Hello, How Do Others with Tinnitus Cope?

My name is Elida or Ellie to some. I’m 67 years old. My father had tinnitus and now I do. I heard then that it’s incurable but wonder if it is still. I have to hear soft music at night to be able to sleep.

How do you cope?

 

I cope by protecting my ears from further damage, and knowing over time that it slowly improved.

 

Welcome... coping is very challenging for me. Relaxation techniques like getting a massage, or sauna, exercise, healthy food help and of course breathing exercises. Drugs if things get out of control. A few promising new technologies are being developed in the fields of regenerative medicine for the inner ear, bimodal stimulation, and body work or injections when the problem is caused by nerves running up your neck or emanating from the jaw or mouth, even posture.

This is all in laymen’s terms just to give you an idea of what’s out there.
It’s helpful if you can find the source of the problem.

Look at the Lenire site, you may be a candidate.

 

Coping/adaptation and possible habituation takes time. It's a slow process, your goal is to try to be gentle on yourself and start doing activities that will not annoy or possibly make your ringing louder. Coping is all about just moving forward and trying to be positive (even if we feel horrible). I suffer intrusive/hell level tinnitus but i still do my best each day to improve my life and live it.

When I first got tinnitus I always gained support by talking it out, face to face communication/talking with people you trust/love can really make a difference....there is no substitute for that.

Learning how to cope is a day by day thing and it is possible......

Take those small steps each day and they can eventually make a difference......

 

Right now there is nothing the doctors can do. Having said that, new treatments are around the corner (e.g., Lenire and University of Michigan's devices come to mind):
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/lenire-—-bimodal-stimulation-treatment-by-neuromod.34566/
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/lenire-—-user-experiences-and-reviews.35776/
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/thread...igan-tinnitus-discovery-—-signal-timing.2805/

Another thing to keep in mind is that for many people tinnitus tends to fade/improve. You've had it for over five years - it sounds like what you are having right now is a tinnitus spike (temporary increase in volume or a change in pitch for the worse, as a result of harming one's ears). Spikes can last over three months, but normally begin to return to baseline after about a month.

Check out
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/thread...eone-else-who-has-tinnitus.26850/#post-307822

Masking is good. You can also try to listen to nature sounds. The sound of crickets works well with high pitched tinnitus. The idea is not to make the masking sound so loud that you can't hear your tinnitus. The idea is to give yourself something else to listen to, besides your tinnitus. At first you will still be focusing on T, but after 15 minutes you will likely be focusing on the masking sound.