Looking for Some Uplifting Words

Hi guys. I'm now 7 weeks in and although I'm a little more relaxed I don't see a lot of progression yet.

Everyday I'm hoping that my attention will be drawn into something else. This happens for a few seconds to a half a minute after which I'm thinking bout my tinnitus again. I feel like this is such a tiring struggle.

Will it get better? Is it normal to pay so much attention to it still? I don't know and I'm scared.

 

Welcome to the forum. Don't panic. Things will get better. The two places on this forum you can find uplifting words are 1) the Positivity thread right at the top of this support forum, and 2) the Success Stories under Knowledge Base. There you will find people having success with either T fading or disappeared, or with people habituating to the ringing. Positivity thread is full of members posting about what else they have done or have enjoyed despite having T. It paints a picture of life-goes-on despite T. Try to stay positive and calm and stress and fear will aggravate T.

Yes, it is quite normal to pay much attention to T when it is new. Being so scared or anxious of T initially is a very common reaction of the body trying to protect us from harm and danger. We are often very scared when T is new because T is both an alien sensation and a new ailment to your body. Our brain doesn't understand T and doesn't know what to expect. Failing to shake T, the brain just reactions in trauma, fear and shock. Your limbic nervous system kicks in overriding the normal parasympathetic nervous system and you function in fight or flight mode, the defensive mechanism for a human in face of a danger. The fight or flight center or the Amygdala is in control now making every sensation quite acute and intense and you easily succumb to fear and worry as that is how the body tries to protect you. It tends to tell you to be aware of the threatening object which in this case is the new T. That is why we tend to monitor or pay attention to T non-stop initially and can't seem to help it.

Try remaining calm and positive as humanly possible as you can. By being calm and positive, and be more accepting of the new normal, by educating ourselves more about T (like what you are learning by joining this forum), and by doing some relaxing or interesting activities or by going back to living life again, our brain will have a better chance to restore the normal parasympathetic nervous system, and the pre-frontal cortex will take over processing the T ringing stimulus from the scare-crow center, the Amygdala. One of the functions of pre-frontal cortex is to suppress the fear reaction. It will also let you handle other negative reactions/emotions more normally.

This process is similar to a child being afraid of the dark because of not understanding what it is all about. Fear sets in and stress builds up and the child cries to get help and to relieve the stress. Later on and growing up the child learns more about the dark and the fear fades and no stress/fear will be forth coming to trigger the limbic system. Likewise with our tinnitus experience, our brain needs to take time to understand T more and be more hardened to it so the fear reaction will subside. But this process takes time and may take learning some good strategies. You will be ok over time if you stay calm, positive and be more accepting of the new normal. Take care. God bless.

 

This is 100% normal! All of us at first, were constantly monitoring our tinnitus. It's a habit that all went through. It takes a good amount of time to adjust to the ringing. Possibly talking it out with a family member or a loved one can be helpful. When I got tinnitus almost 30 years ago, I would ask many questions and talk with family. It was helpful for me. Seeing my audiologist was also helpful to me. All of this just takes time, for some 6 months for others maybe 1 year. It took me 1 year to understand what was going on.

Please protect your ears, and avoid loud places. Stress can also annoy the tinnitus, so try to reduce your stress levels

 

how old are you? how do u think u got tinnitus? mine went away but idk what caused it exactly. i'm 40.

 

@billie48 Thank you so much for your reply. Ive been lurking on the Succes Stories section for quite a while now. It gives me strength. Although sometimes im so scared that it wont happen to me. Feels like I first have to experience before I believe its really true.

@fishbone. Also much thanks to you for replying. Glad it is still normal. Cause I know I shouldnt be focusing but by thinking about that all the time Im not able to not focus. Im also on a holiday right now and I saw some succes stories saying: the turning point came when I went on a trip. So I was waiting for this turning point to come, but it didnt really show. Is this normal too? Also because its so different for everyone. I dont really have a grip on it yet. Ive read so much and feel like I know a lot about it, but its still kind of messy in my head. It doesnt feel like clear thinking cause I never get a pause (bc the sound is there/or im thinking about it all the time). I tend to overthink a lot. So my mind is making over hours. I hope I will get some real relief within a few months. Im going to visit an audiologist on monday. So first step is taken.

 

@Jordyn I dont exactly know what caused it. I became aware of it after watching the movie Babydriver in which the lead player has tinnitus. Afterwards i was laying in bed and wondering and searching for the sound and tada, there it was. Two weeks prior I went clubbing without earplugs (usually I always wear them but this time made an exception bc of surprise party for a friend who's mother was dying) and afterwards my ears rang and after 3 hrs of sleep my right still rang a little but after some more sleep I didnt notice it anymore.. So its all kind of weird to me. Im 24 years old

 

HI @Tinizzy

Your tinnitus is still "new", so it is probably "normal" to pay so much attention to it, as @billie48 said.

I think the fact that you are able to not notice it for a few seconds is probably a good sign that you may be able habituate, which is just learning to ignore it as far as I know.

As for if it will get better, @Bill Bauer wrote the following post discussing studies that show a fairly high recovery rate from tinnitus ( https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/spontaneous-recovery-stats-over-70-recover-3-studies.21441/ ).

Based on the study referenced in his post, you have a pretty good chance if your tinnitus getting better.

 

if this is your first shot at T then i think you will be ok. protect your ears around loud events. you know how to have safe sex? now you have to have safe sound - put your ear condoms on (plugs) and be kind to your ears -- you are young, your onset is néw -- lots of time for improvement. yours sounds like how mine was. i tried to do other things -- enough can't be said about forgetting about it.

 

@Kolisar Thankyou!

@Jordyn Yes this is my first time experiencing T. Is your T away now? I have a lot of friends that also experience ringing/beep but they are not bothered by it. I feel like I am so weird that I have this strong reaction..

 

By the way, I'm also experiencing fullness of the ear feeling in the ear with T. Been to an ENT nothing seemed wrong. Are you familiar with this? Can the fullness feeling go away?

 

@Tinizzy

Hello. I feel a fullness in my T ear all of the time, somedays it is almost like a pressure. My visit to an ENT is still a few weeks away and this is one of the questions I will ask as well.