First Post, and Some Release...

Hey everyone, so I've been a long time lurker of this forum (and pretty much the entire internet), after the onset of my T and H on November 12th, 2016. I promised myself I'd post a success story, but turns out that day hasn't come yet, and I'm feeling pretty depressed / in need of a support group to deal with this. These past 8.75 months (I like to keep it at 8.5 in my head, although this Saturday will be 9 months ) have been a long, torturous, isolating road. I know all of you can relate, which is why I'm posting here, because nobody else in my life understands this at all. I can't really blame them though, because if my ears were still in perfect shape, as they were before my noise trauma, I probably wouldn't understand what this is like either. Before this, I didn't even know that H existed, and all the other bizarre symptoms that go with it. I knew about T, but never knew how intrusive it is, or fathomed that the ears could be damaged in this way.

On that haunting day in November, I went to a wedding reception of my sister's friend, who I've known since childhood. I'm 30 now, and for most of my young adult life, I've always protected my ears at any loud event... whenever I went out to a concert, club, loud bar, even when making a smoothie. I even started plugging up in movie theaters, because over the years, the volume seems to keep increasing (our society is so insane, it's stuck in this dangerous louder is better mentality), and I got tired of asking them to lower it a bit. This was with good ears, so my ears have always been a little more sensitive than other people's, which is why to this day, I'm still so angry at myself. I'll talk more about the regret later. I was in the car, literally had the earplugs in my hand, but put them back, because I thought to myself that this is a sweet gentle girl who's getting married, it won't be ear splitting rave volume. I'm also ashamed to say that I didn't feel like carrying them in my pocket, because I had other things in there... as if it's such a burden! Thinking back I can't believe my logic. Another emotional component is that during my sister's wedding a year earlier (good ears), I had a bad cold, was miserable, and by the time everything was setup, after all the running around, I was exhausted. So while everyone was chatting away / dancing at the reception, I just sat in my chair and observed it all with earplugs in. When people sat next to me to chat, between the noise, earplugs, and congestion, it wasn't that easy to have a conversation. That said, I wanted to be better for this wedding. More fun, more social, just a much better version of who I was at my sister's wedding. So I left the earplugs in the car, and went in, which was the biggest mistake of my life. It just eats away at me, how you can protect your ears for years, make one mistake, and that's it, you're done. How is that anywhere near fair?

There's this strange social conditioning that a lot of us fall into, the freezing, or fight part of fight / flight. Sticking around, because everyone else around you seems to be okay with it, so it probably won't harm you either. I've gone through so many years of personal development, getting past all that BS social conditioning, and just doing what feels right for me. I got good at that... accepting that I'm strange by society's standards, and more or less being a lone wolf who does his own thing. For my entire life, I've been the strange one, the one who doesn't quite fit in, so I used to care about how others perceived me. I thought I got over that, but apparently there's still some remnants left, that old version of myself. Anyway, all was good until the DJ/announcer started announcing the bridesmaids and their partners. It was waaay too loud, and then he started playing music as they walked into the room at ear splitting volume. This was in a country club room too, not outside. Then the bride and groom, the dancing, also piercingly loud. This is painful to rehash, because I know what I should have done... booked to the car as soon as he started, and gotten those damn plugs. Instead I felt frozen, paralyzed, because I was standing right next to one of the bridesmaids, didn't want to miss anything (remember me saying I wanted to be better for this wedding), didn't want to make a scene, which is absolutely insane, since the attention was clearly not focused on me. I also looked around, and nobody else was even flinching, so thought it might be okay. Bridesmaid, me, speaker. There was some distance between me and the speaker, there was one more table closer to it than mine, but still too close, as I've harshly learned. Just a poor setup in that medium sized room, now that I think back to it. I did leave briefly, went to the bathroom, and told myself my ears will adjust to it, noise damage is cumulative (so I thought), this one night won't harm me, I might have some temporary ringing. Part of me also wanted to see how the 'normal' people do it. I'm pretty sure nobody was wearing protection out there; wouldn't it be ironic if the DJ was, and dishing out pain to the rest of us. Again, really stupid logic, crushingly harsh lesson learned. Please don't rub it in, I already feel bad enough about this, as you can tell. I ended up running out to get my plugs halfway through this shindig, but by that time, the damage was already done.

