Friend's Noise Induced Tinnitus Recovered

Hi everyone,

I've been dealing with (mild) tinnitus for exactly five weeks now. Dealing with it has been hard, as I am still in the depressed and panick-stage.

Reading all the positive/success stories has been really helpful,
I decided, for this reason, to post my friends success story in the hopes it might give other people hope.

My friend recovered from noise induced tinnitus twice. The first time was acoustic trauma because of a gunshot that went off next to his ear while he was in the army. It took hime a few months for the tinnitus to completely fade to 0%.

The second time was after a concert where he played the drums in 2013. He felt physical pain during the concert and afterwards had trouble hearing for a few weeks. After a few months the tinnitus, again, dissapeared. This time not a 100%, but he only hears it if he searches for it and says he can hear silence. Meaning it went down in volume incredibly, since it was really loud the first few weeks.

During one of my panick attacks I called a person at a helpline - not a specific tinnitus helpline, just a regular one. This person told me that 3 of her friends went to a rock concert and all three of them developed tinnitus directly afterwards. It took 2-3 months for it to fade away completely and they now don't have it anymore.

I also called with a tinnitus helpline. The lady on the phone told me that a lot of people call her during the first few weeks - same as me - but that for most of them, the noise induced tinnitus after acoustic trauma, such as a concert or gunshot, it went away completely within 6 months and the body just needs time to either heal or get used to the new way the brain is wired.

She gave me advice to not visit any more of these forums, because it makes the tinnitus 'grow', because I give it attention. I could'nt help but still log onto the forum to write this post. Hopefully very soon I can write my own success story.

Good luck to you all and stay strong.

 

Hello Rose.

Thanks for posting this.

I've actually found this forum to be good for coping with the tinnitus, unlike the BTA (British Tinnitus Association) or Action On Hearing Loss forums, which are VERY doom and gloom. I think I lasted a few hours on both.

I've been where you are, and ended up calling three crisis lines during massive panic attacks. Two of them were good, one of them, not so good. I said I was considering suicide. The lady asked "And have you thought about how you might commit suicide?" Uhm, what kind of question is this? Are you about to give me instructions?

I think you should consider some sort of counselling if you don't have people in your life to speak to, as speaking, particularly in person, does help.

Here's a list of success stories I've collected from this foum.

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/10-month-update.31006/
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/7-months-on-im-in-a-better-place.13389/
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/99-recovered-from-tinnitus.30342/
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/a-collection-of-success-stories-from-around-the-web.24122/
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/back-on-track-after-5-months.12910/
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/back-to-normal.31789/
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/can-tinnitus-just-fade-away.20359/
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/can-tinnitus-really-go-away-or-is-it-a-myth.26150/
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/thread...-recovered-from-noise-induced-tinnitus.27983/
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/thread...ered-from-noise-induced-tinnitus.27983/page-2
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/thread...ing-to-fizzing-changing-pitch-crickets.30179/
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/getting-more-tinnitus-free-mornings.24615/
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/if-youve-had-tinnitus-in-the-past-and-it-disappeared.22951/
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/i-killed-the-ringing-it-has-been-3-weeks-of-silence.30494/
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/thread...my-family-whose-tinnitus-has-gone-away.25159/
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/improvements-after-one-year.29526/
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/im-right-now-sitting-in-silence.31222/
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/it-gets-better-and-better-but-very-slowly.26182/
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/i-think-my-tinnitus-has-gone-away.32205/
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/my-audiologists-tinnitus-went-away.28276/
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/my-battle-with-tinnitus-was-over.21013/
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/my-journey-to-silence.30145/
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/my-story-to-silence.20140/
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/my-tinnitus-98-cured.10020/
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/my-tinnitus-—-final-chapter.32402/
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/my-tinnitus-has-gone.7621/
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/my-tinnitus-has-more-or-less-been-gone-for-four-months.29843/
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/my-tinnitus-went-away.29752/
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/thread...recovery-after-2-years-not-habituation.21313/
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/noise-induced-tinnitus-since-march-2018-—-now-its-been-gone-for-two-weeks.32438/
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/positive-story-—-tinnitus-virtually-gone.29005/
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/thread...week-ago-and-my-ears-are-still-ringing.21149/
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/regular-hearing-aids-are-curing-my-tinnitus.25523/
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/silence-after-2-months-of-tinnitus.32072/
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/silence-after-4-5-months.27906/
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/slowly-going-away.12814/page-3
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/spontaneous-recovery-stats-many-recover-3-studies.21441/
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/stephanie’s-noise-induced-tinnitus-went-away-completely-after-2-years.30027/
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/success-story-tinnitus-leaves-after-6-months.9128/
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/sweet-tinnitus-has-gradually-eased-off.17284/
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/the-ringing-disappeared-a-second-time-and-hasnt-come-back.8948/
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/thought-id-post-after-9-months-for-new-sufferers.10784/
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/tinnitus-almost-gone-after-1-year.30522/
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/tinnitus-gone.27317/
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/tinnitus-is-gone.30478/
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/tinnitus-is-gone-after-approximately-4-months.32798/

 

That's fine if you don't want to visit forums. But please keep up to date with tinnitus research and these concepts. If sufferers ignore research there will never be a cure.


