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Hi @Peter Q. Yup, my tinnitus is rather somatic. I can change the pitch and volume by moving my head around, chewing, pressing against my scalp, rolling my eyes around. This cyclical on/off thing is a whole separate experience, but it might be possible that it gets spiked somatically in the...

Hey there @sspencermo, sure thing, I'm glad you found my posts helpful, and thanks for commenting here. It's a lot easier to have a conversation on threads like this rather than on profile pages due to their character limits. It sounds like we have a very similar experience. I'm not exactly...

My tinnitus comes and goes day to day on a regular basis, although I don't have the same tinnitus characteristics as you do. For instance, mine doesn't cut out when I speak. My tinnitus is primarily in my right ear, and it's often sounds like a hiss or static or a bunch of radios being tuned...

I'm trying to understand the model you're working on. I might not entirely follow, but I'm wondering if you think such a model could explain why some folks such as myself experience intermittent tinnitus, where tinnitus is either switched on for the day or switched off. In my case in particular...

I recovered from my reactivity, for the most part. When my intrusive tinnitus began (20 months ago), the reactive component was rather bad. Noises would readily cause it to react, and if the noise was loud enough (say, hearing the ocean at the beach), it would spike the reactivity for the rest...

Tote remember you @Jazzer, you're legendary.

Mine gets more pitchy and shrill when I stress out.

Sure thing @blake991, I'm happy to share. I agree, reading many posts can be sobering and worrisome. I hope things go well for you. Let us know how you're progressing and if you learn anything new about your symptoms.

That's interesting that it switches sides @blake991. Do you know whether you bite down or clench your jaw in various ways? Or perhaps it's related to your sleep position. It can be challenging to pinpoint causes. Don't get too frustrated if you find it difficult to zone in on a cause. Perhaps...

I do know what you mean @JimmyR. My tinnitus is also intermittent. I don't know exactly what my loud days get up to, but I would say a 6. My quiet days are 0 though. I've noticed my tinnitus is cyclical. Is yours cyclical too?

Hi @blake991. Sorry to hear you're going through this, especially being a new mom and wanting to focus your energy and attention on your baby. My tinnitus is a bit similar to yours with some differences. Mine is intermittent, some days I have it and some days I don't. I often experience going...

I can relate with a lot of what you're going through. The sudden onset and onslaught is upending in just about every aspect. I'm really sorry to hear how much you've lost as a result. It's a no-win situation, and it's hard to fathom finding a way to live with it, as if life is on hold until it...

This describes mine extremely precisely. I think we have rather similar tinnitus characteristics. I've had my tinnitus for about 19 months now, and it's slowly gotten better in several ways. One, it's been easier to cope with the loud days. Don't get me wrong, they still suck pretty bad, but I...

Hey @Chess, I totally missed your comment here. Yeah, 1-2 bad days a week isn't too shabby. It's interesting, it sounds like you favor having shorter intervals between your good days. I tend to favor having longer intervals between my bad days. My bad days have been hard to deal with, so I...

Hi there @Chess - Thanks for sharing your story. Sorry to hear you're suffering from this affliction. It's such a challenging, life-changing condition. I hope you're able to cope with it as time passes. I wanted to mention that we share a common characteristic. My tinnitus also changes in my...

Hey @Jupiterman - I have to agree, it seems like we have similar experiences, and @DeanD also seems to experience daily fluctuation. Mine did start at the end of March 2022, and it was immediately daily intermittent. It was far more chaotic in the beginning, probably because my sleep was a...

Perhaps this hushing phenomenon is a form of healing, like the brain rerouting or forming new pathways (a la placticity). I did get the opportunity to speak with a doctor who conducts neurological tinnitus research. I asked him if he knows why my tinnitus is cyclical -- why do I have days when...

Hey @Jupiterman, thanks for posting this. I can relate with your -- and @DeanD's -- experience. In my case, my tinnitus is highly cyclical and rather predictable. Like you, I can pretty much tell what kind of day I'm having the moment I wake up. With notable exceptions, what I wake up to is what...

I started Trazodone at 50 mg for a couple of weeks, then went up to 100 mg for a few weeks since I was still getting less than 4 hours a night. Once I was getting regular sleep, I dropped to 75 mg for a couple of months, then weaned off when I felt I could sleep without the help.

That is interesting @DeanD. Has dealing with your sleep apnea helped at all?