When I woke up the next morning with a huge headache and ringing, I knew something was wrong. I also experienced aural fullness / intermittent pain, which I still constantly have to this day, in varying degrees, based on noise exposure. My mom who has T, and was also at the wedding, told me that hers was a little louder that morning. She's had it since 19 though, and has no noise sensitivity. Between that, and my dad's slowly deteriorating hearing, I shouldn't have risked it, but here I am now. Three days later, I was getting more nervous, but read something about a musician who stood next to a speaker during a show, and his tinnitus faded in a week, so still had hope. You guys know the drill of latching onto something, anything. I also noticed mild-moderate H around the same time, and started freaking out. This was all during the time when I was moving, so dealing with everything at once was very stressful. I found myself plugging up while moving things around, and not knowing what the hell was happening to me. I also regret not having the knowledge to take Prednisone in those early days. I have a negative perception towards western medicine, and have always gone the holistic route, but in this case, I wish I'd known to take steroids, because I might be in better shape today. I've never had noise trauma before, figured it would just heal on its own, and only saw a nurse practitioner about 10 days into it, to get wax removed (no microsuction), and started taking flonase / steroid drops. I saw an ENT shortly after I moved, aced the standard hearing test, and was told I have the hearing of a small child. Flattering, but similar to everyone else's experiences, he couldn't do much for me. He suggested I get checked for TMJ, I think partly because he wanted to point me in some direction, but I told him many times that this is directly from noise trauma. He also suggested that I see a neuro-otologist, which was good advice, but I haven't pursued my journey any further in western medicine, mainly because I have no faith in it to heal this type of damage. So my hearing is still pretty good, as it was before (with the exception of most likely some high frequency loss above 8,000 Hz), but the T adds this weird alien-like dimension, which makes life very uncomfortable. I know you all can relate.

To this day, I still have no idea what's happening to me, and it's terrifying. Am I getting better or worse? Hard to tell, because some days are better, and some are worse. It's truly mystifying. I was driving a few months ago, and my left ear completely unblocked itself. I was sooo happy, but now it's blocked up again. From all the stories I've read, my T & H is intrusive, but people out there have it much more severe, so compared to that it's mild. Still debilitating though. I have T in both ears (although left seems to have worse symptoms of T & H), high frequency / loud noise sensitivity (dishes / glasses clanking, loud voices, coughing, pressurized water, etc), shifting and ever present pressure / fullness / crackling, in varying degrees, depending on how much noise I was exposed to that day. Intermittent pain that comes and goes, which is thankfully quite mild compared to the stabbing / burning sensation I've read about. I experienced some burning in the beginning though, which luckily went away. I also experienced that unnerving heartbeat in ear sensation for a while (mostly right), especially when trying to sleep, but that went away as well. The fluttering was pretty unnerving too, but seems to have gone, and I experience that more rarely now. The pressure / fullness / sensitivity / pain H factors are what get to me most, and without those I'm convinced that I could manage my T without being a nervous wreck, using Julian Cowan Hill's advice of calming the nervous system. I still have to work on that regardless though. Rewatching his videos / internalizing his philosophy of T & H being more the result of a shocked / tweaked central nervous system, instead of physical damage, does give me hope. I've been exposing myself to normal sounds, trying not to fear them, as little earplug use as possible, in an attempt at gradual desensitization. I know, TRT is out there, but I'm also broke, so am trying to heal on my own, from all the knowledge I've acquired in my endless searching. The fact that some of my symptoms have subsided gives me something to hold onto, that in time this could all be a distant nightmare. What really gets to me is that when I do get better (when, not if), I'll have to baby my ears possibly for the rest of my life, and won't be able to enjoy moderately loud music in my car or headphones. But I'm getting ahead of myself, one step at a time.

Deep haunting regret... I should make an entire post on this, because this one is getting lengthy with my rambling. In short, how the hell do you forgive yourself for damaging something so incredibly precious to you, a perfect auditory experience, that doesn't naturally regenerate itself? We aren't birds or frogs. For some reason, our creator (whichever origin story you believe) decided not to incorporate regenerative hearing within the human blueprint. And I've been wondering for a long time now why that is. Why can't we regenerate our bodies more effectively as a species, why the painful limitations? We also aren't meant to be blasting ourselves with unnecessary high db noise, so that's definitely part of it. Over these 9 months, I go through phases of... The human body has miraculous healing abilities. Miracles can and do happen all the time. Our state of mind / emotional body / consciousness development is key to the mechanism of the miracle. Exercise / movement of energy is key to all this. Eating a mostly whole / raw food diet is key to all this. Into the depths of... The auditory system is basically its own mysterious closed ecosystem (has its own blood barrier!) that nobody understands, and it doesn't seem to heal / regenerate well. Horror stories of people doing slightly better, before another acoustic trauma happens, and their H is now severe for life. Maybe this condition just gets progressively worse. In that case, how can I ever get back to 'normal' by exposing myself to noise, and constantly fearing that it will worsen to a debilitating state where I can't function at all? This is the current state of mind that I'm in, and I'm desperately trying to claw my way out of it.

