My Tinnitus Story. Will It Go Away?

Hi there, I am new to these forums. Nice to meet you all.

My Tinnitus began after an upper respiratory infection. I have been sick with influenza before and until then never had problems with Tinnitus after the virus has passed. This time was different. The symptoms included head congestion and sinus pressure. It felt like my head was being squeezed.

Four days later my tinnitus started this god awful ringing in both ears and I felt off balance like I was being pulled to one side. I panicked and had anxiety attacks for the first month while waiting for my ENT appointment and generally depressed out of my mind. They checked my ears and did a nasal endoscopy which showed nothing. The ENT sent me for a VNG test which showed no response in my right ear to cold or hot air stimulation.

My theory is the virus attacked my ears and resulted in vestibular neuritis in the right ear. My symptoms are still here 4 months later, the ringing in the ears. In addition both of my ears crackle every time I swallow, occasional sharp pains, and slightly off balance/dizzy feeling. I have no sinus symptoms or allergies. So far I have not swallowed any medications for this not even the nose spray.

After reading many forums on the internet I start to see that people did not see any response from prednisone, nasal sprays, or allergy medications. At this point my vestibular nerve is probably permanently damaged.

I am wondering if my tinnitus will ever go away. I watched a video of a woman who had tinnitus so severe she killed herself. She was tortured to death by the noise. This has been on my mind ever since.

Is tinnitus permanent for me? I am a healthy weight, exercise, and have no other health problems besides my ears and dizziness. I hope I do not have to end my life due to the tinnitus. Are there any success stories? Thank you for any advice or encouragement.

"I have tinnitus and I want to die"

 

I think you will recover, but you have to be patient. Like somebody said on this forum, people get desperate because they give themselves a time frame and when that time expires they say: "my T didn't go away in this period of time, therefore it will never go away". Don't do this. Not only the vestibular nerve is affected, but the acoustic one too. But nerves heal, you know that? They do, only it takes a long time. Fingers crossed.

 

She killed herself mostly because of hyperacusis, so her case does not apply to you.

 

Noone can tell you with certainty that your t will resolve, but to give it a good chance of disappearing, have a look at the back to silence thread, and avoid the negative stories in media and on this site.

I can tell you that 4 years into my t and h onset, life is mostly the same as it always was. Never thought I would ever habituate, but my brain is so damned bored with the sound, that I either don't hear it or when I do, it doesn't bother me very much at all. Your t will either resolve, improve, or you will habituate. Either way, you are going to be fine.

 

Welcome to the forum. Don't forget she is not the norm of the millions with T and a good % with intrusive T plus hyperacusis. I am one of those with highly intrusive T and hyperacusis. My T is ultra high pitch that during the last few flights I could hear it above the jet noise and above the raging rapids on the salmon rivers I fish. There are many success stories on this forum which you can read and get some hope for the future. T is quite common and if you check around your social circle you may find many people with T, some very loud, and yet they don't talk about it. I recently found a church lady friend with loud high pitch T for 20 years and she said that her T makes it hard sometime to listen to people's conversation and she had to pay extra attention or even to read lips in order to figure out what was said to her. Yet she didn't exhibit the kind of negative emotional response that is common on support boards. She is actually the 2nd lady in the social circle saying that their T is so loud they can't hear things around them clearly. Here are two gentlemen most folks know about talking about their loud and 'worsening' T back in 1996. As of today they are doing just fine. Life goes on with many people even after bad T. But it may take time, 6 months, a year or two before they get better again.

David Letterman with William Shatner - March,...

So don't focus on the rare cases of suicide from T as if it is the norm. Stay positive and focus on the overwhelming number of sufferers who did suffer much initially but eventually habituate and can live a normal life even after T. Remember the T bully feeds on your negative emotions such that anxiety and stress can aggravate T. So we need to play a smart mental battle with T and stay positive and try to live our life again. Good luck. Take good care. God bless.