I'm... Cured! (Habituated Cured)

Hey guys, on June 26th I first introduced myself to the forum, writing about myself while hearing a mild - yet noticeable - "eeeeee" sound in my head. Mostly affected me when in silence; ironically funny word that isn't it? Even when taking to friends - I would rather focus on that fucking noise than listen to my mates story... What an idiot I was.

My tinnitus was noise induced, it started two weeks before I introduced myself on this lovely forum full of you lovely, strong individuals. So a month and a bit, it's gone. However, I can notice it at times like now; since I'm attempting to involuntary think about it, but that's normal since everyone (EVERYONE) has a noise if they merely focus on it. Just like when you focus on the cracking noise you make when you yawn, or how you can see tiny particles when you look at things in your peripheral vision.

What healed me? Purchase my miracle DVD-... I'm kidding. But seriously, two things. Occupy your mind and rely on time - don't research or dwell on it. There are more people than you think who are cured, but the last thing they want to do is return to this forum. I decided to, because I generally want to give back and trust me, there is hope. It WILL get better, it'll disappear or fade greatly to the point where it's not noticeable. Don't fucking fight it, it's like trying to dig out of a prison with a toothpick; just doesn't work. Keep in mind; it was mild, but painful; gave me headaches most days. I no longer go to clubs without my small, foam earbuds. Because this community acknowledges how fucking delicate hearing is, compared to those clueless monkies you see at clubs beside the amp.

At work a couple weeks ago. there was a free hearing test van which tested customers or employees (me) hearing. I got my hearing checked from a brief test and no hearing loss at all numerous frequencies. I spoke nervously to the people running it that I had mild tinnitus. The old lady says she has it when she wants to notice it and states it's completely normal if under stress and anxiety, which I have and I assume a lot of you do. Also keep in mind; at that time at work, I knew my tinnitus was gone by that point. And what they told me made me over the moon and happy.

What is silence like now it's gone for me? Not as great as you thino so don't worry. I don't really know what to say but just don't fight it, rely on time, protect your ears and do not dwell on it, research it, read horror stories or even follow this forum to be honest.

For you with more severe cases of tinnitus, you guys are inspirations and amazing, just learn to live with it and accept it and habituating the noise is just as good as it being gone, because silence isn't as great as it seems. Habituate to the point where you don't notice it, because it's possible.

This is the last time I'll come on this forum to be honest. This may come to ease some of you, or not, but thank you, good luck and good bye!

It will get better.

 

No they don't, and I know numerous people that don't hear anything when it's completely silent, including me before I had T.
Tinnitus is not a natural state of silence, Don't let anyone BS you into thinking that.

It is a BS thing that audiologist's tell sufferers to make them feel better!

Anyway, nice to hear your handling it, good luck.

 

RichL, agreed. Before T, I could hear a pin drop, two rooms over and nothing else. Now, I could hear this wretched noise, two miles away! T SUCKS!

 

Thanks.

With all due respect it's probably a good thing you not coming back, simply because saying shit like this will not warm you to many sufferers!

Really?, Something tells me that you have always had T and don't know what silence is, this is rather insulting!

 

Definitely, and I can't believe all the likes that @nok3 has received because it is quite an insult!

 

As I've written before, there's T that can only be heard when it's absolutely dead quiet and then there's T that can be heard standing next to a jet engine! The lucky ones in first group, shouldn't consider themselves sufferers at all and should dismiss themselves from this site.

 

Lol

 

I have T that I can hear on a jet plane! I flew to Mexico and the T did not stop me, started 9 weeks ago, I have severe hearing loss and I feel blocked on the left ear and unsteady. I like to see success stories of people with intrusive T. My anxiety improved I hoping to habituate. Anyone with good positive story please post!

