Anyone Had to Quit Working Because of Tinnitus or Hyperacusis?

I can't work either. The slightest stress and also trying to focus makes my T go up. Now I have sources of income but they won't last much longer. I have spent most of my money on investigations, meds and doctors, to no avail. After 7 years of T I am at square "one".
I have no idea about what I am going to do in the future and I am very worried, another cause for my T to go up. In my native country you cannot go on disability because of severe T. I heard that is acknowledged in US. I would probably have to return there, as I have US citizenship, but right now I am just too sick to be able to make such a move.
T should be recognized that it is a disabling condition in some cases, but it's not, at least not in all countries, and T sufferers should have some rights, but they don't.
I tried to get together the members of this forum to make a petition to WHO to solve this big problem for all the sufferes in this world, but I was surprised to see that I got no positive answers from my fellow sufferers. I don't get it. Shall I understand that the great majority of the members have only mild T and the ones with severe, disabling T are only a few? I just don't get it.
If we do not fight for our rights who will?
The bigger problem is that I am a single mother of a 14 years old son who has some health problems too and I am way more worried about him. I am only living for him, otherwise I woudn't have put up with this. No way. Oh, no: there is another thing that makes me trudge my way forward: besides having many bad T days (9-19/10) I have also here and there "good T days" (2/10), fact that puzzles me even more. To be able to stay at this 2/10 level I would have to have at least 10 people working for me to do the things that I have to do, but I am not some aristrocrate.
I can't believe the injustice that I'm living. Everything seems like a nightmare that I am not waking up from.
Unbelievable!
I get panic attacks when I have very bad T days and when I think about the future.
I don't see any help, any solution from any direction.
Not being "functional" like a heathy person (I can't even do my chores etc) my problems are piling up more and more, sometimes the pile falls on me like an avalanche.
I can't believe what my "life" became: hell that surpasses the thriller movies.
Outrageous!
I am in this situation in 2015, when science is allegedly so advanced and in a society that claims to be a "civilised" one?
Somebody please wake me up from this nightmare.

 

For anybody who doesn't like my above post, consider it as venting.

 

Hi Dana , if you're really disturbed by t and h , why don't u give a try to. One the popular threads here the drugs like keppra and trobalt ? You might benifit from them ?

 

This is the best place there is to vent for those that suffer from the afflictions of T, H or both. Who else would really understand what you're going through?

I know that clicking on a "Hug" icon doesn't count for much. It's very frustrating for me not to be able to write something that might give you some hope or comfort. Sometimes, the only thing we can do for someone is to listen to them in a sincere and caring way.

I think that people that are suffering have a need to be able to vent from time to time. It's like opening the safety/relief valve on a boiler when the pressure gets too high. They don't seek pity but rather "understanding" as to what they're going through.

 

Thanks, Majeed. I do not need Keppra because although I had terrible H, it went away by itself. It's the only progress that I registered in 7 years. But now I have something new: reactive T! When somebody yells at me on the phone (my parents) or I have to hear an annoying, mean tone voice with a high pitch, that triggers a 10/10 T for hours, that i cannot stop without a certain drug that has a very bad reputation on this forum because it is a benzo, reason for which i won't mention it. But that drug sedates me, so I don't have much woken up time with bearable T. This drug saved my life though. Couldn't have crawled so far without it.

Retigabine (Trobalt) is not imported in my country. I would chew it like candy if I could get my hands on some, but so far I can't. I tried to obtain some Trobalt through somebody on this forum, but he got in the meantime very sick and very upset because of that and he withdrew.
I tried to obtain some Cat's Claw from a girl who used to be on this forum, but after I sent her the money for Cat's Claw I never heard from her again. She didn't even bother to read my messages, although she continued to be on the forum for one more month before she disappeared.
Yes, if somebody could help me to obtain some Trobalt, I am more than interested. But not "a little Troblat, just to try". The thing is that I wouldn't want to start the treatment and have to stop because of lack of supply.
I would probably have to go to Spain myself, when I will get better. Right now I can't.

 

@jimH
Thanks Jim, you are right.
PS Luv ya.

 

Ah I understand :/ I don't have reactive t but from what I heard it is bad , but I've read people who have lived with it and I'm sure u can ! Stay strong for you're child ! And how did you develop to get a reactive t ? Was is a drug ? Or noise ?

