Does Most Acoustic Trauma Induced Tinnitus Go Away by 6 Months?

Thank you Bill! Looking forward to the one year mark.

 

How long did you have tinnitus before you got rid of it? How long did it take you to get rid of it?

 

Very long. It slowly ceased within years.

 

I really hope this is true what you said that in most cases acoustic trauma induced tinnitus goes away by 6 months. My acoustic trauma induced tinnitus has lasted for five weeks.

I have met a couple of people who have said their acoustic trauma induced tinnitus has gone away. One said it took two weeks to go away. Unfortunately, it returned later in life. The other person I know said it took 1-2 months to heal and nowadays this person doesn't have tinnitus anymore.

 

That gives me hope. And for people with acoustic trauma and hearing loss?

 

My initial tinnitus after a loud concert had gone away by the two year mark. Then I made the mistake of listening to loud music again and bam, Morse code tinnitus and reactivity. Protect your ears.

 

Very sad to hear. Do things still improve for you?

 

How long ago did you have your acoustic trauma that resulted in hearing loss?

 

I'm now 8.5 months in. I've had tinnitus and hyperacusis since 2009, but my life was good and I could live with it. Due to the hearing loss this year, my hyperacusis went away, but tinnitus became severe and the quality of my hearing went down a lot. I lost all joy in life, no matter how hard I'm trying to pick up things and be positive.

 

No, I am slowly getting worse. It seems that any noise exposure does more and more damage. An MRI was the nail in the coffin, I got multiple new sounds from it and music sounds even worse now. It's dead synapses, because my extended audiograms are fine.

 

@Tau, your tinnitus seems very similar to mine. I have like 3 stages, from the worst:

1. High pitched unstable sinus tone (intrusive)
2. High pitched morse code (intrusive)
3. High pitched tickling (not so intrusive)

It is also sound reactive. I did get better over time, but then you go and expose yourself to harmful noise again.

 

Feels bad. Yeah, I have 10+ sounds, including clicking in both ears (could be TTTS maybe?), 4 tones of Morse code in one ear that get worse if I lie down on the other ear (and I can provoke them by doing Valsalva or yawning - maybe middle ear damage?), 16-18 kHz wavering sound in both ears, 12 kHz intermittent whistle, 8 kHz intermittent whistle, etc. Most of them are rather quiet, below 10 dB, but the high frequency ones can be heard anywhere. Oh, and no pure tone hearing loss at those frequencies!

 

Yeah man, MRI is killer. It made my right ear get reactive and a bit louder again. That’s with fitted earplugs and a lower decibel MRI machine. You warned us.

 

Sorry to hear that! I had earplugs in and pads on the ears, and still got a lot of damage.

 

Why do you guys agree to get an MRI?

I said no to a CT scan but realized afterwards, that it's not nearly as bad. But, I don't see the point anyway. The chances of anything showing up related to my tinnitus is so minuscule and remote, it's pointless.

I wouldn't get an MRI under any circumstances and I understand there are newer ones that are less noisy.

 

Same. I think it mainly happens to noise induced trauma folks. My right ear is pretty sensitive, I mean it spiked from a toaster oven beeping haha.

 

I'm spiking from going to a restaurant with earplugs in, how is this even real?

 

Have you experienced any fading/lowering of pitch/improvement compared to, say, 6 months ago?

 

Daily headaches, dizziness, new ringing, etc.

Yeah normally I wouldn’t get an MRI.

 

Did your MRI reveal anything?

I have frequent headaches and migraines. I've had them for years. I had them before I got tinnitus and didn't know how debilitating tinnitus was. I was advised to get an MRI by my doctor (still my family physician but hopefully, not for much longer). It was probably a typical machine. I didn't know that MRIs can worsen tinnitus or cause it to occur.

I didn't get tinnitus so I was lucky. If I knew about all that, I would never have agreed. The scan didn't show anything so all it did is rule out a tumor or whatever condition they check. They should either modernize them so they're a lot of quieter or acknowledge that they are potentially dangerous to the ears.

 

I agree. It’s been a week and my ENT has been busy with surgeries so hasn’t gotten back to me. Someone needs to develop a quiet MRI. The MRI techs thought I was nuts questioning the decibel levels.

I also get extremely weak or fatigue from time to time so better to be safe in my case.

 

I had that problem a while ago, too. Now, I just feel tired with low energy.

Still wouldn't subject myself to an MRI when the risk is so great and benefit is so low or the odds are low that anything shows up.

I think so many people think that these health professionals have your best interests at heart. They don't. They also don't give a shit about you. I was already starting to really realize that.

After the past year and a half, it's so clear, it's like a depressing revelation but it is also infuriating and frustrating that others still don't see it.

 

I agree. I have a 5-year-old son so I couldn’t risk dropping dead despite my suffering.

 

No. Could be a month if you're lucky, could be two years, or could be permanent. But your risks of further damage are increased after each incident. Best advice is steer clear of crazy-loud concerts and environments.

 

Mine is in its 10th month now & no improvement. Still have reactive tinnitus & hyperacusis. I've had 7 months of sound therapy to no avail using BTE noise generators.

 

Hi, Bill!

How long can this "can hear it only in quiet rooms" stage last? I've reached it almost in two years. I have a feeling that I need 4-5 years in total to overcome this spike.

 

Lots of people report mostly overcoming tinnitus and getting to that stage.

Unfortunately, very few report getting over that stage. Hopefully this is the result of them never visiting this forum once they are over that stage. But you have to mentally prepare yourself that you won't be able to enjoy silence in the woods and at other quiet places. That hiss you hear might get quieter, but you might always be hearing it when it is quiet. If that's the case, you ought to eventually habituate to it. It is hard to habituate to loud tinnitus, but a lot easier to habituate to quiet tinnitus...

 

My left ear is hissing. My right ear is quietly ringing. Hissing is not a problem for me. I dream that this right ear quiet ringing would go away so that I could sleep without sound enrichment every time. Quiet hissing in both ears would be perfect for me. There is still hope, I guess.

 

@Vassili, what were the main tools to get that good result with tinnitus and hyperacusis? Just a natural healing process or did you do anything else?

 

It has been quietly ringing for two years? I know that the more it fades, the slower it begins to fade. So if it doesn't switch to a hiss, hopefully it can keep getting quieter. You have been staying away from the noises that don't feel right to you, right?

Staying away from the loud noises and All of the noises that feel too loud (even if their dB seems low) has worked for many people.