My Two-Week Journey with Tinnitus

I hope that I'm not being repetitive but I feel like the more success the stories, the better. I feel like the more success stories sufferers see, the more hope people will have and easier the recovery will be.

I started experiencing tinnitus about 2 weeks ago. It came out of stress, anxiety, panic, and isolation. I have experienced the ringing before but it usually just went away after a minute. But this time, it became persistent. Like everyone else, I was terrified. I thought I was going crazy which added to the panic. But after doing some panicked Google searches like "ringing in my ear" & "stress", I came across this forum. For the 1st time I was able to define the ringing as tinnitus. I realized anxiety was the root of my tinnitus. By addressing my anxieties, the tinnitus would become less of an issue. Two weeks later, I still hear the ringing. But I have been paying less attention to it and has disappeared for long periods of time. I have getting better with each passing day. I can sleep now. I am confident that I will have it under complete control as well as my anxiety. What has worked for me, may not work for others as your tinnitus may have been caused by ear damage from loud noises. Since mine was caused by anxiety, I had to focus mainly on that. Here's what worked for me:

1) Acceptance - I am glad I came across the back to silence early. This works. Instead of a piece of paper, I used the Google Doc app on my iPhone to make a mark, but its the same spirit. What I am about to say is completely nonscientific and nonprofessional. But from reading around, it is my impression that tinnitus is a completely harmless and a natural phenomenon. It's always there, but for some reason, some brains tune into in stressful times. So there is no cure for something that is aways there and probably belongs there. Therefor accepting it and focusing on emotional response will be a lot more effective than scouring the Internet for a cure. I don't think there is anything wrong with listing to music or ambient sounds but I also think it is important to face it and accept it. It may be hard at 1st, but bit by bit accept it until your brain no longer sees it as a threat. I think always avoiding silence will prolong recovery. Part of dealing with my anxiety, I started volunteering for homeless outreach. Many of the homeless live in tents underneath busy highway bridges. I'm sure they rather be somewhere else. But I realized, if these people can live underneath a loud ass busy highway bridge for months and somehow deal with the sound, then I can deal with this tinnitus.

2) Relax - I'm sure everyone has come across a post about mindful meditation, I would recommend it or something similar. I started going to a yoga class. At 1st, I would be distracted by the ringing but further into the class, I would forget about it. On the days that I did not have class, I used yoga videos and meditated about 30 mins a day. By focusing on the anxiety, the tinnitus became less intrusive. During my workday, I listen to soothing music. I have a Sade channel on Pandora which keeps me relaxed. At the beginning, I had to listen to ambient sounds to fall asleep but now I can fall asleep on my own.

3) Exercise - This is another way I focused on my anxiety. I run and weight lift. Both is good for my anxiety and it gets me away from the tinnitus for a little bit because of all of the noise around me. I understand that running and lifting is not for everyone. But I recommend anxiety/ tinnitus suffers to be active some how. Tennis, swimming, boxing, Argentina tango, sex (I'm not trying to be gross) anything to tire you out and take your focus off the anxiety and tinnitus.

4) Distraction - This is probably related to acceptance and the most useful tip that I have found. When I'm busy with work, talking to a loved one, focused on cooking and cleaning, or doing something creative, I hardly noticed the tinnitus. I noticed that interactive activities takes my focus off the anxiety which helps me ignore the tinnitus. As others have said, just get on with your lives and don't let the tinnitus dictate anything.

So that's all I have. Anyone who is dealing with panic and anxiety, try to get help. One book I recommend is The Anxiety and Phobia Workbook . Like I said, the tinnitus is still there but I have been handling better with each passing day. I hope my story has been helpful and wish you all the luck. Peace.

-J

 

Thanks for sharing