Everything Is Great: Tinnitus Has No Impact on My Daily Life — My Advice Is the Following...

Hi everyone, I haven't been on the forum for a very long time as I am perfectly OK. I logged in just to make this post. I had a cocktail of tinnitus and hyperacusis. I couldn't even go out on the street.

The ringing is still there, but I don't have ANY problem with it in my daily life. Some people might be like "I won't make it with his, I just want it to go away" but really I only remembered it's still there when I tried to log in!

My advice is the following:

1) Return immediately to your previous routine. Don't change anything, except obvious things like headphones and loud noises. By the way one day I was half drunk and went to a night club without any problem. I stopped smoking etc and the situation was only getting worse. Leave the forum, keep smoking (if you like it) etc.

2) For a short amount of time, consider taking a small amount of medication, after of course consulting with a professional. Maybe the brain is interpreting the ringing as a threat, that's why you are anxious all the time. I couldn't even sleep. Good sleep is the foundation of mental health. You need to sleep well for many hours one way or another.

If you have any questions please let me know. Because I know advice from people who are/were not in your shoes like doctors, doesn't really help, especially because they don't even have a clue to a cure or treatment, so those who don't know should not be a know-it-all to people who suffer.

Merry Christmas to everyone!

 

Is your tinnitus as loud as ever?

 

Yes, but it doesn't affect my daily life not even in the 0.1% range.

And if that is the case for me, considering where I started, which was a very bad place, I strongly believe this can be the case for everyone.

 

This is really enlightening and pleasing to hear. If you don't mind, I'd like to investigate further how you were able to achieve your success, as I would love to emulate or improve upon your results if possible.

When you mention that you should return to your original routine, I have always assumed that was a idea, but how are you able to block out what is otherwise constant? I find that not only is the noise pervasive at times when I am doing something, but I also have lost a lot of innate motivation to do my "usual schedule". I suppose the best way I can explain this is that this unpleasant addition is somehow tainting the enjoyment or value out of what I'm doing. Does this make sense? I am not sure how to avoid this line of thinking, especially as I have chronically suffered with anxiety.

I also find it happening all too often that where I might find myself distracted, I suddenly hear or remember the sound, and then it becomes more invasive. This in turn heightens my anxiety, lowers my mood, and continues the negativity I am seeking to expunge. This cycle is abysmal.

 

Congratulations on being able to deal with your tinnitus!

Thank you for coming back to tell us how you manage your life. Many leave without looking back. Of course, you have no obligation, as most people come here when they're down looking for support but it is nice to see people living normally or almost normally despite tinnitus.

Just to have it on record, can you give more details about your tinnitus? What caused it, or think has caused it if you're not sure? What does it sound like? How loud? Like hear it on the busy streets loud?

 

From what I see, you got tinnitus this month?

I totally get it, during my first month, I wasn't even able to focus in order to play scrabble, while in my spare time I wanted to kill myself.

Now it's been 2 years (don't worry, it doesn't take that long), and until recently I was immersed into studying differential equations and probability theory.

Unfortunately, modern medicine hasn't done much - nothing as a matter of fact - to cure or even treat tinnitus, to my knowledge.

However modern medicine has advanced tremendously in other fields, like helping with anxiety, mood and concentration. For the aforementioned, humanity has found solutions, so you can do something about them. These belong to the field of psychiatry, in which doctors - unlike ENT's - actually DO know what they are talking about. Don't think we live still in the times of "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" (maybe we live in the times "One Flew Over the ENT's Nest" though haha).

Can you sleep without waking up every hour due to the ringing? That is a key question to consider.

For me, speaking to a good psychiatrist was a tremendous catalyst to my recovery. If I have to give one piece of advice that would be it: Find a good psychiatrist to help with the short-term negative side-effects of tinnitus.

A very useful advice caught my eye yesterday when I logged in, I'll paraphrase it: "If you can sleep for long hours without interruptions you've won half the battle".

