Hello! I'm New to These Forums and I Have Had Tinnitus for a Little While Now

[Joltron]

Hello my name is Joltron and I have had tinnitus since March 3, 2019.

I literally got it on national hearing day and I believe it was caused by earphones because a song I was listening to spiked for a second and then went back down. I am only 18 years old and I have seen two doctors.

The first one said that it should go away within a week obviously that did not happen, the second one I visited two months later and he said that it's caused by a optical migraine.

BTW the ringing is only in my right ear and the doctor said the migraine was effecting my right eye which could be why my right ear rings. But I seriously thought it was from my earphones because literally the next day my ear was ringing from the spike in the right earphones. So I am not sure exactly what it is.

But do you guys think my tinnitus will heal? I mainly hear it when it's really silent or sometimes when it's somewhat silent, and it changes depending on what I am doing or if I am in a loud environment.

I have another question, today someone yelled in my house which kinda made my eardrum vibrate a little, will that do anything bad to my tinnitus? I'm just trying to give my ears as much time to heal as possible.

Anyway, thanks for reading this long paragraph and I appreciate the support, I hope you guys will heal too!

 

[Bill Bauer]

But do you guys think my tinnitus will heal?

Has it faded compared to how it was two months ago?

But I seriously thought it was from my earphones because literally the next day my ear was ringing from the spike in the right earphones.

Does the above mean that you continue to use earphones?

it changes depending on what I am doing or if I am in a loud environment

To maximize the chance of it healing and not returning, consider avoiding loud environments. If you have to be in such an environment, make sure to wear good earplugs (e.g. 3M 1100).

I mainly hear it when it's really silent or sometimes when it's somewhat silent

The above means that the damage you've done was minimal. If you don't harm your ears again, you ought to be ok. It can get very bad. For some people here it is as loud as a drill, and they've had it at that level for years. It is possible that you are now more vulnerable than you used to be. Check out
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/thread...eone-else-who-has-tinnitus.26850/#post-307822

I didn't read all the above comments, but did peruse a fair amount of it, and ran across many good points on both sides of the argument. What strikes me is there seems to be an underlying assumption (of course I may be wrong on this) that all brains and neurological systems are created equal. The way I see it, that's simply not the case, so everybody's way of dealing with tinnitus and/or hyperacusis is going to have to be highly individualized.

I read a book many years ago called "Adrenal Syndrome". A lot of the book touched on the residual resiliency of people's adrenal glands as they respond to life's stresses. Very low resiliency often resulted in months/years of chronic debilitating exhaustion following a stressful event(s) in their lives. Very high resiliency indicated essentially the opposite. The author broke this down into some rough numbers:

25% of people have low resiliency, meaning normal life stressors will often send them into some degree of a tailspin.
25% of people have high resiliency, meaning that no matter how severe a stressor comes into their lives, they will be able to cope without becoming debilitated to any degree.
50% of people fall somewhere inbetween.

I believe there are some kind of corresponding numbers for a person's brain and neurological resiliency as well, which can greatly affect the ability to cope with tinnitus. (I believe adrenal resiliency also plays a major role in our ability to cope). -- Based on these assumptions, it's pretty easy for me to conclude that what may be overprotection for one person will be underprotection for another, and vice versa.

I think the main point to understand for someone new to tinnitus is that their path forward is going to be a lot of "testing the waters". Generally, IMHO, it's going to take a few weeks or months to get important insights that will help us achieve a healthy balance. In all likelihood, most people are going to learn from experience when their over-protecting or under-protecting.

I've come to believe however, that in those early months, if one is going to err in either direction, it should be toward overprotection. It just seems to me the consequences of underprotection (which could result in permanent injury) in those early times are much more dire than the consequences of overprotection--which as I understand, generally results in temporary setbacks.

Doing a number of things to better support the brain and neurological system and the body's stress response (adrenal glands) is quite high on my list of recommendations I would make to anybody with tinnitus. Doing so might even prevent phonophobia or OCD, etc., as we go through our learning curves -- Just my 2 cents worth.

