How I Got Rid of Acute Tinnitus by Reclaiming Its Frequency

S

Samo Jordan

Member
Author
Feb 17, 2019
2
Tinnitus Since
02/2019
Cause of Tinnitus
acute hearing loss
#1
Hello everyone

I would like to share my story with the hope the method described here may help others as well. Recently I woke up with a loud high frequency tone in my right ear and hearing loss. During the day the hearing recovered but the tone stayed and I was already extremely worried that the tone won't leave me ever again. At first there seemed to be no way to influence the tone whatsoever, except for raising the ambient acoustic level. Two and a half days later I did a lot of research on hearing loss and tinnitus and somewhere I read about an analogy which compared tinnitus to phantom pain after amputation. I wondered what would happen in the amputation scenario if the amputation magically was reversed and the signals would start flowing again. Would the phantom pain end?

So I grabbed my handy, opened a music app (in my case GarageBand on iOS), went to the virtual piano and determined the tinnitus frequency, then I started to repeatedly press that piano key, with the volume set to a moderately high level. And that was when the magic happened: the tinnitus tone reacted! It faded out and about one or two seconds later faded in again. That effect was completely reproducible, so I finally had a handle which allowed me to influence the tinnitus directly.

I started treating myself using this method during the next couple of days (which really means pressing that piano key over and over again, in short intervals of a few seconds, with some pauses in between) and noticed a gradual progress. It took longer and longer for the tinnitus tone to fade back in and the intensity also started to drop. I took special care to also to do the treatment in situations with higher ambient acoustic level when the tinnitus tone wouldn't be perceived anyway.

Two days after starting the treatment the tinnitus was essentially gone, just leaving some feeling of pressure in the ear. That concludes my story. I would like to invite you to try out this method and report your experiences and if it worked for you, please spread the word!

Greetings from Switzerland

S.J.
 
#2
That's really interesting...

This reminds me of an experience I had myself. I got my tinnitus from listening to the soundtrack to Suspiria on a bit too loud a volume level, which ends with a track that has a continuous, screechy, monotones tone. I firmly believe that's what did the trick. In my paranoid period after, I wanted to measure the dB level I'd been hearing that, to see how bad my injury would be. I took care never to hear that sound over headphones myself, of course, instead I just placed my dB meter next to the headphones. But during my tinkering with it, I heard that tone quite a bit nonetheless.

Afterwards, I realized my tinnitus had become really quiet for a good portion of when I was making dinner. It didn't last, and I didn't really do anything with it... but still. Hmm.
 
#4
Hello Bill.

What I meant with 'essentially gone' is that the actual tone (the spike at that frequency) is fully gone, even in very quite environments, and what remains is just some hard-to-describe unstructured frequency spectrum which I always have been perceiving in very quite environments (i.e. at night) and which never bothered me. Nothing compared to the tinnitus tone which gave me a glimpse of hell for a couple of days (and especially nights).
 
#6
I've noticed I can do this to a large degree with my own tinnitus. I think this is what they call residual inhibition? Maybe I should keep doing it intermittently for a few days and see.
 
#7
Isn't that an actual established form of treatment? I read about a guy who keeps his tinnitus under control using that method in conjunction with mindulness practice. His audiologist helped him find the right frequency and provided the machine that produces the sound. Finds he has to go back and 'refresh' every so often. Can't find the article now.
 
#8
Drone Draper said:
I've noticed I can do this to a large degree with my own tinnitus. I think this is what they call residual inhibition? Maybe I should keep doing it intermittently for a few days and see.
Click to expand...
American tinnitus buddy of mine - Her doctor told her if this happened it was a sign that ACRN would be likely to work.
 
