New to the Forum, but Now New to Tinnitus

Hi everyone

I'm George and have been a sufferer of Tinnitus and Hyperacusis. I refer to them as T and H. If you don't know what H is. That is a condition where sound is extremely painful and plays a role in the worsening of my T condition.

I've had T and H since March of 2006. My T had started a little earlier but wasn't full blown until after 2 concerts I attended over 2 nights. I did wear ear plugs, but the damage had already started. I'm a musician ( or was until I had to stop playing due to my condition) after March 2006 my world slowly began to change. The ringing and sensitivity had just started full time. I no longer could use a telephone held up to my ear or head phones for music playback. Sound in my world became painful at any volume. Basically put my life on hold. I was forced to wear ear plugs on a daily basis 18 hours a day. even indoors. I had to come to the realization that I had to stop being a musician and by December 2008 had sold all my guitars and gear. giving up something I loved and did for 20 years.

I lost the ability to go out to restaurants, movie theaters and even family functions. I have very loud talkers in my family. Even driving my car was a hazard, if a heavy truck would apply their brakes and produce a high pitch screeching sound. it would feel like tiny needles shooting into my head and cause severe pain. Which had a horrible effect on me psychologically . causing mental stress and anxiety. Each loud burst of sound I've been subjected too has made my T and H worse. Making it harder to habituate to. after leaving jobs and isolating myself and basically becoming a hermit. My condition has become so severe that I can not work and I lost my apartment and had to move back into my parents house. I'm 45 yo and this is not how I wanted the latter part of my life to play out.

I've been to countless ear doctors and I now understand that there is no treatment or cure and I'm just living on hope that something will be discovered. My story and misery is much worse then I have shared here.

I describe my T as sounding like a high powered laser beam cutting through a sheet of steel that you might witness in watching a syfi movie. This isn't just something that I hear a little bit, but like an angry pissed off child screaming. It's that bad. it's way past the point of getting used to it. I'm 8 years in with this and it's only going to get worse. It's already so bad that I wake up angry every morning from this screaming in my head. yeah, Xanax helps me calm down, but it's not a cure and I'm solely living on hope for a real treatment soon. ........ nice to meet you all here. Cheers to a better future.

George

 

hi george , a lot of tinnitus is mental ...there is something called nueroplascitity ..remember the mind can heal old wounds

 

Your comment is a dead end remark and has no meaning. You obviously don't suffer from T and H and are basic in your thinking.

 

Sorry to hear about your story, currently dealing with moderate T & H myself.

Having said that though, no need for that sort of reply here IMO.

 

hum, tinnitus is a result of maladaptive neuroplasticity http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2083119/ .

tinnitus is not a mental condition at all, people are not imagining it...

 

i wonder if lithium orotate can work for t

 

George
I've had severe T for a year now and the first thing I learned is that the medical community (ENTs in this case) do little to nothing for H & T basically because they can't prescribe a pill or do surgery. It seems like the entire medical community is in group-think and denial. I've been working with an audiologist (with great success); they have a better handle on this condition.