Does Everyone REALLY Get Used to This?

I'm now in the 9th month since T started and I'm definitely not used to it! It is ruining my life. I was once a confident, go-getter, who could multitask with the best of em'. Now I fall to pieces when there is too much noise or I am asked too many questions at once. I have trouble concentrating, my memory is sh!?, and I'm severely depressed. I am in therapy, trying out hearing aids, and do my best to get on with life, but every day I feel myself slipping further into the depression.

 

No not everyone.

Imagine the person who goes deaf with high level T and no masking potential? The sorrow and the pity...

A million scenarios where your own T seems a mere annoyance.

I know both sides....and I thank god(if he exists) that my hearing is pitch perfect and my T is manageable ... but lets not forget originally I was so bad I though I was gonna hit the grass....

 

My right ear aches a good portion of the time. I can't figure it out.
I can feel the pain in the back upper right of my throat going up into my ear. (Entrance to E.Tube)

Ears not blocked at all. No fullness. Ears still pop more than before I got T feels like. If I hold this muscle in my throat a certain way. It will crack several times in a row sometimes.

Ear Ache in my left ear from TMJ like symptoms has mostly gone away. Though I still get Jaw Cracking when I open my Jaw on my left side regularly and when I eat. Different from ear popping in right ear.

 

Yes you can. I have had Tinnitus for 3 years almost. I hibernated after about 1 year plus. Key is to accept it as a noise you body is making. Like breathing. Do you hear yourself breath all the time?. Only difference is you can stop breathing to stop the noise right ;D.

Eat well, exercise well and enjoy life. Be relaxed, don't stress. Your brain and ears will ring and be more noticeable if you stress and concentrate on the hissing/ringing.

Get off this board and stop reading about cures ect. Really its the only way to acceptance. Be happy your alive and don't have any other health condition and disability.

 

If you haven't habituated to mild tinnitus by now it sounds like you have depression problems which is causing your brain to stay in a loop and be focused on a negative thought. Once you deal with the depression part you should be able to be like your husband. It won't bother you so you won't obsess over it and therefore the less you focus on it the less loud it will seem and when you do notice it, it won't be a big deal and you can go right on thinking about what you want. I actually have to use medicine for depression. I believe I am bipolar II. Medicine really helps me but it is important not to take benzo's long term. You might want to start with something natural first though like eating fish everyday. If you don't like that, maybe you could take a couple of capsules of fish oil each day with food and see how you feel in 3 weeks.

 

That is fantastic. I am curious though, what type of tinnitus do you have? Is it whistling, tonal, static like, etc.? Also, what happened after a year that caused you to habituate? Was it multiple times of "getting over it" which led to "screw it, there is no point in letting me get down about this"?

 

No. After three-to-four years, I'm miserable. My T and hearing loss are dominating my life. I am quite definitely handicapped by this. There is no more chance of "habituation" than one would have of "accepting" waking up each morning to a beating and then simply going about your day. Nor should there be.

 

Have you tried hearing aids and/or taken any medication or supplements for depression?

 

I wear hearing aids. They do not fix the T and they get my hearing to about 85 percent of normal. I take niacin, ginkgo, magnesium, Triamterene, CoQ10 and used to take melatonin, prednosone, Florical and I forget what else. I'm a damn pharmacy. Depression mess won't change the hearing loss or the T.

 

@Marie79 If you can`t hear outside than you are a lucky person...I hear it even when I`m driving a car. But to answer your question. "Does everyone really get used to this?" I have to say it depends on the severity. Mild T sufferers will habituate 99% percent. I was habituated for 7-8year...and no not that type of habituation that I accept "well I`m screwed, but I must go on with life..." but that type of habituation that I didn`t wanted a cure for my T even though I heard it every day, first at just night, than after my volume increase even daytime in silent situations, like when I was in the garden or bathroom. My habituation was so strong that I haven`t noticed my volume change, just if I think back. It was an instant success story, T never bothered me, saddly that was my death sentence, because I kept crushing my ears in parties and concerts without any knowledge about what is T, just imagine that type of habituation, I had T for 8 years and I never ever checked on the internet what is it (even though I`m that OMG my head hurts it must be a brain tumor guy). Now If I think back...just a minimal annoyance back then would have saved me from this torture...I was a careless kid, this is the problem and nobody said it could get worse. Sorry, I drifted away from the topic a bit.

