Doing Better But Need a Little Advice

I started being in complete silence (more) and OMG it's BETTER. I don't know why. I tried doing that in the early stages and it just freaked me the hell out. Now I think it has really helped me achieve another step in habituation.

Or maybe all that damn masking was making it worse. IDK.

Anyway I have a 4 hour work meeting on Friday and it will be in one of those silent echoey rooms that seem to make me hear the T more. It's already going to be a little stressful because it's with my new boss and my team that I manage. I've never met this new boss and and she is a bit intimidating anyway.

I just know the T will get into my head. I usually work at home and when it bugs me I put on my crickets or music or the ball melody but that is not cool in this situation.

Klonopin doesn't make me feel drowsy ..I'm wondering if I should take one.

How have you guys dealt with this when you didn't have your "crutches?"

 

Some people with tinnitus like being in "silence" Marie. For instance at night. This all depends on how intrusive the tinnitus is? In your case and from your previous posts I don't think that's a good idea at this moment. You need more time. Silence is good if that's what you want but I don't think it's helping at the moment. If I were you, I'd get a small portable sound machine to use at work in the quiet office. : Sounnd Oasis make a model: S-850. I have have it for travel purposes and it's 5 x 3 inches approximately. Neat and unobtrusive.

I have variable tinnitus that ranges frome silent, mild, moderate and severe. When it is severe I sometimes take Klonopin/Clonazepam for a couple of days and it usually calms down. As you know this drug can be addictive and as you are doing so well I'd advise if possible keep away from it, unless the tinnitus is very intrusive. For stress and anxiety, I think you would be much better off by takeing a good quality St John's Wort. It's helps stress and mild depression and is a good alternative to presciption medications. It is herbal.

When you fully habituate, having sound in your environment such as a sound machine will seem unimportant as your brain will learn to accept it. Equally, if your tinnitus is mild and you want to be in a quiet enviroment this also wont matter but it's something I don't advise. I believe it's a good idea to have some non intrusive sound playing low in the background rather than being in complete silence.

Michael

 

Marie, your problem isn't tinnitus. Your problem is anxiety. If you didn't have this little almost nonexistent sound of yours in your ears, you would concoct some other almost nonexistent problem and start focusing on it. Be appreciative your sound is so minimal.

 

@Marie79 ,
I'm sure you will be fine in the meeting ....chin up and be positive and I'm sure the 4 hour meeting might get a coffee break and time unwind...have a nice treat at home later and a long pamper soak in the bath...lots of love glynis

 

I'm sorry but do you know exactly what I hear? I was at disneyland yesterday and was able to hear it. It's high pitch. And yes as many that suffer with tinnitus anxiety is a part of it. Most of us are well aware of this.

 

A valid point @Marie79 No one can know what another person is experincing...

 

[QUOTE="Marie79, post: 226303, member:
Mine stopped being reactive as soon as I gave my ears some silence. Work sounds stressful, atleast have one in your pocket.

 

Silence. This has been one of the fastest transitions for me. Usually the other "transitions" (I see them all like these very slow steps toward habituation) have been super slow but this one had progress in days.

I have been bearing longer and longer times in silence. Instead of having my crickets on all night I have them on an alarm and they shut off in an hour our two.

I am noticing T less and less.

They always said to keep masking lower than your T and that was super hard for me because noises often time increased my T. So while it didn't sound super loud in silence I could hear it if I put on white noise and my air conditioner AND the tv. It freaked me the hell out so I just put on masking that was all that PLUS my crickets and I couldn't hear it.

Anyway that is why I'm saying that that whole thing...keeping masking lower than your T is real. I'm seriously 60% better in just a few days in just complete silence.

Another person on here said to do that and I thought she was nuts or just a lot stronger than me. She had a really great success story. I can't remember right now but she was right.

 

I don't think any offence was meant by this. I'd actually agree that the bigger issue seems anxiety, but it probably is in most T cases

 

I've been known to play cricket sounds through headphones during long meetings at work.

Less of a problem now that I work from home in the woods fulltime with my little chime fountain running in my office 24/7

 

If you can afford it perhaps you might look into special hearing aides with "special" type masking such as the Widex Zen. I don't know if you would like them or not but you can listen to the sounds:

Playlist: Zen by Widex

At first they were kind of weird to me. Now that I got a new tinnitus, I might think about it. Still don't know though. To me, it would seem like these sounds might get on my nerves.

I am only saying this for those situations that get on your nerves. Other times keep things such as these in your purse.

 

Like you, I used to mask. Then when I was unmasked I'd listen to see how the T was doing.
And again like you, I'd get bothered in quiet rooms.
Have you tried the BTS method? https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/back-to-silence.7172/