It Does Get Better — Time Is Cure

Starts: I have had tinnitus since Oct-16. I am not sure about cause. I enjoyed loud music on my laptop for many hours in night. Next morning was fine. I went for a nap in afternoon. A high pitched noise woke me up in the middle of nap. I realised that it was coming from my right ear. I was absolutely fine with noise, shake my head and slept again. I do not remember noticing the noise for next 2 days but one afternoon I noticed it again. I googled it and you know the rest of story from that moment. If I did not have access to google, this would have not as bad for me. Some times knowledge can also be a bad thing.

Doctor Visits: Many visits to doctors, Dentists, different EMRI etc did not bring any success. I enrolled to AM 101, but decided to not go for injection. Doctor prescribed me anti depression. I decided to not go for that route

How Loud it is was? :It was extremely loud. I could hear it everywhere even under shower. I can not imagine that any noise can be louder than this noise. I consider it as blessing. I was not under fear that it could get worse with time.

First Three months:
Really bad. I lost 3 stones. I took one month off from work and rested. I avoided loud noises and stress. I ate fresh fruit. These were hardest three months of my life. I slept few hours per night.

Month four to Month Six:
I started to recover. I was having some good days. Usually one good day and one bad day. Good day when it was not very loud and/or I did not notice it much. Bad days when it was extremely loud and/or intrusive. I also discovered that loudness and intrusiveness are not necessarily related to each other.

Month Six to Month 9:
I have more good days than bad days. I also started to habituate to bad days. They were not impacting a lot and I managed to ignore the noise for good part of day.

Month 10 to On-ward:
I am on my way to habituate it. Most of the days, I could not hear the noise. When it comes back loud, it does not impact me and I manage to ignore it. I believe that healing and habituation are happen at the same time.

I will comeback and report you if it improves. If this does not get better, I am happy to spend my life with it.

I did not do anything special so I can not give you any advice. From my experience, I know that this does get better with time. Please keep ignoring it. Each passing day is our magical pill to cure it.

 

Thank you for sharing @Hope111

 

I am glad that you feel better

 

Thanks for post, good knowing that people get better with time. I can already tell that obsessing over T only makes it worse.

 

You are very new to this and there are good chances that you will fully recovered.

Keep Ignoring it
No need to get scared from this noise
There are some people in the world who are not bothered by their T no matter how loud it is, keep believing that you are one of them. Keep telling yourself that you are one of them. Keep thinking that you are one of them.

I have had discussion with my 70 years old neighbour who has T for last 30 or 40 years (Even she did not remember). Some funny reason it did never upset her from day 1. She never tried to find a cure. This discussion reminded her about her own T which she had totally forgotten for few years. I asked if she could listen her T and she said only NOW. We had this discussion in a busy supermarket.

 

I bet your neighbor did not scour the internet and read about all possible things that could go wrong, or about all the unfortunate people that are suffering from T and anxiety and stress. Once you get sick internet usually provides the worst case scenarios. I am glad this site has success stories.

 

I think many of us got T from reading about T. I used to go to concerts/festivals clubs all the time. I counted in the last 2 years alone i went to atleast 40-50 club nights and dozen festivals all without earplugs. On occasion my ear would ring after the club and i never thought anything of it and it dissapears the next day.

But after stumbling upon T on some random article I started googling it and thought this is really bad.

A month later after another club night I got T and its been with me now for more than 4 month.

So yes sometimes ignorance is a blessing

 

I really wish people would exclusively keep success stories for actual success stories. At least make a mandatory tag for habituationposting so we know which threads are success stories

 

Ok I have reached the 1 year mark. I am experiencing continuous improvements - Slowly but surely.

I am sleeping without masking. I can sit and read in quite rooms. I can relax without thinking about it.

On my good day, volume is very low or even non exist. Volume of bad days is similar to volume of good days 3 months ago and these are less and less each month. Hopefully in the next 3 to 6 months, I will not have any bad days.

Healing and habituation are happening at the same time. I never thought that I will make it!!

 

Great! It seems like your T is the kind that gets better with time. Congratulations!

 

This made me feel so much better. I was at the brink of loosing all hope

 

Did you have H (hyperacusis).

 

Yes - I had it in the first 6 months but now it has completely disappeared. T has also started to disappear for many days.....
I still believe that Time is cure. Each passing day is a pill to recover.

 

very good to hear

 

Glad you got over it .[Time is a cure] hope this applies to all of us.

 

Haha I can relate. I have had T since childhood, thought it's perfectly normal and this is "silence" for everyone. Then for some random reason I googled it, realized it's an incurable illness that hurts many people terribly and boom! anxiety, depression, etc for weeks, even though there was literally no change to the noise I have been hearing for 20+ years.

Flip side: I have a friend who actively shuns internet use (and social media, and so on). He got loud, high-pitched T at a concert where his then-GF insisted they dance next to a speaker. For many people, the reaction would have been to blame the GF and go crazy for months. This guy? He said his sleep was bothered for a few weeks, and complete habituation took 6 months, but there was no emotional tinnitus hell. It was just a nuisance to him.

Googling tinnitus really doesn't help.

Congrats on your success, man.

 

This is a perfect success story thread, nothing confusing or difficult to understand - the message is to give yourself time, and your body will adjust and eventually habituate.

 

How is your tinnitus, any updates?

 

Today I read a news in The Sun which reminded me about tinnitus. I have posted the news in research section of the forum.

I am doing very well. Usually I have many silent days (When I do not hear tinnitus at all). Some days it come back. But my brain is so good to ignore it. This does not give me any negative feelings. During those days (Which are very rare), I notice it three or four times a day. Life has moved on and this chapter is closed for me.

Wishing all the best for all of you. This does get better. Please keep calm and give it enough time...…….

 

Congrats. I hope to get there. When you say silent days, do you mean that it's completely gone during that time or you just don't hear it because your brain ignores it?

 

How did the noise trauma happen? Headphones?

 

Not for everyone, no.