One thing that gives me the most hope, is a PEMF device that I've been experimenting with for around 4 months now, called the Earthpulse. I basically sleep with two electro-magnets under my foam mattress pad for 8 hours at a time (head and abdomen.) It's similar to the idea behind rTMS, but PEMF is much much lower intensity, gauss-wise. I think rTMS would be too intense for me, and I wanted something that I can treat myself with, and not have to deal with medical payments / insurance, etc. I'm pretty broke as it is. It's an interesting journey of self experimentation though. I can feel the healing pulses throughout my brain, and sometimes have to turn the intensity (amplitude) down, because I'd wake up with a headache (PEMF increases blood flow in the brain / other parts of the body which are bathed in the field.) I envision those waves penetrating my cochleas just before falling asleep, hehehe. Recent studies are actually validating what I've been doing, so that also gives me lots of encouragement that I'm on the right track, and just maybe even a little ahead of the curve. Things like DBS (deep brain stimulation) seem to use a 10 Hz 'envelope field'. I've also seen a recent article relating to 10 Hz sounds suppressing tinnitus. And another about magnetic delivery of drugs into the cochlea. The main frequencies that I use are 10 Hz, 9.6 Hz (possibly more effective than 10) and 2.4 Hz (for nerve regeneration.) I'd really appreciate it if you please don't reply with anything negative about PEMF, only inquisitive or insightful thoughts... I'm reluctant to post about it here, because I don't want anyone's limiting beliefs imposing upon my own currently fragile beliefs, but wanted to share my glimmer of hope with you, at the end of this long and somewhat despairing post. I've made up my mind that this is what I'm trying, because it's hard to find anything out there to truly heal T & H on a cellular / energetic level. I'll keep you all posted, because just under 4 months of pulsing is still in the early stages when it comes to long term healing, but I keep thinking that maybe I'd be worse off without it. Who knows, that's impossible to tell. If you're looking for some hope to hang onto, research electro-magnetic pulsing in general. With all the new studies I'm seeing pop up here and there, I think there's something to it. It's also been known to help people with parkinsons, autism, and other nervous system conditions, which is essentially what we're dealing with here... It all ties back to the nervous system.

Thanks so much for reading! I hope you didn't lose interest, and I'll try to keep my future posts a little shorter. I've been too bummed out to journal about any of this, so had to get all this out in whatever incoherent form I could. And really, this is just the tip of the iceberg of what I've been feeling through this journey. As you guys know, absolutely everything is affected. I can't drive with open windows and sing to music blasting at a moderate level anymore. Those days are gone, and that's devastating, because I'm a self trained singer. Even acoustic jam sessions are uncomfortable. It's beautiful outside now, and that's hard to deal with, because everyone is out and about doing simple things that I'd like to partake in (and mowing lawns, ughhh), while I'm recovering indoors, and walking in quieter areas / nature every now and then (good sound therapy, but lonely.) Even though I'm not sure if I'm actually recovering, or am just stuck this way, with a tweaked auditory perception / all the strange symptoms that come with it. I think maybe it was easier to deal with this in the winter, when things were quieter, and everyone draws into themselves. Social / family / normal everyday situations cause lots of anxiety now, and that makes me so incredibly sad. I'm a hermit these days. I'm dreading thanksgiving, and the fact that I might have to stay plugged up through most of it. But most importantly, you can't explain this shit to anyone, because it's such a rare condition! At least not the H part... My connection with both music and people is broken right now, and I'm not sure how to deal with that in a healthy way. Anyway, I posted once in the tinnitus sub on reddit, and made some connections, but you people here seem much more schooled with this. Reading old hyperacusis chat posts has also been extremely helpful, but that board seems a little inactive right now, and I could really use a tightly knit community to help me through this, and of course, to reciprocate that help as I get better myself. I've been reading / learning here for such a long time, and feel like I know some of you, at least on some level. I have mixed feelings about joining a T & H forum, because I'm afraid that it will keep me overly focused on my symptoms / make them worse, but we'll see how it goes. I think with this type of invisible affliction, support is much needed.

