Is There a Chance My Tinnitus Will Go Away?

Hi my name is Ilija,I'm new to the forum.
3 weeks ago I went to the 2nd gig of my life,I had the usual symptoms stuffed ears and temporary noise induced hearing loss,but I noticed something else,something I never experienced in my entire life a ring in my ears.I thought it would go away in a day or two but as you can see it didn't.
I have no measurable hearing loss whatsoever,over the 3 weeks I have done 3 audio tests for my hearing and the pressure thing I don't know what it's called all 3 times normal.
Yesterday I read that some study using virtual simulation showed that I may have Hidden Hearing loss which you can detect by testing the AV waves or something like that.
I went to the doctors today,quite a smart man he knew what I was talking about when I mentioned it and he said that those studies are unreliable as the patients have no idea what's happening and that the test would have noticed if I had hearing loss.
But it just fits it says some cells are damaged and so other cells turn up the sound which explains why I can hear some sounds I couldn't hear before,he said that's because I'm listening for everything so my ears are in alert mode like when we're asleep and it should dial down as I calm down.
My question is what do you think is there a chance my Tinnitus will go away? It has lessened quite a bit since I got it,It's went from a ring to like a hissing sound.
When I'm in school,walking on the street,playing basketball I can't hear it I can only hear it in a very quiet room,and even then if I don't think about it and occupy myself with something else I can't hear it,even as I'm typing this I can BARELY and I mean BARELY hear it just because my brain knows it's there.
I'm somewhat worried,the doctor says my sinus problems might be making it worst (I've had bad sinuses my whole life my nose is 80% clogged 99% of the time).
So what do you think,I have read some sad stories of people who have chronic but I have also heard that most people who have lost their Tinnitus just don't bother posting shit about something they have forgotten about.
So what do you think will I be fine?
I think it's lasting this long because I used to use headsets which were relatively loud,not can't hear someone loud music 24/7 but loud maybe 80-85 db.
I can sleep with it relatively fine,and what really bothers me is me obsessing about it.
I'm quite worried and I would love your guys opinion on the matter.

 

Yours sounds like mine. I got noise induced T from 130db of jaming for like 45 mins and then my ears hurt real bad like felt like my eardrums bursted.. Then had a loud ring for 2 days then it went away and down to like a mild ring/hiss that i can only hear it really silent places.. And its still like that now although its faded some more. This was 9monthes ago.

 

Nah mine wasn't 130db was more like 110 max

 

Also I never felt a pain

 

Stop going to anymore gigs or concerts. For the rest of your life, that is.

Tympanometry test, I assume...

The best thing to explore right after an acoustic trauma is a (short) course of steroids. If your audiogram came back normal, then perhaps the doctor decided not to pursue that option. Others would. It depends. Steroids are most effective 24/48 hours after the trauma.

Based on what you describe, I would say you are off to a good start. Many people experience quite volatile multi-tonal tinnitus after an acoustic trauma. And the tinnitus in those instances may get progressively worse for a period of weeks - after which it usually settles down and reaches what is called a baseline level of tinnitus. The fact that you can only hear your tinnitus in quiet surroundings suggests (to me) that your tinnitus is fairly mild. With a bit of luck, it will get better. Possibly go away altogether (IF you do not repeat the noise exposure!).

Depending on where you are based, you could consider enrolling in a clinical trial such as the AM101 (I believe they are still recruiting, but possibly not for much longer). I would possibly wait another 1-2 weeks before making a decision. But then, I would definitely also really consider it (if I were you). Best results seem to be for those with acute stage tinnitus. You can read more about it on this board. Good luck. And remember: "ear plugs" have been invented!

 

I'd got but there aren't any here I'm afraid.
Judging by the fact that to ENT's said I'll be fine and simply said that I'm making this seem worse buy worrying,It should subside in 1-2 months completely I hope.

 

