in a quiet office I never heard it, nor did it ever increase. The only way it can go up is if he does something like use headphones, go to loud venues, do ear tests, or take ototoxic drugs. I had very very bad tinnitus for three weeks in Januaury where I had to quit my job because I couldn't type how loud my tinnitus was, it brought immense pain to me. Now my tinnitus is severe and its still troublesome but not to the extent where I could hear it over 95% of things like before. I had experienced both mild, moderate, severe, and extreme tinnitus. I will never wear headphones as long as I live nor will I go to a loud venue. When I had Mild T I was confined and couldn't go to malls, bars, cafes, resturants, and even some stores because Tinnitus would go up. Now I go to cafes, resturants, and some bars (which are not loud, music is like -75db) and I dont get spikes.

 

With respect @dpdx I don't think you are following me. Whilst you were able to work in a quiet office and your tinnitus did not increase ( something I don't recommend) there must have been some sound in your environment? It is important that sound enrichment is used at night. The reason being the brain and auditory system never switch off. It is for this reason when someone is in a coma, relatives are encouraged to speak to the patient as the brain and auditory system are still active but at a low level.

When we are asleep, if the brain hears silence it has the ability to increase its background activity and in doing so will also increase the tinnitus no matter how low it is. This will happen over time not straight away.

Michael

 

That is crazy. I have friends who have Tinnitus and they do not use sound enrichment. Their Tinnitus only goes up when exposed to loud sounds, but you are right I can see how the brain would amplify it. I always sleep with my sound oasis on and I avoid silence. OH god how I Wish I was 71 right now, so I can not fear that one day it will go back to extreme levels.

 

It is not crazy. Were you friends under the care of ENT as you have been? When a person suffers noise trauma and ends up with severe tinnitus and they eventually habituate. It is a good idea to use sound enrichment at night. Remember, tinnitus comes in many forms and intensities. I am talking about people that have loud intrusive tinnitus and it has become a problem to cope with.

 

Well they did a smart thing and they didnt go to an ENT, their T is mild if they had gone their T would be where mine is right now. My friend tells me that her Tinnitus can be acute sometimes but its usually tolerable. The other friend tells me that his Tinnitus turns to white noise when he is around loud places, he goes to movie theather without earplugs, but neither of them go to loud venues because they fear it will get worse. My Tinnitus was worsened by the damage caused by the caloric test and the vemp test, which resulted in more hair cell damage, and hearing loss. Thus mine is much more intrusive than theirs. My Audiologist tells me that I am a severe case, would have not been if I had left it alone, but it is what it is. I should have followed in their steps but I didnt and here I am stuck on this forum.
Do you have eye floaters or visual snow? I noticed that I developed lots of black/dark eye floaters and I am linking this to Tinnitus as well as Visual Snow.

 

I don't want to rub salt in your wounds @dpdx When you first visited this forum you and I corresponded a lot on PM and I constantly advised you to leave ENT alone but you persisted. I remember when you said your tinnitus was quite low. It is just a shame to see things turn out this way for you. I hope in time you will improve. Your friends are playing with fire and when they get burned they will surely know what severe intrusive tinnitus can be like. I sincerely hope they never find out.

I wish you well.
Michael

 

Well Michael I thought they are ENT/Audilogists, they know what to do, but I am far worse off. My ENT told me that she has faith in me that I will get better. She refused to believe I had Acoustic Trauma and insisted that I had a tumor in my brain. They had tinnitus for 20 years are fine.....You know I couldn't believe that an ENT/Audiologist could give me hearing loss, its crazy! I came in with perfect hearing came out with mild-moderate hearing loss and severe tinnitus, hyperacusis, and top of that visual snow and dark eye floaters.

 

Both my grandmother and grandfather have had tinnitus for years. My grandfather Who is nearly 80 got his when he was 8 years old from an acoustic trauma and never used sound enrichment at night and he says his volume hasn’t changed since the day he got it. He never hears it never changed his life to accommodate it. Same goes for my grandmother. S*** I’ve meet so many people with tinnitus and not one of them has restricted their lives to the extent this forum promotes. This forum does nothing but instill incredible fear in people, especially those who are new and scared. I’m peacing out for good. I’d rather get my information from reliable sources. I highly recommend all sufferers find a tinnitus specialist and get help. If we had cancer we’d all be finding the best to find a way to beat it. No different if you have tinnitus. If it were so darn easy to make your tinnitus worse every single person would be walking around with debilitating tinnitus. And that’s just not the case. I hope everyone here finds peace and a way to live a very happy life regardless of tinnitus. You’ll all be in my prayers.

 

I have always found you to be polite, well mannered and respectful and this was the reason I spent time trying to help you. There are people in this forum that put all their faith in ENT doctors, Hearing Therapists and Audiologists. I agree with this up to a point. When I say these healthcare professionals know about the anatomy of the ear and are able to treat underlying medical problems with it, surgically or medically, I sincerely mean this.

