I Am New. My Tinnitus Is Severe. Please Help.

I have been living with tinnitus for 30 years now. It has gradually gotten worse. It is a high-pitched type. I am an electronics engineer and I have measured this several times. My whine is at about 15.4 KHz (like an old CRT monitor going bad) and is at a perceived level of about 68 dB at each eardrum. I have seen audiologists. I have been fitted for hearing aids recently.

The bloody things make my tinnitus 10 times worse. I joined your forum tonight because I was googling about tinnitus and hearing aids making it worse. I found your forum and saw several people who had comments that indicated they are having similar issues.

I need some kind of support with this problem. My family is sympathetic, but no one can truly understand just how severe a problem tinnitus can be. I am also a college professor, and this obviously impacts my daily interaction with students and colleagues.

I am losing hope. The hearing aids I have are from Beltone, but they did not program the pink noise underlay yet. They told me that I needed to get used to the amplification first. But I can only tolerate the things for 10-15 minutes. In that time the tinnitus gets much worse to the point that I cannot hear anything at all except the whining. Like having your ears slapped hard and then immediately shoving earplugs into your ears!

It gives me a headache and I feel exhausted. I do have an appointment tomorrow with Beltone to see what can be done to customize the programming some more, but I do not have a lot of hope.

I often times have hyperacusis. I can actually hear, very well, into the "ultrasonic" range. In fact, all my life I have cringed at sounds that others simply cannot hear. But my tinnitus frequencies just scream in my ears day and night. I have contemplated drastic measures to end it at times and I am not ashamed to admit that. In fact, lately the problem has worsened and it is making an otherwise great life a living hell. I am trying to keep positive.

I have tired various apps that use sound training like white noise or pink noise. I have experienced very little benefit other than pink noise is much more soothing than white noise for my tinnitus. White noise frequencies also make it worse. Pink noise only has a minor effect and, like using the hearing aids, after 10-15 minutes the tinnitus becomes much worse.

It takes about half a day or more for my tinnitus to calm down after using hearing aids or the pink noise masking.

I'm not sure how to proceed. I have tried so many things in an attempt to find some relief. I have not ruled out a very sharp ice pick yet, though that is my next to last resort, the last being a finite end to the misery. I do not like either of these options and I do want to avoid this kind of thought. But tinnitus is an old an powerful foe, becoming (seemingly) more powerful each day. How can one escape it's wrath?

 

Welcome to the forum. It seems like you have either what they call 'reactive tinnitus' which sometimes can be just what hyperacusis is doing to the T. This may be why your hearing aids is flaring up the T as H can be such a misery. I remember my severe H which came right after my ultra high pitch T. H made any noise so much louder and piercingly hurtful. Even my wife' soft voice hurt when speaking close to me. But there is one good thing about H that many people report that it will fade over time. Mine did just that and gone within the year. So if your problem is aggravated by H, then hopefully it will fade over time too. The less stress and anxiety, the less chance that T will flare up. Sometimes H can cause ear pain and can hang on for a long time. In such case, out of desperate measure, some members would resort to drug such as Keppra & Trobalt. If you are in such state, perhaps message @Danny Boy about his experience with these drugs. Don't lose heart and don't panic. Take care. God bless.

 

@VinnyBoy
Welcome to the forum. I advise that you be seen at ENT so checks can be carried out on your auditory system. Since you've had tinnitus for many years I believe this to be the right course to take. Do you listen to music through headphones or attend places where loud music is played? Please click on the links below and read the articles: Tinnitus, A Personal View and Hyperacusis, As I see it. You might find them helpful
All the best
Michael
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/tinnitus-a-personal-view.18668/

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/hyperacusis-as-i-see-it.19174/

 

@VinnyBoy
Not sure why they told you to get hearing aids if your hearing is so good.
Do you know the cause of your T ?

