My Tinnitus Story

Hello everyone,
I’ve been looking through this forum for the past few weeks never actually planning on posting. But I’ve noticed how wonderful of a support system this forum is and how many of you more experienced guys have been extremely helpful with great words of encouragement and extremely informative posts, so I’ve decided to finally share my story.

Eight months ago I was a 20 year old college student with the seemingly perfect life on my way to making it big in this world. I was set to graduate early in January from NYU magna cum laude with a degree in finance, had a great job offer with one of the largest insurance firms in Manhattan offering me six figures a year, had a wonderful girlfriend, and a ton of professional and soon to be professional friends. I felt like I was on top of the world and ready to conquer it. Then tinnitus came along and my life has never been the same.

Last October I was sitting in my Advanced Econometrics class, when suddenly I heard this loud siren like noise in my left ear. I mean loud, extremely loud, as if a fire truck siren just went off a few feet away from my head. I remember collapsing and screaming and crying and thrashing about out of control all over the floor. I was surrounded by my classmates and professor, who were extremely alarmed and shocked, but were trying to desperately help and get me under control, one even dialed 911. I got up and ran out of the class, down the hall and outside covering my ears screaming and crying like a mad man. Everyone that saw me immediately stopped and stared, some even tried to help, but I was far too hysterical to accept any help, I just wanted to get back to my dorm. I remember running across Washington Square Park, attracting all sorts of odd stares and even slurs and curses from passerby assuming I was just another Greenwich Village nut job. When I reached my room I threw myself on the floor screaming and crying to God to make the noise to stop. About an hour later the noise began to subside but I couldn’t hear anything from my left ear and couldn’t maintain my balance.

The next day I went to the emergency room(lack of insurance) went through a battery of tests and was told I have tinnitus and that there was nothing that they could do and to come back if it happens again. Then a few days later it struck again while at a high end lounge in SoHo with my girlfriend and a few buddies. The same loud siren noise that seemed to come from within me, if that makes sense, but this time along with a piercing headache. Needless to say I caused a scene and was banned from coming back to that lounge. I felt totally embarrassed, most of my friends offered support and kind words but a few didn’t want to hang out with me anymore.

Ever since then, I would have a bout every few days or a week of varying degrees ranging from a minor nuisance to downright debilitating. I could barely function at times, couldn’t focus on my school work, failed my finals and therefore my classes, I never wanted to leave my room because I was too frightened to embarrass myself again. I also thought I was going insane and developing some sort of mental disease. I became obsessed with the condition wondering when it was going to strike again or if it would ever stop. I was also too embarrassed to be around the people I knew and loved out of fear of having another bout.

Soon I fell into a deep depression. My life literally fell apart in a matter of months. My girlfriend could no longer deal with it and bailed on me, my friends went on and graduated and started their great jobs, I dropped out of school, I couldn’t focus enough to find a job much less keep one. I didn’t leave my apt (which my parents pay for now) for weeks at a time, barely ate, and embarrassingly enough shower for days. At times I wanted to die.

I’m starting to get back on my feet now. The tinnitus is not gone but not as severe. I’ve basically learned how to just deal with it. I’m trying to find some sort of holistic way to cure or manage it and a great support system to help me find the courage to get back on my feet and reclaim my life. I never thought something like this could happen to me, guess you can never take anything for granted. Any informative feedback or words of support would be greatly appreciated.

THANK YOU ALL

 

That's quite a story, and I am glad that the tinnitus has calmed, your out break came around the same time as mine, I convinced myself was due to noise, however I retraced my steps on 7 days before my outbreak and with a decibel meter and some noise safety data I started to come to some sort of conclusion, The noise that I thought gave me tinnitus did not exceed 100db it peaked at 99db, and I was exposed for 5 minutes, so it was not long enough according to latest research to be the cause. I strongly believe tinnitus can occur due to cumulative exposure to frequent exposure of: 1 Noise, 2 Ototoxicity, 3, Head Injury 4 long term mental stress, ( eg overworking certain hormones, related to the nervous & limbic system) this resulting in certain changes in our neurological mechanisms causing neurons to misfire and not being able to return to their resting state.

