My Tinnitus Experience So Far

Hi there,

I'm new to tinnitus and would like to share my story so far, since yesterday I missed my first day of work because of it. So I would say that I've crossed the threshold of "it's fine, I can live with it" to "this is affecting things and I need to do something".

First of all, much love and respect to all of you living with this. It's a humdinger of a condition, no doubt about it. Seriously: you are amazing.

About me: I'm Irish, 44 and a father of four.

On April 25 2017, two months ago, in the middle of the night I got a 'flatline' sound in my right ear that was disruptive to my sleep. I've played in bands for years and have always been conscious of tinnitus and worn ear protection fairly assiduously for the last few years. However, I've felt for some years that my right ear feels different than the left ear - I unconsciously always place the phone receiver on my left, and the right ear feels "rawer". However I've never noticed any buzzing in my ears and also, I've hardly played in bands at all for the last year or more. I certainly hadn't been near a practice room in weeks. On the other hand, we had just gotten through what I would say was a very stressful time, family-wise, after a house swap, and intuitively I feel this is more likely the root cause, or at least significantly contributory. I have a history of mild-moderate anxiety and depression.

After this initial bad night, the following evening my wife, who is a qualified acupuncturist, gave me acupuncture to address some issues around it (she says there's no way ot treat it directly) and for the next few weeks there was no more "beep", just a soft hiss at night that ocasionally got loud, and no sound during the day. Since it didn't seem to disrupt my sleep, or reading at night, I felt it was okay and that I would see how it goes.

Over May, however, I noticed that I was feeling anxious and tense. It didn't occurr to me that there would be a connection between this and tinnitus and, as someone who has experienced anxiety before, I resolved to simply keep an eye on it and continue to get some light exercise, which I do anyway.

Weekend of June 2-5, 2017: We did another house swap. In the week preceding the swap, I experienced another night of the 'flatline' sound and the sleep loss to go with that. Again, acupuncture the following night seemed to help this. But with the house swap that followed, a lot of driving to the other side of the country, over this weekend I experienced insomnia. Tinnitus was as normal, so I couldn't figure it out: why was I waking up? Then, on or first night back home I barely slept at all and; although the tinnitus was just a loud hiss (not a flatline) with an occasional wind chime sound, it was really more my anxious reaction to this (or perhaps just stress levels resulting from the house swap? Or both?) that kept me awake than the sound itself. My first day back at work was a KILLER, it was like someone had spiked my coffee with some drug that makes you tense: tension all over my body, difficulty concentrating, and tinnitus invading my daytime for the first time. Also, extreme sensitivity to any loud noise at all. I decided these were all tied together. I haven't had a solid night's sleep since then.

Week June 5-11: The entire week that followed was anxiety-laden: what I mean by this is a feeling of tension during the day, tightness of chest and anxious thoughts that interfere with your normal thoughts and feelings. E.g., you're drafting an e-mail or watching a TV show and the feeling, which you had forgotten about, invades and recolours that intellectual/emotional space. Night-time was all about trying to get a few hours sleep. Typically I sleep from around 11.30-2.30, stay awake until 5 or so, while experiencing the hissing sound, then the tinnitus seems to wain and I doze, presumably out of exhaustion, until 7.00. With exercise and acupuncture now addressing the anxiety only (which we felt was the root cause) by Friday the daytime anxiety was reduced to a manageable level, though on the weekend, with far less of a routine, I had significant spikes in anxiety levels. I also started taking chelated magnesium (50-50 oxide and bisglycinate) as well as magnesium-rich foods.

Week June 12 - 18: daytime anxiety now down to very manageable levels, night-time tinnitus starting to feel reduced from a constant loud hiss to alternating between soft and loud; however insomnia still there every night. But definitely an improvement -- baco to the relative 'normality' of May. Then, on Friday night (June 16), tinnitus changed to the 'flatline' sound the right ear and I had a really bad night's sleep - but caught up on Saturday. Saturday night was slightly better - the flatline sound seemed to wain and I got my fitful night's sleep. Then on Sunday night had another terrible night with the flatline now in BOTH ears. Bizarrely, if I put an earplug in my right ear that seems to block out the beep tone, but NOT the left. WHY? Just one of the many maddening things about all of this.

So yesterday, Monday (June 19) morning, my anxiety levels were right up there at "someone has spiked my coffee with speed" levels and I decided to take the day off work as I was feeling dizzy with tiredness and simply couldn't work; plus a day in front of a computer feeling like every muscle and nerve is trying to push you into panic ...didn't appeal. AND, aside from the fatigue and off-the-scale tension, I also felt really despondent that, after what felt like progress last week ended up in a really terrible weekend and, ultimately, my missing work. So I went home, got an hour of fitful, exhausted sleep, then went to a Pilates class (yes, we're very middle class) and the teacher showed me a couple of simple exercises to ease upper back, neck and facial tension that could contribute to tinnitus. After a post-lunch, short nap, tension levels started to rise again in the evening and I went for a short run, which helped. With my wife administering acupuncture treatment to address anxiety and the energy paths around the ears, that helped: last night I got around 5-6 hours of intermittent sleep. Though still exhausted, I wanted to celebrate and weep with joy.

