Looking for Some Insight

Hi, I have been looking at this site for a while just trying to help myself, and had also been looking at reddit. The reddit tinnitus community is extremely negative and honestly freaked me out more. (no offense to anyone who goes on there also. i understand how frustrating this can be.)

T Background: So around 4 and a half months ago I woke up in the middle of the night with loud ringing in my ear. I literally thought, "well that is annoying", fell back asleep, woke up and it was gone. A couple weeks later, I became aware of a faint ringing and started to google things. Tinnitus, no cure, deal with it, etc. Freaked out.

I have been to 2 ENT's and 2 audiologists and they have found nothing wrong, and said that I have phenomenal hearing. I have listened to headphones but not really in years. go out to bars but not really clubs and never really exposed to loud sounds. However, I am sensitive and have always been sensitive to noise. It does not cause me pain, but unexpected noises cause me discomfort. I have been through hell and back with personal and family tragedy in the past 6 months, and the doctors said that may have contributed. I did notice the ringing after 2 months on lexapro, but it went away and came back after being on prozac for a month. All my doctors said that it is extremely extremely rare that SSRI's can cause tinnitus, but sometimes they can amplify it. I agreed with doctors that it probably doesn't have to do with these. I really don't think it has to do with this since it didn't happen until months after i started taking it.

My T is a high pitched ringing or beeping and it is no longer in my left ear, but in my left brain. (if that makes sense). It is not extremely loud but the pitch is what is annoying. Of course the ringing is annoying, but what really bothers me is the reaction and thoughts it causes. Im sure a lot of you know what i am talking about.

I have been vocal to friends and family about my tinnitus and to my surprise some friends and family have it. Also to my surprise, they are literally not affected by it at all. They only hear it when they think about it and it doesn't cause them any stress. It bothers me because how can someone not be bothered by it at all and I am very bothered. I have times where it is non existent but also times where it is piercing.

As you can see, I have a lot on my mind about T. I have become obsessed with it read far to many horror stories. I have HUGE underlying anxiety issues which i feel like why it is a big deal to me. I just want to be able to live my normal life. Anyways, thanks for reading

 

Everything depends on volume and pitch. I bet if they were to have your pitch, they would be bothered by it too.

There is hope that eventually the pitch of your T will change for the better.

 

And also, my audiologist tells me there is 50 million people with tinnitus. Hard to believe this considering there is only thousands on this sub struggling. How are others not struggling?

 

Welcome to the forum. I have no ideas why others are not struggling. I have 2 friends in my social circle who have T so loud that they both said they had times they couldn't hear what others were saying. One said she often needs to have full concentration on people's conversation in order to hear well. The other one even joked one time that her T was so loud that she couldn't even hear the siren of the fire truck coming to her apartment due to a false alarm. Go figure. Yet both of these friends are living a normal and enjoyable life. Never heard them talked about their T until I brought my sorrow and anguish to them about my T during the struggling days. Knowing how others can live a normal life even with loud T has helped me greatly by changing my approach. Instead of fighting T with negativity, I accept it will positivity, practicing 'finding joy amid the pain' and living life abundantly to bury T. The rest is history. Here is the story of Jade, the lady truck driver, whose T is so loud that it could be heard over shower or the 800-ton truck she was driving. She suffered badly too initially until she realizes that 70% of her colleagues have T and not suffer like her. That realization had helped her change her approach and she became much better. Here is her story:

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/6-months-tinnitus-still-going-strong-but-so-am-i.3226/

Anxiety and stress can trigger or aggravate tinnitus. If you have issue with them, try to relax yourself with mild exercises, such as short walking, jogging, hiking or other outdoor activities. If you don't like exercise, try slow forms of them such as yoga, chi gong, tai chi, or some meditation such as mindfulness meditation. If you don't know what mindfulness is, search google or youtube and you will find many tutorials. Deep abdominal breathing will help also. If you need to take something for anxiety, you can try some natural alternatives such as lemon balm, chamomile tea, valerian, hops etc. will help calm the nerves. Good luck. Take care. God bless.