7 Months In — Do All Tinnitus Sufferers Feel Better After 1-2 Years?

Hello!

I am 7 months in today with my horrible tinnitus which I got after an acoustic trauma. Even though I am sleeping as normal now (big victory for me since I had HUGE panic attacks/depression the first 6 months) I am greatly struggling since my tinnitus is so load and high-pitched (truly horrible). The doctors say that I don't have any hearing loss but I tried myself with a frequency app and I can notice that I don't hear as good on my left ear as on my right (tinnitus is also very much worse on my left) so I am thinking I might have some hearing damage in the higher frequencies (16-17 kHz) on both ears.

I am now back to school which feels good but I can't handle full time studies yet. The mum of a friend of mine is a psychologist and told me almost all tinnitus sufferers feel better after 1-2 years and that tinnitus tends to fade out (subside a bit). Can someone verify this? Does tinnitus tend to subside or get softer? Even after 7 months or so? Mine has unfortunately not gotten better but I am still hoping and fighting to get my life back.

I wish you all the best, all insights are welcome.

/J

 

Hidden hearing loss is the biggest joke on the forum, audiologists never test for hearing loss outside of human speech range, yet it still contributes to tinnitus and noise pain. I hope this info helps.

source:
http://hyperacusisfocus.org/innerear/



Research paper on hidden hearing loss: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378595516302507

 

When did you get tinnitus? Has yours gotten any better since you first got it?

 

Based on what you are saying those are extremely high frequencies which really are clinically insignificant for anything, the only problem is losing them can still cause tinnitus.

Some people have trouble hearing in background noise/music in normal ranges (250 Hz-10 kHz) and are told no hearing loss. That's what upsets us.

 

Yes a lot, hearing improved and it faded low.

 

Yes exactly, I find it so difficult to wrap my head around how I have managed to get SO bad tinnitus with that hearing loss... just hoping it gets better. Glad to hear yours faded! Do you still hear it a little bit? How long did it take for yours to improve?

 

How did you fix your sleep issue? I'm three months in and still don't have good sleep (taking meds as well). My tinnitus also gets louder at night and when trying to sleep (closing my eyes with deep breathing).

 

I know 3 months feel like a long time (an eternity when you're struggling) but you need to give your body more time to handle this new sound. In the beginning, sleeping was something totally impossible for me. I took lots of different sleeping pills which didn't bite on me since my body was in such a high stress, constantly in fight or fly. One time I couldn't sleep even though I tried some VERY strong ones my mum got after a big leg-operation, my doctor later said "wow, that was risky....", but i didn't sleep on them either! Thats how huge my sleeping problems were. The only thing that really fixed my sleeping-problems were giving it time. I think after 5 months, I could try to take half of the sleeping pill, worked sometimes and sometimes I was back on normal dose. And after 6 months my brain had gotten better used to the sound so I became more relaxed. I think it is just a natural process that will happen! I took Propavan (don't know the name in other countries) to sleep. Mine also got loader when I did deep breathing, but sleeping got better anyways!

 

I have had the condition for over 25 years and, unfortunately, it has not abated at all. I only really notice the condition when there is no background noise and have not had problems with lost sleep or anxiety/depression so I am lucky.

 

Contrast - have you habituated or are you still suffering? I see you on here a lot pointing scams or discouraging people from using sound therapies.

I was under the impression you are still having a rough time.