Chances of Recovering from Tinnitus? — If It Never Happens, What About Habituation?

I'm going to try to make this my last thread here, after this I'll be out of questions and just have to play the waiting game. That being said, I'm grateful for this community always being here when I feel hopeless and alone.

So, I have two main questions:

1. From multiple success stories I've read, I've heard of people's tinnitus disappearing after a few months to a couple of years, some from stress, TMJ, acoustic trauma etc. I've just been wondering, in terms of tinnitus cessation from acoustic trauma, do any cases include those with detectable (but not noticeable) SNHL on audiograms? I'm not sure if those recovered from trauma-induced tinnitus exclusively had hidden hearing loss or minor hearing loss recovered from steroids/time. In other words, does detectable hearing loss 100% certify chronic tinnitus?
   
   
2. In the case of recovery never happening, what exactly is habituation like? When I'm out and about or listening to music, I can see how I could eventually get it off my mind during those times given a few months - a year. However, when I go to bed and wake up with my head blaring every day, I genuinely don't see how it's possible to just ignore the stereo feedback in my head every morning, unless I went to sleep with white noise, which I'm not usually good at and don't require. Do habituated people still feel pretty shitty every morning and get used to that or do they find a way for it not bothering them? Just curious.

Also, to help with chances of recovery I'm doing 5 sessions of HBOT, taking vitamins (D, B12 etc.), magnesium (not sure if chelated or not but giving it a go) and soon starting NAC. Any other treatment ideas welcome

 

I habituated from nasty high frequency tinnitus I got in 2015. It took a while (like over a year but 99.9% of the time I didn't hear it. I sat in silence in saunas and heard... silence...

To be clear I still had tinnitus just as loud as the day it showed up. But my brain was truly 100% tuning it out. Sometimes when going to bed or waking up I would perceive the tinnitus, but my brain had no emotional response so in a minute I forgot about it and went back to not hearing anything.

It sounds so impossible and too-good-to-be-true that if you went back to me in 2015 I wouldn't have believed or even comprehended that you could have it but literally not hear it. But it's true. Habituation wasn't my "getting used to it." Habituation was my cure.

I say "was" because I got another difficult frequency of tinnitus thanks to more antibiotics. So now I've got another long road ahead of me. But this time I know the destination and it's awesome.

 

About hearing loss and tinnitus...

I have a friend that got slapped with an open hand on his right ear. He is almost deaf on this ear. He had some surgery afterwards to safe his hearing, but with no success. He can only hear sounds beginning at 120 dB.

He has no tinnitus!

He can only sometimes hear his pulse, because of no external sound input.

 

Hey John, I'm Daniel, I also was an American displaced to London, now Laos. I have read your posts and it's an amazing story. I am curious to what the severity of your tinnitus is? I know it's subjective, but how would you rate it? Mild or severe? Thanks and good luck on your journey.

 

Habituation is a beautiful thing. It is the spikes that are hard!

 

Habituation is something everybody should try to strive for, but it should never be considered a cure. We need actual treatment/cure to combat the noise completely, because for most people habituation, means you will still hear your tinnitus.

 

I know someone who had it for years and then it disappeared. I don't think his was that severe though.

You mention that yours is worse in the morning. For me morning is when I suppose mine bothers me the least. It is later in the day that I'm really tired of this crap. Then I crack the window in my truck to get some wind noise. I can usually find some kind of distraction. It's when I'm alone, not talking to anyone, not doing anything, etc. that it is worse. Distraction-distraction-distraction--That's my "cure" or habituation, a term I really don't use much.

Hearing loss doesn't automatically mean Tinnitus. There are plenty of seniors with hearing loss and no T.

 

I have detectable high frequency hearing loss, but it's mild. Mi first bout of tinnitus got better after 26 months. Then I ruined it.

 

Did he have tinnitus at the start though?

I guess it just seems like it to me since the acoustic caused my hearing loss and the T started soon after. What in the heck do those lucky hard-of-hearing do to not have tinnitus? Something about limbic gating system?

 

No, he had not a single second of Tinnitus.

But i would't trade with him. I think deafness on ear is worse than my 20-30db bilateral tinnitus.

 

I genuinely don't think it's an amazing story. It's a normal story. This is what happens to 99% of people who get tinnitus (which is why this forum doesn't have 50 million people on it).

It was very high pitched and so regardless of volume it would make itself heard over everything--at first. So it was severe to me. For the first couple of months I was absolutely miserable. A year later I didn't hear it as much and a year after that--well I honestly couldn't tell you when I realized I had habituated because I spent so little of my time thinking about it that it didn't even register as something to be tracking anymore.

 

My experience: you get used to the bloody thing. It's not like you've stopped suffering, but the agony has lost some of its edge.

Others may have other, more positive experiences.

Always insert foam ear plugs properly before you leave your home. Sooner or later, you might suffer additional damage to your hearing due to ambulance sirens, fire alarms, car alarms, popping balloons, fireworks, or something else. The only strategy that really works is to always protect yourself.