I Just Wanted to Say Thank You to the Medical Community for Working on Tinnitus

The medical community has been working very hard to find a cure for tinnitus. They have been focusing like a laser on finding a working treatment for this ailment. Overall tinnitus research has received very generous funding from every grant, and tinnitus is recognized as the massive problem it is. There is tons of research for tinnitus and all of it is well funded and will be promising. I'm so glad that overall the help from the medical communities worldwide is so overwhelming and it's great that they care so much about fixing tinnitus. It's wonderful.

Oh wait that's right. They couldn't care less about tinnitus.

Nevermind.

 

Sarcasm at it’s best.

 

@threefirefour
You made my day.

 

Twenty one years ago when I first got tinnitus and going through a very difficult time accepting it. I wondered why hasn't the medical profession found a cure for this awful condition. The thought haunted me day and night and I began feeling angry and bitter that this affliction had changed my life to such a huge degree. Not able to tolerate the sound of kitchen plates and cutlery being washed up without it hurting my ears or having a conversation with someone without having to ask them to please lower their voice.

Music was my life as I was an Audiophile and couldn't listen to it being played through my HI-FI, even at the lowest setting as my ears would be in immense pain. One day I was reading a newspaper and read an article that I have mentioned many times in tinnitus forums. It helped change my life towards tinnitus the moment I had finished reading it and I'm so thankful because I no longer felt bitter and angry. It mentioned: Nineteen out of twenty medical conditions cannot be cured, although most of them can be treated.

Tinnitus can be a very debilitating condition when it is severe. Fortunately, a lot of people habituate to it in time and may not always need the professional help, of a Hearing Therapist or Audiologist that's trained in the treatment and management of tinnitus. I have habituated to tinnitus twice in twenty one years. The last time took four years and I went through a lot of difficulty but never once felt bitter or angry and just accepted it. I am an avid book reader and was unable to read for two years. Eventually my life improved and even though my tinnitus can still reach severe levels requiring me to take clonazepam to cope, I still manage to keep a positive outlook on life and this is what I advise people to do that have tinnitus and having a difficult time accepting it. I accentuate the positive things in my life and focus on them. This helps me to keep focused and enjoy what I can out of life, because things could be a lot worse. I just have to switch on the TV, radio or computer, to see and hear of the suffering and injustice that goes on in this world.

Michael

 

Ok, so what are the treatments that can be done for tinnitus (besides clonazepam, my life-saviour too)

 

With respect. I do not respond to orders but usually reply to polite requests. It is all about one's attitude to tinnitus which will determine whether they will progress and habituate to this condition. Whilst the author of this thread thinks he's smart and witty, and has got praise from people that I believe don't know better, he has the wrong attitude.

Please click on the links below and read the posts from people that have asked for my help and the way they have requested it. Also, please note their attitude to tinnitus.

Michael

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/curious-what-it-is-like-having-tinnitus-for-years.23211/page-2#post-280751

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/thinking-about-going-to-the-cinema.24292/#post-280706

 

I had 3 appointments with the audiologist. I clearly remember the first words she said to me.. and they were “there isn’t a cure but it does get better”. I thought to myself, that’s the biggest contradiction ever, what a joker!!! Who’s going to make it better? Then I realised that it was 100% down to me. I then realised that it was down to me and me only and my only option was to have a positive attitude towards it. Nobody could really help me, other than myself. Granted, my tinnitus wasn’t of the severe type. But at it’s worst, the loudness, combined with the very high pitch, used to make my ear drum hurt. You can only treat yourself, there is no real long term treatment other than positivity. For some people, just staying positive is easier said than done, and is not enough!!!

 

Well said @Philippe79. There is a lot of help that one can get from the medical profession for tinnitus, providing they have access to it. However, one can have the best treatments in the world for tinnitus, but ultimately the healing process starts with the individual and their attitude towards the condition.

Michael

 

Hello Michael

Why does there appear to be a number of people on this forum that feel like they are not getting the help they deserve? You’ve only got to see the negatively that surrounds this forum when it comes to the medical profession. Are these people wrong to have such thoughts? Also, can you ellobarate by what you mean by ‘access to it’. I think a lot of people struggle to stay positive and would like to see more done. If they seen this happening, maybe they would become positive/ or more positive? I am lucky, I have a supportive family and other people around me. If the rest of my life wasn’t so good, I’m not sure I would have managed.