 

Hi Mattryp,

I'm sorry that you have to go through this. I read your post and I have to say I feel the same. I struggle with the fact that I went to an event (that I was not aware was going to be so loud) and I froze instead of leaving. I struggle with my tinnitus, aural fullness and the regret that comes on top of it all. I am trying a variety of supplements and some medicines in hopes of it getting better (I'm approaching the 5 month mark). I have never tried PEMF or tRMS, but I hope it helps you.

While I am in no position to give much advice as I've really been struggling lately, I find that reading through the success stories and seeing how many people here push through despite having this horrible affliction keeps me going. T is a very unfair condition, there are people who go to concerts and clubs unprotected for many years and are perfectly fine, and there are those who get it after one loud noise exposure. People say that it gets better with time, or we learn to cope with it better. I know the feeling of having the constant fear of a sudden noise making things worse while we are outside or driving. I too carry earplugs everywhere just in case. I've had a few small setbacks recently that were out of my control but I guess that's life.

Stay strong and seek support here or with family whenever you are struggling. Sorry if my post isn't of much help. I hope that one way or another you feel better soon.

 

Hey, thanks so much for your post / words of encouragement. Think I made my intro post way too long, and scared people away. There's just so much bottled up inside me about all this... *sighs*

I just read your post about that loud party experience, and I feel you man, you know what its like to freeze up because of social conventions, even though you feel deep inside that this could be doing damage. I'm really sorry you have to go through this as well, we're far too young for these types of problems. It sounds like you feel the regret as deeply as I do. Right on btw, it's not like those people are even in our lives, so why did we try to impress them? Such insane psychology. I recently chatted with someone on twitter who has T & H from a car accident (was the other person's fault), and it got me wondering what's worse... that situation, where it wasn't in your hands, or it being 100% your own fault. I'm leaning towards the ladder, but who knows. Yeaaa, I identify with everything in your post... the self loathing, feeling like you're letting everyone / yourself down, like you're someone else, and you have no idea who that person is now, unable to forgive yourself for damaging something so vital, on and on it goes. It's exhausting.

This is the part that mystifies me. My sister and brother in law who were at that wedding are totally fine. Sister's friends who were there have no issues. I asked an old friend of mine who raves a lot if she ever experienced lasting T / fullness like mine. She said she's gotten ringing many times, but it goes away in a week or so (although I think she has a mild form of T.) I asked this dude I befriended on twitter. He never wears protection, and he's been to several loud concerts. Asked a girl I once knew, and she also never wears protection to concerts or anything for that matter. When I mentioned how I plug up when using my vitamix, (good ears, and obv healing ears) she thought that was extreme. But that thing is loud! I always used to judge people who went out without protection, and somehow, because of one fluky night for me, I ended up as the one who's in repair.

I often daydream about some ancient healing technology buried somewhere remote, that takes a healthy blueprint of who you once were, merges it with your current sick body, but leaves your persona / experience intact, so you remember what you've learned from the suffering, and don't do it again. I know, I'm out there

Hang in there man, most people who are experienced with this keep telling us that it gets better, so we have to take their word for it.

Checkout Julian's channel, this dude really helps calm me down.

 

I feel the pain in your writing. It really is an unfair, miserable situation. My father, who was both in the military and a cop, and has gone to literally hundreds of heavy metal concerts all of his life, at age 55 only has mild tinnitus. In his words, "I barely hear it".

With myself, it came on a few weeks after a small head bump.

The one thing that's keeping me going is that, if you look in the research section of this website, there's a ton of research happening which is exciting. As well, the success stories are a good place to go when you're feeling low.

I have a hard time accepting this condition, even almost half a year since it all started, but I am taking it a day at time and looking at the pleasures I still have in life. I can still walk, eat, I still have great hearing according to my audiologist, and a fiance that keeps me sane. Oddly enough, last month I had a good month where it hardly bothered me. And yet this month I've been feeling mostly depressed. It really is an up and down condition, you may experience up and down emotions.

Let us know how those treatments you're trying out work for you, very curious to know.

 

Thank you, I really appreciate the empathy. Hundreds of heavy metal concerts, yikes! Your father lucked out, or maybe he has what's called 'stone ears.' I think that as a society, we really don't emphasize the dangers of noise exposure enough. I'm learning from all this that the auditory system is actually a very delicate balance of things, yet everyone is perfectly okay with being blasted by high dBs when they go out to some event. Since it's mostly a closed system, it's very hard to get that balance back.

