I Have Had Tinnitus for Two Years and One Day.

Hello, I only joined today after tiring of Facebook groups.

I contracted tinnitus two years ago exactly. I was in London visiting a friend and by the end of the day I sat in Soho Square and noticed a ringing/buzzing. I knew immediately that it was tinnitus, prior to this day (July 21st 2015) I had endured tinnitus for the odd day or evening and once for about four days. Alas it was suspected that I had an ear infection in one ear (the right ear) so I was given an anti-biotic; to be fair my ear did feel full but that may have been because I was popping my ears to try and rid myself of the ringing.
Anyway three weeks into me having tinnitus it disappeared completely, this silence lasted for about three weeks when it returned in the second week of September 2015. From here on it was a struggle with ringing and buzzing in my right ear until one night in October noise appeared on the left side of my head. From this moment on noise had predominated on the left hand side of my head, sometimes it is mostly on the right or in the centre as if encapsulating my skull.

I had audiograms and that revealed no hearing loss, indeed I have almost perfect hearing for my age. I tried to have MRI scans but I was claustrophobic and could not go through with them. It is now thought that my T is down to stress and anxiety, a breakdown in neuroplasticity and a limbic system out of control.

Some days my T is absent, other days it is barely audible whilst on other days it is uncomfortably noticeable.

 

I find that tiredness/lack of sleep can make my T worse. On a couple of occasions I have chosen to sleep for a few hours in the day which led to me waking up with no tinnitus. My symptoms are very uneven.

 

Welcome to the forum. Living with tinnitus and trying to beat it, we need to cultivate more positive thinking or practice CBT principles, such as countering the negative thoughts which can create stress and which then can aggravate T. So if you have days when T is absent or barely audible, take that as a positive.. Try to not get too emotional on the spiky days. You may want to mask it during those days so you can maintain emotional stability without caving into negativity. Try to treat this as a new normal so you won't be building stress.Here is an earlier post by a doctor about the need to treating life after T as a new normal, masking the spiky days if needed. Hope your condition will continue to improve. Take good care. God bless.

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/curing-tinnitus.4136/page-5#post-40854

 

Wow thanks a lot. I sometimes wonder if my silent or mild days actually prevents me from habituating my T. Likewise I can have a quiet day a couple of times in one week but have to wait maybe a few weeks until I have another quiet/silent day. I am finding relaxation and being away from televisions and laptops does help.

 

@Kieran D I have days without it now and again and it is so wonderful. I think my tinnitus is seriously affected by stress. I enjoy those days off so much. Friday before last I was totally tinnitus free, Wednesday it was relatively quiet although it was there and I was so happy!

For some reason, I have accepted this is going to be a part of my life so...just been going with the flow.

Good luck!

 

Ringadingring, during your silent days do you experience silence for the whole day or just part of the day? I find that my silent "days" are more like chunks of hours with silence rather than the whole day.

Indeed, when I experience silence then I feel like I love everyone and everything will be alright forever!

 

Well...I don't think my "days off" are 24 hour periods. That Friday I mentioned was about 10 or 12 hours. Then it came back, but sort of "Tinnitus Lite". Next day, it was back to normal.

It does seem like paradise when it goes away! Totally understand that "I love everybody" feeling when it is on vacation LOL Except, I always think it will be back...First time it left me alone I did think it was over, but once it returned I just accepted it was probably never leaving...although I hope to be wrong!

 

Rather cruelly for me was that when the T first appeared it lasted for three weeks and then it went away for three weeks; I thought it was gone. How wrong was I?

 

mine started the same, loud as hell for 30 days, then went to @20% for a cpl of weeks, then loud for several, then back and forth. the amusing thing was when it fell soft i forgot about it so quickly. It took a total dedication for me to start to improve. I believe what has been written is true. When its bad, if i choose to not take it to a negative place and try not to let it take control of me, im better. I may be driving home from work, about a hr drive, and realize my T is screeching, but put on some music and sing along, by the time i get home, i may be able to put it enough out of my mind that i can enjoy my night. On the other hand if i start to freak, even afterwards if i try to calm down, it usually still interferes with my night. CBT and a positive approach has some say in the subject. It may be somewhat relative to the person, but i do believe it does help