Hang in There

I am 72 years old and acquired Tinnitus at the age of 63. This condition was a direct result of prolonged exposure to Antibiotics. The sound that I experience is a continuous hissing noise 24/7 with no breaks. It never stops and can increase in intensity for a few hours and then reverts back to its usual volume.

In addition, I have occasional Hyperacusis ‘attacks’ which thankfully, only lasts for about 2-3 hours. During this period, I have little tolerance of some everyday sounds, including human conversation (normal volume levels) and have to remove myself from the environment. It was a very depressing time in those early days.

That’s the bad news!


Now the good news:

In spite of my doubts at the time, I have learned to live with this condition. I realised that talking about Tinnitus, reading about Tinnitus, thinking about Tinnitus all served to remind me of the sound in my head, which by the time I had finished seemed to get louder.

I clearly needed to stop dwelling on this condition. Not so easy when I had been forced into early retirement, at home all day and have a mobility disability as well. However, I found some part time voluntary work which took me to meetings and other duties. I did this work for 3 years. This was the biggest item of success for me (I didn’t know that at the time).

Without really knowing what I was doing, I had trained my brain to cope with this loud noise in my head to the point that I rarely noticed it whilst working.

I am now able to cope with Tinnitus without going to work I can also talk about Tinnitus, think about Tinnitus and now for the first time ever, I can post this note about my experience on a forum.

The best advice I have seen for new Tinnitus sufferers is: “Hang in there, you WILL get used to it”

 

@Graham Ebdon
You have some very good thoughts and experience in there, thank you sharing them with us. It is indeed a slippery slope when one starts to read about T - on another hand it helps to some extent (understanding how to protect hearing, peer suppport etc..), but at some point it can become more of a burden. And when we focus on T, it really does get louder - it tells our brain that "this is important and meaningful" while brain should filter it out as something futile. I think that is why your volunteer work experience helped - it helped you to shift that focus to something else, something that had more importance and meaning to you.

I am really happy that you adapted to T and have such a positive attitude about it now. That's really the only sensible way to live with T: accept and get used to it. It is understandable though that at first that whole idea can sound impossible, since the natural reaction is to consider an unpleasant alien noise as a threat and enemy. Still working on it myself and messages like the one you posted are important - goes to show it is indeed possible, but it takes time and patience.