10 Months In — Now Mostly Habituated to Tinnitus and Visual Snow

Hey guys

I guess it's time for me to write this because I got so used to my situation that I'm getting too lazy to write a success story.

To make things short:
- 10 months ago, I got tinnitus due to a loud concert (trumpet, metal on metal percussion). I didn't really have a history of noise damage, but it was enough to give me chronic tinnitus.
- Loudness was a 4 on a 1-10 scale initially.
- Very high pitched sound (~15 kHz).
- I started with somewhat reactive tinnitus and loudness hyperacusis.
- Tinnitus seemed to get better during the first month, then it changed tone/pattern. Has stayed the same since.
- Loudness has always been about the same. I'd say that it's mostly a bit above quiet room stage (so around a 2 out of 10). Never really loud, but when it's "bad" I can hear it in most situations. When it's good I can't really hear it during the day.
- Reactiveness went away over the first 2-3 months. It affected only specific noises anyway.
- Loudness hyperacusis went away either by itself during the first 2 weeks or due to prednisone (prednisone did nothing for tinnitus). Changed to pain hyperacusis for certain frequencies. Pain hyperacusis has veeery slowly improved over the months.
- Got mild visual snow during months 2-4 (translucent visual snow, mild trailing, slightly washed out colors, slight glare/starbursts, slight negative afterimages, mild contrast problems).
- Was very stressed when I got tinnitus and had very bad sleep when I got visual snow, which made me suicidal (lack of sleep was actually the biggest problem, not tinnitus or visual snow itself).
- Got used to my situation over time. Sleep improved relatively quickly fortunately (took some herbal stuff for sleep, stopped after two weeks because sleep was good again).
- I'm so bored by the symptoms that I am bored of thinking about thinking about it. My mind is blocking me from thinking/caring about it.
- I still have ear plugs and muffs with me all the time. I use muffs regularly for riding the bus (sat over the motor today, was definitely needed because it's 80db there, just 10 min however).
- Life is like 80-90% like before. On one side I miss having silence and seeing things clearly (especially those tiny sparrow's eyes, I love those cute little buggers). On the other side this situation allowed me to clear some long-standing life questions, so I don't see my situation that negatively anymore. Emotionally I'm good, more grateful, in some way happier than before. What I lost emotionally is relaxation since my brain needs constant activation for distraction (if there's nothing around, my mind starts racing instead or playing music earworms that I heard recently). I'm not stressed though.

So umm, yeah. I expected to get habituated eventually because my tinnitus is mild, although it helped a lot that my hyperacusis has improved since then. I was more sceptical about getting used to visual snow, but since user @linearb has it too and his is quite a bit worse and he's habituated, I had confidence that I could get to this point as well. Thanks again man, you really helped me there. I'm surprised that I really don't give much of a f... about it anymore. Still would be great to see sharp edges again >_>.

 

Heya, thanks for sharing your story ! My story is quite similar to yours- tinnitus due to loud noise exposure about 6 months ago, then got VS about a week ago after a tinnitus spike ...this weeks been absolute hell but it’s stories like this that make me believe I can get used to it and I’m not going to go blind! Do you have some tips on how to habituate and not worry too much about it worsening? As well as the static I have slight trails and after images

 

Honestly, visual snow is not that bad. I'm pretty sure I've always had it (mild visual snow). I remember as a child I would play with the floaters in the car and it was quite fun tbh. This was before my vision got bad and I had to get glasses.

I really forgot everything about visual snow until I recently developed tinnitus. Now I have noticed it more and it bugged me at first but I was able to zone it out again pretty quickly. I can't even notice it mostly throughout the day. For some reason, when I look through glass (not my glasses though unfortunately), the visual snow completely disappears. I'm pretty sure this is due to the imperfections in the glass distracting the brain from picking up visual snow.

Really (mild) visual snow is not a big deal. Everyone watches YouTube videos in 1080p and even that has a lot of imperfections, stuttering, static noise, etc. But the brain does a pretty good job of tuning it out.

Tinnitus on the other hand is just annoying. I'd trade tinnitus for visual snow, except I already have it. Hopefully my brain will tune this out as well like the visual snow.

I also wholeheartedly believe that the brain has the ability to adapt and tune out these things eventually. Honestly, it may not be comforting to hear this right now for anyone who has visual snow and tinnitus, but 10 years down the line these symptoms could completely disappear from your life. They are both not well understood but there has been a lot of progress being made in these areas. I'm sure we are getting closer to actual treatments for both. They already have treatments for many other brain disorders so I don't see why we wouldn't catch up to both visual snow and tinnitus in the next few decades, especially with the advances in tech (Elon Musk Neurolink pls solve everything lol).

This is a great success story imo, and I hope that my brain will also largely get bored and just tune out this tinnitus. Of course I'm still hoping for a reduction and I'm sure that will happen but this is a good alternative too.

Besides, I've heard that many people have visual snow and tinnitus to some degree but their brain just tunes it out and it honestly makes sense. Everyone's vision and hearing gets damaged over time. It's important to keep hope. I'm sure the future is bright.

 

Thanks for posting, encouraging to hear.

 

@Sevv, how is your visual snow now?