That's interesting, I haven't run into any food-related triggers as pronounced as this. It's good that it gives you such a clear signal so you know what to avoid. I did a bunch of trial and error on my wake-up times. I used an Oura ring to track what my sleep states were. Over a long period, I...

Fascinating read @AmePerdue, my tinnitus is also cyclical and varies wildly from very loud to near silent day to day. My daily cycle generally goes loud, mild, mild, quiet, repeat. I've been keeping a log of my days, so I'll go back and determine if there is any longer cycles like what you're...

I can totally relate @StephenM, having to deal with reactivity especially when trying to sleep can be an exercise in total frustration. It took me a good long time to get used to it. Between my main tinnitus and the reactivity I used to experience, I favored hearing the reactivity if it meant...

Hey there @DeanD, I can explain what I've learned about my sleeping position. I started toying with sleeping position after I became aware that my tinnitus switches in my sleep. So, I'd have a quiet day, for instance, then go to sleep, and wake up to a loud day. Once I realized this...

Hey @GeorgePhys - I can also relate to some of your timnitus characteristics. Like you and @El BUZZ, mine also changes drastically in my sleep. What I wake up to tends to be (with some exceptions which I can explain if you like) what I experience for the whole day. Some days are loud and some...

Hey @StephenM. You have an interesting case. We have some slight similarities. It's phenomenal that you can get a month or two off from your main tinnitus. That must give you some amount of relief to reset a bit before it reoccurs. I bet it sucks when it returns but it sounds like you can...

I first noticed my tinnitus was somatic early on by chance. When I would chew hard things, it would increase the volume and pitch, and one time I contorted my neck out of curiosity (searching for a possible cause actually) and found that that would also change the volume and pitch. I thought I...

Hi @StephenM, sorry to hear about your reactivity. That can make it pretty challenging to mask. I wanted to ask you whether your reactivity is relatively recent. Did you have your tinnitus for 6 years prior to your reactivity starting? And do you know if there is any cause for the reactivity...

I wondered the same thing, since my tinnitus behaves the same way as you describe @El BUZZ (changes in sleep, waking up to a different experience each day). I read through the paper just now, and it doesn't mention whether any of the participants in the study has intermittent/varying/fluctuating...

Yeah, pretty challenging to habituate to. It's happened ever since the beginning, which confused the hell out of me. I didn't understand why my experience changed so drastically day to day. It took me months to figure out the limits to the variability and get used to the different kinds of days...

What a careful write-up of your experience and all the things you've attempted to improve your situation @jimvee. I'm glad that my palinacousis tip helped, and I'm more glad you haven't experienced it much since. One thing that you and I have in common are the various sounds that occur. My...

@Juliane, I personally had to take 3 1/2 months leave of absence from my job because I couldn't cope with my tinnitus when it first began, and work added a lot of stress, plus my reactivity was bonkers, so I couldn't stand the noise that came with working (office + virtual job, but a lot of...

Hi @WCJohn, happy to elaborate. One thing you should know about my tinnitus is that it's daily intermittent, so some days it's loud (shower loud), some days it's mild, and some days it's quiet (like whisper quiet to silent). I've learned that the switching trigger is deep sleep when I dream. Not...

Thanks for the reply @VitaminBike, it's great to hear from you too. CPP, ependymoma, and subependymoma sound like serious business. Sorry to hear you're having to deal with it. It doesn't surprise me that they told you there's no guarantee that removing the mass will resolve your tinnitus. I...

Hi @Juliane, no worries at all, good to hear from you. I did try acupuncture myself, and it didn't seem to have an effect on my tinnitus or my sleep. I do have a family friend who recently had an onset of tinnitus, and she tells me that acupuncture lowers the volume of her tinnitus. So it seems...

After reading your story @Juliane, I can understand your reluctance to take medication to deal with your symptoms of depression, and I don't blame you. It sounds like you've had a really rough ride. I can relate with parts of your experience. Although I didn't have a reaction to any medication...

Hey @VitaminBike - I lost track of your updates. I wanted to ask what the next steps are for dealing with your tumor. Also, did you have any other symptoms that led you to believe you had a tumor to begin with? Like maybe inflammation or a sensation of tenderness around your scalp?

Not a bad view for day-of Centre Court tickets to the women's semi-finals. It was a dream of my wife's to one day attend Wimbledon. I'm glad I got myself to the point where I could help make that a reality. My former reactivity would have crushed me, but today's reactivity was barely a whistle...

Sure thing @Wrfortiscue, let me know how it goes. Getting used to a CPAP is a bunch of trial and error.

