I'm Nearly There! Tinnitus 95% Gone

Hi all

So back in January I posted this thread, and my goodness it was a terrifying time for me.

When you first realise that there's a sound in your head it can be extremely daunting and debilitating. You wonder what it is, and how do you get rid of it. When you can't get rid of it, you start wondering if it's there for the rest of your life, and you spiral out of control. I suffer from panic disorder and anxiety, so naturally this new sound in my head had broken me down, to the point where I was curled up on the sofa with my mum for a few days whilst I tried to get used to this sensation.

I can't exactly tell you how it was caused, although the doctor noticed that my ears were completely (ear drum obstructed from view!) blocked. After my ears were cleaned out, the doctor noticed redness and dullness on my ear drums which suggested a middle ear infection. Now I am a young fella, and I will be the first to admit that I love my music, and preliminary research seemed to suggest that I had damaged my hearing, so I was scared of that as well. Anyway, shortly after the infection was cleared up from a week of antibiotics, the tinnitus was still there loud as ever. When the doctor confirmed there was nothing wrong with my ears, I began to cry.

Fast forward 6 weeks, I was seen by an ENT and given a "Tinnitus Aid" device , it looks like a hearing aid but it plays white noise in your ears. This device is an absolute godsend, it's instant relief and I wear it all of the time.

I also had a hearing test and was told my hearing was really great, can hear close to zero decibels and my mum said it's because our family has sensitive hearing. I was really happy to know that my hearing wasn't damaged (much!).

Today as I am writing this post, my tinnitus is 95% gone. It's very faint and will come back if I strain to listen for it.

I'm writing this post to tell you all what I have experienced and learned.

First of all, you really begin to appreciate life and especially when something like this happens to you. You take things for granted until it happens and then you wish that it didn't happen to you.

Forums like this and Reddit are great for when you need support, but my advice would be to stop searching for tinnitus on the internet because it will drive you insane. You see stories of how people cannot cope, and how there's no cure yet. Complete detachment from the internet, and to stop wondering about my tinnitus was the first step in acceptance, and in my case the tinnitus fading.

I also accepted tinnitus as a normal background noise, and once I stopped thinking about it then the panic stopped, and the anxiety stopped.

My family are my rock for me, I was very honest and open about it all, and I was really happy that my workplace was also able to accommodate me.

To anyone who reads this, you can do it. Speak to your doctor, get seen by an ENT, get the support of everyone who is close to you. You can do this.

 

So do you think you're naturally recovering or that the noise generators retrained your brain or something else?

 

It COULD be natural recovery, it has only been 2 months which from what I've read is a very short timescale for tinnitus.

I've replaced listening to heavy music with listening to audio books and apps which create white noise etc. On that note, I would highly recommend an app called "ReSound Tinnitus Relief", it's a sound mixer which lets you add layers of sound like white noise, birds , water flowing, etc. My ENT showed it to me and it's been a great way of getting some relief.

At the same time, my approach to tinnitus and retraining my brain certainly helped. The moment you accept it and let it become a normal background sound is when your life starts going back to normal. I wouldn't tell anyone to avoid doing the things they love, but I would say just take some extra care.

 

So is your tinnitus going away or are you accepting it?

 

It's going , as I said in my original post it's about 95% quieter then when it started . It's getting a bit louder now though I'm here on the forum thinking about it

I talked about accepting it because it was my coping mechanism and it allowed me to carry on in those early days when it was loud and getting me down. As I have panic and anxiety attacks, T was triggering my fear response, and the only way for me to overcome this was to let go.

 

Thank you for your post and positive story. It will definitely give hope to people when they first develop tinnitus!

 

Good for you! Enjoy your quiet life! And just be careful from now on with your ears.
Stay away from loud noises!

Once

 

Hi OP, how loud did you listen to your music before you had T?

 

Really glad to hear your T is on the improve!

Out of interest, how long did it take you to arrange a White Noise Device and was this via the NHS? I'm really hoping I can get something along these lines for relief as the T is aggravating my anxiety like crazy.

 

Hey everyone , sorry I haven't been lurking much

Sometimes I used to listed to it at max volume. Yeah , I know in retrospect I should have not done this but now I listen to music at about half volume.

Yes this was on the NHS, I have one for both ears. It took a few months to be seen by my ENT for hearing therapy but they should off this to you. She's told me that the device has only been out for a few months. It's called a Sigma Contrast S+.

 

Thanks for sharing the success, and the info about the new device.

Be careful, and dont abuse your ears as T certainly has potential to come back with a vengenance if we dont pay attention to protection from loud noises.

 

Really appreciate the info James, and sincerely hope your T stays at bay for you!

 

Really pleased for you @JamesR So good to read a success story. Thanks also for the tips. One quick question - with your Mix App - how did you listen to that - headphone, earphone, speaker or was it through the NHS supplied earpieces ? Enjoy the quiet life my friend and take care !

 

I've got my eating test results with me. I was tested for between 125Hz and 8kHz, could hear these frequencies between 0db and 10db.

Right now at night my T is quiet, my fan on its lowest setting is mixing with it, and I only need to use my tinnitus aids on lowest setting to mix.

I do notice that it can be essentially a stress barometer, it can spike when I'm working but today was a great day otherwise.

@Kelvin I use earphones still, however my device volume never goes over 50% now.

 

His hearing came back after the infection cleared, thus the brain removed the tinnitus.

 

you do realize those test are a piteful view on the full range of human hearing.

Healthy human ears can naturally here like twice that (16khz), and speech in background noise like music within (250-8khz)Frequencies isn't the same thing as pure tonal noises in silence. The more competing noises the more better ones hearign is.

Hearing loss outside of the bare vitals of hearing won't show up on the test.

 

The hospital I went to doesn't have the equipment for testing over 8kHz. My hearing in that range seems to be fine except for a 4kHz notch at 30 dB on my right ear.

My right ear doesn't hear some higher frequency sounds as well as my left, but even then it seems to come and go. Idk where I can go to get a test beyond 8kHz though.

 

Take care of your ears / brain. Tinnitus is there even when it's mild. If it come back it will be worse. Don't try to live 100% normal again and don't think ear plugs are 100% safe.