Hello World

I've had severe and invasive T for a year now (mine came on suddenly and in the profound end of the spectrum); doing just fine now (even though I never thought I would be ok again). Hopefully I can be an encouragement (and help) to other T sufferers. My T is squarely in the 'back of the bus' now; but for a long time it was front and center in my life.

 

Hi Mark,

Welcome to a great forum with great people. I replied because I've been having some bad days lately. I don't know how you can get that T - squarely in "back of the bus" now. I tolerate it at best, have good days too when my energy level is up, it seems to combat it. My life goes on, just has my Tinnitus along with it, unwanted.
Great to see new folks sign up, well not that great if you also have Tinnitus.

 

James
You and I got T at the same time When my T first hit, I was paralyzed and couldn't get it out of my head (took me to my knees -- which made it worse). I got some great help from an audiologist (not an ENT, the medical community is dead on this issue). I've found that if I can neutralize my reaction to it, it's way less severe (which, in turn, makes it easier to NOT react to). Over the past year, that task has become easier; however, at the beginning it seemed like a task on the order of 'drinking the ocean' (and frankly, I wasn't thirsty nor do I like salt water).
Right now, I hear my tinnitus (can't ignore it, too loud); but I just don't care if it's there or not. To get to that point, I had to get over my 'find it and fix it' attitude. I'm a software engineer and when things aren't as they should be it makes me crazy! Tinnitus is weird (and I will always think it weird); I've just got to the point (after accepting it) that I just don't have an emotional reaction (other than 'gee, that's kind of odd').
There's a lot to it (it's not as easy as I may make it sound); it was NOT easy for me (nor anyone); but it is doable. Just accept it (first step to relaxing); once you can start relaxing, you get far more objective about it; once objective, you gain a sense of control (over your reactions). You will find that your auditory system is closely tied to your emotional center, memory, and central autonomic nervous center. For instance, you go to a gun range and jump a little when a big gun goes off (but you quickly settle down cause you know you're at a gun range and that's normal); however, if you're in a parking lot and you hear a gun go off (much different reaction! at least from me ). The point being, accept it for what it is (a noise) and learn to gauge your emotional reaction (it takes practice, lots of practice)
My audiologist fitted me with some hearing aids that have targeted white noise (configured to specifically mask out my T). Those were life savers and really gave me a head start learning to relax and have a little control over my situation
Best Regards!