Hearing Aids Provide Immense Relief to Tinnitus

I got my tinnitus 3 years ago after the first week of taking Lexapro and then Celexa.

Of course, I can't prove either caused my tinnitus, but the timing is suspicious. My doctor had recommended I try them to deal with severe anxiety I was having. Anyway the high pitched screeching in my ears started pretty quickly after starting Lexapro and never went away. Doctors said it would go away after I stopped, but nope it didn't.

Where is the success story you ask? Well, turns out hearing aids mask the sound for me almost completely. I can still hear it ever so slightly when I'm wearing hearing aids, but if I'm ever bothered by the sound I can just Bluetooth the hearing aids to my iPhone and play podcasts or music. When I do that, the tinnitus is not noticeable at all.

Anyway, if you check my profile here you'll see I was last here 3 years ago panicking as if my life was over. I came back just now specifically to tell you all that there is hope.

I rarely ever think about tinnitus now, and it only really becomes an issue if I take out my hearing aids. But the way I see it, the tinnitus I hear without my hearing aids is just a natural reminder that I should be wearing my hearing aids anyway.

Lastly, hearing aids might not be for everyone. I was born with slight hearing loss, but never had tinnitus before. But because of this hearing loss, my doctors recommended hearing aids to deal with my hearing loss.

I'm not sure if hearing loss is required for Bluetooth hearing aids or not, but if you have any sort of hearing loss, please know that hearing aids can REALLY help.

 

That's great! Can I ask what your hearing loss is?

 

Do you wear them to bed? How do you deal with tinnitus when you take them off?

 

I just got my Phonak Paradise hearing aids 2 weeks ago.

So far they’ve been great as I’m surprised by my high frequency hearing loss. I find myself watching TV or listening to music and turning the hearing aids off and on repeatedly.

Unfortunately at this time they haven’t done much for my constant tinnitus. I’ve had some good days and bad days in the 2 weeks, but nothing like that first month (I’m currently on month 2) but I’m trying to stay hopeful that the hearing aids filling in those missing frequencies will help reduce the tinnitus in time.

I read somewhere about wearing hearing aids 8+ hours a day for a year should help.

I can deal with my hearing loss but I’d love to do without the constant ringing in my right ear.

 

Any update?