3 Weeks In

So now I'm 3 weeks into this high pitched ringing hell. I went to an audiologist and my left ear had some loss at 3k. They weren't able to match the ringing because they only go up to 8k. I matched it myself at about 10.5k.

Sometimes it seems like mainly left ear ringing. Other times it seems louder and both ears.

I had been taking Celexa and quit a few months before the ringing started. I started taking it again after the ringing started due to the intense anxiety I started having. I saw a band at a bar and the ringing started a couple days after that which was weird.

I lost my job last December and then I started school to finish my degree in software development. Now it's so hard to concentrate and I don't know how anyone could actually concentrate and write code with this ringing.

I have almost completely stalled out on school and I feel like I'm going to lose everything I've ever worked for.

My wife barely acknowledges what's going on. I tell her I'm having a rough time and she tells me everybody has things they have to deal with. Kinda like man up. And then proceeds to tell me her day was hell because she worked 10 hours. I'm thinking you have no idea what hell is. I feel totally alone in this.

I have an appointment with an ENT on Tuesday but I'm not holding out much hope. This is scary.

 

Hang in there. Indeed one of the challenges about this condition is its invisibility and thus the little understanding and empathy we get from the rest of the world.
As a software guy, I know what you mean about concentrating to write code.
Are you able to play some sounds that give you a bit of relief? If your T is tonal, there's a few sound therapies you could give a try.

 

I went through hell for the first month or so, then it calmed down a lot - after 3 months I have to say that it's certainly nothing like the beginning, and I hope that you do even better.

PS if it gets worse, drop the SSRI, they're being studied because they may cause tinnitus to get worse.

 

Hello,
Welcome to the forum. You are in the right place my friend, T is truly an awful thing to have. Read this post about the recovery stats, it will make you feel better.
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/spontaneous-recovery-stats-over-70-recover-3-studies.21441/

 

My t is up over 10k. I have found sounds, one here actually on the audio player that masks it, but sounds that completely mask it make my t seem louder when I stop the masking sound. That may just be a perception thing. I also have the Neuromonics app which has been a lifesaver as far as sleeping at night.
It's kind of expensive ($100), but the first night when the free subscription ran out I paid the money at 2 in the morning so I could sleep lol. I couldn't find another app that would work as well.

What software languages do you use? I have written in c and assembly for several years and I am currently learning Java and JavaScript and was getting ready to take the Java OCA exam and then the OCP a few months after that, at least up until this started. I was really feeling good about it and now have lost all motivation.

 

Whatever works for the task at hand... lately it's been Swift, java, javascript, python, C... Did a lot of C++ too a few years ago.

 

Thanks. I am looking into an alternative to Celexa. Some days I think, this isn't bad at all and other days I want to jump out of my skin.

 

I did look at those before and I pray it gets better. Thanks.

 

Do you use masking sounds while you work?

 

Not really. Sometimes I use the white noise feature of my hearing aid, but not always. It doesn't mask my T, but it blends with it to make it stick out less.