Hello Tinnitus World

Hi guys, glad to be here.

I am a musician and my tinnitus began 1 month ago due to an accidental volume spike through headphones.

My left ear was clogged for about a week and one morning a high pitch tinnitus started masking almost everything.

I had NO idea such an awful thing existed, otherwise I would have been more careful. And I felt ashamed because it, being an expert in sound and all that.

The usual (for you) bad adventure began with ENT's, suicidal thoughts, depression, even crying while the last time I cried was years ago when something even more terrible had happened in my life.

I quit vaping/smoking cold turkey, bought earplugs, started exercising, took medrol, started taking supplements (NAC, ALCAR, Magnesium, Iron due to chronic anemia from birth, multivitamins, vitamin B complex, omega-3, vitamin D3, CoQ10, vitamin C, melatonin, apple cider vinegar, onion, ginger, lemon)

I now have even made a list of foods containing these substances to make a new diet and quit the supplements, for which I will make a new thread in which we can all contribute!

I won't go through all that because you know all that, as I've seen in this forum which has been quite helpful.

However, I have almost returned to normal life, and I'd like to share a few things that have helped me very, very very much to do this.

The things that have helped me mostly are:

1) Antipsychotics: You may think as I did "dude I'm not psychotic, I DON'T want to habituate, I just want to turn that mother*54j off! I was fine before that Sh*t". I AM WITH YOU.

HOWEVER: One thing besides supplements and all that was STRESS. I could not be not stressed. Which in turn made everything worse including sleep. In fact I think antipsychotics are a great time catalyst to habituation. In a week I was MUCH MUCH better, which otherwise would have happened in months if not years.

I had lost sleep, concentration, memory, mood and (positive) thinking. I could not function. Nevermind the hyperacusis and TTTS. Sidenote: I'm not talking about benzos, but newer types of drugs (I'm taking a low dose of Seroquel).

2) Change the brain filter: Stoic philosophers in ancient greece talked about an emotional filter in the brain, which supposed that events in our life are not bad or good. It is the FILTER in our brain that makes them so.

For instance one might think: "Oh my girlfriend broke up with me, I am alone now. How am I going to cope? I'll die alone. I'll never find anyone like her" etc

Another might also think: "Well we broke up, that means we were not meant for each other. Well I have time to find someone better! If we were together I wouldn't be free to choose someone else!"

See that the FACT is the SAME. But the way you interpret it has changed. And then you think:

"dude I wish my girlfriend left me and I had no tinnitus in turn, how can you interpret such an awful 24/7 torture into something positive?"

Well the vikings interpreted even DEATH into something positive. Have you heard about Valhalla?

I have done the same thing about tinnitus. I say that it is a musician's badge of honour. Like a pirate captain has lost his hand and now wears a hook, or has an eyepatch, or a wooden leg, even all of them! It represents his experience, his passion, the fact that he is a fighter!

3) Playing music (low volume): I heard about pink noise therapy. Well music IS pink noise if you look it at a spectrogram more or less! It has helped me tremendously.

I might add that somatic triggers come to play when playing a musical instrument as well as the pink noise sound trigger, which might relate to a fun bi modal stimulation!

I'm NOT saying tinnitus, hyperacusis and TTTS (I have all three of them) is something great, or delightful or anything. I wish there was a cure like all of you, I might even travel to Ireland for the Neuromod!

I'm only saying things IN RETURN to your great help to me so far, which have made me from having constant suicidal thoughts to function almost like before.

THANK YOU very very much to all of you, and I hope the above can help you too even a little!!!

 

I have a real mental illness and I am deeply disturbed by your mindset that you view hearing loss, tinnitus and noise induced pain as a positive thing. The anti psychotics are bad for you, a friend of mine who has a pyschosis only has negative benefits from it.

 

Did the ENT find any hearing loss, or do you still have perfect hearing?

 

I suffered from acute psychosis in the past and the meds (among other things) cured me.

Older generation meds actually do have severe side effects but the newer ones, depending also on the individual, don't. Risperdal did have severe side effects on me.

You must find the one with the least side effects for YOU.

I am not. Otherwise I wouldn't be on this forum for support.

After Medrol it was perfect, however it was the classic 125Hz-8kHz idiotic test so....

 

no need for me to post the copy pasta on hidden hearing loss, you get the idea.

 

Of course only ENTs don't get it