 

Thanks!

Yes I believe the questions in everyone's mind here on the forum are: "will it ever stop? when will it stop?".

I used to scroll desperately on the forum trying to cling on a hopeful post. Well here it is, without selling anything that doesn't work. It is the truth.

That is why I came back. If all the people who have recovered were here, Tinnitus Talk would be a better place.

The cause was a loud noise from headphones. Surely that was the case. I've been a musician for years, listening to music on high volumes, concerts etc

My tinnitus is a plain constant ringing, nothing interesting.

I am in lock-down due to the coronavirus, so I'll let you know when I go out. I can't really remember. But I have to tell you that I'm home and I don't notice it, I notice it when I force myself to do it. I don't think it has to do with loudness per se, but with habituation. Now that I notice it it has to be a conversation level loudness.

6 months might go by and I haven't even thought about it even for a split second and if I do it is just for a second.

The only minor discomfort remaining is that when a truck or a bus goes by it bothers me, i.e. loud noises bother me. Also children screaming lol. Although I was some time ago in a bad mini rock concert and I went through it without any issues.

 

@Drachen Everything you said is exactly my own challenge. I do hold out hope that I will be able to habituate to the extent that @PanM has achieved. I'm barely 2 months in am still firmly strapped into this rollercoaster but am doing everything possible to keep life a normal as possible before tinnitus. I'm trying real hard to ween myself off of headphones...

 

Yeah, I am going on approximately eight or nine days right now. I can't even be sure I didn't have it before, but I know that around that time is when I became acutely aware of something.

I am still holding onto the hope that this is some sort of temporary condition that will resolve itself soon™. I fortunately have not felt any thoughts of suicide, nor do I seem to have any symptoms of hyperacusis. This gives me some hope with regards to my ability to handle this. However, I still feel as if my quality of life has dramatically diminished. For someone that has already had a negative view of high-pitched sounds and a love of silent environments, it makes this symptom all the more cruel.

I find it very uncomfortable that I can't seem to find silence in a room anymore. For situations where I particularly needed silence to focus, such as sleep and reading, this has been debilitating. My general lack of motivation and willingness to do things I was once doing due to it being tampered by this noise is not helping.

Presently, I seem to have been carrying through the nights sleeping for almost exactly three hours or so, and it's a crapshoot whether or not I get back to sleep. Often it takes hours after that. I believe I have averaged about four hours of sleep a night since this all began.

While I'm somewhat chilling now with my 40-50 dB masking, it gets much worse towards the evening and especially when I'm lying down. Masking tends to help alright depending on the night for me to get to sleep, accompanied by my Melatonin, but after waking up the first time things get really challenging.

I have given strong consideration to this, but at the same time, I have noticed that a majority of antidepressants or sleep aids that you could get prescribed feature some degree to ototoxicity.

Over the past two months, I had been taking low dose Trazodone to help me sleep since I already had troubles with it before, but I abruptly stopped on the 21st since it might have been a cause of the noise. Of course, there's no guarantee that it had anything to do with it, but I can't be sure.

What sort of medication did you find worked best for you? I'm sure it as well is included on the ototoxic listings, but they always affect people differently. It just feels like a gamble to try with anything like this. Almost everything feels like a gamble at this point! What will help? What will make it worse? What will do anything at all? What is placebo? It's killer on the mind.

Anyway, sorry for the long reply. I hope you don't mind. I do tend to agree, or at the very least have the hope, that if I get my sleep back on track, I will handle things much better.

Given that you are now distracted by your studies, and assuming that this continues on for a bit longer, I wonder if the same will happen to me as I return to class next semester. There is of course the fear that everything will just be made all the more stressful...

 

I was averaging 4 hours too and this is not a good sleep by any means.

Melatonin didn't help me.

I had the same worries. Speak to your doctor about your worries regarding ototoxicity, like I did. He will gladly arrange for the appropriate medication.

