1 Month with Noise-Induced Tinnitus

Hey everyone. Checking in at the 1 month mark with T in my right ear.

As a quick recap, I developed T and H in my right ear after attending a loud party in a basement bar. I've seen my GP, an ENT, and had a hearing test done (hearing test came back fine).

The sound is a pretty typical high pitched ring. Sometimes it changes slightly to a more "hissy" ring. I can make it louder by biting down hard, which seems strange considering it's probably noise-induced.

My reaction to it has been all over the place. Angry, depressed, sometimes accepting, hopeless, suicidal, etc. I keep hearing that I should just go on with life as normal, and use earplugs to protect my hearing when I'm in loud situations. I've also started taking a B-Complex vitamin. I don't know if it will help, but I know it can't hurt.

I guess I'm still holding out hope it can go away, but having it still going strong at 1 month is pretty discouraging. Habituation feels like giving up, but I know that's not a healthy way of thinking about it.

Any thoughts? Thank you all for being so supportive and creating a community for us.

 

The first couple months are the hardest. I have noise induced T and coming on six months with it. I think by month 3 I was accepting it. I was a wreck and didn't do anything, had all the fears you have. But now I go out and enjoy myself! I go to bars, I workout , go on a plane and visit family, work. With the help of ear plugs from time to time. I'm not fully at the habituation stage. But I'm getting there. I don't see it as a threat. I'm taking B-12 and I feel like it helps a little. I do help yours goes away , everyday will help. And hopefully little by little your reaction to it with be better!

 

Hey Prizefighter,

Hope all is well. My story is similar, having noise-induced tinnitus back in 2008.

As Jamie stated, the first few months of tinnitus are probably the worst as your body is probably in a constant frightened state. However, you do mention your tinnitus changes from a "typical high pitched ring" to a more "hissy" ring.

Speaking honestly from my personal journey with T, I think the fact your tinnitus tone is changing is good. Why? I remember for the first 7 days after I was initially exposed to T, my tinnitus was high pitched, CONSTANT and I could hear it over my fan, and it was barely masked by my old HP laptop (when your computer fan starts making loud noises since it's too hot).

However, I DID NOTICE after about the second week, the T was still constant, but it's intensity and volume went down from a 5 to a 4. This is what spurred me to stay positive since my T was "changing." Just a quick disclaimer; I know everyone's T is different, and I can only speak for sufferers who experienced noise-induced T, but I do believe wholeheartedly your T will get better over time by acclimatizing and/or habituating to it.

One thing I'm happy you mentioned is your intake of Vitamin b12. I would also strongly recommend you start incorporating a lifestyle change.

What do I mean by that? I suggest you start eating healthier, exercise and work out more often, and practice meditation and/or relaxation techiques DAILY. You can see my previous posts here on tinnitustalk.com, but I'll tell you now: my T from my first year went from about 5-6 volume, constant and debilitating to an INTERMITTENT, hissing tone to about a 1-2 in volume.

From one sufferer to another, I strongly recommend the things I stated above as well as keep a realistic but optimistic mindset that you can in fact fight tinnitus by doing things within your power (diet, exercise, remaining positive). Best of luck to you.

I hope you can keep us posted with a follow-up.

Regards
GP

 

@Jamie m I'm really glad you're coping well! I'm definitely an impatient person, and not seeing much improvement over the course of a month has me down. It's good to know that it CAN get better though.

@heartohelp Thank you for all the information! The noise changing to a slightly more static ring happens occasionally, and I notice it happening more when I'm laying down to go to sleep. I'm also able to decrease the noise if I plug my finger in my ear really tight, and it will even stay lower for about a minute afterwards, before slowly returning to the normal volume. *shrug* I don't really know what that means for me.

I've seen conflicting things from many people on the forum (I try to look mostly at Success Stories and Support. Some of the more negative threads and accounts of suicide really brought me down). Some people seem to think that even if there isn't much improvement in the first month, it's still possible that it could go away. Others say that if its around for more than a week, it's probably for life. I have to admit that I'm pretty pessimistic about it, and not seeing a big, noticeable decrease in volume makes me feel like I'm stuck with this permanently. Is it possible to still be healing?

I'm sorry for the massive amount of text. I'm just finding myself completely preoccupied with my T at the moment.

 

Tinnitus will definitely test your limits as well as your patience. Like EVERYONE who experienced tinnitus, I spent hours upon hours initially looking through websites such as webMD and others searching for answers.

I also went to my family physician. Guess what he said? "You're going to have to live with it." When I heard those words, I felt at that moment a sense of doom, despair and no hope. Now think about that for a minute. A doctor, an incredibly intelligent, highly esteemed professional in society with a huge knowledge base about the human body tells someone like you and me (and literally 95% or more of the people who experience tinnitus) you're going to have to deal with it. To me, you look to physicians as someone who can heal you or make you better since they go through a rigorous and demanding major with 4 years of undergrad, 4 years of medical school and residency. It is soul-crushing to hear from someone who you think can give you great advice and more importantly HOPE to just say those words. Talk about anticlimactic..

However, just as you've done your own research and stumbled upon both success and horror stories, it is up to YOU to make that decision whether you will let TINNITUS control your life. It really is multifacted; I remember the first 3 months after the initial T had subsided, I told myself "I am young, I made a mistake but my body will heal." I also deep down inside BELIEVED I would get better with time. I also told myself to not listen to the negativity surrounding T and other people. So basically i filtered out all the bad thoughts and stories and replaced them with positive thoughts. I also kept track of my T, and like I said, I really in my heart and mind believed that with time my ears would heal. I was also encouraged by my second practitioner, who told me although there was a chance my T would remain indefinitely, there was also a chance it would subside or die out on it's own, and it would take perhaps a year for them to heal. What i'm basically telling you is this:

It really comes down to two choices, and each choice is not just a 1 step process, but it encompasses something more. You either:

1. Live negatively and react negatively with T, dwell on it, feel like giving up, like there's no hope, and so forth. I think as individual human beings, every person will COPE in some form or another. HOWEVER, despite that, there are some coping mechanisms that are better than others

OR 2 (which is the mantra I live with to this day)

2. You cling to HOPE or FAITH (or whatever you call it), you think and REMAIN POSITIVE, that there is a light at the end of the tunnel, and there are indeed things you can do to FIGHT against tinnitus. Being completely honest with you and anyone who reads this, T literally changed me for the better. It allowed me to understand myself more, to analyze and develop introspection. It allowed me to really study how my actions and feelings towards T and every aspect of my life was.

Although I DO know there are lifelong users of TINNITUS and not just "T' like we have, I do in fact feel that the real heroes of T are the former, since they are the ones who wake up to screaming T on a daily basis. We on the other hand, the noise-induced T, have at this moment in time, way to alleviate the symptoms of ear trauma.


Like others you have mentioned that are either positive or negative, everyone's T is unique and as of right now, we know there is no standard treatment or cure since T itself is still poorly understood and even with gains in neuroscience and medicine as a whole, is still in it's infancy stage of understanding and development. Even with that being said, I cling to the hope and dream that TINNITUS and everything associated with it WILL BE CURED in the future for everyone. You dont need to be a doctor or scientist to know with the rate of technology and treatments at an exponential growth, in time there will be a solution to T. In the meantime, stay strong and keep your head up.

 

@heartohelp Thank you so much for this. It's incredible advice, and very sobering to see my same thought processes being shared by someone else.

 

The most important thing is to stay clam. Anxiety will only exacerbate the issue.
Don't worry about habituation at this point, its too early, just keep yourself together.