I am dedicated to finding a cure and tried many novel Tinnitus therapies all to no avail, however I have not given up the quest as I will not be beat by tinnitus, so I will keep fighting until that day will come to regain quality of life like once we all enjoyed, Welcome to the forum Buddy

 

Hey Joe,
Thnx for the reply.
The thing is I'm reading that almost everyone can trace their sudden onset of tinnitus back to some recent event.
I've racked my brain trying to figure out how this could have happened to me back can't pinpoint anything. Spent a lot of time in NYC night clubs the past few years maybe its the cumulative exposure.

 

Hello, my Tinnitus came on the day I got my first Mercury fillings. However this took me a very long time to figure out as I didn't know at the time the potential dangers of having mercury in my mouth. Although now it's kind of obvious. The noise came literally a few hours after I had the work done. I have also read of people who have got it after having implants and other major dental work.

What work have you had done in your mouth if you don't mind my asking? I have to state though so I don't get your hopes up that in my experience reversing any dental work you might have had done has no effect on the Tinnitus it seems.

 

HI! We have about the same tinnitus start time.

Wow, such a horrible experience. I feel for you.

About the time I started I had a bout of high blood pressure due to floaters in the eye which gave me the impression I was loosing my sight. I spent all day at ER rooms and eye doctors. I also was experimenting with blood pressure medicines with my doctor to see if they could find ones with less side effects. I no longer take any now and feel better. Also, I had new wifi and cable modems exchanged with some other computer box that I had unplugged.

There are probably other things, but any one of those could have offset my tinnitus... or all of the above... who the heck knows.

I have good hearing (tested) and usually have the T on one side of my head. I about 40 years older than you, so I have more going against me with long hard years of stress and loud noises.

I am doing my bet to find a way to cease the T... I hope I am on the right track. Unfortunately there are many cause of T and no cure has ever been found for all sufferers. Maybe tomorrow!

 

Molan,
Thanks for your informative reply. Sorry that you have been afflicted with this horrible disease. You are lucky to have been able to find out the cause of your condition.Unfortunately, I have not been able to identify the cause of mine. Haven't had any dental work ever, only routine dental cleanings. Still trying to find out the cause of my infliction.Hopefully, in a few weeks when i am able to to get to an ENT specialist I can identify the cause of my infliction.
Thanks again and God Bless

 

Hi, no worrys I have gotten used to having this condition now. I can certainly understand though what it's like to think where the hell did this come from when there is no obvious cause. It took me quite a few years to trace it back to my Dental work as I was so taken aback by this noise in my head I completely forgot I had toxic mercury fillings put in that day.

Of course I can only guess but you might have had cumalative heavy metal poisioning over a long period of time that weakened you enough for the damage to occur. What about medication? Were you on any at the time? Quite a few medications are known to cause Tinnitus in some people unfortunetly.

Just know that many of us are experimenting with a wide variety of alternative treatments. Some have been successfull in certain people whilst for others they seem to have no effect. Each case of Tinnitus seems to be different for people despite the same symptom. Hopefully a universal cure will be found one day but know that there have been people who have been cured so I personally believe there is hope on the horizon.

Hopefully your ENT can shed some light for you.

All the best

 

Thanks for the Replies Molan,
I have been making amazing progress over the past few weeks. I have absorbed an amazing amount of information from all over the web. I am also meditating daily and employing other calming techniques to help me cope with and manage my stress constructively. I am also keeping a journal of all my activities,meals, and unusual exposures to see if i have any triggers or to possibly find the original cause.Talks with my Dean are also going well and it looks like i will be able to make up my last 3 classes without penalty. I am so thankful for the out pour of support from this forum and others. Once my life gets even further back on track i will be publishing my journal somewhere online to give inspiration to other new or young T sufferers

 

Fabulous!!! Much better news! We are supporting you!

 

Thank You so much for your support