TL;DR: I got tinnitus from a home furnace in January 2025. It started as a 10/10 siren. Doctors were useless. I lived in misery for six months, but now in Month 7 I'm finally seeing signs of relief. Along the way I've had many spikes that felt like regressions, especially after trips to stores. I've been using sound therapy videos on YouTube indoors, with no masking outdoors. I also used ChatGPT to curate recovery stories for me, since there are too many horror stories and too many people telling others their tinnitus is permanent after only a week.
I've been lurking here on and off for years. I always had very low-level, non-intrusive, non-reactive tinnitus in my left ear, which I only noticed occasionally. It usually had no impact on my life, except for maybe one or two days each spring when allergies caused a flare-up.
But in January 2025, I made a very stupid mistake. I thought my furnace was making a strange noise, so I stood way too close to it in an enclosed space for an entire cycle. It didn't seem loud at all, and I had done this many times before with no effect. But a few days later, I developed absolutely screaming tinnitus in both ears. At first, I didn't think much of it. In my past experience, tinnitus flares calmed down in a few days. It was distracting and awful, but I wasn't scared and didn't panic—until it didn't go away.
Now it's been about six and a half months (I can't remember the exact date, somewhere between late January and mid-February), and I finally decided to post here. I want to see if I can find supportive people and also try to be supportive for others. I've stayed away until now because there are a lot of hurting people here, and sometimes that hurt spills over in harmful ways—like telling someone who's had tinnitus for only a week that it will never go away. That's not fair. We need hope.
The first months:
My memory of the early period is a bit foggy because I really thought it would go away quickly. I believe the tinnitus set in slowly, days after the exposure, and ramped up over three or four days. I didn't connect it to the furnace right away, but in hindsight that's the only plausible cause. The worst of the screaming 10/10 tinnitus lasted maybe a week. I was still working, driving, shopping, and living normally, with no major impact on my well-being.
After that, it dropped to maybe a 4 or 5/10. I was masking indoors but not outdoors. Both ears hurt mildly. I still believed it would resolve soon. But by March 1, it hadn't, so I went to urgent care. The doctor's first response when I mentioned tinnitus was, "Oh no, that's permanent. We can't do anything about that." She didn't ask me a single question or examine me before declaring it permanent. This kind of response should be malpractice. Taking away hope at Minute 1 is cruel. She irrigated my ears, since my right was blocked, and gave me a single dose of dexamethasone.
By March 25, I wasn't better, so I saw an ENT. My hearing test was fine except for minor high-frequency loss in my left ear, which I already knew about. He looked in each ear for half a second and said, "There's nothing wrong with your ears." He considered the appointment over right then. I asked about steroids, but he said I was out of the window. I asked if the tinnitus would clear up, and he shrugged, saying, "Six to twelve months." He offered no advice, no resources, no information—nothing. Out of frustration, I bought an ear camera myself. My right ear canal looked inflamed and raw, and my left was bright red. Somehow, the doctor never mentioned that.
Month 3, April 2025:
My right ear was ringing less and looked normal, but my left ear felt like there was a water balloon behind the eardrum. I had constant sound therapy indoors because if I turned it off, the pressure in my head exploded and the tinnitus was unbearable. I bought two pairs of cuff-style earbuds and played 10-hour masking videos from Treble Health on repeat at very low volume in my worse ear. The crickets video helped tremendously. It almost completely cancelled the tinnitus, but if the sound stopped for even a second, I was in instant Hell.
I didn't mask outdoors, since I'd read that ambient nature sounds help retrain the brain. But it felt like wind was blowing through my left ear. The tinnitus wasn't just a sound anymore, it was a sensation, with pressure and pain from the front of the ear through the eardrum and down into the jaw. I used a heating pad around my ear multiple times a day. Sleep was nearly impossible, only two or three hours a night. I kept pacing the floor, unable to relax, in full fight-or-flight mode.
Month 5, June 2025:
I lost my job. The budget for my role was moved to a new position, and I had two weeks to prepare training materials and videos before leaving. On top of interviewing and job searching, this stress compounded everything. June was as hellish as April. My resilience was crumbling, but I kept hearing that the first six months are "crucial," and after that tinnitus becomes permanent, as if a magic switch flips. That terrified me.
Month 6, July 2025:
By this point, I was barely functioning. I was still pacing at night, unable to put either ear against a pillow. I relied on sound therapy every day and took multiple walks. One attempt to shop at Target ended in a major spike, a full siren in my left ear.
Then, in mid-July, something shifted. I watched a movie without the Treble video playing. Then another. Then I went six hours without sound support. I still had tinnitus, but my brain didn't explode when it was quiet. I slept one night without sound therapy for the first time. My left ear still rang during the day, but dropped to a 2/10 at night. My right ear started having silent periods. It felt like the dam had finally cracked.
Month 7, August 2025 (now):
I'm not back to normal, and I still feel despair and fear at times, but I've had nearly a month of reduced reliance on sound therapy. I've mostly slept without it, and I can sit in a quiet room (not silent, but quiet with normal household sounds) for as long as I want. I still use sound at times during the day, switching now to birds and river sounds instead of crickets, since the tone has softened.
I've also tried to wean myself off sound therapy gradually. At first, I would cover the speaker on my phone for a few seconds, or remove my earbuds for a minute. On Mother's Day, I managed 10 minutes without sound, though I had to pace the whole time. Now, in August, I can sit for hours without masking, just using normal household background noise.
