I Need to Be Cheered Up. 1 Week Into Tinnitus.

Hi guys

I’m a 26 year old Danish woman. I went to a swimming pool last Tuesday, dived an went up too quickly. Since then I’ve had tinnitus in my right ear. I’m already hard of hearing, which is genetic, and I use hearing aids. At first I noticed a metallic sound, like a loss of bass. I thought it was due to water in the eustachian tube, and the next days I thought my hearing had gone down, and that the new sound was causing my nerves stress and therefore creating the ringing. But they say that my hearing is as it was in 2018. But my own subjective feeling of my hearing in the right ear still is a more metallic kind of sound, and with a constant tone driving me nuts.

I know I should relax and give it a chance to disappear spontaneously.. but what if it doesn’t? I can’t sleep. What if I loose my new job? I need sleep to work as a nurse. I’m fearing that it will ruin my life, my relationship, my chance of creating a family with my boyfriend. I know I’m panicking and my limbic system is out of control, but I’m really scared. And I need assurance that it’ll go away. I’ve been looked at by a dumb ENT doctor and a nice chief physician at my go-to audiological department. He lent me pillow speakers and said that he believed the tinnitus was due to pressure in the inner ear, which pressed the bones and cochlea.

I guess I’m scared for my mental health in this. I’m not the most robust type of person. I get the sense that it’s kind of like dealing with anxiety, acknowledging its present, letting it be there and not let it take control etc.

I deeply respect all of you people struggling with this. And how nice to see that there is a place to go for support and ventilating. It’s important not to feel alone.

Can you say anything to give me some hope? Maybe you know a good story similar to mine?

All the best,
RaSa

 

Hi RaSa,

First off, I can't tell you to relax as this condition is so distressing. And it's also hard for you now to stay positive I truly understand.

But you need to know that it's just been a week and the chances are that it goes away or at least it becomes an only-heard-in-silence noise. No-one for sure can tell you that it goes away but it will most probably improve or fade away completely.

You said it started after swimming and I was thinking about swimmer's ear (ear infection) but as you already had an appointment with an ENT it is not the case.

Try to find the root cause of your tinnitus. See a professional ENT or audiologist.

And know that there are things you can do about it. And it's too soon to say it is permanent or anything.

All the best.

 

Hi eagerUser.

Thank you for the response. I will cling to those words of encouragement. And definitely try to find the root cause, if it continues like this.

 

Don't wait before you seek help. Depending on the reason of your tinnitus you may miss the golden period. I mean there are some treatments that best work within a short period after the onset.

Again I want to make you sure that there are things you can do about it and don't listen to the people (including doctors) who say you need to live with it till the end. It may also never completely fade but that's just improbable for now.

 

But how can I find someone who will do something? The two doctors that has looked at me, haven’t mentioned any form of treatment. Out of despair I called my own doctor (after seeing the first ENT) and got prescribed prednisolone. I took 25 mg for 4 days and was told by the chief physician (at the audiological department) to stop, and took 12,5 mg for two more days. What more can I do?

 

Have a look at the tinnitus success stories.

It takes time and with time it may go away as I said. There are some supplements which may help you and may reduce the noise. There are some treatments to help you relax like CBT (I personally hate CBT).

Neurofeedback may also help you as it has lowered the tinnitus or stopped it in many people.

There is a new device called Lenire:
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/lenire-—-bimodal-stimulation-treatment-by-neuromod.34566/

But these are too soon for now. As it has been only 1 week and yours started after swimming.
I know how useless ENTs can be. Maybe we should remove E from the word!

Take care.

 

Welcome to the forum. Sorry to hear your suffering from the new tinnitus.

There are two sides to the tennis suffering, first the alien loud ringing that doesn't stop, and 2nd the mental suffering of not knowing the future which seems bleak initially. In CBT this second part of making catastrophic projection about the future is a cognitive distortion called Catastrophic Thinking especially about the future. In this condition, all things about the future are doomed and hence the intense suffering.

I know it full well as I made the same mistake of projecting a catastrophic future about similar concerns you have, and I suffered big time initially. I have ultra high pitched tinnitus and severe hyperacusis, and I have had a history of anxiety and panic disorder plus PTSD prior to T & H. So naturally my nerves were overwhelmed initially with nothing but the worst case scenarios under relentless anxiety and panic attacks, sleeplessness, and deep depression. But the sufferings could have been spared had I believed in what others were telling me, to calm down and to look for the positives. For today I live a happy, normal, productive and absolutely enjoyable life, cruising and flying around the world to enjoy life, even with my tinnitus blasting away like before. I never thought it could be possible but in my success story I wrote about some helpful strategies.

If you have the time, try read through it to get some hope about the future. Your T is still very new so try to give it some time. It may fade away as you may have some ETD issue which can go away. Even if it doesn't full go away, it may settle to a level you can eventually ignore. People here say generally one will feel better from 6 months on. So try not despair or panic as, as a nurse, you know how the limbic nervous system can screw us up with its fight or flight mode of functioning when the Amygdala is in charge. By remaining calm and positive, we give the body a chance to have the normal parasympathetic nervous system to return and the pre-frontal cortex will take over from the Amygdala and our fearful reaction will subside so that we can better manage our mental reaction. So give it time. Read up the success stories to give you hope (my story link below). Take care. God bless.

my success story:
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/thread...w-i-recovered-from-tinnitus-hyperacusis.3148/

 

Most of the damage to our ears causing tinnitus is due to nerve damage and loss of auditory sensory cells in the inner ear.

There are multiple drugs either going through trials now, or about to begin trials that have great potential to heal this damage. These have been verified in non human animal models.