Just be happy yours is mild too, my ent told me it could be worse and the damage i did was enough that hes suprised it wasnt worse. Honestly though the more i thought of it, yours and mine are mild (what you describe) if those with intrusive loud T had theres drop down to what ours is, they would probably consider there T "gone". Its just how you look at it. Just don't expect any miracles cause it only makes it worse. When T is mild ive realized its the best its gonna get.. Just cause it dont go away like you said "its barely there" so just let it be "barely there" and move on. Protect your ears for forever now, stay away from concerts, clubs, anything extremely loud for while until you feel comfortable doing so again.( im 9 months in with very mild T and walk around like i have severe T protecting my ears) but thats a good thing. Just dont over protect. And like ATEOS said, you could get on sterioids, or even try am 101. ( i had the perfect oppurtunity to get in on the trial living 25 mins away from one) but it came down to i realises my T was barely there and the only thing the am 101 is gonna do is 1. Who knows cause more problems or 2. Doesnt change my T cause its already incredibly mild. Just decide to yourself how much it bothers you.. If its as mild as you say it is then i say give yourself a few monthes and your fear and attitude will change about it and say well it could be alot worse. My ent also told me my T will fade and subside in afew monthes into the backround.. At the time i thought oh okay cool it will go away but after coming on here in all honestly in rarely does.. So just remember to be thankful for your mild T.. And work on your reaction and anxiety towards it ( im still working on mine and my neggative thinking).. Get on some pills from the doc if you have too, whatever you gotta do to start feeling better again -- cause no matter how loud or quiet, they said its all about your reaction.. Then again some will disagree and i think yeah those people are right cause if my T would of stayed severe id be in a different place right now -- hopefully doing okay but alot different then living with "minor T". Wish you the best, just remember youl be just fine!!!!

 

The best thing to explore right after an acoustic trauma is a (short) course of steriods. If your audiogram came back normal, then perhaps the doctor decided not to pursue that option. Others would. It depends. Steriods are most effective 24/48 hours after the trauma.

Gotta agree with @attheedgeofscience on this. My doctor said nothing about steroids, and the treatment needs to be started immediately after exposure. If I would have known then what I know now, would have found a doc who would have done this, even though my tinnitus was not from noise exposure. At least I would know today, if it hadn't worked, that I had tried. Months later, when I heard of steroid treatments, it was way too late.

 

When enough time passes I'll be fine with it,I'm still hoping it will go away but after 3 months I'll deal with it and just stop worrying about it.
When enough time passes I know I won't even be able to hear it most of the time because even know I have periods where until I think about it I can't hear it.
I'll keep doing what I love which is playing PC games,and In time when I'm not so stressed and over protective I'll go to a concert maybe (But this time it will be with the best earplugs I can buy).
While many of the people here don't have it there is also thousands if not millions of people who had it and lost it only to forget about it.
I have a friend who was in a similar situation ie loud concert after which he also had everything I had only to find his went away after 2 months.
I know no 2 people are the same but I will retain hope for a while more that this may go away.
All in all ultimately the day will come when we will all be free of Tinnitus (not death lol I mean medicine wise).

 

Good attitude just please be careful bout concerts.. Doesnt matter if you have the best protection.. Once you have T it is more likely to get worse by going to concerts-- even after a year, 2 years or ten years . Not saying avoid these things but actually i am in a way if you dont wanna have to go through it again but louder. Im upset with myself cause i missed out on a few concerts but then i think that one night of fun isnt worth fuckin my ears up more and having to live with it the rest of my life for one night of fun. If i wanna have fun i get drunk and listen to music on my watch no one elses.. Safest way to go. Hate havin that one friend that always seems to get ahold of the volume knob tho... Nothin is more annoying now lol i feel like ive gave myself ocd.

 

I kind of have ocd too in a way.
When I select something that's it,like when I was building my first PC I would literally repeat the configuration 5-10x every night running mental checks if everything is in it's place for 2-3 months.
Same with Tinnitus I know for a fact that I will habituate but my obsessive mind might make it a bit harder than everyone else.
When I'm at school or something like that or when I'm like talking to people not thinking about it it nearly goes away 100%.
I'm hopeful that it will go away after a month or two seeing as how it's literally the first time this has happened to me.
If not either way sooner or later I'll get used to it,I think it's not even as loud as I make it out to be rather it's just my brain focusing on this foreign sound it can't seem to understand yet.
With time it'll either go away completely or go down to a level at which I will have to really concentrate on it to even notice it there.
The thing that bothers me is the fact that I can now hear a ring my PC produces,will see what I can do to fix it but it's quite bothersome for the thing you use 60-80% of the day to make your ears ring.
Eventually I will replace the part if I have to.Still hoping that it's just as the doc said about my ears being on alert due to my anxiety over it and it'll subside with time.
Also it could be just my sinuses being fudged up due to me having constant dizziness and pressure in the head and ears.

 

Yeah its okay, thats why were all here too.. We all focus on it way to much but like you said with time it will fade some/reaction will fade cancelling it out.. And curewise looks great within the future so we can hope for the best and then finally leave this one misery of life out of the way for good... But until then acceptance is golden.