My left ear still hurts, and my tinnitus fluctuates between nearly silent and 4 or 5/10 throughout the day. I'm still miserable at times, but I hope these are positive signs and that I'll recover fully by the end of the year, maybe sooner. I just need a morale boost to get through what feels like the last stretch, and I hope I can find support here while also offering it to others.
I've been lurking here on and off for years. I always had very low-level, non-intrusive, non-reactive tinnitus in my left ear, which I only noticed occasionally. It usually had no impact on my life, except for maybe one or two days each spring when allergies caused a flare-up.
But in January 2025, I made a very stupid mistake. I thought my furnace was making a strange noise, so I stood way too close to it in an enclosed space for an entire cycle. It didn't seem loud at all, and I had done this many times before with no effect. But a few days later, I developed absolutely screaming tinnitus in both ears. At first, I didn't think much of it. In my past experience, tinnitus flares calmed down in a few days. It was distracting and awful, but I wasn't scared and didn't panic—until it didn't go away.
Now it's been about six and a half months (I can't remember the exact date, somewhere between late January and mid-February), and I finally decided to post here. I want to see if I can find supportive people and also try to be supportive for others. I've stayed away until now because there are a lot of hurting people here, and sometimes that hurt spills over in harmful ways—like telling someone who's had tinnitus for only a week that it will never go away. That's not fair. We need hope.
The first months:
My memory of the early period is a bit foggy because I really thought it would go away quickly. I believe the tinnitus set in slowly, days after the exposure, and ramped up over three or four days. I didn't connect it to the furnace right away, but in hindsight that's the only plausible cause. The worst of the screaming 10/10 tinnitus lasted maybe a week. I was still working, driving, shopping, and living normally, with no major impact on my well-being.
After that, it dropped to maybe a 4 or 5/10. I was masking indoors but not outdoors. Both ears hurt mildly. I still believed it would resolve soon. But by March 1, it hadn't, so I went to urgent care. The doctor's first response when I mentioned tinnitus was, "Oh no, that's permanent. We can't do anything about that." She didn't ask me a single question or examine me before declaring it permanent. This kind of response should be malpractice. Taking away hope at Minute 1 is cruel. She irrigated my ears, since my right was blocked, and gave me a single dose of dexamethasone.
By March 25, I wasn't better, so I saw an ENT. My hearing test was fine except for minor high-frequency loss in my left ear, which I already knew about. He looked in each ear for half a second and said, "There's nothing wrong with your ears." He considered the appointment over right then. I asked about steroids, but he said I was out of the window. I asked if the tinnitus would clear up, and he shrugged, saying, "Six to twelve months." He offered no advice, no resources, no information—nothing. Out of frustration, I bought an ear camera myself. My right ear canal looked inflamed and raw, and my left was bright red. Somehow, the doctor never mentioned that.
Month 3, April 2025:
My right ear was ringing less and looked normal, but my left ear felt like there was a water balloon behind the eardrum. I had constant sound therapy indoors because if I turned it off, the pressure in my head exploded and the tinnitus was unbearable. I bought two pairs of cuff-style earbuds and played 10-hour masking videos from Treble Health on repeat at very low volume in my worse ear. The crickets video helped tremendously. It almost completely cancelled the tinnitus, but if the sound stopped for even a second, I was in instant Hell.
I didn't mask outdoors, since I'd read that ambient nature sounds help retrain the brain. But it felt like wind was blowing through my left ear. The tinnitus wasn't just a sound anymore, it was a sensation, with pressure and pain from the front of the ear through the eardrum and down into the jaw. I used a heating pad around my ear multiple times a day. Sleep was nearly impossible, only two or three hours a night. I kept pacing the floor, unable to relax, in full fight-or-flight mode.
Month 5, June 2025:
I lost my job. The budget for my role was moved to a new position, and I had two weeks to prepare training materials and videos before leaving. On top of interviewing and job searching, this stress compounded everything. June was as hellish as April. My resilience was crumbling, but I kept hearing that the first six months are "crucial," and after that tinnitus becomes permanent, as if a magic switch flips. That terrified me.
Month 6, July 2025:
By this point, I was barely functioning. I was still pacing at night, unable to put either ear against a pillow. I relied on sound therapy every day and took multiple walks. One attempt to shop at Target ended in a major spike, a full siren in my left ear.
Then, in mid-July, something shifted. I watched a movie without the Treble video playing. Then another. Then I went six hours without sound support. I still had tinnitus, but my brain didn't explode when it was quiet. I slept one night without sound therapy for the first time. My left ear still rang during the day, but dropped to a 2/10 at night. My right ear started having silent periods. It felt like the dam had finally cracked.
Month 7, August 2025 (now):
I'm not back to normal, and I still feel despair and fear at times, but I've had nearly a month of reduced reliance on sound therapy. I've mostly slept without it, and I can sit in a quiet room (not silent, but quiet with normal household sounds) for as long as I want. I still use sound at times during the day, switching now to birds and river sounds instead of crickets, since the tone has softened.
I've also tried to wean myself off sound therapy gradually. At first, I would cover the speaker on my phone for a few seconds, or remove my earbuds for a minute. On Mother's Day, I managed 10 minutes without sound, though I had to pace the whole time. Now, in August, I can sit for hours without masking, just using normal household background noise.
My left ear still hurts, and my tinnitus fluctuates between nearly silent and 4 or 5/10 throughout the day. I'm still miserable at times, but I hope these are positive signs and that I'll recover fully by the end of the year, maybe sooner. I just need a morale boost to get through what feels like the last stretch, and I hope I can find support here while also offering it to others.