 

I'm SURE (just can't look for it right now) I've read several researches on pubmed about it, in particular 1 on pubmed where people (college students) with no-tinnitus at all have been left in a silence room for 20 mins and 78% of them started to hear tinnitus like noises in their head/ears. The reasearch also said most of them started to hear it after an average of 5 minutes. See if you can find this paper because I'm pretty sure nok3 wasn't really wrong. So uhmm.. well, I guess, given enought time in complete silence, almost everyone has tinnitus. Sure, probably the treshold is much higher and it needs more time for no-tinnitus people to hear anything, plus they don't care if not instructed to look for it, while there are people with severe tinnitus that can't be masked, we all agree about this, still nok3 was not that wrong, at least based on some research paper on pubmed.

 

our perceptual systems were not built to function properly in a vacuum; hence why many people report fully immersive 3d hallucinations as a result of sensory deprivation chambers.

 

While I'm sure you are quite correct about the pub med docs, the fact some report hearing noises after time spent in sound proof booths, and not 100% of participants seems more than likely that the majority were probably hearing what I used to call the 'sound of silence' which to me, was a pleasurable experience until my T started, which, is completely different to the 'sound of silence' that I enjoyed and even purposely exposed myself to before!

So I will stand by my statement that Tinnitus is not a natural state that everyone has, given the right surroundings.

There are no study's with 100% favorable stats pointing to the statement that T is a natural phenomena, so I'm afraid nok3 was not that right either.

The sound of silence to a non T sufferer is NOT Tinnitus!

Rich

 

You're right: T is not something natural within our body normal functionality, since it is a symptom of something WRONG inside or near our ear(s), or inside our auditory cortex.

Nonetheless it is also normal to hear something in complete silence ( for non-sufferers ). This is the natural state we are talking inside this thread.

 

Now are we judging upon T quality? T is sound in absence of ext. sound, so, theoretically everyone has T. But ...Who knows, in some cases it is something completely new and detached from a normal state, in other cases it is an exagerated and aberrant normal state. Depends on T. If there's an ear problem I may agree it is a functional problem, if it's "just" hyperexcitability in brain areas, I guess that's kind of "sound of silence", just louder (sometime much louder) which can still trigger limbic system, especially if you were already prone to, and exacerbates latent anxiety sensitivity which in turn can become an anxiety-mood disorder. Oh well, I'm just hypotizing here, every case is different.

 

Depends what your interpret as that "something", Being in a dead quiet situation and having silence get so loud for some, can possibly have the same affect on the auditory system as having a very mild Tinnitus, but from personal experience, the only way that I can see a percentage of people reporting hearing ringing, hissing etc, is that they may have Tinnitus already and just didn't worry, it's an exaggeration or just their way of describing silence.

Tinnitus a natural state?, I've yet to see the evidence.

 

Like this post. I just learned that I have tinnitus ... but I think I could hear a quiet hissing in quiet environment since very young - probably 5 or 6. It never bothered me till a week or two ago, when it became really loud. Still not sure why, but when I talked to my ENT friend, he told me if it doesn't bother me, doctors don't really know much yet. It could be a medical problem sometimes ... but oftentimes, it's just unknown. It may even be a psychological issue.

After trying some relaxation exercises, etc., I think in my case my recent loud episodes T may be stress induced. When I relax, oftentimes it melts into the background. Sometimes at night when I sleep, I hear loud T. But after some relaxation, it melts away to the quiet T. I used to hear.

I think T. is like say pain - there are many causes - except more complex - there can be psychological components as well.

Reading this post reminds of this article (http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2016/01/the-sound-that-comes-from-nowhere/424932/):

Aside from the auditory system, brain regions that deal with attention, arousal, and emotions are also involved in the experience of tinnitus—the condition is defined not just by the sound, but by how people react to it. ​

T may in fact be defined - in part or almost in whole (depending on each person's case) - on one's attention, stress, mental focus, etc. Rather than seeing T. as a medical problem per se, it may be part of our perception. If we learn we don't like something, for some, perhaps the answer is in working with how we perceive things. That alone may help.

Anyways - I am going to continue working on my T. I hope the Atlantic article will help bring some more grounding to the 40 year old cure suggested by nok3!