 

Like I said I'm giving it some time because there is still a good chance it will go away,hey two ENT specialists are probably more in the right than a paranoid obsessive stressed out teenager looking through horror stories on the internet,so far I've thought I have hyperacusis,then selective hyperacusis,then a tumor and god knows what else if those are any indication then I'm probably wrong about his being a permanent tinnitus with hidden hearing loss.
I'll just try my best not to focus on it as much as I can,it's not a random thing that whenever I get occupied with something else I can't even hear it.
There is great truth to the saying "Time heals all wounds".While I may have Tinnitus after a long time in truth if it stays for that long I'll probably notice it at least 2x less than I do now.

 

All in all there are quite a number of worse things that could have happened to me,more sever tinnitus,losing arms,coma,tumor,cancer,ebola,blindness,deafness (even tho right now i'd give 50-70% of my hearing if that meant my tinnitus would go away this moment xD) but in retrospect this is amongst the few conditions that improve on their own with time.
As for this website I will probably stop going here due to me trying not to pay attention to this shit of a condition.

 

Ilija
Yes, this sounds like noise induced tinnitus; it is good that you can barely hear it and the it has changed to a hiss (vice ring). I understand about obsessing about it (we all fight/fought that battle); the more you can simply forget about it the better off you are. One of the challenges (when obsessing) is to determine if you are obsessing about the noise itself or the idea of the noise (what the heck is that noise?!?!?). Try to obsess about neither; obsessing only makes it worse.

You need to stay away from loud noises for a while -- seriously. Consider some ear plugs or cotton until your ears don't feel 'full/stuffed' anymore; you need to let the inflammation come down. Just like over working a muscle or tendon, your ears have been over worked and they are hyper inflamed and hyper sensitive; this makes you twice as vulnerable to loud noise (and long term medium noise) damage. Just lay off your ears for a while; give them a break.

It is always possible for T to go away; give yours the best chance to go away by getting away from the noise for a while.

Mark

 

I'm happy to report that since yesterday it has gone down about 30% I think maybe more.
As for my ears they only feel stuffed from time to time for some reason,I avoid as much loud noises as possible,except for school but that isn't loud enough to cause any damage I have been going for a week to school now and the only change I've had is the one I have today where it's actually better than yesterday,maybe my brain is starting to get over it? or maybe it's just on its way out hopefully.As for them being hypersensitive yeah that most likely explains why I can hear stuff people can't,it's kind of annoying because it's not sound as it is a high pitched ringing from things like copy machines,tv's and so on but it'll pass in time as the doctors have told me.
This has helped me a lot actually,I've realised now that going online diagnosing myself is a bad idea.
I'll just take the ENT's word for it and patiently wait to see what happens.

 

Yeah, I think yours will go. I got mine from going to my third nightclub back in May. Like you, mine was very low but from what I'm reading it, yours seems to be a bit lower than mine. The volume of my tinnitus improved a bit after having it a month, then it stopped showing signs of improvement till last week when the volume seemed to just decrease very suddenly. Now my Tinnitus is extremely low and is almost gone. If yours is like mine, it will probably go

If yours Tinnitus is temporary which it probably is, it will take a long time to go since nerves usually takes ages to heal. I have had Tinnitus for 4 months now and I say it will take maybe another 2 or 3 months till it's fully gone, maybe more so you gotta be patient. You might also get some temporary spikes if you get a cold or become stressed so try avoid that.

I hope yours goes and use this as a warning and avoid loud places

 

Today it seems like it's gone from a vice ring as someone put it to a hiss which is great the hiss doesn't even bother me.
Thanks for the positive comment,I think it's subsiding slowly.
After all this internet self diagnosing thing I've learned only one thing internet tinnitus search+me=anxiety x stress=me scared as fuck wishing I would just die.
On the other hand me+hobbies+listening to my ENT's=tinnitus getting better to an almost unnoticeable level=more happy=more improvement=more happy and so on and so on.
I am now 100% sure it's only temporary.

 

This time. Next time it may not be, and it may be quite loud.

The damage you are sustaining is cumulative. The damage never goes away. You have not "healed," but your hearing system managed, this time, to adjust to the damage without permanent tinnitus.

Please realize you are not "good as new" or "recovered." You sustained hearing damage, and it's permanent. But luckily for you the damage appears to have not caused permanent tinnitus.

I won't tell you to not go to gigs, or whatever, but be aware that you are now FAR MORE SUSCEPTIBLE to permanent tinnitus.

Be careful in the future.

Good luck.

 

I know from now on I'll carry ear buds everywhere I go,also I don't have any hearing damage.