#9
American tinnitus friend, so someone who has Tee-Night-Us, rather than Tinny-Tuss? ;)

I did experiment a bit with AudioNotch the first weeks after tinnitus, I noticed I could get it to go from a high pitched whistle to a more stable and low pitched noise after a few minutes. It was a lifesaver at the Christmas party I was at, I ran into the bathroom to play the pure tone beep for a minute or so. I matched mine at about 2600 Hz, but I think the pitch has changed since then. Right now I'm trying David Case's Tinnitus Mix at work. Yes, I know. It seems tinfoil hat. I promised myself I would do it for a few weeks. It seems to do a similar thing to AudioNotch or what OP here has been doing. If I decide to stop, I'll get back on AudioNotch.
 
#10
Drone Draper said:
American tinnitus friend, so someone who has Tee-Night-Us, rather than Tinny-Tuss? ;)

I did experiment a bit with AudioNotch the first weeks after tinnitus, I noticed I could get it to go from a high pitched whistle to a more stable and low pitched noise after a few minutes. It was a lifesaver at the Christmas party I was at, I ran into the bathroom to play the pure tone beep for a minute or so. I matched mine at about 2600 Hz, but I think the pitch has changed since then. Right now I'm trying David Case's Tinnitus Mix at work. Yes, I know. It seems tinfoil hat. I promised myself I would do it for a few weeks. It seems to do a similar thing to AudioNotch or what OP here has been doing. If I decide to stop, I'll get back on AudioNotch.
Click to expand...
American tinnitus friend as in somebody with excellent health care coverage who got the kitchen sink thrown at her in terms of treatment. She got it around the same time I did and I had to laugh at the difference in the way we were treated.
 
#11
I do think there are definite pluses to a US style healthcare system. Did she get prednisone? I wish I'd been given some.

I did see all my ENT/audiologists privately. My NHS referral to audiology just came through, meeting with an ENT at the end of March. I don't know if he'll be able to tell me anything new, but I'll go to the appointment
 
#12
Drone Draper said:
I do think there are definite pluses to a US style healthcare system. Did she get prednisone? I wish I'd been given some.

I did see all my ENT/audiologists privately. My NHS referral to audiology just came through, meeting with an ENT at the end of March. I don't know if he'll be able to tell me anything new, but I'll go to the appointment
Click to expand...
I think she did. I managed to persuade somebody to give me this but actually it just spiked it for a week. It's not NHS vs America as most of my care was private and I spent about £1000 at the start of this on such care. They just are much more pro treatment there. There are disadvantages to this as well because you can expose the patient to unnecessary risks.
 
#13
Oh, right.

I had a friend break his arm when in the States on holiday. He said he was offered all kinds of painkillers that he didn't need.

I also had an American flatmate who told me he hurt his back falling off a ladder and ended up getting prescribed Oxycontin with 2 refills. He had the pain go away during the initial script, but got the two refills. He used to grind them up and mix it into shots of whisky. He said it was very nice.
 
#14
Samo Jordan said:
Hello everyone

I would like to share my story with the hope the method described here may help others as well. Recently I woke up with a loud high frequency tone in my right ear and hearing loss. During the day the hearing recovered but the tone stayed and I was already extremely worried that the tone won't leave me ever again. At first there seemed to be no way to influence the tone whatsoever, except for raising the ambient acoustic level. Two and a half days later I did a lot of research on hearing loss and tinnitus and somewhere I read about an analogy which compared tinnitus to phantom pain after amputation. I wondered what would happen in the amputation scenario if the amputation magically was reversed and the signals would start flowing again. Would the phantom pain end?

So I grabbed my handy, opened a music app (in my case GarageBand on iOS), went to the virtual piano and determined the tinnitus frequency, then I started to repeatedly press that piano key, with the volume set to a moderately high level. And that was when the magic happened: the tinnitus tone reacted! It faded out and about one or two seconds later faded in again. That effect was completely reproducible, so I finally had a handle which allowed me to influence the tinnitus directly.

I started treating myself using this method during the next couple of days (which really means pressing that piano key over and over again, in short intervals of a few seconds, with some pauses in between) and noticed a gradual progress. It took longer and longer for the tinnitus tone to fade back in and the intensity also started to drop. I took special care to also to do the treatment in situations with higher ambient acoustic level when the tinnitus tone wouldn't be perceived anyway.

