New Spanish Guy Here

[Jota]

Hello everyone,

I'm a Spanish guy, 33 years old (although I am not living there right now) who has had tinnitus since around 8 weeks. I hope that my English is understandable, and sorry in advance for my mistakes.

Probably I got tinnitus because I was using in-ear headphones a lot in the past (even if I was taking a lot of care with the sound levels and mostly I used to listen to podcasts and not music). Now I stopped using the in-ear headphones of course.

Sometimes I think my tinnitus could also have been triggered by some stress situation that I had (not very important, job related), as my back and my neck often get muscular tension, but it´s just a theory. My father has also tinnitus due to an acoustic trauma, and as far as I know the genetic factors can also increase the chances of getting tinnitus. In any case, the fact is that I just woke up one day with the high pitched sound.

To be honest I didn´t pay so much attention to it at the beginning and continued on with my life without any problems. But at some point it got louder and afterwards I became very concerned about it.

My tinnitus is a bit crazy, as sometimes I hear it only in one ear, or both of them, or sometimes it is just like a "shhhh" sound coming from the brain. When trying to sleep I also hear some kind of roaring, that seems to be linked with my breathing and heartbeat. If I am focusing on it, sometimes I feel that the pitch disappears totally. Ironically, I can manage it better during the night than during the day. Luckily so far I can sleep quite good.

I also have hyperacusis, but I am not even sure if it is more like phonophobia, fact is that I became very sensitive and afraid of loud noises.

Since I have tinnitus I have had some panic days, thinking...

What if it increases permanently because I am doing sports?
What if the traffic noise affects me while going to work with a bike?
What if the noise in the office doesn´t allow me to focus?
What if I have to change my social life forever?
I still have to use headphones for calls at work, and I don´t know if that could make it worse. The possibility of using the phone in the regular way is also very uncomfortable for my ear.
I have a wedding in one month, I want to go but I still have many concerns. For sure I will go with ear protection.

I have also not been lucky with doctors so far. I saw a doctor a week after my tinnitus onset who just said: "wait and relax". The ENT was not better, he just told me to not pay attention to it. Of course I have a new appointment with another one, who seems to be an expert in tinnitus.

Thank you for reading.

I am right now in moderately good mood after a couple of panic days and I am quite optimistic.

For me, what really helps is not take the sound as a negative thing that leads to bad feelings: panic, distress... but accept it instead. And of course, keep the mind busy with other tasks.

The only concerns that I have right now is to be sure that from now on I am doing the right things in order to not make it worse. The best case scenario could be that it will go away, but I really don´t know the odds, so for me it is better to think that I will be able to manage it in the future, as the other scenario will bring anxiety if nothing happens.

If someone has experienced the same concerns or has my type of tinnitus and could bring some light to it, I would appreciate it very much. If someone could give me a couple of hints on how to treat the hyperacusis that would be also great.

Regards,

Jota.

 

[Bill Bauer]

The only concerns that I have right now is to be sure that from now on I am doing the right things in order to not make it worse.

To help with that goal, check out
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/thread...eone-else-who-has-tinnitus.26850/#post-307822

I didn't read all the above comments, but did peruse a fair amount of it, and ran across many good points on both sides of the argument. What strikes me is there seems to be an underlying assumption (of course I may be wrong on this) that all brains and neurological systems are created equal. The way I see it, that's simply not the case, so everybody's way of dealing with tinnitus and/or hyperacusis is going to have to be highly individualized.

I read a book many years ago called "Adrenal Syndrome". A lot of the book touched on the residual resiliency of people's adrenal glands as they respond to life's stresses. Very low resiliency often resulted in months/years of chronic debilitating exhaustion following a stressful event(s) in their lives. Very high resiliency indicated essentially the opposite. The author broke this down into some rough numbers:

25% of people have low resiliency, meaning normal life stressors will often send them into some degree of a tailspin.
25% of people have high resiliency, meaning that no matter how severe a stressor comes into their lives, they will be able to cope without becoming debilitated to any degree.
50% of people fall somewhere inbetween.

I believe there are some kind of corresponding numbers for a person's brain and neurological resiliency as well, which can greatly affect the ability to cope with tinnitus. (I believe adrenal resiliency also plays a major role in our ability to cope). -- Based on these assumptions, it's pretty easy for me to conclude that what may be overprotection for one person will be underprotection for another, and vice versa.

I think the main point to understand for someone new to tinnitus is that their path forward is going to be a lot of "testing the waters". Generally, IMHO, it's going to take a few weeks or months to get important insights that will help us achieve a healthy balance. In all likelihood, most people are going to learn from experience when their over-protecting or under-protecting.

I've come to believe however, that in those early months, if one is going to err in either direction, it should be toward overprotection. It just seems to me the consequences of underprotection (which could result in permanent injury) in those early times are much more dire than the consequences of overprotection--which as I understand, generally results in temporary setbacks.

Doing a number of things to better support the brain and neurological system and the body's stress response (adrenal glands) is quite high on my list of recommendations I would make to anybody with tinnitus. Doing so might even prevent phonophobia or OCD, etc., as we go through our learning curves -- Just my 2 cents worth.

Relative newbies to tinnitus are likely to find all the information/opinions above quite confusing. So here are a few common-sense rules to follow:

1. The best protection of all is avoidance. Even the best earplugs can't guarantee complete hearing protection so those relatively new to tinnitus are best advised to avoid prolonged loud noise exposure - especially amplified sound at for example live concerts and sports events. This may involve lifestyle changes.

2. When in doubt, use hearing protection. In the many tasks we all do through the week, some will inevitably involve exposure to noise - which may be at higher levels than we at first realise - so using hearing protection for many of these is only sensible.

3. Build quiet into your day. It's not a good idea to be wearing hearing protection all the time - so you need to give your ears a break by ensuring that there will be quieter times during your day when hearing protection isn't necessary.This may involve changing your routine. Use soft masking noise and light music (not using headphones) to avoid "silence" where tinnitus is most noticeable.

4. Don't stress about stress. Tinnitus newbies are forever being told that the thing which makes tinnitus worse is stress. But while it's true that how you are feeling at a particular moment can make tinnitus temporarily louder, it won't have a lasting effect. But prolonged loud noise exposure can make tinnitus permanently louder. So don't stress about stress - but do be concerned about noise.

 

[Jota]

Thanks @Bill Bauer for your comments. For sure they will help me to deal with tinnitus.