Ah yes, dry mouth. I have the exact set up you have. I use nose pillows too and I'm a mouth breather. I've resorted to using 3M tape to keep my mouth shut. It looks like I'm getting mugged, but it works. I've tried all kinds of things to try to keep my mouth closed while I sleep, this is the...

I think I have the same device you have, is it the ResMed AirSense 11? I've been using mine for about a year now. I started out at 4-9. After using it a while and monitoring how many apneas I was still getting and monitoring how often I'd max out at the high level, I eventually cranked it up to...

In case some haven't run into this, @Markku posted about a survey conducted targeting members who haven't visited Tinnitus Talk in 2+ months. It got around 2,800 responses. I'm just sharing to provide more info, not to weigh in on whether people's tinnitus is more likely to worsen over time...

Sounds like a good salad. I'll have to try sun-dried tomatoes sometime. Perhaps it's the folate?

I can relate to your story @Wolfka. I had about 6 months of extremely high stress from work just prior to the onset of my tinnitus. It's interesting that yours spiked after the shoulder adjustment. I'm guessing your tinnitus is somatic maybe? If so, perhaps your tinnitus will settle back down...

Awesome, I hope you're able to find some thing that resonates with your experience @jimvee. Here's a thread from @in_LA, an active forum member, that discusses both musical hallucination and palinacousis: If Music Is Loud, It Gets Stuck in My Head

The way you describe your experience @jimvee, it reminds me of the way some people describe palinacousis ("palinacousis is an auditory illusion consisting of perseveration or echoing of an external auditory stimulus after it has ceased musical tinnitus") or maybe musical tinnitus -- although I...

I have a similar experience. My cycle these days is about 4 days long, different sound experiences on different days, making it pretty challenging to habituate. I have tried the Back to Silence method. Although I didn't achieve full habituation, it greatly helped reduce my anxiety response. In...

@MadeleineHope, now that you mention it, I did have some hyperacusis around the same time. Certain noises like silverware clanking were extra loud. One time, I went to the beach, and the ocean sounded incredibly loud. I also had sound distortion, especially with higher-pitched voices like my...

I had partial face numbness on the right side of my face. This mostly occurred prior to my tinnitus onset and in the first few weeks. Prior to the onset, the numbness would come and go, most noticeable after I worked out. At the time of my onset and the first few weeks thereafter, the numbness...

Ah, pinning them is a good idea. I'm often knocking mine out of place. I hope you find wireless ones that work for you.

I also use a wired pillow speaker. The wire is pretty annoying, I agree. The pillow speaker I have has a blue, furry soft cover, which I really like since I can lay with it right next to my ear with tinnitus (my right ear). I sleep in my back most of the time, so I just prop it next to my ear...

That's interesting that yours changed to what you experience today. Another thing we have a bit in common is that I notice a sensation around my neck and scalp near my tinnitus ear (my right ear). It's hard to describe the sensation, but it feels like tenderness. When I press upon it, it feels...

My tinnitus switches in my sleep. So I can have a whole day of loudness and then go to sleep and wake up to a whole day of quietness. Then wake up the next day to a whole day of loudness. Something happens when I sleep. Unlike your experience, though, my tinnitus doesn't change much at all...

Hey @Vicki3116, thanks for the response, and the compliment, that really means a lot :) You're right, power through it we must, there's so much to live for. Today ended up being a busy day, with today being Mother's Day and all. The kids and I showered attention upon my wife. Often, for me at...

Thank you @Vicki3116 for posting this. This is what I really needed to read this morning as I wake up to the cacophony of what will turn out to be a loud, challenging day for me--and it's the first post I read today of all things! You have such a way of articulating your thoughts, and a positive...

Hey @ErikaS - I read through your post, thanks for sharing your story. I recall when you first arrived on the forum, you were explaining your challenges with starting a family, and I understood in the abstract what you must be going through. But hearing your story in detail here brings a depth...

Hey @gameover - I know the going is rough for you. Before I took CBT, I had my serious doubts about it, thinking it was a bunch of kum ba ya crap. But I was at a complete low (suicidal ideation, high anxiety, depression, the nine yards), so I gave it an honest attempt. I learned that I knew less...

TIL I must be gullible or infantile...

What really changed things for me was acceptance. Once I started to accept that my tinnitus was a part of me now, at least for the foreseeable future, I stopped resisting it and started to think, "Okay, now that it's a part of my daily experience, what do I do next?" That's when I began to not...