Two days after starting the treatment the tinnitus was essentially gone, just leaving some feeling of pressure in the ear. That concludes my story. I would like to invite you to try out this method and report your experiences and if it worked for you, please spread the word!

Greetings from Switzerland

S.J.
Click to expand...

Another great example of how our brains are plastic and that we can get rid of tinnitus if we can ever get our hearing back to baseline.
 
#16
Samo Jordan said:
Hello everyone

I would like to share my story with the hope the method described here may help others as well. Recently I woke up with a loud high frequency tone in my right ear and hearing loss. During the day the hearing recovered but the tone stayed and I was already extremely worried that the tone won't leave me ever again. At first there seemed to be no way to influence the tone whatsoever, except for raising the ambient acoustic level. Two and a half days later I did a lot of research on hearing loss and tinnitus and somewhere I read about an analogy which compared tinnitus to phantom pain after amputation. I wondered what would happen in the amputation scenario if the amputation magically was reversed and the signals would start flowing again. Would the phantom pain end?

So I grabbed my handy, opened a music app (in my case GarageBand on iOS), went to the virtual piano and determined the tinnitus frequency, then I started to repeatedly press that piano key, with the volume set to a moderately high level. And that was when the magic happened: the tinnitus tone reacted! It faded out and about one or two seconds later faded in again. That effect was completely reproducible, so I finally had a handle which allowed me to influence the tinnitus directly.

I started treating myself using this method during the next couple of days (which really means pressing that piano key over and over again, in short intervals of a few seconds, with some pauses in between) and noticed a gradual progress. It took longer and longer for the tinnitus tone to fade back in and the intensity also started to drop. I took special care to also to do the treatment in situations with higher ambient acoustic level when the tinnitus tone wouldn't be perceived anyway.

Two days after starting the treatment the tinnitus was essentially gone, just leaving some feeling of pressure in the ear. That concludes my story. I would like to invite you to try out this method and report your experiences and if it worked for you, please spread the word!

Greetings from Switzerland

S.J.
Click to expand...
Your tinnitus is very recent. I don't think it is something you have done to improve it. It just disappeared by itself as the same happened with me when I first got it. If what you are saying is true, wearing hearing aids should completely eliminate tinnitus because you are giving the missing frequencies back to your brain.

Unfortunately we know that hearing aids help only a very small percent of people and it is by masking tinnitus rather than something else and of course in some people make it can make tinnitus worse.
 
#21
Samo Jordan said:
Hello everyone

I would like to share my story with the hope the method described here may help others as well. Recently I woke up with a loud high frequency tone in my right ear and hearing loss. During the day the hearing recovered but the tone stayed and I was already extremely worried that the tone won't leave me ever again. At first there seemed to be no way to influence the tone whatsoever, except for raising the ambient acoustic level. Two and a half days later I did a lot of research on hearing loss and tinnitus and somewhere I read about an analogy which compared tinnitus to phantom pain after amputation. I wondered what would happen in the amputation scenario if the amputation magically was reversed and the signals would start flowing again. Would the phantom pain end?

So I grabbed my handy, opened a music app (in my case GarageBand on iOS), went to the virtual piano and determined the tinnitus frequency, then I started to repeatedly press that piano key, with the volume set to a moderately high level. And that was when the magic happened: the tinnitus tone reacted! It faded out and about one or two seconds later faded in again. That effect was completely reproducible, so I finally had a handle which allowed me to influence the tinnitus directly.

I started treating myself using this method during the next couple of days (which really means pressing that piano key over and over again, in short intervals of a few seconds, with some pauses in between) and noticed a gradual progress. It took longer and longer for the tinnitus tone to fade back in and the intensity also started to drop. I took special care to also to do the treatment in situations with higher ambient acoustic level when the tinnitus tone wouldn't be perceived anyway.

