Just About Had My Fill

6 months in on this bullshit condition that theres NO awareness for in the first place and im getting tired of it. Im about to sacrifice my life just to get revenge on it and blow it the fuck apart.

 

Hey man, I'm only one week in and I can definitely feel your pain. But even if it doesn't go away, there are SO many success stories out there about people learning to live with it. I know it sounds impossible, I have trouble believing it myself, but you have to find something worth holding on for. For me it's my family. I'm here if you want/need to vent more.

 

Thanks for reaching out. I really wish there was some sort of awareness of this out there. To me thats unbelievably cruel. I have my good days and bad days as you can tell lol. Anyways how are you holding up? What caused your t? Mine was loud headphones.

 

No awareness in the society you mean? People I know mostly know what T is..Everybody also can give me a bunch of names of people they know who have it too..I don't feel like it's not known about.

 

Yeah most people know what tinnitus is.

But it is mostly associated with the elderly. No one thinks they can get tinnitus from a single night out in a club but it can and does happen.

 

The society at large don't know how bad intrusive tinnitus can get. But some celebrities are doing their share to bring it front and center to the audience, prime time. William Shatner (Captain Kirk of Star Trek) has T and had it bad at the beginning and he said he was suicidal. He was later helped by ATA to get a treatment to help him. David Letterman has 2-tone T himself which he said is ringing 7/24, like the Emergency Broadcast System on test mode even when he was entertaining his audience, LOL. In this 1996 Night Show of Letterman, the two of them were telling the audience about their T, and that Shatner was the spokesman for ATA to lobby the Congress for research funding. It was a show done in a lighted heart way and I got a big laugh out of it. But of course, Shatner knows T can be difficult and he has other videos where he was speaking in more serious tone on behalf of ATA. They said in the show that their T was getting worse. But as of today, they are still doing fine and live a normal life. T is not an end game and it takes time and patience plus a good strategy to habituate to it.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCdx8aueK9I

 

Yeah, I know about William Shatner from the beginning. The more I was surprised when last Saturday a friend showed me a rock album WS has recorded I don't know when exactly, but not that long ago.
All the people I know know young people with T. I don't say it's the rule, but in my experience nobody ever associated it with old age. Nevertheless, I'm definitely for rising the awareness about its possible severity and impact on life cause this is sth even some T sufferers ignore. ( I have one like that at home .)

 

Hey there. Please don't lose hope. I think it's a bit spotty who and where T seems to be a known quantity. I'd agree that even when people know about it, the degree of difficulty and suffering it incurs is often not understood.

I think the best way to (start) to bring about awareness is to talk about the condition. I talk about it in classrooms, to my friends, to the people who give me questioning looks when I plug my ears as the subway rolls by. That's the first step. If everyone who reads this person tells one person, that's already thousands more people who would know about it who didn't before.

Other than that, there are celebrities who tell the media etc., but I find that, for me, a personal interaction with someone who is close to me sticks with me longer than the far-away words of a rock star. Just something to think about

That aside, I'm so sorry you're going through T, Dubbyaman. We here all know how horrible, frustrating and exhausting it can be. We're all here for you, hang in there and always let us know if we can help.

 

You might see that, if you follow Tinnitus Hub on Twitter, one of our newest followers is actor Donal Logue, co-star of TV's Gotham and former co-star of Sons of Anarchy and a personal favorite of mine, Terriers. When I learn things like this, well-known people who are "going on" with their lives with tinnitus, it gives me a tremendous boost of motivation. I do think that with things like this alongside the rapidly growing population of young people with noise-induced hearing loss and tinnitus, awareness is growing.

But we're here for you, @Dubbyaman!

 

@Dubbyaman

Mine was brought on by an ear infection. But I have played in bands and loud music since I was 13 or so. I usually got "disco tinnitus" after a show or practice. But being young and stupid, I never thought much of it. It would always be gone the following morning.

Then, a little over 5 months ago, I get a bad ear infection, take some ibuprofen, lay down for a nap and then wake up with T that's been with me ever since. It's tolerable and I am able to go decent stretches of time without thinking about it, but it still bothers me from time to time.

What I struggle with now is when I get transient spontaneous tinnitus. It jolts me from my calm state and sends me into a negative state for at least 1-2 afterwards. even though I have researched it and aware that it is not pathological and actually quite common (and that I got it before I had 24/7 T), it's still hard not to think and worry that one of these days one of the fleeting T episodes will be permanent.

T blows.

 

Hi Dubbyaman ,
Hang in their ,
You will find your own way of coping in time so keep strong.
Remember we have no control over tinnitus but we have total control over what makes us happy.

My tinnitus started long ago when got Menieres and sever Bilateral tinnitus in both ears and menieres in both ears.
I was so depressed and a withdrawn person looking back in a mirror and stuck in ground hog day.
MRI and tests and years wearing maskers and family not understanding how I felt and what I had to deal with .
Life was tough.
I have come a long way and now wear duel purpose hearing aids.
Since Jan 2011 I have been supporting people with tinnitus and done over 3000 posts on another forum and take calls and emails helping others with tinnitus an MD and devoted my life to it and run a tinnitus group with another lady.
My life is great and having fun even with severe tinnitus that never stops and on a scale of 1-10 its 10 constantly.
Staying strong and positive,eating well,sleeping well,having fun,nice treats ,medication,having a great doctor,family and staying my positive self keeps me going.
Stay strong...lol glynis

 

@glynis

What a nice encouraging post!
Thank you Glynis!

Would you mind sharing what helped you to get to where you are now?

 

Hi Valeri,
For me the main thing is im a bubbly positive person and know now Im in control of what I can do and what makes me happy and not let my ears drag me down.
On days when even for me it seems a bad day I try refocus and think what can I do turn this day around as dwelling on it will lower your mood.
I also wear hearing aids and they are digital and my lovely audiologist set me a masker setting on then also.
At night I remember my house is locked and I am safe in my bed and snuggle down for along rest and I am at peace with my life and totally relaxed .
Dont get me wrong, my ears blast 24/7 and my aids help me but my strong bubbly positive self gets me through everything and because I know just how bad I was and how far I have come now I devote my free time helping others....lol glynis