I'm with you, being grateful for what we still have in our lives is very important for getting through this. I've also had a month or two where it bothered me less. I remember laying in bed one night, and noticing that my T sounded far away, not as intrusive, and that's because I wasn't stressing over it as I am now. I keep thinking back to that... how it all ties into the central nervous system, and seems to go in cycles, depending on state of mind.

Since yours came on after a minor head trauma, I'd suggest looking into craniosacral therapy. Julian Cowan Hill (linked above) highly recommends it, and claims to have cured his own T through it. He's also a practitioner himself. Basically, it massages the bones, structures around the ears, jaw, head, etc. It's supposed to free all the pent up trauma that the auditory system is still holding onto, and causing symptoms of T / H. It can actually help anybody, no matter the cause of the trauma, and is something I plan on looking into once I have money to spend on treatments.

I'll keep everyone posted on my PEMF self-experimentation when I see more noticeable improvements. It's doing something, but subtly. It's also reassuring to me how some of that new research you mentioned focuses on 10 Hz, which is one of the frequencies I've been using. I have to keep believing in it, it's all I got right now.

 

The reality is: it doesn't matter who's fault it is. Regret is one of the most harmful mental afflictions. It's purpose is to teach a lesson not to do something again, but unfortunately what usually piggybacks is unrealistic fantasies where the moment of the regretted decision is replayed over and over and over again in our minds eye, as if hopefully one of these times a different outcome will occur. I can assure you, it never will.

I played in bands and went to concerts and my ears were always fine (tho I am sure the loud events "set me up" for what happened next), and I got chronic T from a single ear infection passed to me from my daughter.

*ironic story* my daughter used to a handful at the doctor. At the appointment she had when she was sick and they diagnosed the ear infection, she was actually handling the doc visit quite well, so I pulled out my iPhone to record so I show my wife how well behaved she was. So I actually have the moment that the damn virus was diagnosed "on tape". Little did I know then that ear infection would be spread to me and result in this. DOH!

 

@mattryp I actually tried Cranialsacral therapy, unfortunately no relief, but here's the thing, I only went twice... I guess I should have stuck with it. I guess I can't expect an overnight instant relief..... I may give it another try...

Definitely keep in touch here, it can be a tough go, but it's reassuring it's not the end of the world. In the grand scheme of things I'll take tinnitus over other serious afflictions.

 

Not quite. I also think about this quite often, but with regards to future tech instead of an ancient one. I think of the machine in the movie Elysium, which automatically detects what's wrong and cures you instantly.

 

@RonnieCarzatto Oh nice, so you've experienced it. Yea, I'd suggest giving it an honest shot. Many years ago, I tried acupuncture for a while, and felt some very calming / balancing effects after weeks of sessions. From that, I learned that for some of us, it can take a little extra to move stagnant energy around.

@The Red Viper Sweet, you gave me a new movie to checkout, I'm fascinated with healing tech. Thanks!

@MidnightOilAudio That's pretty rough, the way you got your T. The (unprotected?) noise exposure didn't get you, but biology did. Damn, hope you're managing it well. Your thoughts on regret are absolutely on point. Ah man, I have a long ways to go, I'm still having those flashbacks to that night. About to finally go watch Game of Thrones, and try to get my mind off everything...

 

Hey Midnight, I didn't realize that was how you ended up with tinnitus. My daughter had a cold and bad ear infection a few weeks before I got sick and lost my hearing. Doctor thought I had an ear infection, too.

 

Bummer. There may be a link there. I was lying down (because I wasn't feeling well) and when I sat up, I felt a bunch of fluid fill up in my ears and my hearing went dull. When I moved my head around, I could actually hear the fluid moving around. So I took some ibuprofen (since along with the fluid came some pain), and took an hour or so long nap. When I woke up, there was the T in my left ear and it's been there ever since.

 

Wow, that's awful. I've been wondering if there was a link between my daughter's ear infection and my own hearing loss. I had horrible pain in my right ear and my doctor said there was a lot of fluid behind the ear drum. I had a cold the week leading up to it, too.

Is your daughter okay? It took almost a week before my daughter could hear okay in her infected ear. She's made comments about hearing a beep every now and then, so it makes me wonder just how much damage the infection did for her too. I don't press it, I don't want to scare her.

