New Tinnitus Sufferer from France — Biggest Hurdle: SLEEP!

Hi everyone,

As the title says, i'm a 32-year old guy who had a fairly normal life...till 2 weeks ago.

I usually went out (usually to sporting events) pretty frequently but had a pair of custom earplugs
I had made 10 years go when I had a (very mild) acoustic trauma episode.

But on october 9th, after going to a very small soccer stadium (for which I felt I needed no earplugs -
big mistake), a fella not far from me had some sort of a very high-pitched "noise
blaster" type thing...and here I am.

I have a unilateral left ear very high-pitched "pure tone" tinnitus (I'd say about 13.5khz, not certain of this since hearing this kind of frequencies for too long "warms" the beast ) and a mild-to-moderate hyperacousis.

It's been a little longer than 2 weeks now, and i've gone through a lot of phases for what constitutes objectively a "little" period of time :

First phase : first 10-12 days : 1/ worsening of the condition (didn't hear it immediately afterwards, came in my life progressively the first few days - even during the steroids treatment period) ;

2/ sleep problems getting worse (at one point i had slept 4hrs in 3 days, was walking like a corpse, started having anxiety bouts and suicidal thoughts, which I had never considered in my entire life...)

3/ medication having little to no effect on the T : steroids didn't help at all, been on vasodilation for a few days without noticing any significant effects, tried magnesium/ginko with no effects except for general health (hey, it's always something...) etc.

Second phase : last 2-3 days : my GP changed my sleeping meds (I had atarax -which didn't really relieve the stress- and zolpidem - which only allowed me to sleep 3-4 hours which was insufficient). I have now used ambien for 2 days and my nights have been waaay better : 6 to 8 hours of sleep, less of a burden when waking up.

I also feel the amount of sleep has helped me manage the T, especially during the day when I now rarely hear it if any other noise is present.

I still have a few questions/challenges, and I wanted to use this post to ask around for feedback from people with similar enough symptoms , because after 16-17 days of T, I would like to return to a "normal cycle of life" (aka work/seeing friends on at least a semi-regular basis/exercising regularly) asap as I feel it would help me tolerate it faster.


1st question : Is it reasonable to expect a reduction in noise in the coming weeks/month, or is 2weeks already too late on this ?

2nd question : Question especially directed at those with a similar T (high pitched - around 13-14khz - ideally unilateral) : what's the BEST music/sound/distraction you use before and/or during sleeping ? I feel returning to some sort of a normal sleep (i.e, in a few days/weeks, ideally without heavy meds like ambien) would be a huge step forward for me !

Thanks for reading this (way too long !) message and maybe giving a few tips.

Cheers,

 

That makes no sense since ambien and zolpidem are actually the same thing ("ambien" is the trade name for the substance "zolpidem").

 

@Romain_T sorry to hear about your tinnitus.
It's hard to say what will happen.... I've had tinnitus for just over 3 months. It's changed so much in that time, and recently it's even gone away for periods of time.
In regards to sleep, I take Mirtazapine 15mg and also melatonin 2mg.
Does the job for me, and even allows me to fall back asleep easily (I have 4 month old twins who I have to get up to feed at night).
I also use masking - a sleep pillow works for me as long as the tinnitus stays relatively mild. I've had some rough nights previously where I needed more masking from a sound machine and Oxazepam just to get through the night.

 

Bienvenue au club, Romain. Même si je te souhaite de ne pas y rester, dans ce "club"..

A air horn? Damn, that annoying idiot. They should ban these people with an IQ less than 70 from entering such venues.

Yes it is reasonable. Both outcomes are possible... But the more you focus on the T, the more chances you have to "retain" it in your brain for a long time.

 

Sorry, my fault for messing up, I thought I had the correct US name for the med. After checking, the molecule in the med I use now IS called Zopiclone (close enough to mess it Up, I'd say).

Merci pour le mot de bienvenue

As for the rest...yeah, I get what you're saying, trying to stay occupied and positive, I'm even starting to deal with the hyperacousis much better (less cringy reactions when people move glasses/plates, much less annoyed/shaken by the town noise, etc.).

Hopefully I can still take advantage of the phase where some of it "normalizes" and also manage my sleep like a normal person (as opposed to a raging lunatic concentrating on nothing but the noise like I currently am ;-) )

Thank you for the kind words

Curious about a few things you mentioned :

- how is/was your tinnitus (type of pitch and intensity ?)

- how did you deal with sleep in the beginning ? Did your ENT or your GP help you in that regard ? (the ENT i've seen so far doesn't care, and my GP is only about hypnotics, but I believe it to be a short-term fix)

- you spoke about a sleep pillow (which emits music I suppose) : which kind of music do you find the most soothing for the T/condusive to sleep ?

Sorry to bother you, and thanks again !

 

WELCOME ROMAIN TO THE BEST TINNITUS DISCUSSION SITE!!

2 weeks is not lot of time, it could go away! don't forget to write a reply if it goes away

 

Hi Romain_T,

Welcome to the site!

Hopefully, since this just happened to you, it will go away on its own or diminish to a point where you do not even pay attention to it.

Your biggest hurdle right now is to limit your anxiety and I know that can be a challenge at the onset. Believe me, as time goes on, you will pay less and less attention to it. As I type this message to you now, I can hear it tinnitus in my left ear, but could care less because my mind has disqualified it from being of any significance to me. That is called habituation.

You should also know that millions upon millions of people in America alone have it! Obviously, only a tiny fraction of the world's tinnitus sufferers are on this site.

You will be okay!

 

That's a promise

Thanks, i'll try to keep those words in mind

 

@Romain_T my tinnitus is probably relatively mild but at its worst, I can hear it over the TV and conversation. The last few weeks I've had periods where it has completely gone! What a tease that is....
Mine is a head noise - sizzle / hiss - not high pitched but annoying as it sounds like my brain is in a frying pan!
I see a psych who prescribed the mirtazapine and melatonin.
When the tinnitus ramped up at night, the psych gave me Oxazepam. This is a benzo so was a short term solution only.
It's actually the anxiety not so much the tinnitus that kept me awake. The mirtazapine was a lifesaver.
I connect my Oasis sound machine to my sound pillow and listen to a chime melody that has a white noise in the background. It's personal choice though, I had to play around with a few sounds until I found the ones that work for me.

 

Overrated drug.
It's probably the best AD and a good sleep aid till it poops out, but it will make you raid the fridge, then all the local burger joints

 

@undecided maybe so, but it got me through my crisis (I was in a bad way).
Still helps with sleep, but yes, willpower is most definitely required when it comes to food.

 

@Samantha R yeah, I was on it for a while but I seemed to be somewhat handicapped in the willpower department.
And it's not like it makes you want to eat a bag of apples or anything healthy. That thing was like a magnet for chocolate and stuff with melted cheese on top. Thank God I was thin to begin with...

 

When I have trouble sleeping because of tinnitus, having an electric fan running near my bed often provides a good masking sound. I concentrate on the droning sound the fan makes and usually fall asleep very quickly