Good News

my tinnitus has severely spiked since x 3 1/2 months so i did everything - see the doctor, put on white noise/ pink noise, get prescription for meds etc. my doctor said it was like a pain disorder - he tried tegretol but that actually made it worse (tegretol ototoxicity), but i looked on internet for tinnitus pain and articles showed up for "music therapy" for tinnitus - so i have nothing to lose, and my daughter prepared me Enya songs that i picked out as probably good for sleep. After just one week, the tinnitus has gone from a bad screech, to more of a buzzing jingle bell type effect, and last night i actually slept for 9 hours! i am so so happy that something is going right. i do not know if it was the music that did it, but it makes logical sense that good relaxing music cannot hurt, and possibly can help - i think the rhythm creates brain wave activities, I am sure they have studied music and brainwaves and found it releases "feel good" molecules in the brain just like an opium type drug would.

that is my report - i also read in tinnitustalk about using music at bedtime, i was very skeptical until i actually did it myself, and something went right!

 

Awesome news. Do you wear headphones to listen? Trying to calm a spike right now. Should we look for certain types of music, with a special tone or beat? Thanks so much for posting.

 

i listen to the music through speakers that are at the other end of the bedroom. at the same time, i have the CD of Restful Rain playing, and i use a "mixer" board to blend the two sources: the Restful Rain is set at a level where i can hear the tinnitus clearly at the same amount, just like TRT is supposed to be, now on top of that I play Enya, at very quiet levels so I can hear it, but it does not cover the tinnitus at all. I choose Enya tracks that have a nice rhythm to them, like Orinoco Flow, etc, that type of track, which is very harmonic, melodious, rhythmical, and very easy to listen to so very good sleep music. For the first week i was not sure if it was doing anything, except two days ago i noticed my tinnitus now changed for a high pitched whine, to a jingle bells like thing, and then last night i slept the whole night through without waking up like i normally do at 1 a.m. and then take more meds.
So I trained my brain to get used to music at night, and now that it is "used to" having music on continuously i have had this "break through". I do not know if there is a cause and effect, but for sure it did not hurt, and i am really really happy today, because this now means my medication use is way down (do not have to take a second dose at 1 a.m., and so I am not so drug hung over in the morning).

 

Hello, it is good to hear you are doing better. My tinnitus also started to spike about 3 months ago and the first months I had a very difficult time sleeping. I have now used a river sound mp3 for sleeping as was suggested here and I have also felt it has helped me. I have an mp3 player and I purchased small portable speakers that I take with me if I need to travel.

Now I'm also sleeping much better, even though falling asleep is still difficult. After you have used the same music for sleeping for a longer time you don't realize it anymore. In an optimal situation that should also happen to our tinnitus sound after a while. Let's hope if we continue sound therapy, that will happen soon.

 

That's an interesting angle, cause normally we think of audio therapy as something directly connected to physical brain reactions as in distraction effects and the building of new brain paths etc, but as we all know the psychological effects of listening to pleasurable music is very real. I'm for one are done listening to music trough headsets, I'm just too scared now. Speakers positioned at a distance on low volume seems more within reach mentally.

Happy to see that it's working to your advantage object16.

 

thanks for the nice feedback, i just had another full night of 10 hour sleep - finally i feel well rested.

 

This is another one week later - I am gradually getting a better sleep, and I believe the constant music is helping. I am just so happy, because the tinnitus was placing my career into jeopardy, which would be very hard for me to take - because my entire life is my career, me being a medical doctor: I don't "work" as a doctor, I simply AM medicine, so this is my entire being, which was in danger of being extinguished.

 

@object16,

From what I can observe from your profile you've had T since 1988, but recently you seemed worried to loose your career. Did the T make a horrible comeback or did your career start just recently? I've also been worried about what damage the T can do to my future in regards to work. Good to see that you now are on a different track and experience T decrease.

 

Hi, my tinnitus first came on in 1988, but at that time my hearing was "normal" and the tinnitus was not that bad. Now that my hearing has had another 25 years of "normal" noises it had deteriorated by 30 db, and the tinnitus became vicious a year ago, just a few days after listening to music too loud, for about 20-30 minutes only. Then I had a series of "spikes" due to truck back fire, Harley Davidson roaring by, etc., and real bad spike due to dental work with crown installation. It was so bad in September that I thought it was all over for me. Which does not make sense, because you see lots of people with serious hearing loss, and they still manage to cope with their tinnitus - so my tinnitus was out of proportion to the hearing loss - which is my theory about why I am still able to get better, because my brain can still hear music played fairly quiet, and the music helps to calm the brain down, divert its attention, etc., also music is known to stimulate the "pleasure centers" in the brain, so this is like a "natural" "drug" so to speak. So for those people that warn you about "over protecting" your hearing, that is very true, you should never over protect, because the hearing requires sound to "keeps its balance", but our world now is filled with too much sound pollution which is bad for your hearing, over the long term, so I always now use the Bose 15 headset, but at the same time, always play quiet music through the headset.

 

Thanks for filling me in object16, sorry to hear about your spike. So you always use a noise reduction headset? Or do you mean always when you need to protect? Quiet music or moderate sounds in general should keep the auditory cortex busy, as far as my knowledge goes feeding the brain with sounds should be the correct tactic, yet it's hard to expose and brake at the same time. Prior to T my audio environment consisted of 90% music and 10% talk radio, now its the other way around. I believe speech is better than rock in terms of inner ear caution etc. I just recently dared putting my headphones on again after being totally scared of that since June, I never wear it unless I'm in bed trying to sleep now. Don't know if I will ever again wear them at the gym, when walking in the woods or sitting at the computer like I used to.

 

I find Enya music soulful and beautiful In my darkest days I would listen to her CDs and try to relax and move on from T consuming my every moment and I think it helped x