However, when I say these same healthcare professionals know very little about tinnitus and hyperacusis and only know about these conditions from what their patients tell them, I know what I am talking about. Most of these healthcare professionals have never experienced tinnitus or hyperacusis. Therefore, it should be of little surprise they don't know much about it. Hence, the reason for forums like Tinnitus Talk and other Tinnitus forums on the Internet. The people that attend these forums regularly are people that have often lived with tinnitus and hypercusis and know how they can affect a person. They are able to give help and advice to people having a difficult time with managing these conditions.

I hope in time you start to feel better.
All the best
Michael

PS: It must also be said. Some Hearing Therapists and Audiologists, that practice tinnitus treatment and hyperacusis management with tinnitus patients, often have good understanding of tinnitus. It is not unusual to find, some of these healthcare professionals, were either born with tinnitus or acquired it at some time in their life as my Hearing Therapist, who was born with tinnitus.

 

Michael,
My ENT has Tinnitus and My Audiologist as well, but for them it was weird that I have unliteral tinnitus and not bilateral even though my was caused by loud noise. Thus why they wanted to me to do all the tests.
I lost my faith in the medical community! One thing I dont understand is how I got hearing loss so fast. It took me years and years to get hearing loss, and here we go with caloric/VEMP it was like snap of a finger.

 

Well. It seems your Audiologist was trying to help you but unfortunately made things worse. When you told me you were having these tests, I remember advising you not to do it. As I've mentioned in many of my posts and articles: In the early stages of tinnitus, the best treatment is to leave the ears alone. I fully understand the reasons you followed the advice of your Audiologist as he/she is supposed to be the professional.

Michael

 

To be honest, only a subset of people do that. Many other members are rational and reasonable.

But there is indeed a vocal minority that thinks they are more experienced than doctors, that will actively dissuade you from seeking help from the medical community, and promote an extremely dogmatic agenda. Their recommendations range from innocuous to downright dangerous.

This is unfortunately the bane of all internet fora.

 

Yup! Well I left my ears alone. February, march, april, may, and now june left. I saw 0 improvement. I think they wanted to see why I had only Tinnitus in my L ear but nothing else with the right one. When I got tinnitus I had no hyperacusis nor ear fullness, now I have it all, including mild-moderate hearing loss. I believe that more damage was done and this time I am not so lucky. Well I gave my faith in the audiologist and ENT since they had tinnitus too.
ENT told me I could have : cochlear hydrops, meniere diseases, tumor in brain, thyroid cancer, etc. When I told her that it got worse she got mad at me as if it was my fault. I dont think they tried to make it better, they tried to milk me of my money by doing stupid ear tests which achieved nothing. Now when I got Severe T she told me that I need to go see a TRT specialist and that she has faith that I will get better. In the end she finally accepted that it was acoustic trauma....its scary to see what idiots we have working in the med field.

 

I can only say one thing @dpdx I fully agree with everything that you have said above. It is a shame that whenever there is scope for money to be made, there are people that will use underhanded means to acquire it. One would think these unscrupulous practices wouldn't extend to the medical field but I suppose I'm wrong.

Michael

 

I now see why my general doctor never recommended going to an ENT as its pretty much a waste of time and money unless you have an obvious ENT type problem, but during my visit, the "audiologist" blasted my ears by accident and i literally had to throw the headphones off but was too late and now i've got a whole different T in my right ear that wasn't there before and before, i was able to semi sort of cope if only one ear was blaring, but now both ears are blaring. So if you feel like you need to see an ENT, make damn sure the "audiologist" has credentials because in my case i remember my "audiologist" appeared to be in training when i was in the waiting room and had to be shown how to use a simple PC, so my luck seeing a doctor who was handling audio tests on the cheap, using what was probably a temporary intern in ojt, but charging the full price of an experienced audiologist, total negligence!

 

Try listening to this on a laptop while you sleep. Works for a lot of people.

MOST POWERFUL TINNITUS SOUND THERAPY 1...

 

Thank you will definitely try it.

I am trying yoga nidra at the moment when I am on the edge and feel like I am losing it some days. I will definitely give this a try.

 

I have constant Tinnitus days with a high pitch ring and mild headaches however also have a couple of days occasionally Tinnitus free which I pray for every night. I REALLY wish I knew why I have a day or two straight without. I constantly wonder what I did different to have these awesome days. I really don’t think that it’s due to dead hair follicles in my ears, etc. I usually wake up in the middle of the night with ringing and know I’m going to have a bad day.
Has anyone seen a Nuerologist for this! My ENT says I just have to live with it. I’m not buying that and will do anything to be symptom free.

 

I feel like ENTs and Audiologists want your T to get worse. They wish and want you to get worse. Its so scary.....

 

I see you’re active again. How is the tinnitus now? What did it sound like at the beginning? Mine is 13-14 kHz high pitched and doesn’t sound like anything natural—graduates to a high pitched “eeee” by evening, but starts out as a feint, high-pitched electrical hiss early in the morning.