 

Same here. My daughter's been having repeated ear infections, one of which burst her ear drum twice... we ended up having to put ear tubes to try to break the cycle.
That worked but she sometimes complains about some pain in the ear (surgeon says nothing seems wrong) and a few times she mentioned hearing noises like "toc, toc" or hearing her heart beat...
My heart sank a bit when she told me that.

 

I know what you mean. My daughter has mentioned hearing a beeping noise when it's quiet. I once asked if she hears it in her ear, and she laughed and asked me why her ear would beep. I do not push it, she's very sensitive and I don't want her to fixate on listening for a sound if it is there. So I play soft lullabies for her while she sleeps, and I tell her not to worry about it and distract her if she mentions it.

 

I believe the mind is key to dealing with T. I have noticed when I leave stressful conditions and interact with people in a meaningful way my humming and squealing decrease considerably. I really think if I had the balls to leave my job and go and live a simple life with people I love and care about my T would disappear. But that is probably a pipe dream. However I will be increasing my time in the wilderness and spending more time with people I can relate to on a real meaningful level. So many of our interactions are superficial and meaningless.

 

Sounds the same. Had serious cold and flu right ear became very sore. Cold and flu gone but the T forgot to go with it.

 

If one of my kids ever "comes down" with T, I don't know what I would do. The only thing I can think of now is that if it DOES happen, I hope it happens when they are a little bit older, since I think by that time (10-15 years from now) there will be some form of relief available, whether it's heavy suppression or an actual cure.

 

@mattryp
Wow, I read with real interest and empathy your post. So articulately written and accurately conveyed. It's so cruel how you've always taken such care with your ears and this happens!!!
For me, the hardest part in this is the self regret of spikes. I got Micro Suction and felt kinda pressured into it by the Audiologist who was looking to make more money from me through TRT. My T worsened after it to a level which really bothers me. I regret not listening to my gut and it makes me feel sick when reading of folk who got it and it worsened, so I kick myself for not researching properly. Last week I was strimming the garden with Pelter ear protectors and suspected that would be ok but I now hear an incessant buzzing like flies which just deepens my despair with this condition and how fragile it is. So, yes, I totally understand your self regret, as I'm sure many others on this forum do!!
I too, prefer to go down the holistic route and avoid antibiotics and pills where possible. I've read a lot of people mention presidone, should maybe look at that should a next spike occur?
You sound like your doing all the right things to try and overcome this! Keep strong and hope your methods of recovery are helpful! X

 

Thank you so much @Vicki14, I put a lot of emotion into it, and tried to get everything out. I've read a few horror stories about micro-suction, and am so sorry that you are one of the people affected negatively by it. Someone on this forum was left with severe T, H and significant hearing loss from it, I think she goes by bluebird. That's just completely unacceptable, and I can't believe these things are still out there being used. I hate how jaded all this is making me, towards unnecessary loudness in society. It really is a strange feeling.

 

@volsung37 I feel you, I often wish I had the balls to leave everything in this life, go be a monk somewhere, and truly heal myself. Seems like you have to be in a zen state 24/7 to heal, and this life gives you anything but that. But here I am, attached to the only life that I've ever known, the same life that contains the culture / society I was damaged by. Some kinda strange Stockholm syndrome...

 

@mattryp oh I know and I was ASSURED by the Audiologist it couldn't make my T worse and he saw how anxious I was about it. Eats me up every damn day. Wake up with anxiety every day and try to catapult myself through the day. It's tough, to say the least. As you had previously mentioned, there's such a lack of awareness about ears. I've always been very protective of my health and if I knew when your ears rang etc that wasn't good for The auditory system, I'd have taken more care. We get educated on lots of stuff: sexual health, smoking, eating healthy, wear sunglasses to protect the eyes etc but never anything about hearing. If I knew then what I know now, I'd have been much more careful with my ears to avoid this and like you said, is just mind numbing how ears can't heal like other body parts... bad design!
It's amazing to have the supportive community here to chat to as it's a very strange thing to live with. I hope one day soon things will get easier for us all xx

 

