How a Furnace Gave Me Severe Tinnitus and What the Last 7 Months Have Been Like

[Sonia554]

I agree about the comfort and positivity that come from reading success stories. Whatever supports healing is worthwhile. But many answers generated by AI bots are not always accurate. As a helpful tool, I'd say it's perfectly fine to use.

However, the part you mentioned about these symptoms being the "end phase" of recovery makes me wonder where that idea came from. Was it something ChatGPT sourced from Reddit or somewhere similar?

I have no idea. It shows a little icon with the source when I ask for recovery stories, but not when I ask for general information. I tell it which sites not to use, but I don't know which ones it actually does use.

If I ask for its sources, the tone becomes very clinical, which I don't like. It then takes a lot of prompting to get it back to a more conversational style.

I still have a range of symptoms in my left ear besides the sound, and I just asked ChatGPT if that's normal this far into recovery. It said it's common to still have these symptoms even close to recovery, but not that they're a sign of recovery itself.

 

[Sonia554]

Today is the quietest my tinnitus has been since this all started. I'm in a completely silent room, and I can barely hear it—it's so faint. I truly hope this means I'm in the final stretch before it disappears for good.

I'm running low on food, though, and really need to go to the grocery store, but I don't want to risk disturbing this peace. I can probably stretch another day out of half a bag of sweet potato fries and a bag of meatballs, right? I also have some pasta, pesto, and soup—enough for a few meals. Let this calm stay.