My Tinnitus Keeps Getting Worse No Matter What I Do

It's not my view it's a fact.

 

Your statement is not a fact. A fact with respect to your question would be is a testimony of a patient with a high tinnitus loudness that is unable to adapt to the tinnitus and that has demonstrably no relation to any psychological condition that I cited above. This patient or group of patients could be established as fact. I would be happy to see a study or even a single case. Otherwise, it doesn't help us any further and is nothing more than personal opinion. Personal opinion will not cure any disease.

 

Telling people the ridiculous lie that loudness level doesn't equal distress level makes it seem like a viable treatment is pseudo scientific hypnosis and diminishes the urgency to develop an actual cure. This is something I and many others have understood long before you even had tinnitus.

Stop telling lies.

 

It's impossible to do that. Nearly every single human being has some type of psychological condition. And if you have tinnitus, you are guaranteed to have some condition because it drives you mad. You can always blame psyche for tinnitus distress. There's always a way to blame it.

Does that mean you should blame psyche? No it doesn't. Tinnitus loudness matters. If you don't believe it does, bring your ass over here and I'll make your tinnitus three times louder, let's see what you say then.

Where did you even come from? Joined today and started preaching this rubbish?

 

When people like @ajc and I, who are polar opposites on most things agree on something, take heed.

 

To ajc:
Thanks very much for posting that thread.
I had no idea ATA could be so willfully obtuse.
However, the statistics concerning the pervasiveness and severity of this cannot be gainsaid.
One ENT Doctor told me that this will become an epidemic condition for the retiring Baby Boom Generation.
I recall that when I mentioned Desyncra's cost to someone I know who is 67, he said "Are you kidding? I would
gladly pay $20,000.00 to alleviate this infernal condition."

 

Look there bud.
Certain things are really just common sense.

If you touch a hot stove, you will get burned.
You don't need to put together a study group for that one.

Same with tinnitus volume.
Unless you are not human, louder tinnitus means more distress.
It's really that simple.

The only difference between tinnitus and no tinnitus is really the volume.
You will never hear a person with no tinnitus to complain about tinnitus, because they simply cannot hear it (think of that as the volume button turned all the way down).

Now let's crank up that button all the way up and see if anyone notices (I think you know the answer to that one).

By now you had probably realized, that the only difference between the person who will not complain about tinnitus and the person that will, is the position of the volume button.

If you are still not convinced, maybe you can put your ear right onto my guitar amplifier, as I steadily increase the volume... see how far you can make it, before volume becomes a factor for you.
Again, you do not need a double blind fucking study for this kind of basic, common knowledge stuff.

 

@Gabriel5050

This may be part of your problem as for tinnitus getting worse. If you need occasional protection, ear muffs instead of ear plugs are better for some. As far as bone conduction, vibrating sound is needed.
Too much protection/masking time will lower auditory threshold.

 

This.

This right here.

This is critical.

This indicates that it's not the tinnitus, but the anxiety about the tinnitus getting worse, that is really keeping you up at night.

I'm not spinning things, taking them out of context. These are your words. Your truths.

Think about those words. They are important. You need to understand them. Recognize them. You won't be able to just push the anxiety down, but you do have to recognize that it's the anxiety that's getting you. And you can't let that happen - you can't let anxiety best you.

You do need to worry about tinnitus. Protect yourself. Be smart.

But you also need to live your life. Don't let anxiety get in the way of that.

 

Based on what? Sounds like nonsense.

 

They are evil in their obtuseness. Organizations like the ATA and BTA, because of their level of prominence and visibility, are actually our greatest enemies.

 

Some people who claim that they have loud tinnitus insist they are used to it. But, we have no way of knowing because we can't hear it. Only they can.

But, I can find many people here who say they have loud tinnitus and they are struggling. Some even have dark thoughts. I am one of them. I can also use common sense and conclude the probability that the louder and more intrusive the tinnitus, the more difficult it will be to cope with.

 

I didn't write or tell that. I wrote the following:

"As far as I know there is no relation between the loudness of tinnitus and the ability to adapt to it, i.e. no matter how loud it is you can get used to it and your brain after some time starts to shift the signal out of your consciousness."

I think it's pretty clear what I mean. No matter how loud the tinnitus is, people should be able to adapt to it after some time. That the tinnitus is distressing in general and even more distressing when it is very loud is clear to me and I think to everyone else.

 

You are right, it may be hard to do that. Nevertheless, there are studies that were able to show the opposite, namely that a lot of patients indeed have certain specific (that's the key, we are talking about specific traits) psychological traits that seems to be a bit more prevalent in the tinnitus patient-population than in the rest of the population. This of course doesn't prove a relation directly because there still could be some other underlying factor that drives it, but I think it is reasonable to assume that there is a relation between the two. At least researchers do and they are the one's we put all our hope in, right?

Studies (there are more):

• Dimensions of perfectionism and tinnitus distress
• Personality Traits in Patients with Subjective Idiopathic Tinnitus

Another translated summary:

"Patients with acute tinnitus should consult an ENT physician immediately. A subgroup of patients with chronic complex tinnitus is indicated for behavioural treatment. This applies in particular to patients with additional stress and high psychiatric co-morbidity or dysfunctional assessment patterns and high psychological distress. Even if a cure is not possible for most patients with chronic tinnitus, behavioural medical treatment can provide effective help in coping with tinnitus much better in life. Tinnitus loses its threat." - https://www.aerzteblatt.de/archiv/2044/Psychosomatische-Aspekte-des-chronischen-komplexen-Tinnitus

 

I totally agree, I think you didn't read what I wrote. I was only talking about the principle ability to adapt, not about tinnitus loudness or distress caused by it. It is clear to me that the tinnitus distress in a tinnitus patient is higher when the loudness of the tinnitus is higher, I experienced that by myself some days ago during a cold.

