Advice Is Appreciated

My name is Chloe and I'm 15 years old. I've had tinnitus for about 3 months now (fingers crossed it won't be permanent) and I started habituating after about 2 weeks, which I've read is very good.

But tonight my tinnitus is back to where it was at the beginning. What's happening? I'm once again feeling very depressed.

I've been struggling with anxiety since I was 13 years old and when I got the tinnitus (for seemingly no reason) my already bad anxiety peaked.

I'm really struggling and would really appreciate some advice.

 

Protect your ears! you are just experiencing a temporary spike which should soon return back to the level you are used to. Also, try not to stress about your tinnitus being permanent. many people have their tinnitus go away and do not post about their success! hang in there. try to keep busy and do all you can to not focus on the ringing sound. sleep with a fan on or sound machine so you do not focus on the noise which will make you more anxious

 

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@tinkerbellhalsey

Hi Chloe and welcome to the forum.

You haven’t mentioned what caused your tinnitus? Exposure to loud noise/sounds is usually responsible. Listening to music through headphones at too high a volume or attending venues such as: clubs, cinema concerts etc.

Whilst it’s good that you have started to habituate, tinnitus often spikes in the early weeks and months of onset but will usually settle down. If loud sounds were the cause of the tinnitus then I’d advise not to listen to music through headphones even at low volume and be careful of loud sounds at the places I’ve mentioned above. Please click on the links below and read the articles that I have written about tinnitus that you might find helpful. Pay particular attending to the document: Tinnitus, A Personal View, that I advise you to read in full.

All the best
Michael

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/new-to-tinnitus-what-to-do.12558/

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/tinnitus-a-personal-view.18668/

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/hyperacusis-as-i-see-it.19174/

 

Welcome to TT Chloe.

First of all, I know all of us can sympathise with how you are feeling. In the early stages it is very normal to feel a lot of fear, sadness and frustration associated with tinnitus. The brain associates the sound as foreign at first and this triggers a "fight or flight" response in the brain, which explains why you are feeling so anxious at the moment. If you are feeling overwhelmed, talking about how you're feeling with people you trust really helps. When I was starting out I was very, very anxious about my T and I was able to be reassured and supported by close relatives and a good audiologist. Having a support network is an important part of learning to beat the anxious feelings that come with T.

It's important to remember that tinnitus is rarely a sign of something serious, and it can be temporary in some cases. One of my relatives gets T when she is very stressed and then hers goes away again, so you may find that yours calms down or goes altogether when you are feeling less anxious.

Secondly, do what you can to give yourself a break from T. Sleeping with a sound masker in your room at night can be really helpful in getting a good night's sleep, or in the summer the gentle sound of a portable fan is also another option. My audiologist recommended the sound of rainfall as the best sound because this has a calming effect (which may also help with anxiety), and I use this every night. It takes a bit of getting used to at first but now I feel weird sleeping without it. There's lots of apps you can use on your phone - I regularly use the Sleep and Noise Sounds app, and the Oticon Tinnitus Sound app is good too. Try downloading a few apps from the App Store and see which sounds you find the best for you.

Hope this helps. Keep us posted.

 

I rarely hear anyone mention sugar intensifying their T. I've done a lot of experimenting on myself with foods. I had a McDs smoothie a few days ago and a half hour later my T got higher and stayed that way till the next day.

 

Hi Chloe, you haven't had T long so there is a good chance it will go away. Also, since you're still young, increased brain plasticity should be an added benefit in your battle with T. BUT, even if it doesn't go away anytime soon, you'll have to habituate to all the variations of your tinnitus to the point where it sorta does what it wants and you sorta don't pay attention to it unless you want to. My T is really severe, it's more in my brain than my ears, throughout a week it can vary from a 2 to an 8....mostly 7/8 . I just don't pay too much attention to what it's doing anymore unless I'm having a day where I'm short on sleep and heavy on stress. It'll take time to fully adjust, in the meanwhile hang in there.

 

Hello everyone! Thank you so much for all the advice and tips. I will say that I now barely even hear it and I can even sleep at night without the TV on. I do have clicking in my left ear right now whenever I chew or swallow (I've had this periodically before I ever had T) not too worried about it, but does anyone have any ideas? I think I might have Eustachian Tube Disfunction.

 

My T just started one morning seemingly without any cause. I've never been into listening to music with headphones because I think it's gross. I used to go to the cinema quite a bit and a few concerts a year, obviously not anymore now that I have T. I did go to the cinema a few weeks after my T started because I was determined that it wouldn't change my life, but it was too loud for me and my T spiked for about a day after the cinema (luckily the spike in T wasn't permanent)

 

I do actually find that I "hear" my T in my brain rather than my ears.