My Tinnitus Is Getting Better

Hi everyone! I just wanted to share my story so far because I think something might be informative for some and maybe inspire a little bit of hope to others.

I recently got tinnitus in July 2018 for no known reason (not noise induced). It started off as a high pitch tone (kind of like an electric buzz) in my left ear only. It was REALLY bothersome to me for the first month or so. The first couple of weeks I was especially distressed and cried easily when thinking about my tinnitus. Reading about negative stories not these forums made things a lot worse for me. I saw my PCP as soon as possible, and she didn't see anything wrong. I was told to take anti-histamines for 6 weeks so I could get a referral to an ENT (I guess they wanted to rule out allergies). This made me afraid because I read that anti-histamines can be ototoxic and was worried that occasionally taking Ibuprofen 800 was what gave me tinnitus in the first place, but now I doubt that was it. I ended up taking the anti-histamines along with Flonase for probably 2 months. My tinnitus improved significantly, it changed from a high pitched tone to the sound of crickets for a while. Now, my tinnitus is really faint, but peaks several times throughout the day and sometimes peaks in my right ear. I do not attribute this to the anti-histamines for several reasons.

1. I think staying off these forums that were making me so distressed was really helpful in terms of my quality of life and letting myself begin to habituate (reading the positive posts were helpful though).

2. I still am waiting to get into the ENT, but stopped taking the anti-histamines because they made me sleepy and my tinnitus is still a lot better off the anti-histamines than when it originally started, so I don't think that the cause was allergies. However, my tinnitus was slightly better when I was on the anti-histamines... possibly because I wasn't paying as much attention to it then.

3. I saw an audiologist and discovered that my hearing in my tinnitus ear is significantly worse than my other ear. My hearing is only impaired with very high pitch sounds. I asked the audiologist to test me for pitches over 8000 Hz because I realized from an online hearing test my left ear couldn't hear past 8000 Hz, but my right ear could. It's my understanding that normal hearing loss is usually with high pitch tones. However, I am only in my mid-20s and did not have any baseline hearing tests to compare to. I am really starting to think that my tinnitus is due to some natural type of hearing loss.

I am very fortunate that my tinnitus is so faint now, and seems to be getting better. My goal is for this post to give people hope that tinnitus can get better, despite what the Internet says and maybe give some information they may not have considered.

 

Good to hear! Congrats. My T started June 2018, and it’s also improving. It acts the same way as yours. Quite low now, but spikes throughout the day and sometimes my other ear starts ringing as well for a short time. But overall it’s getting better.

I think you’re right about staying off forums. It’s better to focus on other, positive, things in life (although I understand this can be very very difficult when having severe T and/or H). I only read the success stories cause they make me feel positive. I also know a lot of people with T. I know 13 (!) people with T and all these persons are very happy and live wonderful lives. Some of them even have severe T but are not bothered by it. So I try to focus on stories like these.

I hope your T keeps improving, and hopefully it eventually goes away completely!

 

I have an almost unnoticeable T for many years but once I get exposed to a loud environment it will spike for a few days or weeks but always returns to it's first level. The problem is ... I have earplugs and all but ... it's almost impossible that sometimes you are in loud environments without your plugs (a party, ...). A week ago I practiced playing guitar really enjoying my guitar and new amp but when I stopped I realized the volume was too loud and ... yes ... my T raises it's volume. And although this is the fourth of fifth time ... every time I worry if it will go back to it's minimum level. But's lets keep this positive, in my experience, tinnitus can spike but it comes down again, although this can take a week(s) ....