@mattryp I totally understand where your coming from with the regret. I got my T and H at a loud concert that I didn't even enjoy. I told my b/f I wanted to leave but he couldn't hear me and I just stood there like an idiot when I should have gone outside and just waited for him there. He's all about music and being in the front close to the band and speakers and I am not. So now I am suffering because of my stupidity. On the plus side I am trying to adapt to it and trying to change my attitude towards it as many people on here have suggested we do. I have good days and bad days. I mostly just hear it in a quiet environment. I carry ear plugs with me always just in case. I am trying to expose myself to noises little by little and hope to adapt eventually. I don't always sleep well, but I take a natural supplements for that and it helps a little bit. I do have TMJ and just got a splint on Monday for that. I haven't noticed much improvement in 4 days but I guess I need to give it time. I do believe that my TMJ made everything worse due to my stress and anxiety going through the roof the first few months. I almost feel like it has gotten a bit louder this week. I remain optomistic that the splint will reduce my T & H as I won't be clenching my teeth like I have been.
I am trying to go out again and have fun with friends...trying not to think about my T & H as much. My boyfriend doesn't understand and that frustrates me. I remain optomistic that this will get better or I will habituate to it. I just want to go back to being the happy, easy going, always smiling and laughing person I used to be. It's been a challenge since May of this year, but I trying my best to go back to being me again.
I too went to a wedding and it was about a week after the concert that caused my ears to ring and it was actually unbearable to be in that room with the loud music and people talking so loud. Unfortunately I din't know what hyperacusis was at that time. Maybe the reception was what brought about my hyperacusis, but I can't say for sure. I did however, leave the room for most of the wedding because I couldn't handle how loud it was which probably a good thing. I also went to another loud event shortly after the wedding that didn't seem to bother anyone else, but it bothered me and I regret going to it. My boyfriend wanted me to go to a baseball game with friends and we were in a suite which was fine until the special orchestra show after the game and the fire works after that. That event caused my T and H to worsen and I so wish I would have just stayed home all together. I hope things improve for you and I wish you the best!

 

@mattryp I wondered how you were doing with the PEMF? Do you think it helps some?

 

Hey guys, I’m sorry, I know I’ve been dark for a long while, and in lurking mode. This way of living is just so draining, crushing, isolating, and then with work demands on top of it, I really just feel like disappearing, or healing. I’m also currently going through yet another T / H spike, but am confident it will go down, since I haven’t really experienced any intense threshold shifts, and think it’s just a flare-up from a week of more sound exposure than I’m used to. That’s kind of my indication of how severe the spike is. Anyway, a few people have asked about my PEMF experience, and I owe it to you, to report back.

I would not recommend PEMF for healing T / H. I found out that pulsing your brain with electromagnetic waves is just not a good idea. I was experimenting with the EarthPulse, sleeping with it under my pillow, and would wake up with pressure headaches. I also noticed vision changes, in the form of burn-in type floaters. It dilates the blood vessels in your brain, and since it wasn’t really making a dent in my symptoms, and I was getting more undesirable symptoms, I decided to back off, and the company was cool enough to let me return it. I was also afraid that I caused myself more harm, that it would be another thing I’d regret. After ceasing experimentation, I still felt a pulsing / pressure in my brain, in varying degrees for a little while. I also tweaked a facial nerve on the left side of my face, which still gently throbs sometimes, but it’s no big deal. Just a reminder. In hindsight, I think I’m more electro-sensitive than most, which makes sense, since I’m a sensitive individual in general, and have had visual snow since I can remember.

So I started focusing on things to help repair whatever I did to my brain. In my research, I discovered marine phytoplankton, and shilajit, and have been taking them since. I discovered Lion’s Mane and Reishi as well. I actually feel like my ability to process information / have more complex thoughts by piecing together connections has increased since taking all these things. Lately I’ve been on a downward slope though, unable to fully trust my intuition because of some poor decisions, which really bums me out. I also only cook with coconut oil, eat eggs / avocados / sardines, and other things high in quality fats.

In hindsight, my failure with PEMF wasn’t a total loss, since I’ve learned many new things afterwards. Everything for a reason, even our T / H, even if we can’t comprehend that reason right now. I’m not against PEMF, just when it comes to your brain, since that’s a delicate area, and we still don’t know what we’re doing. At least not with our surface-level information / tech. I’ve read it works wonders for muscle recovery, joint pain, arthritis, bones, nerves, etc. But I wouldn’t recommend long term use for your brain.

I have a Scenar device, with the Zephiloyd tinnitus protocol, and some infrared flashlights for LLLT, but haven’t been ready to consistently self-experiment again. I do these things once in a while, and am convinced that there’s something to Scenar, because of how heavily suppressed it is. It’s a real medical device, I just don’t know how to use mine effectively. LLLT makes me nervous, the way my brain feels afterwards. It definitely does something, I’m just not quite sure how infrared affects the brain. I really wish I focused on these treatments instead of PEMF, but oh well, we make our decisions, and here I am.

