First Major Spike After Six Years — Hoping for Improvement

[Josh-mh]

Hello, everyone!

Tinnitus sufferer since 2019 here. I'm currently going through my first major spike—it's been ongoing for four weeks and two days so far—after some noise exposure. After lurking here for a while, I figured now was the perfect time to create an account!

I'm hoping this settles down and returns to my baseline, which I had grown accustomed to over the past six years. But right now, I don't have much hope that it will.

Hopefully, we won't have to wait too much longer for Susan Shore's device!

 

[Maruashen]

Hi @Josh-mh, how is it going for you?

I think we are both in similar places. I got tinnitus in my left ear back in the fall of 2017. After that, I habituated well and had seven great years. But during New Year's Eve, I was exposed to loud sounds and woke up the next day with loud tinnitus in my left ear.

The last three months have been painful. It seems harder to habituate this time, somehow.

 

[Josh-mh]

Hi @Josh-mh, how is it going for you?

I think we are both in similar places. I got tinnitus in my left ear back in the fall of 2017. After that, I habituated well and had seven great years. But during New Year's Eve, I was exposed to loud sounds and woke up the next day with loud tinnitus in my left ear.

The last three months have been painful. It seems harder to habituate this time, somehow.

Hey, the tinnitus is back to baseline, but I still have ear fullness and muffled hearing in my left ear.

My hearing test is unchanged compared to the one taken before the spike, and all of my tests are coming back normal, so I am a bit stuck!

 

[Maruashen]

That's good though, if tinnitus is back to baseline. Has it been roughly two months now? It seems like it usually takes three to five months for things like that to clear up, or maybe it just feels that way because we usually try to shift our focus during that time.

 

[Josh-mh]

That's good though, if tinnitus is back to baseline. Has it been roughly two months now? It seems like it usually takes three to five months for things like that to clear up, or maybe it just feels that way because we usually try to shift our focus during that time.

Yes, it has been approximately two months and ten days. I feel like I have good and bad days. I am trying to get booked in for an ABR to see if I have cochlear synaptopathy, but that means going to a hospital quite far away since my local one does not have the facilities to perform it.

 

[Jean-Philippe]

@Josh-mh, how is the pressure now?

 

[Josh-mh]

@Josh-mh, how is the pressure now?

Hey, I would say it's around 80% better. I still have occasional days with slight hyperacusis discomfort, but now, at three months since the trauma, I feel like I am improving each week.

 

[timsmith]

I get very frightened of a spike. However, someone who has had tinnitus for 40 years said online that he never compares his tinnitus levels. When he hears it, he simply reacts by writing down his feeling, such as depression, on a piece of paper. He said this helps shift the perception of the sound from his amygdala, which controls the fight or flight response, to his prefrontal cortex, where it becomes less bothersome.

 

[Kam75]

I have been suffering from extremely debilitating tinnitus for six years, following a music festival where I was wearing custom-made hearing protection (minus 25 dB).

Two years ago, I started to sleep better, so I decided to resume a social life and began going to parties again (with protection, of course). That was a bad idea. I have been having spikes every day for the past two years. I cannot sleep anymore, even with a combination of medicines. I now live completely isolated at home. I want to die...