I'm Nola

Hi,
My name is Nola. I'm spending my time reading all the posts in the hopes that I can find some kind of relief or answer(s) to my own suffering with tinnitus.

I first had it in 2004 for about a year. I was under a lot of stress at work and contribute that for the t.

The only thing I remember was having a nervous break down and wanting to end my life. It was the worst thing to ever happen to me in my life. I did not medicate, but sought cognitive therapy. I remember having both the low and high pitched sounds. I suffered numerous anxiety attacks and depression.

Besides trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ, I believe his direction to seek help from this therapist really helped. It some how went completely away. I suffered no hearing loss.

Then, in early June of this year (2017), it comes back with a complete vengeance. I was again under severe stress, before it happened, but not from work this time. The cause could be from very heavy family issues.

I am now back to where I started with some changes. I still have the soft pitch, very loud and high pitch sounds, and a constant roaring and or humming sound. Some days, I feel like sounds are so amplified.

Drs. Tell me nothing is wrong with me or my ears. And again, no hearing loss. I did not go back to any therapist because I'm thinking that seeking support from people who can relate to what I'm going through would better address and support my needs.

I had the opportunity to speak with Christine, which was very comforting and reassuring that it will get better. I again, am having numerous anxiety attacks and am crying all the time. It seems like I'm never going to get used to this (especially when it's loud for sometimes a day and a half) and feel like I'm going to lose my mind.

I hate the quiet, I feel insecure, and because unfortunately, I am so OCD, I am looking for the sound even when it's soft/low.

And, I really don't know if I should be journaling my day-to-day ringing sounds.

Please, Please, any advice to help me get through this will be much appreciated. Blue, Exhausted, and Desperate. Nola

 

if it went away the first time, it might go away again.

 

I agree. Just try to be patient. Protect your ears from moderate noises (e.g., vacuum cleaner). Try to get your stress down.

If you are having trouble falling asleep, try sound enrichment to give you something else to listen to, besides T.

 

@Nola
I am so sorry to hear of your latest struggle with tinnitus.
You've been through this before, so I know you can do it again.
In the early days, I was very guilty of monitoring my tinnitus. I'd go to the quietest room in my house and analyse what it was doing.
All that was doing for me was making me focus on the tinnitus and fuelling my anxiety.
I've made the most progress when I stopped focusing on it. I surround myself with sound and do not go into quiet rooms anymore. I do not listen for my tinnitus at all. I refuse to give it that much importance.
Keeping a journal may help, you might find triggers such as caffeine or sugar that may set your tinnitus off. Personally, I've never identified anything that affects mine, other than a short sleep will sometimes mean I wake up with loud tinnitus. So I've cut out naps, obviously.
How are you sleeping?
Are you on any medications?
Most people on TT are amazing, you'll get a lot of support.
Sam x

 

Welcome to the forum. It is nice that you learn to trust the Lord. If it works with the last therapist, it may be wise to do it again. They are professionals and it is not a prerequisite that each of them need to have T experience to help. If you prefer to learn from those who have T and are living a happy and normal life, then focus on reading the success stories (in Knowledge Base). You can read my success stories if you like with link below. But reading as many as you can will help you find those with similar condition and you can learn whatever works for them. In the mean time if T really bothers you and give you lots of anxiety, you can try to mask T. Here are some suggestions if you need some. Take good care. God bless.

1) Mask at bed time if having trouble sleeping, by using a sound pillow or sound machine with pillow speakers. There are good sound machine & pillow therapy systems like this one: https://www.amazon.com/Sound-Oasis-...d-Oasis-Therapy-System-Speakers/dp/B00MH5HKTA

2) If you need masking on the go, try load an ipod with nature sounds or music using itune. If you have a smart phone, you can download free APPs for soothing or T-masking sounds. Use wisdom in the use of headphones or earbuds as extended use or excessive volume may hurt your ears. Try set the volume slightly below that of your tinnitus.

3) With PC & speakers, you can try these excellent masking sounds to see which one masks best:

TT's excellent audio player: https://www.tinnitustalk.com/audioplayer/

or this online sound library, particularly the self-mix nature sounds: https://mynoise.net

or download free sound generator ‘aire freshener’: http://www.peterhirschberg.com/mysoftware.html

or click play to mix these sounds with this simple sound generator: http://asoftmurmur.com/

or search youtube with words like 'tinnitus masking sounds', 'white noise', 'rain sound' etc.

 

I'm not on any medication, but I do take Night Caps by Crystal Star. I bought it at the Health Food Store. It has Passion Flower, Lemon Balm. GABA, and L-Theanine. It calms me down to fall asleep without the morning drowsiness. I also cannot take any naps for the same reason you mentioned. I truly appreciate the support--Thanks to you all. I am currently in a broken state and need to deal/cope with this, one day at a time. I feel like a crazy person questioning every sound I hear and can't understand why it has to get so loud--that's when I don't know what to do. It's hard not to pay attention to something that makes me feel like I'm losing my mind.

 

Thank you, so much for the suggestions. I will definitely try these and see what works.

 

@Nola
Yep, I'm hearing you.
I remember in the early days, I honestly thought I'd need to end my life because of tinnitus, and mine isn't even that loud! I had one month old twins and a 20 month old at the time, I honestly lost the plot. I was researching suicide methods, I was just lost and scared.
The biggest healer is time, and we've got to manage the best we can until we reach a better place.
For me, that was using a small dose of Remeron to sleep and using sound to mask my tinnitus.
I'm not habituated to my tinnitus, far from it in fact. I am coping by masking and keeping my normal routine. 14 months in, and I think this will be the way I keep living.
We do what we have to, but always have hope that maybe something will come along to help us.
Never give up. Life is too precious and we only get one chance at it.