New Sufferer with Reactive Tinnitus. Advice, Please.

[Gothmog]

3 weeks into a this whole tinnitus thing. After reading some, mine is clearly the reactive type.

Echoes my daughters music at a higher pitch.

Wavering tones compete with sound machine, tv etc.

Rerely a single tone. Constantly varying in tone & pitch.

Co-occurring TMJ.

Around the time it started, a) had allergy flare up & sore throat/plugged ears and b) intra oral TMJ massage that really helped. During the massage one of my ears "popped" which felt good at the time... But now I wonder.

One heartbreaking "bright spot". My TMJ flared up at my nephews wedding and I massaged my jaw for an hr on the way home. T completely gone for over 24 hrs but I woke up at 2 am that second night with it back to "normal".

what to do at night in masking tracks "excite" it ? In fact... Any noise "excites" it. It is not my reaction to it... It is the tinnitus that activity competes with the ambient sound.

Alas, I regularly wore ear plugs at night as I was a really light sleeper. Apparently, from what I've read, that deal with the devil has condemned me to a special hell.

Any hope at all?

One more thing, I used to love to sew but fear I never will be able to again.

 

[glynis]

A warm welcome to Tinnitus Talk @Gothmog .
For people with reactive tinnitus you might find sound therapy helpful but for some quiet at night works best.
For TMJ a night guard over your bottom death can help and a soft food diet or cut meat up smell and don't over bits on good like Apple's.
With tinnitus it can be hard to concentrate but it does get easier and hope you will get to sew again and a good distraction from tinnitus.
Try lavender on your pillow to help sleep and the sence of smell is a lovely distraction.
......lots of love glynis

 

[Mark_PI]

Hey
I am new to this forum and kinda new the 'T' I just woke up and it started again, just to let you know it appears that I have Chroic T let's say it you put ear buds in both ears and turn up the volume of a song 3/4 high
I still hear the 'T' so mine is loud all day !
Somedays it's a little lower. It seems that no doctor has an idea to fix or aveviate the issue but reading these posts makes me think that there is something to this.. First you have to Accept that you have this condition!! Be POSITIVE BE HAPPY and deal with it.. Try to rule out some things that are causing it .. I research this condition and hopefully I will figure this out by trail error .
Well you are not alone 40 million people have and you have to say I can deal with this !! Maybe I don't have a cure for you at this time but I can say is to ignor it and live your life the best that you know how!! I'm still digging for answers BUT THIS WILL NOT RUIN MY LIFE! Please deal with it and ignore it while finding answers !!! There has to be something out there !!

 

[Gothmog]

How is sound therapy helpful since any sound is echoed at a higher pitch or the T amplifies or modulates in response to the soubd?

Also, I live 1-1/2 hrs (w/o traffic) from a large city and all the audiologist here know about is selling hearing aids.

 

[Gothmog]

Very hard to stay positive with the prospect of no tv , no music, no movies, no Disneyland with my daughter for the rest of my life.

 

[glynis]

Hi @Gothmog.
If you do try sound therapy at night make sure it's below your tinnitus sound and not above it....lots of love glynis

 

[Gothmog]

Any noise no matter how softly, just makes it worse. The T echoes the noise at a number of octaves higher.

I know the objective should not be to completely mask the T but fans, white noise etc. just aggravate it.

From what I've read, this is called "reactive" T. And I've found no advice specific to this living hell.

When I go for a walk, it sounds like coins are jingling in my pockets.

 

[DebInAustralia]

Mindfulness cbt then..?

 

[April]

@Gothmog

Hi, I have the same type of reactive T. Any sound sets it off, even ones that I can't hear (I wear hearing aids) but the noise vibration in my ears gets louder so I know something has caused it. I watch TV with closed caption as its painful otherwise and no more music as it doesn't sound much like music anyway. Now the good news I had a really hard time adjusting to my new life but I eventually did. That doesn't mean it doesn't bother me, it does, but I'm not isolated any more. You'll hopefully find that with time you'll get used to reactive T and adapt better to it. We are all hoping for a cure but our life is happening right now so coping skills are essential. I also like to sew and when I do I wear ear plugs to soften the reactive T. I do things now that I never thought I'd be able to do again like socializing, going to a restaurant (still a challenge but have been able to do it), walks on the beach with waves crashing . . . .all this took time with me getting used to noise in a new way. Hang in there and know you aren't alone.

 

[Gothmog]

Thanks. @April Hard to envision that as a massive heart attack from sleep deprivation seems more likely. (Partly joking there)
5 mg of melatonin at 10pm and another 5 mg with .5 mg of klonopin at 2 am gets me about 4-5 hrs of restless teeth clenching interrupted sleep. Very afraid of the addictive potential of that stuff but Mirtazipine makes me groggy and short tempered all day.

This started in the middle of a large sewing project. I continue to cut out the pieces (so I guess I have not lost all hope yet) but am anxious about turning on the machine as I also wonder if my long hrs on it contributed to this and how the T will react.

 

[al3xisnic0le]

@Gothmog @April did this ever go away? I just started experiencing the same thing

 

[April]

@al3xisnic0le Mine never went away. I've learned to deal with it but am not able to socialize as much as is so stressful trying to decipher speech but I force myself to interact because being around people is part of my self prescribed mental health program. For me, isolation is not good as it allows too much time to dwell on the condition. I'm not in denial but want to have as much quality time as I can doing things I enjoy.