A Different Kind of Tinnitus Success Story

A different kind of success story:

I have decided to leave Tinnitus Talk in order to remove all barriers in my pursuit of habituation. To me, this is success, because I used to spend hours a day on here and obsess over my tinnitus. That time spent has reduced quite a bit, and now I’m ready to leave altogether.

My tinnitus is probably from an inner ear infection and it started in August 2020... some extremely dark days. Full on freak out, suicidal ideation, driving myself to the ER for fear of self harm. 20 day prednisone treatment helped. Found a great therapist on BetterHelp. Reading success stories gave me hope. And tons of prayer. Today I am at 3 months and in a much better place. For all intents and purposes, life is back to normal.

Sleeping, eating, exercising, reading, socializing, working are all great. I am 95% back to life before tinnitus.

I can still hear the ringing mostly everywhere, although I noticed yesterday that’s getting better as well. I was in Chipotle and couldn’t hear it which was a new development. Also couldn’t hear it over the ambience at the gym, also a new development. I think the quality of my ringing makes it easier to hear, even if it’s not totally debilitating in loudness. I would describe my tinnitus as dull tube TV electrical noise in the middle of my head. Though it’s not “loud,” it cuts through everything else in the soundscape because there’s nothing else in daily life that matches the pitch of an electrical buzz/hiss. Although it’s now cutting through my soundscape less and less. My tinnitus is almost more “felt” than heard.

My Electrical tube TV noise today is much, MUCH better than the sound I had 3 months ago: Emergency Broadcast System EEEEEE pure tone which made me want to be dead.

So I’ve definitely experiencing fading, but in a 2 steps forward/1 step back kind of way. Moments of silence, or having to search out the ringing, becoming more frequent. Hearing tests show mild recovery.

The vast majority of tinnitus goes away— I pray to be in that category. And if not, to be in the vast, VAST majority who habituate (one study I saw claimed 98% will habituate). But I believe habituation starts with me leaving this forum for a bit.

I’ll be back in one year to update.

I constantly pray for all tinnitus sufferers of the world to make a recovery.

When I hear it, which is still constantly throughout the day, I say “I hear you but I don’t care.” A CBT-style approach that has worked great. Chilling my limbic system response to hearing the ringing has made a monumental difference.

That said, while I believe I’ve habituated to a degree, I know habituation can take upwards of 6-24 months, maybe more. I’m only 3 months in, so more likely than not, my improvement has been an objective lowering of the ringing volume.

Anyway, I’m setting sail now. After I post this, I am logging off of Tinnitus Talk and taking another step towards inner happiness. Today I’m off to watch Seahawks football and eat barbecue with my dear family and our dogs. Onward and upward!

Maybe it will continue to fade, maybe I’ll habituate, maybe it’ll go away altogether. I’ll let you know in a year.

Whatever happens, I have decided that I WILL live a great life. I have put my worry and anxiety in a box, given it to God and trusted Him to heal me.

One person I really have to thank is @Bill Bauer. In my worst days, your posts were a beacon of light in the dark night. Thank you.

 

I agree with you wholeheartedly. I wish you the very best with continued healing.

 

Well done @David Y.

I wish you all the best on your road to acceptance and "recovery".

Stay calm and carry on.