My answer for you is that people with mild T will habituate in a short time, or immediately like me, but sever T "owners" saddly never, sorry and my story is the best example...I`ve habituated back then in an instance and kept it for 8 years, now 1.5 year down the road and no relief yet...

And let`s differentiate mild and sever. Mild T is when you hear your T just in complete silence, but a minimal distraction people talking nearby, car passing etc. or a ventilator or cooler will mask your T. Sever T is above that...unmaskable ringing in normal conditions no relief with white noise, music etc.

I will be a bit rude here...but those guys who could hear their T just at nigh or just when they clog their ears, but they are stating that their life is over...I want to show the fingers to them, because they don`t know how lucky they are that God or who ever the f*ck gave just that small sign to them "live healthy".

I don`t want a cure for my T (that would be a miracle)...I just want my old mild T back. Just to be able to sit still in a place without shaking tortured by the noise. I just want to enjoy life again watching the sundown or a movie, be at a theather or in a pub, or to be able to chill in bed for long minutes before I get up. I`m not asking much...

Take care!
Huni,
age 26, constant ear pain, severe T, hypercausis (and I hope some terminal illness)

 

See,

I am currently in a good place with T.

Took a couple of years...but if I had hearing and the sound kept getting higher I'd be quickly enough kicked off my whole "I'm habituated" high horse.

My condition is no joke but motto is things can always get worse....

And I'm read some awful cases titled; catastrophic tinnitus.

Like a sound so loud you are deaf to the world almost...that shit would be soul destroying.

So as much as my own story has become a lot better I wouldn't be conceited about it.

 

I'm not trying to start anything, but I think its a bit inaccurate to say people with severe T can NEVER habituate. Although I thought like this at first I've come to realize that maybe the definitions of habituation are different. With mild tinnitus habituation = you can't hear it because its so pushed to the back of your mind. With moderate/severe habituation = you can still hear it over everything but all emotional responses to it are all cut off (you don't get depressed, anxious, annoyed). Both you can still live happy life. Sure, you might have some limitations (clubs, bars, parties, etc.) but that's life. I thought negative at first too about all this when i first got up here but what I have learned is you can have a good life without going to loud places.just gotta find what works and what doesnt. This is just my opinion and I don't mean to offend x

 

I agree with you @DDD the emotional response is the key here...for example if you go out to the wilds, you hear that loud river, but you just not shouthing that stoooooooop I can`t bear it anymore. Just you know...the emotional part is always hard. I think my habituation would be much faster if I would have constant pain in my ears what keep remind me to my condition.

 

I duno what kinda shopping malls you have where you live but here in the UK i wouldn't say that loud..

 

@Hunszi Is your pain from hyperacusis, too? I have that also. Pretty bad. I also have bad reactive T, so your not the only one going through this lol. But I'm gonna start working on my emotional reaction towards all this ( hyperacusis or not) so I have that part of the problem under control. The rest is just praying the H will go away or reduce. When did you get your hyperacusis?

 

@DDD no I have one constant ear pain sometimes less sometimes more, but constant no matter if there is death silence or some loud chit chatting. Then in top of that the typical hypercausis spike pains.

 

@Sam Bridge I don't think they are that loud either over here in america but since Ive been reading peoples posts I think ive grown very anxious about places I think is safe to go. Since I have to lose out on concerts at LEAST I can go shopping hopefully lol x

 

Here is my insight and sperspective:

Habituation doenst necessarily mean you're not bothered with it... it means you can live your life fairly balanced, you get along and go forward just like anyone else on the planet. Go to work or school if you need or want, do your hobbies, spend time with friends. If your doing those things, you've already habituated to a major degree. Dreaming about things being the way they were is not the same.

When I was "healthy" years ago I had problems. Small problems mostly, and I would get upset over small things. Have to do this, have to do that, why did that person talk to me like that? I need fancier clothes and more money. More videogames. If only this woman liked me I would be happy. The small problems were big in my head at the time.