 

@jimH
No matter how bad I am doing, nothing upsets me more than the feeling of pity. It's awful. I like to believe that I remained a dignified person and when somebody shows me pity I feel the worst. Even if i have to live the rest of my days with high T, no matter what happens, I don't want pity. Nothing insults me more.
One day I was so sick that I asked permission to a store manager to sit on the stores' stairs (I was dizzy). Somebody stopped and started to look in his/hers bag (I don't remember if the person was a woman or a man). When I realized what she/he was about to do, I quickly got out of my bag a brand new gadget to show that I don't need money. Luckily the person understood and stopped, but that remained the lowest day of my life. I can't even think about what is ahead of me.

 

@uae96
I don't know how I got reactive T, the same way I don't know how I got H or why it went away. The same way I don't know why I do have low T days after which high T returns. I noticed stress and tiredness triggers high T, but sometimes my T ramps up for no apparent reason.
I don't even know the etiology of my T, after 7 years of investigations and reasearch on my part. Sometimes I think it's from the nervous system, but I do have aural fullness, which indicates ear problems, sometimes I think I have ETD, sometimes I think it's blood pressure.
Yesterday I had pulsatile T after a long time without it, heard in a different part of my head, after a night in which i didn't sleep a wink because of 100 dB in my head, for which I couldn't take that benzo, because at 7 am I had to be at the hospital. My current "hope" is that I have chronic sinusitis, which would be an explanation to my T. (oh, and I had fluttering eardrums, but that healed by itself too, don't know how it appeared, don't know how it went away).
I will have a sinuses CT soon. The x-ray done in Fuller angle to visualise the sinuses showed nothing, but I recently read that X-rays are "catching" only 50 % of sinusitis.
Like i said before, I am at square one, after 7 years!
After all the tests, nothing showed up, apparently I am super healthy, but in reality I am in hell.
In spite of everything, I have a glimmer of hope, because of the low T days that I have sometimes.
I know that positive thinking is a must!
I plan to do some "super thinking" and heal with the power of mind, of positive self suggestion, the power of subconscious, which controls every cell. If anybody feels like bursting into laughter, go ahead, but I have exhausted all the other possible roads (except Trobalt, which I am planning to take in the future, and some antibiotics for a possible infection that doesn't appear in my blood).
Thanks, Majeed.

 

Well , the same way you got reactive t for no apparent reason it could away for no apparent reason to ! Don't loose hope , hope is everything , did you take any Ad's which you suspect that could have worsened youre t ?

 

Yes. I am currently off on long term sick with having worked for 42 years and only one year from retirement.

I feel gutted that I will probably lose my job at some point in the near future after all those years.

I suppose I should feel grateful that I have got this far in life without tinnitus and hyperacusis but somehow I dont.

I am also doing daft things like getting my metal dental implants taken out to see if it helps as it was after the last lot that my troubles began, but who knows really. Tinnitus drives you nuts and makes you do stupid things, I can't see it making any difference once tinnitus has arrived as its a brain sound.

It could just as easily be noise damage even though audiogram shows as kind of normal we all get age related gearing loss

It us upsetting to hear of younger people who can't work due to this struggling to support themselves and their families.

 

@uae96
Some psychiatrists that don't know anything about T (they think it's an "auditory hallucination", same as "hearing voices" or "visual hallucinations") gave me some meds that didn't help at all, probably made things worse. Outrageous how not educated many doctors are regarding T.
That happened a while ago. I think the bad side effects from errouneously prescribed meds weared off by now and my current T worsening is from stress and a busy schedule that I could not keep up with.
What bothers me is the fact that I tried to live a normal life, to learn and work again, and that resulted in the worsening of my T, and that's why I wrote in this thread. It seems that I cannot work again. And nobody believes that I have T, they say I am lazy. Very, very upsetting and very unfair. The doctors must be educated about T, cause the majority of them isn't.

T is invisible, loud inside and silent outside, that's the big problem! Nobody belives/understands you, except for... the other T sufferers.

If I had to choose only between handicaps, I would have preferred to have an amputated limb, or even worse, so I would have had at least a visible handicap, this way I wouldn't have been misjudged and abused.

 

Yes, I have been off long term sick from my job since getting it.

Gutted as worked 42 years and was one year from retirement. Albeit the last 20 years were part time due to bringing up kids. Will probably lose my job.

Whilst I am gutted for anyone who had this it must be truly awful if you have the responsibility for bringing up a family with it.

I suppose I should be pleased that I am late to this at 58 but I'm not.
I have ruined my husbands retirement and will not be able to help my adult kids in the way I would gave liked in there move into full independane

 

It's outrageous that you are being accused of being lazy.