Hidden hearing loss (hearing loss that doesn't show up on an audiogram)
http://hyperacusisfocus.org/innerear/#hiddenloss

Noise induced pain (hyperacusis)
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4208401/
https://www.ata.org/news/news/hyperacusis-related-damage-nerve-cells-inner-ear

Neurlogical mechanism's behind tinnitus
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4208401/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3366980/

 

Daily reminder that BTA stands for Based Tinnitus Association.

 

LOL. Everything about their website depresses me, from the colours they use to the fonts to the advice.

 

Thank you for sharing your friend’s story. Just know, everything is possible. We are not all the same. Some recover in 4 months, others 8 months, others 1 year others 2 years, etc. it’s possible to recover. Plus, there’s a lot of help on the way. We are here to listen and help each other out.

 

or perhaps some never recover at all (a small minority)

 

That's the sad truth... unfortunately...

 

nah, more that that don't make a full recovery.

 

I have some friends with T, they live normal lives...I think us here are severe cases, but even if I had mild tinnitus and no h at all, I would be still afraid as hell of getting bad.

 

I do get the impression that most don't recover, or at least most of the ones that are driven to message boards don't.

 

Eh I am almost 2 years in with T in September. No end in sight to suffering.

 

@Drone Draper

Thank you for sharing the bookmarks. It is helpful for me to read success stories, especially ones that are longer than a few months.

 

@New Guy - I made sure to not include habituation ones, lol. Or at least ones with as little as possible. To me, I don't see it as the same level of success if someone manages to habituate to the same level of T that they started off with. Sure it's something that a lot of people will unfortunately need to accept, but if that is me, I will not create a success story on here.

Here are some reddit stories.

 

@dpdx - well, there you go. I'm so sorry to hear that, I see it's pretty loud for you just now, too. At the moment I'm only coping due to anti depression and sleeping drugs. I can't stay on them forever, I don't think I can habituate to what I have without them.

 

how pathetic, neurotypicals can adapt to anything.

What's the point in living if you have to give up all your values and the speical unqique things that make you YOU!

Noise induced pain, intrusive tinnitus and hearing loss ruin people's existence and they realize it's pathetic to adapt.

 

I agree.

I’ve had to decline 4 nights out and 1 concert so far. I can forget about nights out with friends again.

I have to give up music.

I can’t live like this, longer term. Even if it does “go away”, there’s always the chance of it coming back.

Regardless, my life is now going to be worse. Hopefully it will only be so marginally.

 

Yuppp

 

I’m hoping it will just be marginally, I read some of the habituation success stories think “that’s a bit shit”.

 

The psychologist I’m seeeing told me of two “success stories” with her colleagues.

Colleague 1 wears earmuffs to the office, because typing hurts her ears.

Colleague 2 has to cut all social events short because of potential noise exposure.

These are about as far from success stories as I can imagine.

 

How are these success stories??

 

LOL, I don't know!

She said she doubts my T will improve from now and just to accept it.

She then told me about these two colleagues making adaptations in their life "successfully". Apparently they are both a bit older than me and female. I can't imagine being the office kook with earmuffs on to protect my ears from my colleague's keystrokes is anything but the habituation from hell.

 

LMFAOOO what kind of bullshit psychologist you got??? That makes me fear my life instead of want to strive for life with tinnitus. Imagine, living in constant fear even years later, plus not being able to interact with others?? Make your money and isolate from the world! That’s not the world I imagine to live in. That’s simply living in survival mode. You can always change psychologist you know, I’ve had to change 4 times already.

 

I think I will.

 

I feel like most of those who do "recover" probably don't live in an area that ever gets below 40db.

 

Ha. Potentially. I do think people can recover completely, if they are

a) Young
b) Not hearing damaged (or too hearing damaged)
c) Had stress as a major contributing factor. I think I've even seen stories where stress is basically the only factor that's given someone T.

One of the audiologists I've seen said that everyone has a little bit of tinnitus. I think basically that what is considered "recovered".

 

How are you now?

 

Good post.