Two days after starting the treatment the tinnitus was essentially gone, just leaving some feeling of pressure in the ear. That concludes my story. I would like to invite you to try out this method and report your experiences and if it worked for you, please spread the word!

Greetings from Switzerland

S.J.
Click to expand...
How do you determine the tinnitus frequency?
 
#23
@Samo Jordan Thanks for sharing. I've been using Hush Tinnitus.com quite successfully for my high tones (10khz). I just started this for my mid tones around 2 to 2.5khz which are usually among. my most stubborn ones. I may be starting to experience some temporary reduction! Will keep on with it.
 
#24
Tony Phylactou said:
How do you determine the tinnitus frequency?
Click to expand...
You can YouTube different frequencies. For example search "9000 Hz tone" and then go up or down from there to find your match.

Mine is 15,000 Hz mainly. Takes some volume to hear it but oh yeah, that's the one.

You can also download frequency generator app's on your phone for free (assuming you have a smartphone).

Edit: this is assuming you have specific tone(s) and not a hiss or something to that effect.
 
#26
What can you do if you don't hear pure tones, but more like noises such as broken morse codes, whistlings, chirping and that kind of stuff? Will it still be helpful?
 
#27
Mymlan said:
What can you do if you don't hear pure tones, but more like noises such as broken morse codes, whistlings, chirping and that kind of stuff? Will it still be helpful?
Click to expand...
I have a mix of those plus pure tones. I find nature sounds better for the non-musical notes e.g. river/rain sounds, crickets (for the chirping of course) but always keep them low volume. Those type of sounds may be a symptom of something that an ENT doctor could help treat. But it looks like you've not had much more luck with ENTs than I have. We're left trying to find relief for ourselves.
 
#28
Mister Muso said:
I have a mix of those plus pure tones. I find nature sounds better for the non-musical notes e.g. river/rain sounds, crickets (for the chirping of course) but always keep them low volume. Those type of sounds may be a symptom of something that an ENT doctor could help treat. But it looks like you've not had much more luck with ENTs than I have. We're left trying to find relief for ourselves.
Click to expand...

Sadly no help from ENT's but from others I've had :) There are lack of knowledge among them unfortunately. In the future we can hope that they can learn more through new trials, treatments and science!

What kind of symptoms can it be you believe?
 
#29
Mymlan said:
Sadly no help from ENT's but from others I've had :) There are lack of knowledge among them unfortunately. In the future we can hope that they can learn more through new trials, treatments and science!

What kind of symptoms can it be you believe?
Click to expand...
Hello again!
Mymlan said:
What kind of symptoms can it be you believe?
Click to expand...
Hello again over here!

Well the ENT doctor I saw last week told me my main thing I should address was my bruxism (teeth grinding), for which I had a mouthguard made a few years ago and never persisted with it. I also told him I have had nasal congestion all my life, and he just said "well lots of people have that". I wish I had said to him, "well, maybe that's a reason I got tinnitus and those other people at the concert didn't". He never arranged any tests for me or any followup.

Seeing another ENT next week. Honestly I'm going to prepare for this one like a game of chess. So I know my exact game plan if he says "X" then I'll counter it with "Y" and "Z". Got to be careful though, the doctors like to feel in charge. Truth is we probably know more about tinnitus than they do!
 
#30
Thank you for this interesting success story. Although tinnitus is not entirely understood yet, the commonly accepted theory is that the brain starts to create its own noise at certain frequencies in the absence of actual auditory stimuli.

This is why tinnitus is often caused by hearing damages at certain frequencies, and why even people with normal hearing often start to hear tinnitus if you put them in a very silent room or give them earplugs for a prolonged period of time. It makes a lot of sense to tackle the problem by giving your ears sound rather than sitting in silence. This also seems to be why broadband noise usually offers such benefits (as it contains all frequencies).

Thanks again for sharing!
 

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