 

@gerhei If you go around with arguments like that we won't get any cure.

 

@Michael Leigh Thanks for your relevant response in a thread that steered away from the original problem.

 

Thank you for your kind comments @Gabriel5050

Your situation is fixable but you will need some form of treatment. However, you can try self help in the meantime. Please click on the links below and read my articles, that I think will be of some help.

Take care
Michael

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/the-complexities-of-tinnitus-and-hyperacusis.25733/
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/new-to-tinnitus-what-to-do.12558/
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/tinnitus-a-personal-view.18668/
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/hyperacusis-as-i-see-it.19174/
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/acquiring-a-positive-mindset.23969/
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/tinnitus-and-the-negative-mindset.23705/
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/the-habituation-process.20767/
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/is-positivity-important.23150/
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/trt-as-i-see-it.19555/

 

I don't see why describing conditions in tinnitus patients as they are should be something else than helping to get closer to a solution. I found it to be interesting why so many people experience tinnitus but only a subgroup of them is actually bothered by them as we all probably are in this forum. It is known that tinnitus patients are only a small subgroup of all who actually experience tinnitus, so it seems that either the largest share of experienced tinnitus is not severe or the patients process tinnitus emotionally different than the people with tinnitus who don't suffer (or a mixture of both). We should be able to answer those questions and not try to avoid them. If those considerations all turn out to be wrong once we have cure for all kinds of tinnitus then we can say at least that every possibility was considered and this is needed if we want to get solutions based on science and not on some magic stuff that is sold in masses in the internet and by practicioners without any evidence of being useful.

 

No. I think tinnitus caused by fusiform cells in the DCN going into overdrive and that boosts the signal through somatosensory neurons.

 

"Consistent with previous studies, tinnitus loudness was not related to tinnitus-related distress and depressive state."

Brain Regions Responsible for Tinnitus Distress and Loudness: A Resting-State fMRI Study

To be fair, there exist other results that suggest the opposite, so one could say that the question is not fully settled.

 

Ok all good then.
Sorry if I misunderstood, but there actually are people out there, whom are making this claim about loudness not being a factor.

 

No problem, I think that we are also all stressed to be in this situation, never mind.

 

As someone has pointed in another thread, show me one single organization, which seeks to downplay the sickness or condition that they are supposed to be representing, such as the ATA and BTA.

I can guarantee you, that you will not find one.
Your assertion is correct.

 

To ajc:
Thanks very much for your comment posted at 3:23 P.M.
My recommendation is that all of the Jastroboffeans, Julian Cowan Hillists, TRT /CBTers, Habituationists, Proponents of the "Your -Reaction -is- the- Only- Pertinent- Consideration -Regardless -of- the -Volume" mentality, or those Stockholm Syndromers who proclaim that "Tinnitus is my best friend and a self-actualizing experience" should all leave this website and leave the serious scientific investigating to us.
I must be deficient because no matter how hard I try I can't swallow their Kool-Aid, so I suppose my only recourse is to pursue a science-based approach that is not saturated with the most painfully transparent, self-serving alibis.

 

Which is probably false. Or likely to be false.

 

Maybe it is false, but a lot of researcher assume that this holds. Maybe there is discussion going on in academia I am not aware of since I didn't scan all publications and maybe it is also different among subgroups of tinnitus sufferers. Let's assume that it holds for the sake of argument. If it is true then it means for us that some sort of habituation is possible in the long term. I read "Tinnitus Retraining Therapy" from Jastreboff, which is the basis for a lot of subsequent research and the time that is assumed to be necessary to see some results is at least six months, in many cases 18 months - after a proper counseling and medical checks. If there was no counseling, no information by a doctor who is specialized in tinnitus and if the patient is still in the situation in which he feels that he has no power and is extremely negative towards the tinnitus, then the habituation hasn't even started. Things get more complicated when hyperacusis is involved because this conditions needs to be treated first.

May I ask you: Do you have hearing loss? Did the tinnitus appear due to an acoustic trauma?

 

Yes x2. I already discussed all that before. Don't want to again.

 

Can anyone who has ear pain or has discussed ear pain in medical and technical detail, please reply? It is particularly severe and painful today.

Is it a result of DCN damage or something? Is this something that never heals? I am so tired of having this pain and then the loud screaming tinnitus while I have severe left ear pain.

 

It sure does, and that is why so many people have turned to medications to try and cope with their tinnitus, and I was one of them.

I am all about trying to keep people in the land of the living, but I have nothing but empathy for those that would rather opt out because I understand their pain, but I still live in hope for a cure for everyone.

I used to hate it when patients I looked after would state they are in pain and would rate it high, I used to have to ask the doctor to write them up for strong pain relief and some doctors would say to me just give them Panadol their pain can't be that bad.

Pain is just like tinnitus, so when a person states their tinnitus is severe, it should be taken at face value.

IT'S SEVERE..........