After T, depression, panic, anxiety and therapy and everything, I try to worry less. Being anxious about being anxious can really send you on spiral. Same way dreaming about joylful "all problems erased now" habituation can be a problem. There is no final line in life, when all problems are erased and joy can begin again. Its a dream. Balance and happiness is in the moments and realizing that the future is unknown. And the unknown is not hostile. Just unknown.

Even after all the mental exercises and therapy I've done, my biggest fear is new, loud, debilitating T. And I'm justified in my fear. It can be a terrible thing. But tomorrow is unknown. And pain and joy can live together. Always.

Sorry for rambling ... this subject matter does it for me

 

@hunzi I had constant ear pain at the start too from loud noise exposure, like it also physically hurted to touch my ear but its slowly fading away now. i think the same will happen to you sooner or later. Most people say ear pain usually fades unless you have something underlying wrong like tmj (which I also have YAY ME!) or something like that x but stay positive bro and if not fake it until you make it

 

I hope you are right @DDD my whole pain thing is a roller coaster...let say if I play some FPS game and I crank the volume a bit up, and I fire a gun, my ear hurts, but when I`m standing next to a rumbling motorbike in real life nothing...it`s really weird.

One day my mate showed his ATV and we took a 5 min. ride around the corner...no pain even though we didn`t wore helmet to cancel out noise for that minimal test drive. An there are such days that my ears hurt even though I`m inside the car with pulled up windows...Of course after the ATV ride I started to measure my T and I jumped back to that neverending "now I hear it?" cycle.

Sometimes I have a huge spike in my T when someone just claps his hands...and some days nothing happens when the ambulance car siren is turned on when I stand 3 meters from it.

 

I've gotten used to it. I'm coming up on three years next month. I noticed a great improvement this year. I think time and just living my life helped. I stopped thinking of habituation and stopped looking for something to take it away-- and it was then that I started noticing that my tinnitus was becoming much less distressing. I doubt I'll ever be one who has to seek tinnitus to hear it--I hear it most of the time but there are periods when I am not aware of it and those times are getting longer. I am mostly okay now--and sometimes I get annoyed but I don't have those primal fearful reactions that I had in the beginning and I am grateful that life is now okay--better than okay.

 

Would you consider yours severe?

 

I don't think it's severe--I think it's moderate with some days even louder. I can hear it most of the time above almost all regular noises but I can mask it--or at least I used to mask it sometimes. I don't use masking now.

 

Have you ever thought about taking 200mg of magnesium and .4 (that is .4 NOT 4) mg of melatonin at night 30 minutes before you go to bed and then when you wake up take 1200 mg of NAC (N-acetylcysteine) on an empty stomach? If you do, make sure you avoid protein for an hour or so. The Life extension recommends these 3 to preserve hearing. They say on there that 3mg of Melatonin can reduce tinnitus perception up to 40% but I don't know. I just figure since you take supplements you might want to look into NAC or something. Sometimes taking supplements at the right time can help but to be honest I am not sure what the right time is or what supplements are the right ones. I am just throwing out an idea. It could be totally unhelpful. I hope you feel better soon.

http://www.lifeextension.com/magazine/2012/5/Strategies-Protect-Preserve-Your-Hearing/Page-02

 

When it 1st started 12 years ago I thought WTF ...I will live with it and see dr.s to get answers. No answers. Tried to work. Always felt like I was acting @ work. I had a secret. Felt odd and defective. It was worse in my personal life. Couldn't act there. Does anyone feel like they have to act @ job or life to get by?

 

7 months in and still no habituation. Then again I seem to add a new sound or symptom every month. Last night watching a film really depressed me. I used to lose myself in the plot of a good film. Now whenever there is no music playing I hear the loud high pitched T. I am amazed I'm still around though. I sleep very sporadically. Before I used to get angry and anxious about this. Now I just accept it. The body and mind have much more resilience than I ever thought possible.

 

I have a 11Khz hiss about in both ears. Changes through the day. Some times the volume goes down and seems to be affected by food intake types and also by tiredness as well. It seems to be also affected by noises around me. For me I just got tired of stressing about something that has no cure or didn't give pain. Whats the point of stressing and been miserable for something you have no control over. Only way to gain control is to accept it.