2 Weeks in 24/7 Unknown Cause

Hello all,

I have been sitting idly by and reading posts for that last week. Today, I wish to introduce myself and join this community of individuals striving to adjust and move forward with their lives in the face of T.

I am a musician and have been for 20 years; playing gigs, rehearsing, listening to music fairly loud. I have either been lucky with my hearing or very unlucky - I am not sure. Its been about 6 months since I have been exposed to loud musical frequencies and no long term T past a day or two here and there in the 20 years. Had a really bad upper respiratory infection (chest cold) a month ago, then T arrived about a week later. Slightly faint in right ear only noticeable at night, mid tone. Progressively worse over the following two weeks. Higher pitch now mostly in right ear but does move into the left as well and in head with slight hiss. Changes in pitch and volume day to day - some high volume days and some barely noticeable, sometimes multi-tones and sometimes just one.

I am not sure what caused my T. Audio-gram showed the hearing of a 13 year old boy but then again what 13 year old hears you ask them to pick up after themselves. LOL. Humor aside, this came out of the blue. I am a heavy coffee drinker, I am a recovering alcoholic/addict that hasn't had a lick in over 10 years, otherwise healthy individual. Took Ibuprofen the day before I noticed T but that correlation isn't proven, of course. My ENT said that most of the time we grasp for anything we can at first to correlate our T with which means either there are a million things that can contribute to T or it just happens for reasons unknown and stretch to blame it on anything we can. Either way. I have T.

ENT's are worthless, IMHO, unless you get lucky, mine wasn't interested in finding the cause, rather basically told me what I already know. My first reaction is to investigate and search out the reason I have T so I can begin to correct the unlerlying problem and an ENT is not the answer for that!
My instinct tells me it was from the virus - perhaps a slight infection undetectable via the ENT instruments. I will probably never find that answer but I am compelled to rule out the usual suspects before I give in to acceptance.

This is a very difficult situation to be in while new to 24/7 T. I am scared. I am stressed. I am confused. I think the biggest thing early on is the thought that I will potentially never be normal again and life as I know it has changed drastically.

I am here. I am new. I am wondering what route to go. Search for the answers while its still early or succumb. Habituation will happen but to be perfectly honest, I am not ready to accept that this may be life long...YET.

I will be in the posts and look forward to knowing you folks as we all journey this together, regardless of the outcomes.

 

Welcome. Most members here have been where you are. You are not alone. I understand your feeling there. I have suffered from anxiety and panic disorders for decades prior to T & H. So when T & H first hit me, my anxiety just went through the roof and panic attacks greeted me every time when waking up with loud, screaming T. No amount of will power could stop the panic attacks and I had to use meds to survive each day. So yes, I understand how tough it is.

Saying that, try not to buy in what the anxious mind is suggesting to you at this tough stage of T suffering. Don't project the doom and gloom of a future based on the worst time of T suffering. I made that mistake myself and paid dearly with immense mental sufferings.

The truth of the matter is that the future is never as projected. I am now living a normal and absolutely enjoyable life. All the sufferings about the future didn’t change a thing but can prolong the suffering. If I have any comforting words for you, it is that people do survive T & H, anxiety and panic attacks and all, and write their success stories after some time. Just read up as many success stories to learn insights how to win over T.

You need to give yourself time and learn some strategies to guide your T journey. Explore the success stories to give yourself hope for the future. That was what I did, reading as many stories as I could to give myself hope. You can get better and do believe that. If you haven’t yet, get masking going asap to help reduce the anxiety of T. Once the brain feel that you have some sense of control over T, it will be less anxious and stressed, and that will help calm the ringing for most people. Take care & God bless

 

@billie48 - Thank you. I appreciate you sharing some of your story. I'm similar with anxiety and can be over the top with the "what if's". It can induce some pretty negative and scary thinking at times.

I am pretty grateful, however, that having T is not a lonely thing with such a forum of knowlgeable people sharing their insights and T journey's with other sufferers (or those who have T and do not suffer anymore)