Many Thanks
Phil

 

I'm afraid i was misunderstood. I was not seriously asking you , nor "ordered" to answer to me 'what are the treatments for tinnitus". It was a rhetorical question, i only put it to make a point, and not to get an answer. The point that i was trying to make was that, in the case of tinnitus, not only that there is no cure, but even those treatments are lacking. Oh, yeah, i heard by dozens and dozens of things that pretend to treat tinnitus, but when we come to talk about the real results of those treatments, we do not have very much to discuss about, do we?
I was trying to be sarcastic regarding the "reassurement" from the medical community

That was the idea, nothing more.
If you want to speak to me about how everything lies in our positive attitude regarding out innitus, believe me, this is not the time. Too little time has passed since I've heard about another two cases who took their lives because the sound was too loud and intrusive. Do you think that a catastrophic tinnitus could be turned around only by "positive attitude"? Please! You know better than that. You were yourself in a very dark place and from what i know it was clonazepam who was more effective than "positive thougths".
I would have expected something different from somebody who had, once, for quite a long period of time, severe tinnitus.
To me tinnitus is similar to epilepsy of the auditory cortex, and when you have seizures, the chance to end that with nice thoughts are just as high as putting an end to an episode of regular epilepsy by thinking beautifully.

I was recently very close to hanging myself, that's how bad it was, and it is to clonazepam made by Roche that i have to thank to that i am still alive. The rest is just BS to me right now.
The only thing that i would do right now would be to send a letter to Roche to thank them for saving my life.

I found in other posts of yours very good things, so i do not want to pick a fight with you, ok?
You recently said that a person's last thought with severe T is to be in front of a computer, which i thought that was very nice to admit, but now you speak as if you never had severe T.
It was too recent the time when my T got so bad that i thought that this is the end, so let's drop it.

 

Again, it comes back to my original point of one's attitude. Sarcasm is considered by some as the lowest form of wit. I would like to add this rider: It is also the highest form of vulgarity.

All the best
Michael

 

@Philippe79

Hello Phil

Thank you for your enquiry.

Tinnitus is very common and most people outside of a tinnitus forum affected by it habituate to quite quickly, because it is relatively mild and they can easily ignore it. However, this condition comes in different levels of severity. Mild, moderate, severe and can also reach extreme severe levels. If hyperacusis is present which often accompanies noise-induced tinnitus it often makes matters worse.

Tinnitus usually becomes a problem in the early stages, when the person affected perceives the noise as loud and very intrusive. This is largely due to the brain focusing on it and the more it does the louder the tinnitus becomes. As the weeks and months pass many people learn to adapt and the brain no longer sees the tinnitus as a threat and slowly pushes the noise into the background where it becomes less noticeable and this is called habituation. It takes time and there are various treatments available that I have mentioned in my article: Tinnitus, A Personal View. I will paste the link below.

The onset of intrusive tinnitus can often make people feel angry and bitter as I’ve described in my post above. They can also feel negative which is understandable. If this negativity isn’t addressed and reduced it can become a big problem and make habituation difficult. In addition to this, we all have life to deal with and it is often problematic and rarely does anyone escape this. Some of the people in this forum not only have tinnitus to deal with but also the stresses of life and often other health problems. All this mixed together can make coping with tinnitus a real struggle.

The tinnitus forum and other social media platforms are the perfect meeting points for likeminded people, who feel they have been dealt harshly by life. They can have a good moan and groan and vent their frustrations at the medical profession or their government for not finding a cure for this condition. When that isn’t enough they will start an argument with other members of the forum for the simplest thing. I have tried helping a few people here that eventually turned abusive towards me and had to give them a wide berth.

Depending on where one lives in the world and the type of medical care that is available for tinnitus, can help them improve and cope better with the condition. However, if a person has a negative mindset or is looking for a complete cure this could prevent them from successfully habituating to tinnitus.

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/

 

You say i have the lowest form of wit, according by some people (would those be only you, by any chance?) and after that you allegedly wish me "all the best"? Wow, that was sarcastic! How vulgar! Especially because it was a very low quality of sarcasm.
Sarcastic remarks of good quality can be made or enjoyed only by people with an intelligence above a certain level, unfortunately.

 

I thought the lowest form of wit was misinterpreting someone else's comment.

 

Sarcasm actually requires intelligence and according to a study by Harvard, it’s the highest form of intelligence. It even makes you smarter:
https://www.cnbc.com/2017/10/13/sarcasm-makes-you-smarter-says-harvard-researchers.html

It’s beneficial to both the person expressing it and the one receiving it according to the study. Those exposed to it often are more creative and can think more abstractly.

