Hi! So I just joined about three minutes ago after only having read like 3 posts on here but I thought I'd post-
I've probably have had tinnitus for much longer, but in the past I would literally only hear it during routine hearing tests where I'd have to listen for noises of similar pitch. (I've had a hearing loss since birth) Once the test was over, it'd go away, and that would be that. I literally never thought it was tinnitus though, rather just my brain mimicking the sounds as sort of a coping mechanism for my hearing loss. Three weeks ago though, it hit me. Over the span of a few days with no apparent prompting, it went from quiet and annoying but always present, to loud, obtrusive, impossible to ignore and often painful. It's also in a tone that I have a severe hearing loss in so I'm in no way accustomed to this sound, and it's drowning out everything I do. Maskers as of yet have done nothing, the ringing drowns out background music in movies, the only thing that provides relief is being completely focused on a good game or something (but even then, if I start to think "what a relief!" it kicks right back in again). When I don't hear it as strongly, I just have a painful pressure in my head/ears that's just as bad as the noise itself. I even had masking program put on my hearing aids, but that just makes me listen to multiple noises at once which gives me headaches from just too much noise input. So far nothing seems to be doing anything and I'm kind of falling apart.
It's also just so awful having something that my hearing aids don't affect. I took absolute delight it taking off my HAs at night and just having everything be chill and calm and quieter, but tinnitus doesn't care about those- it quiets for no device.
Priority one for me is figuring out how to stay sane with this- I've been doing a real bad job at it so far, but I figure some people here have gone through the same thing here and I am here to steal your secrets! Any successes or knowledge anyone has would be greatly appreciated!
Now off to go read some more posts
I've probably have had tinnitus for much longer, but in the past I would literally only hear it during routine hearing tests where I'd have to listen for noises of similar pitch. (I've had a hearing loss since birth) Once the test was over, it'd go away, and that would be that. I literally never thought it was tinnitus though, rather just my brain mimicking the sounds as sort of a coping mechanism for my hearing loss. Three weeks ago though, it hit me. Over the span of a few days with no apparent prompting, it went from quiet and annoying but always present, to loud, obtrusive, impossible to ignore and often painful. It's also in a tone that I have a severe hearing loss in so I'm in no way accustomed to this sound, and it's drowning out everything I do. Maskers as of yet have done nothing, the ringing drowns out background music in movies, the only thing that provides relief is being completely focused on a good game or something (but even then, if I start to think "what a relief!" it kicks right back in again). When I don't hear it as strongly, I just have a painful pressure in my head/ears that's just as bad as the noise itself. I even had masking program put on my hearing aids, but that just makes me listen to multiple noises at once which gives me headaches from just too much noise input. So far nothing seems to be doing anything and I'm kind of falling apart.
It's also just so awful having something that my hearing aids don't affect. I took absolute delight it taking off my HAs at night and just having everything be chill and calm and quieter, but tinnitus doesn't care about those- it quiets for no device.
Priority one for me is figuring out how to stay sane with this- I've been doing a real bad job at it so far, but I figure some people here have gone through the same thing here and I am here to steal your secrets! Any successes or knowledge anyone has would be greatly appreciated!
Now off to go read some more posts
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