Everything Ended Up Okay in the End

Hi everyone,

I thought I'd make a post, I haven't been on these forums in months now and I can't say thats a bad thing. My whole tinnitus story began almost a year ago now, I still remember the day, It was August 28th. I had just come back from a night of beer & pool with a few of my buddies. As I was laying in bed watching TV, I noticed this weird ringing over the TV nothing like I've experienced before. I went ahead and said oh well, it'll probably be gone tomorrow no big deal and went to bed. To my dismay, when I woke up the ringing was still there. I thought it may of just been some impacted ear wax or something pushing on my ear drums so I went to an ENT. Sure enough he said my ears were full of wax and cleared them out for me, but unfortunately that didn't do anything for me..

Going on from there I had a hearing test done, and my hearing was flawless in fact better than it should of been for my age. The last thing I did was get an MRI, which was pretty dreadful and spiked my T for a couple of weeks. At this point my ears had been ringing for a month non-stop and I thought I would never get out of this dreadful loop. I completely fell into depression I mean who wouldn't after all, right? Ringing 24/7, that you can't get away from... I thought my life as I knew it was coming to an end.

I read countless posts on here about people habituating and everything being okay, but I just couldn't believe it. There was no way in hell that I was going to accept that someone could live like this. I was miserable for 2-3 months. I was beginning to slack at work, I didn't want to go out and do anything. I'd literally go to work, come home and just try to keep my mind off of it as best as I could, but no matter what I did it was always there and I literally couldn't do anything to stop it.. it was hell, literally a living nightmare..

But as time went on things slowly got better, by months 4-5 I was out of this constant panic, I couldn't believe it but I was starting to habituate. Fast forward to today, it honestly barely bothers me. I've gone weeks without paying attention to it. My life is 100% back to normal, in fact it's better than it was before. I'm in a new relationship, I've made new friends, my social life is no longer suffering. I still go to bars (obviously the quieter ones), I go to concerts (stay in the BACK!) I do everything I use to do and more. It's as if I never had tinnitus. Obviously if I focus on it I can still hear it, but its crazy what the brain can adapt to. 99.9% of the time its as if its just non-existent.

I guess what I'm trying to say to all the new people visiting this forum is that it gets better even if you don't want to or can't believe it, IT DOES! just hold on, stay strong. Trust me everything will be okay, Me & hundreds of others here have been in your exact position. You just have to stay strong through the first few months, it's not going to be easy but you will get your life back I promise.

I don't visit here often anymore, but I felt I had to write out my story and let others know that you can live a happy life with T and eventually it'll feel as if you never had it.

 

Thank you, I needed to hear that....I am out of the panic mode for the most part, and now in the annoying, angry, I can't believe I have to live with this part, and I thought this may be as good as it gets..but your post seems to indicate that I can look forward to more improvement....THANK YOU!

 

Good to read this as I am six month in and still in panic mode. I still wonder if the route to habituation depends on how loud your T is though and if you have H as well it's an added challenge

 

If it helps, I definitely had H in the beginning, maybe the first 2-3 months but it faded as time went on. I still believe I may have it at a very minimal level. For example, I no longer can sit next to like an old CRT tv you know the ones that whine. Well I can, but its super freaking annoying, like I can hear the whine like no other. Other than that though, I can't think of anything else that bothers me H wise. Good thing we live in a world where LED/LCD tvs are a norm.

 

Glad you are OK now, I will still be careful around sound though if I was you. I know that sounds depressing but I think those of us in these boards have some kind of damage so we can't afford to be to careful.

 

Oh yeah, I still am. Although I'm assured that my tinnitus isn't caused by hearing loss or damage (since I've had multiple hearing tests done, all without issues even in the high ranges)

I'm still not messing around with being around excessively loud things, and I don't recommend for anyone who has gone through this to sit next to speakers at concerts or go to tiny basement bars where they blast music.

 

Bam you've been favorited. Seriously though thanks for posting. These stories are of such a great boon to me. It's so easy in these early days to get lost in the dark places in your mind it really helps to see that others have walked the same path and get to a place that I believe exists even if I can't fully see it yet. Thank you.

 

Thank you for this very inspiring post.

I'm at 7 weeks from a loud concert and am switching to very strict healthy diet/exercise today to get Mt T under control.

Take Care and enjoy the silence!

 

In my case, tinnitus did not disappear. It began in 2007 and I still can hear it!