However, the study found in mistrustful relationships it is considered hostile. Yet if you trust someone, it’s a positive and can bring people closer together. So much support to my fellow sarcastic tinnitus suffers! We may not be able to cure our tinnitus, but we can make each other smarter.

 

Agree with you @Dana!
Very very contradicting post by Michael.
There's more than 50 shades of grey here if you ask me

 

Just for a moment I thought that you must have your wires seriously crossed or I'm behind on good news!
Neither!
Good post!

 

Good point.
So @Dana how does the effect of Clonazepam lasts?

 

@threefirefour
You are the real deal.

 

...... and here I was wondering why the tinnitus medical community and researchers don’t engage with tinnitus talk. No wait, never mind I know exactly why, now.

 

I think how do you start writing letters to the right medical executive to get the right answers. I understand tinnitius is difficult to solve, but there are similar charactics. First you have to except it is a problem for everyone who has tinnitius not just severe case otherwise it narrow our field. Also the medical field has data they just act like they don't. So how do we join together to be heard. And how do we gather test tried that work or didn't. There should be one set structure of dos and don't including Meds. Do to misinformation suffers are taking care of themself blindfold. Again if it was not for this site even with the good, bad, ugly aleast I learned a few things I had to accept, due to there is no other help out there. We have to band together. Even if to do better pills on this site.

 

Yeah because they don't care.

 

Below is the picture of myself, taken by a photographer while i was reading the answer above, answer that i was not even asking for:

 

@vermillion

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22626945


Clonazepam quiets tinnitus: a randomised crossover study with Ginkgo biloba.

Department of Internal Medicine, Kangwon National University, School of Medicine, Chuncheon, Republic of Korea.

Abstract
OBJECTIVE:
To assess the effect of Ginkgo biloba and clonazepam, a γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA)-receptor agonist, upon tinnitus.

METHODS:
This was an open-label, randomised, crossover study. 27 men and 11 women (aged 16-80 (mean 58)) with tinnitus for more than 2 months were enrolled. Participants were randomised to either clonazepam or G biloba for the first 3 weeks. For the next 2 weeks of washout no medication was taken. For the final 3 weeks, subjects were given the other drug. The initial dose of clonazepam and G biloba was one tablet daily (clonazepam 0.5 mg; G biloba 40 mg).Subjects were instructed to increase the dose by one tablet every 3 days toa maximum of four tablets daily until they perceived a satisfactory decrease in tinnitus loudness or intolerable side effects. Tinnitus was assessed with pitch and loudness matching, tinnitus handicap inventory, and visual analogue scales of loudness, duration and annoyance.

RESULTS:
Comparing before and after each drug, clonazepam significantly improved tinnitus loudness (74% of subjects), duration (63%), annoyance (79%), and tinnitus handicap inventory score (61%), whereas the G biloba showed no significant differences on any of these measures.

CONCLUSION:
Clonazepam is effective in treating tinnitus; G biloba is ineffective.

Sorry, I was not alerted that somebody (you) asked me a question, I saw it only today. I will return with another post about my own experience with clonazepam.

 

@everyone commenting here. Before slating and blaming everyone else for their inadequacy, let's look at ourselves a bit first too okay.

How many of you have donated even a cent to any research or lab or association regarding tinnitus. In the last few years?

I certainly have not, so I also have to blame myself for the status quo. But starting this month, I will donate something every month and hopefully my donations will find a good use to bring us closer to a cure/treatment.

Does anyone know except Mass Eye & Ear and the ATA (American Tinnitus Association) a good place for donations.

 

@jer Mass Eye & Ear is part of Harvard Medical School. Harvard has an endowment of 35.7 billion dollars which could be called cash in the bank, but most of it is invested.

 

Thank you Dana

 

After speaking to several medical researchers about this, the consensus is that because tinnitus has no clear cause, involves very complex neural pathways, and ultimately doesn't have an obvious route of treatment, there is no real incentive for the pharmaceutical industry to invest in research. Without funding, there isn't research. As annoying as it is, the medical professionals aren't really to blame, the illusive nature of tinnitus itself is.

 

@threefirefour you're wrong

source: have spoken to dozens of MDs, PhDs and clinical lab workers who very much spend their lives working on this problem for less money than they could make applying their skills to other problems

 

I agree with this, but we've got multiple drugs and devices in the research pipeline for tinnitus, as well as a wider spectrum of drugs and therapies aimed at reversing hearing loss. That doesn't mean any of these approaches will go anywhere, per se, but it does mean that rich capitalists see this as a potential vector for becoming richer.