Chronic T is a disability. I know some people don't like it bring labelled in that way, but I think it should be

 

Off work at the moment, so stressed and anxious I will never sleep without meds again. Very stressed I will not work again, feel it all slipping away.

 

So true. You can only try being somehow "normal".
Loud inside and silent outside. You cannot show this to anyone.
Even worse is if people say they have T, too. But they don't care. Makes you looking weak.
Sitting here in swim stadium with my kids. Cricket sounds around me. No problem for my T, it is even louder.

 

Not only I am misjudged and misunderstood by healthy people, but I believe many others, making their suffering worse, and this will continue as long as severe T is not acknowledged for what severe T is: a disability.
If some people see that are disabled but hide what they are going through, and don't like T being labeled as such because of shame, I understand them: they don't want to appear as "less than the other people", but T should be cleared of shame. Especially because I think it's an epidemic, a condition that has to do with our modern society, with more cases now than in other times.

 

that's what happened to me. they all thought it was in my head. to the point were i started to beleive it myself. now trapped on a cycle of meds and self doubt. was it like this before. am i imagining it. going around and around. driving myself crazy

 

1.5 years I worked with T..... it did not became worse I had my ups and downs....but my anxiety level was through the roof. Than last december something else happend besides T and I fell into a major heavy depression. Since that time I still cannot work.
I even remember myself posting here that I was habituated...which I was...I realy could not hear my T anymore sometimes. So I know this can come back. Bad thing is that my body just shut down last december and is not quiting giving me anxiety symptoms over and over again. The moment I think I can go back to work something else pops up.
I'm happy my work gives me the time to recover, but to be honest I just want to work again, but I know that the first stressfull situation can throw me back into the depression and anxiety issues.

I only wished I quit working at the onset to my T. It was a heavy impact on my body and I thought I could not call in sick because of T and I just went on and on and on and on....... So look at me now....

It's even hard for me to say that I cannot work....because I realy want to, but I cannot concentrate me on something for even 10 minutes. I have a new T sound which is there 24/7 but very random chirping/zapping sounds which are hard to get used to and hard to mask.

I'm a full grown man that could take everything and my mind realy wants to but my body is done at the moment. And I think a lot of people feel that. When I went on and on and on at work....I was surviving ...and my body kept giving me signals that I needed to take a break but I kept working 12 tot 14 hours a day.....

My goal is absolutly to come back to work when the depression is gone , but T will still be there. Before I had a depression I did not know what it was and thought that people should just put up with it and go on with life....now that I have it I know it does not work that way.....not by a long shot. I will never...ever.....think something negative if somebody feel not fit to work.... Just because you can does not mean somebody else can.

 

Me too as I am full of self doubt.

I am worried my family will lose patience my DD wants me to see a psychiatrist but I don't need to, I know why I am depressed I have chronic screaming tinnitus 24/7, no need to pay someone to tell me that

 

I'm another one who wished they had quit work when they got their T. I carried on for three months in a very stressful environment, with s log of personal stress as well.

I really should have find suck sooner and given myself a chance to heal, as sheild winking I was only getting a couple if hours sleep a night.

Too late for me now

 

You work 12 to 14 hours a day?! That's insane !!

 

Hope is indeed everything, we are mental and material at the same time, but the mental is leading the way. If we think positive the body should follow suite. And the events. So we must have hope before everything. Even if we were to be saved by a chemical med, how we will have gotten to have treatment? Only by looking for it with hope.

 

I really do believe we will see a cure or an effective drug in our life time . And I already think there are drugs which will help there is nothing unless there's a solution for it , you just have to look for it , why don't you try keppra , I heard it has cured hyperacusis along with you're kind of reactive T , it's side effects aren't serious as well , give it a try !

 

@uae96
I didn't know that keppra is good for reactive T too. It should have crossed my mind, as H and reactive T are similar in many ways.
Thanks for the tip!

 

Yeah give it a try it's nothing to loose ! you could see its thread its cured some cases of reactive t and h , I'm sure it will in you're case if you've done tests and nothing was found it could be a nervous system problem which keppra is for !

 

Can a doctor help to put you on disability because of T?. I lost my job(not because of T,just restructuring ) almost 2yrs ago and havent worked since. I just don't have the strength to go back to work. T is a bitch. I am not lazy to work,it's just hard to concentrate to do simple tasks.

 

@John G
Laws are different from country to country. Only a person who knows the laws of your country can answer, so first you must say which country is that.

 

Forcing myself to keep working has been instrumental to staying sane.

T can be very rough in quiet meetings, but the alternative sounds worse to me.

 

Hi Dana,

I live in Toronto,Canada.