Back again ...is habituation a myth?

what i really dont understand: why does everybody speak about "i can not sleep because of tinnitus". tinnitus has not ever stolen me one single minute of sleep and you know why ? cause i sleep with sleepphones and listen to great nature sound,thats so realaxing and you dont hear anything but the realaxing nature sounds! i leave it on all night!its a fleece headband, so its totally comfortable!

 

How loud is your T? Some people have really loud T so even with the masking there T is really loud.

 

I have a loud high-pitched T. Taking Mirtazapine makes me very tired. But even without, I am a very robust sleeper. And I know that while sleeping I do not hear my T. So night time is a relief for me. It disturbs me much more during the day.

 

Ugh. No more nature sounds for me. I prefer my tinnitus over crickets and running water anytime

 

oh my god im scared now-tinnitus that you can not mask? i though these are only horror stories?

 

Yea people with severe T cannot fully mask it.. Some people can even walk into a full orchestra and there T is even higher then that.. Not sure who on here said that but that is just really bad T and i feel bad for those people. But i guess habuitating means it doesnt matter how loud it is it dont bother you?

 

oh grace, i think this is another myth im afraid.i guess its ALL about volume when it comes to "can i live with it or not".i really cant imagine habituation if tinnitus is as loud as you described above.but you know what i think such extreme tinnitus is the one you get after brain injury ,after an accident with the car or something...i cant imagine tmj or noise tinnitus to become THAT loud, otherwiese the suicide rate would be much higher, dont you think?

 

I absolutely agree with youu... Its alll about volume.. I prob have the quietest T ever but if it were to take a step up where it was audible without plugin my ears i would go into panic mode and shut down.. Until i was able to come to terms with it... BUT the other part where you said extreme T can only be with head injurys is not true. Noise induced T or any T in general has the ability to worsen and if you dont take care of your ears it can be as loud as a train.... Ofcorse this could take years and years of not protecting your years but who am i to say it couldnt happen in one night if you stand next to loud speakers for hours without earplugs.! Anything is possible with t but if you take the precautions then it shouldnt.

 

Dont worry Michela my uncle got bad T years ago from a shotgun blast he had to sleep with a small radio under his pillow at like full volume and even then it didnt mask it.Today he is the most habituated person I have ever met when I ask him can he hear his T he has to concentrate really hard before he can hear it.He says that it never got any quieter but he got so use to it that he never notices it anymore

 

This just my opinion but I'm gonna have to disagree, I think t loudness definitely makes it harder to habituate but my uncle
has loud t to where he can't have normal
conversations he owns truck stops and has been exposed to many loud noises over the years and is now in his 60s. I should also add that he has shingles and that is extremely painful and even for that he doesn't notice it when he's working. I always have to repeat myself around him but he's not bothered at
all, some on this thread have said they have it very loud and have gotten past it. My t is very high pitch and I can't mask it with much I still hear it in the shower to some extent and with other maskers as well but I would consider myself habituated. Now I don't know if my t got really loud how I would handle it but I do know if I believe the louder it is then I will never get better guess what I prob
won't. I do think mind set is important in beating t. I can't afford to think things like that because we don't have many choices at the moment we either habituate or continue to suffer.

 

Mine at the moment is what I consider unhabituable unfortunately.I was doing fine for four years was completely habituated and led a completely normal life.It was an extremely low hissing sound with the occasional hum now and again but was manageable in every degree.I went to one club in those four years if there was a birthday party I would avoid the loud music by staying outside chatting to my friends and if I was somewhere a little loud I would never stay there longer than 10-15 minutes.I always used hearing protection when useing power tools had my ears cleaned by doctors so I wouldnt damage them with q-tips.Basically I treated my ears like a baby always taking care of them avoiding loud situations as best I could while leading a normal life and next thing you know after one little noise exposure all that changed.Bad T and H as a result.So no matter how well you treat them all it takes is one unexpected kick to change everything.T is so unpredictable you never know whats around the corner with it.Ive been to two concerts and went clubbing 5 times in my entire life and never owned an ipod either but yet I have this condition so bad I can barely function.

 

Sorry to hear that bill how long have you been going through your current struggle?

 

Since January of this year man really struggling just cant come to terms with this bs really thought I was doing a good job protecting my hearing avoiding all excessive noise levels was never around loud music at all I just worked really hard and went to JDM car shows thats basically all I done.And if I had to go somewhere quiet loud I would never stay longer than 15minutes I was basically OCD about my hearing and protecting it but unfortunately it didnt make a difference.

 

I think coming terms with what t is, is crucial. I think Dr.Nagler summed it up nicely. He said the only predictable thing about t is its unpredictability. Have you
had moments where you don't think about
or stress about your t. I think if you do its a good sign and something to build on. The
important thing is to not wait around for it
to get better , of course I don't accuse of doing this. I honestly belive the brain can be retrained because I've done it myself
before. I suffered from sever depression for 10 plus years, many doctors, drugs. Later I did not get better. I'm honestly surprised
I'm alive today. I started researching something called positive psychology and it saved my life. Helped where nothing else
could. I think what I learned during this time equipped me witht the tools deal with this along with the help of many on this forum.

 

So what was the noise exposure that caused your T to increase?

 

@michela, I cannot mask my tinnitus - and I'm doing just fine.

Right. And I've also said that the very best tinnitus support site for a newbie looking for information is:

www.IveDoneGreatWithMyExtremelyLoudSevereIntrusiveTinnitusAndHeresHowIDidIt.com

But unfortunately that site does not exist. So it's important for tinnitus newbies who come to the various support sites on the Internet for information to realize that the vast majority of posts on these sites are contributed by folks who are not doing particularly well with their tinnitus ... or they wouldn't be posting on a support site in the first place. Thus, you really have to tease out what you choose to believe - and that can often be very hard when it all makes reasonably good sense.

For instance, the idea that tinnitus that cannot be masked means it cannot be overcome it is simply inaccurate. In fact, in the opinion of many experts, even if you can totally mask your tinnitus, it may be unwise to do so.

So while there is much that can be learned on a site like this, it is important to look at everything with a critical eye.

In my opinion, anyway.

Stephen Nagler

 

Dr.Nagler, I was thinking about what you said about masking. Do you think some people get by with T with masking and don't necessarily habituate and if this is the case, if these people have a spike or some situation where they focus more on T, would they have a harder time habitating at the newer louder t. I was wondering if that's not what happens to people on here, where they get to a point where they just don't hear most of the time, but they aren't necessarily habituated. Hope that makes sense.

 

That's a great question, Cullen. So great, in fact, that I put my response over on the Doctors' Corner.

CLICK HERE

Stephen Nagler

 

Thanks Dr.Nagler as always very much appreciated.

 

I was watching videos on youtube and wasnt paying attention.On youtube on the xbox when one video ends another one starts automatically.The next video was some kind of hearing test video that blasted a 8000hz frequency through the tv for like a split second and thats pretty much what triggered this new bs.Just after it happened I didnt really notice anything but then I had this like electrical zap noise go through my head and thats when it started.I still hear like electricity going through my head along with this horrible pressure feeling inside my head and sounds cause horrible headaches.Had my hearing tested and was perfect.Dunno what im gonna do just feel so helpless im 99percent sure its a brain problem of some sort although I have noticed some hearing loss.

 

You are welcome.

Stephen Nagler