Greetings from Sweden

I thought it was about time to say hi. Although I've lived in Sweden for 12 years, I actually come from England. Anyway, I developed tinnitus suddenly and for no apparent reason last October. I've done the rounds of ENT specialists and audiologists but the damn T just gets worse and worse. The audiologist suggested I tried a Widex hearing aid as she claimed that often helped people. For me that has just increased the intensity of the T yet again. When I saw her again today she just said that that can happen sometimes. Now I appear to be beyond the capability of the health system in Sweden to help me and I'm getting desperate. I'm supposed to be starting a new job in a couple of weeks after 4 months unemployment but have no idea how I'll be able to focus for more than an hour or so at a time (I'm a software developer).

That's enough of my troubles and I look forward to getting to know you.

Ian

 

Hello and welcome to the forum.

 

Welcome Ian. Unfortunately, most of us appear to be beyond the capabilities of our health systems in regards to tinnitus. It looks like you have taken the appropriate steps with the ENT and Audiologists. I did the same things you did at the onset of my T for months. Eventually, I realized there was really nothing more that could be done in this area by specialists, so I looked at other methods such as TRT, CBT etc. Since TRT was not available to me where I live, I did 20 weeks of CBT (cognitive based therapy) and though not specifically for tinnitus, it did help me address the issues I had with stress, anxiety and panic disorder which were intensified by tinnitus.

I too have a job where I need to concentrate. With T, this can be tough at first. I would work, listen to Pandora on the side and take regular breaks listening to sounds or music on my phone. Over time this did really help me improve my focus and ability to perform my job. The good news is that software developing will keep you busy and people with T know that busy is good. As you focus more on your developing, over time you will focus less on the T. It takes time but you will get there.

 

Fellow software developer here - Ian, you came to the right place. Seems like us software developers get it at the same rate as most musicians - go figure!

Tinnitus is a tough subject, since many of us on the forum have it, and many of us are still living our lives the same before and after. That's not the case for everyone, and especially not the case for those afflicted at the onset - such as yourself. Just hang around here for a bit, realize that you can still live normally, and realize that right now tinnitus is just something your body is doing.

What kind of software do you make, if I may ask?

 

Thanks all for the replies. I think thus great resource will be hugely helpful to me.

I'm mainly a web developer using Microsoft (I love C# and linq) and mobile technology. Although during the past 30+ years I've developed software in everything from assembler (operating systems for IBM) to Cobol. And just about everything in between. From some time in May, I'll be working for an organisation within the Swedish State and I'm not 100% sure what I'll be doing.