My Tinnitus Is 95% Gone

Hi folks, first of all I want to thank the community for all the comfort I took in reading many, many threads while I was not so sure on how to proceed with the constant whistling in my ears. For a while it got really bad; it'd say the first 6 months were the worse. I was diagnosed with a slight hearing loss. Then I started to habituate and bought a pair of apple AirPods (this is by no way a publicity, but they are great in my opinion for keeping discrete constant sound stimulation) that I constantly kept in my ear. I first started with white noise and calming sounds, then gradually moved on to podcasts. Somehow I found that the sound of the human voice, regardless of the content being discussed, distracted me enough so I stopped obsessing over my tinnitus. Then (this is over a period of almost a year) I stared to lower the volume and switched to one ear only when sleeping. It is now to the point that it's almost entirely gone (it's been like this for 6 months now) and I can sleep in a quiet room with no AirPods on, although I rather prefer the subtle sound of ocean waves.

In my case, I think a big part of it was stress (I had been unemployed for a few years and went back to college at the ripe age of 46). But with me for the last 10 years, there always has been some issue that occupied my mind. Before Tinnitus it was anxiety and heart palpitations (which I solved by exercising like hell). Now it cold hands and feet, as I now am starting a new career.

I think the big part for me was to accept the Tinnitus as a condition that perhaps would stay with me, and to not fear it as much. I understand that in my case it was mild (not enough to stop me from sleeping with earphones on, for instance) so I feel for people for whom the condition is more severe.

Hopefully there will be a day soon when we can all be cured from this dreadful condition!

Again, thanks to the community and this forum, it really helped get some comfort knowing that I was not alone.

- Jeff

 

Wow! How long did you have it for in total?

 

Thank you for your story. What caused your tinnitus?

 

Thanks for the story! AirPods are so much better than normal cabled earphones. A huuuuge improvement!