 

@VinnyBoy ,
Set your hearing aids on the lowest setting and when you find that ok then increase it again..
Your ears and tinnitus will adapt to them but you need to take it slowly.
I wore white noise generators for years so was easy to tolerate my duel purpose hearing aids...lots of love glynis

 

Wow! Thanks for all the swift replies. I have not tried to "self medicate" in any serious way. I do know that if I'm out with the wife at a restaurant, I absolutely must have a beer or two because this helps deaden the background noise...which can be excruciating! I also noticed several years ago that absinthe seemed to help calm the T. So my wife ordered a large bag of dried wormwood and I occasionally have it as a tea. I have had mixed results with it.

Today was disparaging to say the least. I did go to Beltone today for tuning of the H. They are better in some sense and they did add in the pink noise...which helps slightly. However, billie48 is very correct. I have very reactive T. Even setting the H to the lowest level I couldn't get past 10 minutes. My T becomes so very loud. It's as though it is fighting to make sure it is always the loudest thing no matter what. So, again, after using the H for a few minutes and having to take them off, my hearing is sooooooo much worse. It's like having a serious inner ear infection. Everything is so muffled. I suspect that my T began with an ear infection; I used to get them 4-5 times a year when I was younger...so bad that my eardrums would burst sometimes. Not pleasant.

I do want to try to use the H. I know that part of beating T is in CBT and I am sure that I have to re-train my brain to either not perceive the T or at least ignore it considerably. But right now using the H really seems to make things worse. And then it takes hours for the T to calm down again. But I am willing to try a little each day if it will help.

Unfortunately though, the doc at Beltone told me that my T was so severe that most likely he could not help me. He did spend 1.5 hours with me today just trying to adjust the settings. He called the chief audiologist for the company and received further details for some settings. In the end, they admitted that they have come across only a few cases as severe as mine. How do you help someone with hyper acuity in most frequencies, severe loss in a portion of normal high frequencies, and hearing into ultrasonic range...and severe tinnitus? Technology of H can only do so much. Yet, I'm going to keep trying them hoping that I will acclimate somehow.

To Michael's question: yes, I had seen an ENT in the past for the inner ear infections and T. That was in 2006. I had to have tubes in my ears (which I wish to god I had when I was younger). They really helped and I never got sick, in the way I had always known, for 4-5 years. I remember the first cold I got after the tubes. I couldn't believe how nothing it was to me...I could have done that standing on my head and juggling with my feet! Basically, whenever I had gotten sick before the tubes...I got SICK.

So I have seen a couple of ENT's since then, but they do not find anything physically wrong with my ears. So I am pretty much stuck with this insane never-ending screaming in my ears. It is quite honestly so bad that if I go into my basement, in the quiet, my T will make me dizzy and I feel that I will pass out.

I have lived with it so long that I have learned just to live with it. I never actively try to concentrate on it and I do whatever I can to ignore it. But it has been increasing gradually over the past few years and is becoming consuming. How do you get relief from something that cannot even be defined by medical science very well?

Thanks again for the comments. It is at least reassuring to know that there are, in fact, others out there that understand first hand how mentally crushing T can be.

I found a video on YouTube last night about a lady in Sweden or Norway who had T. It was so bad she finally sought and was granted legal euthanasia. I felt so bad for her and myself, because every single thing she described is exactly what I experience. I think that if I lived in the same country, I would go the same route.

 

Hi.

Maybe you could try the Back To Silence method :

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/back-to-silence.7172/

 

Hi
I´ve been for a awful big spike for the last one week wit high frecuency T and H...and pink, white, brown noise didn't work for me and after some time, my T was worst. This night i though that my life didnt have sense, really depressed and anxious, ans at 4 a.m. I find this neuromodulation 10000 hz tinnitus. I could slept and after two hours my tinnitus returns to oroginal statae...i couldnt believe it. And T its really better during the day.
Why don´t try with it? I hope it will help you as me!!!!

ayuda tinnitus audio terapia neuromodulacion...