Remember they are the experts this is why the have the authority to prescribe the appropriate medication for each specific and different individual.

I do not feel comfortable advertising or promoting medication online as I wouldn't think it would be helpful. I can tell you though that I followed the doctor's advice after discussing with him.

I sincerely believe that 100%.

 

@Drachen,

I don't know if it will help you or not. I have the same issue with it getting louder as I lie down. It's because our minds are not as distracted and we are looking for that silence we used to have at bedtime.

I've been alternating between Melatonin and Lorazepam 1 mg to get much sleep. The Lorazepam seems to work a little better since it has an anti-anxiety drug attached. I started taking Synapse XT about five days ago. Figured why the hell not. Worth a shot. I was using headphones a lot to mask the ringing in the first month but I've backed off that and just use a sound machine and YouTube to help cover.

Not going to lie, it's still quite hard some nights. But it gets a bit easier with mild acceptance. Let go of the fear/terror of it if possible. And try to accept it as an annoyance instead. Wish I had better advice... but that's where I'm at currently. If this Synapse XT stuff helps as advertised I plan on posting about my experience later on.

Good luck. Stay strong.

 

Synapse XT is a scam. You have just given your money to scammers. If I tell you I have a pill that works, will you pay me too? Why are you so stupid? This is why these scams work and are profitable to their creators, people like you fall for them.

Great thread about Synapse XT by @Contrast:

Synapse XT Tinnitus Supplements Are a SCAM — Fake Science and Fake Stories of a Deceased Doctor!

 

@ajc
WAY TO BE A DICK! I thought this was supposed to be a community of supporters. I'm sure you've never made mistakes looking for help. I didn't have that information and couldn't find anything close to it. It was ordered before I ever joined this forum. I knew I was taking a risk but we are all looking for the same outcome. Except most of us aren't assholes about it.

I hope you find the help you need. For your tinnitus and your attitude. I'm just out here trying to survive.

 

It doesn't even feel like quality sleep. At the very least, I'm not exhausted during the day. Well, that's not true. I am exhausted, but it's anxiety-induced.

This is fine, and thank you for the advice. I will consider looking for a psychiatrist (or seek a referral from my PCP) should I not be able to go back to a semi-normal sleep schedule on my own. I am very skittish right now with regards to prescription medication, but it may be what I need to get over this hump.

Thank you again for your help! I will keep doing what I can to get my health back in order, sleep especially, and also get back to my old schedule. I was trying that a bit tonight, but a flare-up in perception without my masking going has set me back somewhat.

 

It really doesn't help that I already had an overactive mind before, that's for sure! If I couldn't turn it off in relative silence, it's hard to do it with a bothersome noise.

Benzos are pretty scary to me, not going to lie. The anti-anxiety aspects, as well as the sedative effects, do seem appealing. Can't lie. I'll have to see if my doctor is able to give me some options.

I'm sure it is possible, but I have to get to that point. I'm hoping it's okay that I haven't quite managed it nine days later. I don't think it helps I've had to wait this long to see medical professionals, but based on what I've seen on the forum, there's not much hope in visiting them anyway.

Thank you for your kind words. I hope we're all much better by 2021.

 

That's unnecessarily mean. Do you think people are trying to get scammed on purpose? It happened, he learned his lesson, end of story.

 

Can you tell me if you are still doing better with the tinnitus? I would love to bounce my story off you to see if you have any suggestions.

 

Love the last sentence. I’m only 2 months in, feel like I’m drowning, but I can sleep. I’m going to look at this as winning half the battle. Thank you.

 

Not from an ENT.

 

If you think that is possible with severe tinnitus, then you need to speak to a psychiatrist about that

I hope your tinnitus stays mild, I really don't want to see you in the Suicidal thread some time in the future my friend.

 

I agree with @dan.

Title should have been:

My Advice Is the Following... Have Mild Tinnitus

However, I'm glad you're doing well my friend.