 

If you had temporary hearing loss as you described, then there is a temporary threshold shift of your hearing curve (which seems to have recovered afterwards). But the fact that you had that combined with (still) on-going tinnitus means that some damage has been done. Some - possibly all - of that damage can be reversed (depending on severity of the incident). But there is no test currently available that can reliably tell you whether that is the case. An audiogram cannot confirm that, for instance. You therefore have to assume that some kind of damage has been done. Because that is most likely the case - even if your tinnitus disappears completely.

 

I know there has been permanent damaged done otherwise the Tinnitus wouldn't have lasted this long,like I said from now on I'm carrying two ear buds with me everywhere I go,oh and as for the gigs,yeah I won't be going to any gigs or concerts at all possibly,never went to a concert and don't have the wish for it,the gigs were more for socializing than going out of pure music enjoyment.

 

Well that was short lived the hissing air sound went away and now I'm left with the vice ring again.
Problem is not the vice ring seems worse because I was so used to the air sound.
Will see if it gets better tomorrow,I must say this whole tinnitus thing has really sucked the life out of me.
I can't even hang out with friends knowing that when I go home the Tinnitus will be there waiting to torment me while my friends enjoy silence.
Why couldn't have I just lost half my hearing and be done with it.
Right now I would rather have 20% hearing than this shit.

 

There are people with hearing loss and deaf that have T. Be happy you can still mask your T. Nobody is ever cured from subjective tinnitus , maybe habituated . Confused all these people that say they are cured like Shatner , for how did he go from suicidal to being cured by using a White noise masker in 1995 ? Like stated above once hair cells are damaged they don't grow back.

 

I know someone who's tinnitus disappeared completely after 1 month or less.

 

Jesus, everything your saying sounds exactly like mine which is a good thing because that means it will probably go
That happened to me and like mine it will probably be switching between hissing and ringing. But most of the time it will be the high pitch ringing but that will lower in volume as time goes on
Don't let the setbacks get you down cause it will go as long as you avoid loud noises

 

Im just gonna say one thing and i dont mean to come off neggative.. But honestly expect the worse and that is meaning that your T isnt gonna go away. Its common for someones T to change from a ring to a hiss.. Coming from my personal experience and when that happens it s also common to think "wow its goin away" and thats what i thought.. 9 monthes in and its pretty much gone but not gone and it will be there with me forever but if its so mild, then who cares? Even with mild T, its better to accept right away rather then telling yourself its gonna go away cause it may just end in dissapointment and its like your mentally starting all over from day one. For example you said it changed to a hiss.. You got excited.. Then next day back to a ring.. Thats how it is too unpredicatble.. But rarely goes away all together. My T most would consider gone like ive said before but its not and it never will be even if its barely audible.. Its there waitin for the next exposure to ramp up louder. Thats how it works. Just some tips on not gettin too over your head with this cause ive been there waiting for monthes and even tho mines faded its still there. Save yourself worrying and just accept it now and get the whole it will go away for good thing out of your head just incase it ends in dissapointment. Again not coming off mean, just wish i listened to others that told me the truth compared to friends and other doctors that said it would go away cause thats one thing NO ONE can tell you, even with a phd in audiology. Every case is different but noise is a killer to the ears. Btw i dont have any hearing loss either so they told me.

 

August 16,that's the day my life would change.
Usual story of tinnitus for most people metal listener-loud music-gig/concert-tinnitus.
Posted a thread 3 weeks back when I was somewhat of a wreck,still am albeit much less,I would say I have recovered maybe 50%.
I still have hope that my Tinnitus will go,but I am also trying to accept that it might just stay.

I have some questions which some of you may be able to answer.

1.) Is your T reactive for me when I hear stuff like the bad breaks of a car or a copy machine,or my CPU cooler,or the static sound my TV produces it seems to make my Tinnitus not worse but I hear a ringing where there used to be none.

2.) What are the chances that my Tinnitus will go,I realise no one can tell me like 100% accurate but your general opinion.

3.) Should I be worried about class room noise,the class can be fairly loud at times,I feel this is making the Tinnitus stay longer,it usually makes my T go from hiss to a vice ring but it goes away as I stay in a quiet room.
I have bough earplugs but I fell weird about using them during class do you think the professors will understand?

4.) I don't know if most but a say medium amount of people recover fully from Tinnitus (not like repair hair cells but they lose it in time) how does that work for noise induced,I know hair cells can't regenerate so what exactly happens when someone who had noise induced tinnitus has it go away.