So that's where I'm at. Today, with anxiety levels at 'moderate', i.e., some tension, I'm questioning whether there's something in my life I need to change. As a grown man I have cried maybe four or five times in the last 15 years; and two of those were when my dad died and when my mother died. In the last two months I've broken down crying three times.

Regarding what I'm/we're currently doing to address it: the acupuncture seems to help in the short term; as in, I get a better sleep on those evenings. The trouble is, you can't get acupuncture every day for the rest of your life, and also the discipline required on both our parts, as well as getting four kids fed and to bed is really hard -- right now we have no life. This is tough on my wife, who is the best person who has ever lived as far as I'm concerned, and I want things to be easier on her, too.

My view is that this is anxiety-related and if I can address the root of that, as opposed to just addressing the symptoms, that's a possible next step step. But dealing with insomnia and tinnitus in a sort of triangulated triple-whammy is like trying to battle Genghis Khan wor something. I do know that, in my previous experiences of anxiety and depression, counselling helped. So that's a potential next step. However, in the mean time I have decided to try transcendental meditation, starting tomorrow, and will let you know how that goes.

Regarding supplements, I'm really not sure now if the chelated magnesium makes a difference: last week I thought it did. But then the weekend hit. Today I've just bought a vial of Vit B12 methylcobamalan and one of magnesium citrate. I'm unsure whether I should take these.

If anyone has any advice, thoughts or jokes, it would be greatly appreciated.

 

Start a diagnosis process to root cause it. With your history of playing in bands, it may be wise to start with ENT/audiology to get a baseline on your hearing.

 

Take the mgnezium 30-40 min. before going to bed. On empty stomach. It might not lower the tinnitus, but it will relax your muscles and you will fall asleep easily.

Also, try cutting off the coffee. Cigarrettes also if you are smoking. Try eating more healthy food - salads, fruits etc. Cut off any sugar and most of the salt(there is a TON of it in junk food). Cut off white bread also. These things should reduce stress by a mile.

First days without coffee you will struggle. But after that you will feel much better. You can try something else to wake up in the morning - drink a lot of water after you wake up. I mean 500-600 ml. at one go. It's hard at first, but you will get used to it. It's very healthy unless you have problems with your kidney.

Also if your work is infront of a monitor(PC) take a brake every hour and relax. Go outside on fresh air and look at some distant point for a couple of minutes. If you can, take a walk in your lunch break. Optical nerves are connected to the ear ones, so too much computer makes things more difficult. Trust me ... i know ... And if you don't have ones - buy yourself a good pair of glassess with protection. I mean something like Hoya BlueControl lenses. That helps alot also.

 

Great, thanks for the advice, all. Much appreciated.

 

Hey, so I thought I'd just update this.

Four months in and the good news is that, although the tinnitus is still there, the sleep disruption is far less than before and, as far as I'm concerned, that's the main thing. The tinnitus itself is apparent when I'm tired and stressed, mainly, on the weekend, and mostly I don't find it distressing, though I'm not gonna lie, sometimes I do. But during the week it's not affecting my life and in fact, the whole tinnitus experience has made me re-look at my life and health and that has been a major positive. So I kind of think the whole experience has been, in the long run, a positive one. So far anyway.

An audiologist confirmed that I've no hearing loss, which was a great relief. This confirmed, in my mind at least, that it was stress that was the causative factor, as opposed to anything noise-induced. I've since played with my band and gone to gigs (with some very LOUD bands) and had no ill effects. I've also gone for a two-week holiday with my family abroad and the rest I got on that was great.

So without going on about it too much, here are the main points from the last few months:

- Acupuncture really helps, not necessarily with the tinnitus but with the associated insomnia, anxiety and tension. On those days where I've felt a spike in tension, acupuncture has been the most effective thing.
- Cutting down considerably on coffee seems to have helped with the insomnia and tension too. I don't believe caffeine is a stressor but I figure if it addresses insomnia, wy not?
- Transcendental meditation: try it! I do it twice a day now and it's great for the above too. There have been times when I've literally been able to make the tinnitus go away.
- Chelated magnesium supplements also seem to help with anxiety generally.
- Regular exercise - great for combatting insomnia! Just a short run, once a day is good.
- Eating lots of fresh fruit, leafy greens and nuts/seeds ftw. Tastes good too.

So basically, thinking of tinnitus as a symptom rather than a 'thing' has been the main focus. Got tinnitus? It's just the nervous system trying to release tension that has been imposed on it by a day of the usual work travails and people being jerks and whatnot. At least, that attitude has worked for me.

This general attitude has meant that the tinnitus itself is, overall, quieter than before. Less anxiety definitely leads to less tinnitus. The really awful "beeeeeeeeeeep" hasn't been back in a long time and on most nights it's a mild 'ssssshhhhh' sound, which can ocassionally go a bit high-end (okay, so there IS sometimes a tone, but not loud) or sometimes a bit hissy.

I don't think I'm out of the woods yet, by any means, but in terms of coping, am feeling a heck of a lot better.