@lymebite, have you have any success with LLLT? I remember you helped me out with my Red Light Man questions. It’s probably one of the more legit treatments we have right now.

 

@mattryp thanks for the update on all those fronts, that is too bad the PEMF turned out to seem counterproductive. I have ear pain (among other symptoms) and find the LLLT helps some with pain, but I have not noticed a clear positive effect on T. No negative effects though.

 

@lymebite nice, maybe I'll do a 10 minute session tonight, I did one two days ago. Might help with my spike, as I've also been experiencing pain. Although I think my batteries are just about drained, haha.

 

Just 2-3 days ago, I started putting castor oil drops in my ears again. First time around several months ago, they seemed to cause a slight increase in my tinnitus. This time around, they seem to have led to a slight decrease in volume. They also seemed to have reduced the mild pain in my ears.

Here's my best take on this: -- I've been doing regular home mHBOT, and so my ears go through many pressurization and depressuraztion cycles. I noticed after I started using the castor oil drops, that my ears--and I think in particular my Eustacian Tubes--were able to adapt to the pressure changes better. So I think the castor oil drops helped with the pain because it modestly improved my Eustachian Tube function.

I now view castor oil drops in the ears as an inexpensive and safe therapy to try, and even if it doesn't reduce pain or improve ET function, it will soften wax, and make it easier to remove. -- @mattryp, thanks for coming back and giving us an update. Your sensitivities sound similar to mine, so I appreciate you carefully sharing in detail your experiences.

 

Hey @Lane thanks for commenting, and my apologies for not getting back to your lovely PM. I've been stressed / stuck on many levels for a while, and haven't had the time, energy or desire to get back into the community. But here I am. Anyway, your message was quite genuine, and I should've responded, even if briefly.

That's very interesting about the castor oil, I'll have to look into that. Although I really don't like putting oils into my ears. It's not too bad though? The fact that it helps regulate your Eustachian tubes is pretty cool.

HBOT is one of those things I really regret not trying early on. My onset was during the worst possible time, the whole thing was a nightmare... I was moving, didn't have good health insurance that would cover something alternative like that, and the treatments I looked into would run me dry, so I just did nothing. I wish these things weren't priced so ridiculously. I'm curious, what kind of home mHBOT unit are you using?

 

Hi @mattryp,

Good to hear from you. I find the castor oil drops easy to put in (use a dropper bottle). I let my ear soak for about 15 seconds with a tilted head, and then stick a small piece of cotton in it. Then do the same for the other ear. I generally take the cotton out about 5 minutes later.

I got a unit (called the Dive) made by the company Summit to Sea--at This Site. I've got a little less than $7,000 in it (about half of what it was just a few years ago). It includes an oxygen concentrator and a "silencer", which makes it the quietest chamber I've been in. I posted a bit more about my experiences in THIS POST. -- BTW, these things hold their value fairly well. In case you discovered you didn't get the benefits you'd hoped for, you could probably recoup most of your investment. It was a critical factor for me in deciding to take out a loan for this.

It seems to be doing more for calming my brain and neurological system at this time than affecting my t/h, but have hopes those improvements will eventually lead to improvements in my tinnitus/hyperacusis. There are a number of other energetic type modalities I'm considering, and am feeling confident I can make some good progress this coming year. I'm also doing a lot of experimenting with intermittent fasting, which I think holds a lot of promise, especially if used in conjunction with mHBOT. Both can significantly stimulate stem cell activity.

Some areas have businesses that lease out these chambers for about $600/mo. or so, with an option to own. Here's a LINK to one of them in Denver. -- I anticipate offering sessions to people who can't afford HBOT clinics, and expect that little extra income will help pay for the monthly payments I'm making. -- Let me know if you have any more questions. Also, here's LINK to a post I made today about my tinnitus onset, in case you'd want to check it out. It's been hard for to me relive that moment, but today that moment arrive, even though I hadn't planned on doing so when I started that post.

All the Best...

 

Hey @Mattyrp,

I went to see my Osteopathy a couple days ago, and he noticed that there was irritation around my ear drums. He recommended I stop the castor oil drops for now, which I'm going to do. I'm inclined to believe the irritation is from the castor oil, but I've had mild pain in my ears since my tinnitus onset in February, so can't really say one way or another. I just think the prudent thing to do for is to go the safe route, and just hold off on this entire experiment.