5.) Do you feel pressure in your head as well? sometimes I do,when I go into the bathroom I can hear a vice ring but I also have a rather intense pressure to accompany it.

6.) Is it that my Tinnitus is reactive or is it possible that due to me being in constant fear and anxiety my ears are actually hearing better,when it started I didn't have reactive at first it developed as it went.

7.) I have a neck gland problem it's the one in the middle front of the neck,it's in charge of hormones and stuff in teens,when I used to get really angry or upset I always felt something hard in my throat (there's a dirty joke in there xD) not sure if that is contributing to T in any way.

8.) And lastly I have developed a pain in the ears 3-5 days ago,don't know why,it doesn't seem to have a direct trigger,like the loud classroom doesn't make my ears hurt,they just hurt randomly I think.
So that's all of them,thank you in advance for all the replies I hope this will go in a couple of months completely,I can learn to live with it in time as I start caring less and less but,having complete silence would be nice.

Oh one more...

9.) Read a study about some people with Tinnitus that have no measurable hearing loss but they found out they had it in AV waves,like the hair cells got damaged so the ear turned up the volume in response and that's where the T came from like we always have T (people who don't have it have it) I know before this if I were to sit in a quiet room and listen I would hear some kind of sound.What I'm asking is if I do have hidden hearing loss does this mean I have a lesser chance of my Tinnitus going away? this could also be the reason why I can hear certain frequencies louder than my mom and friends.

 

During the month I've had Tinnitus I have found it quite strange.
It has decreased with time ofc but the classroom is quite loud so It always goes from silent air sound tinnitus to a vice ring which I can barely notice unless I'm concentrating on it.
I wonder if the loud classroom is decreasing the chance of the Tinnitus going away completely.
Anyway what I wonder is,before Tinnitus I couldn't hear some things that I can now.
For instance before my CPU sound was just air but now I can actually hear like a ring now,don't know if Tinnitus is reactive or my ears are still somewhat sensitive to sound (This wasn't with the Tinnitus but rather developed as I was more stressed and listened more for everything around me),so it might be that too.
For instance,sometimes it doesn't bother me.
A week ago I could BARELY hear the CPU ring but a few days ago I got really stressed and it got louder.
I can also hear the screeching car brakes louder now,also I can hear something inside my Power Supply Unit while it's idle.
Basically I don't know if certain frequency sounds make my Tinnitus worse,hearing still sensitive due to damage,or I literally made my ears go into alert mode from all the worrying that they actually amplify some sounds that sound like Tinnitus.
Overall I'm not as stressed any more,I have accepted the fact that it might stay with me but I have also accepted the fact (which I was too scared to believe back then) that infact not all but most people like me have had their Tinnitus go away,I have also accepted the fact that even if it stays its just a matter of time before I don't care about it any more and it becomes barely noticeable backround noise so I'm fine.
So what do you guys think?
Also if it means anything my audiogram is fine and I can hear from 20hz to about 18 000.
There is also the possibility that the BTA researched where my hair cells are damaged but the audiogram test can't find it,the hearing loss is there so the other hair cells turn up the noise hoping to make up but I'm not sure it works like that.
Anyway if you have any ideas please post,I appreciate any feedback.
Thank you.

 

Hey Ilija,

I'm pretty much in your shoes man, we got T around the same time, at least on your end you know exactly how you got yours.. mine came out of the blue and I wasn't exposed to any loud noise before it came on.

Its funny that you mention your PC being annoying, I personally have a fully water-cooled pc, which is dead silent.. or at least it use to be.. As I was sitting by it yesterday in a fairly quiet room I could hear the power supply producing a craaaazy high pitch noise that I've never really been bothered by before, but for some reason at the time it was just annoying the hell out of me. Btw it's probably your PSU or GPU or one of your Fans thats squealing, I've never heard of a CPU putting out noise.

One of my favorite billiard places has old TV's that are hanging up every few other tables.. I've never been bothered by them before but last time I went there, the squeal they were putting off was very very distinct. I'm honestly not sure if thats hypercausis or not, 99.9% of noises I hear aren't bothersome at all, but things that are high pitch and nearing the frequency of my tinnitus annoy me to no end. I wonder if thats because my mind gets freaked out thinking it's hearing yet another tone.

Also just like you I had an audiogram and my hearing was absolutely flawless:


The chart above is my test, the chart itself only shows 250-8000, however I had my hearing tested all the way up to 20KHZ and all ended up being between -10 to +10 DB, from which I can understand is pretty damn good.

Hopefully ours will fade with time, but for now lets just be happy thats its not as debilitating as some peoples can be.