Relative newbies to tinnitus are likely to find all the information/opinions above quite confusing. So here are a few common-sense rules to follow:

1. The best protection of all is avoidance. Even the best earplugs can't guarantee complete hearing protection so those relatively new to tinnitus are best advised to avoid prolonged loud noise exposure - especially amplified sound at for example live concerts and sports events. This may involve lifestyle changes.

2. When in doubt, use hearing protection. In the many tasks we all do through the week, some will inevitably involve exposure to noise - which may be at higher levels than we at first realise - so using hearing protection for many of these is only sensible.

3. Build quiet into your day. It's not a good idea to be wearing hearing protection all the time - so you need to give your ears a break by ensuring that there will be quieter times during your day when hearing protection isn't necessary.This may involve changing your routine. Use soft masking noise and light music (not using headphones) to avoid "silence" where tinnitus is most noticeable.

4. Don't stress about stress. Tinnitus newbies are forever being told that the thing which makes tinnitus worse is stress. But while it's true that how you are feeling at a particular moment can make tinnitus temporarily louder, it won't have a lasting effect. But prolonged loud noise exposure can make tinnitus permanently louder. So don't stress about stress - but do be concerned about noise.

 

[Joltron]

I have hardly been using headphones ever since T. Even when I do use them, it's at a very quiet volume now. I believe my tinnitus has faded, but sometimes it spikes when I was doing a physical activity or when I am stressed, but when I relax it goes back down to like a hissing noise. It also goes down when I don't focus on it. I'm just worried because my sister yelled in my house and it was loud.

 

[billie48]

I'm just worried because my sister yelled in my house and it was loud.

Welcome to the forum. If you can't get your sister to stop yelling, you can try to wear musician ear plugs so you can still hear but they block out the high ranges. I agree with Bill that your T seems to be the mild type. Any time when you only hear it in silence or quiet places, then it suggests mildness and you can take steps to protect your ears to avoid making your T worse such as going to loud venues.

For exercises that can aggravate your T, generally exercises are good for us and our T as it tends to unwind tension and stress off the body. But certain types of exercises can cause issues to the inner ears (if the ears are in unstable state). Check this site out talking about what types of exercises to avoid and what types are good. Good luck. God bless.

https://www.livestrong.com/article/308626-exercises-that-worsen-tinnitus/

 

[Joltron]

Thanks for the support guys! I hope T will go away soon. I have been trying to avoid loud places as much as possible. But thanks again for the support.

 

[Digital Doc]

I have hardly been using headphones ever since T. Even when I do use them, it's at a very quiet volume now. I believe my tinnitus has faded, but sometimes it spikes when I was doing a physical activity or when I am stressed, but when I relax it goes back down to like a hissing noise. It also goes down when I don't focus on it. I'm just worried because my sister yelled in my house and it was loud.

This is noise induced T, and often takes months to go away. Toss the earbuds and headphones in the garbage as they will only cause more problems. Listen to music and TV only via speakers, and at lower volumes. Use earplugs for any and all noise exposures, including the vacuum, paper shredder, lawn mower, etc.

I hope you have a quiet job.

Avoid clubs and rock concerts like your life depends on it.

Download a db app to your phone, and use hearing protection if the db exceed 80 db at this point. Add ear muffs if it exceeds 90 db for a sustained period.

Most likely this will improve, or even go away, but important to stick with this as it is very easy to expose to more noise and make it worse.

 

[Joltron]

Thanks Digital Doc! I'm actually on summer vacation from school right now so I'll try to avoid loud environments. I'm in my room right now and I can barely hear my tinnitus even while typing this. Interestingly, I downloaded a dB app to my phone and I put my earphones right next to the mic and it said it was only 35 db or so. But I'm still not going to use headphones for a while. I believe my tinnitus has reduced tremendously compared to when it started. I feel much better now.

I have a question though, when I am taking a shower sometimes I will get water in my ear to clean it, does that aggravate tinnitus? I'm just curious because I want to do as much as I can to let my ears heal. Thanks everyone for reading this long paragraph and thank you for the support.