New to This, About 2 Weeks In... Please Provide Encouragement.

Hello, My name is Bethany and I am 27 years old.

My tinnitus started last Sunday after having intercourse, but before that I had watched a movie (not really loud I thought) but there were people screaming.

I have also gone to plenty of concerts the weekend prior where my ears would hurt from loud noises, so I think it's safe to say it's from loud noise exposure. Who knows right?

The first week I did not sleep for more than 30 minute spurts, I still wake up sweating and muscles tense. I've lost 12 pounds in this short amount of time. I have made myself scared of eating, or drinking anything bad because of what some people post on this very forum. I feel like I'm a nervous wreck but somehow I am able to still make it to work.

I recently have tried taking Restoril, but I hate having to take medication to sleep, or for anything in general. The ringing is loud and high pitched, varies in volume but I cannot get it off my mind.

I am doing acupuncture but not helping as of yet, and I will try Back To Silence method. I just need some encouragement because I really can't have this take over my life. I have already gone to the ER for sleep medication and even that doesn't really work...

I don't know what to do or how long I can keep up with this when I can't stop thinking about it, even if it for a few seconds subsides.

Has anyone gone through this? It is over everything is I focus on it, which I can't stop focusing.

Please any advice or words of encouragement are helpful. Thank you.

 

Hang in there Bethany, have you seen an ENT?

 

No I haven't. My GP can't see me until the 17th then I'd need to wait for a referral or august 23rd and pay $157. I can't afford that right now.

I wish I could just stop thinking about it.

 

If you weren't exposed to very load noise, or are taking a new medication that might cause the T, Then it is just something that will resolve itself in a short time (few weeks maybe?) I'm sure you will be fine.

 

Would you mind to keep us updated after a while? It would be of interest! Wish you well!

 

Well that's the thing, I think it may be from loud noise exposure over time. I'm currently taking prednisone it hopes it would resolve and also Gingko Biloba. Now from anxiety I feel I've only made it worse. You thinking it will clear within a few weeks calms me. It gets so ear piercing loud at times though. Not too long ago I had a hearing test for a CT scan, but that was a different issue. Nothing was found.

 

You have to make sure you give your ears all the rest they can get right now as there still is a good chance it wont be permanent and might go away if you give it some time. Especially since you still have some brief moments of your tinnitus going away is a good sign. Be careful with stress as that can make it louder and it can become like some self perpetuating loop. i.e. the more stressed you get, the louder it gets, and that makes your stress go up etc.

Be careful with any headphones (but especially in ears). Stay away from those from now on. Also be careful with any ototoxic mediciness. These are very common (many antibiotics etc) and can cause more ear problems. Always make sure you double and triple check with doctors, pharmacies, internet. Also, since you now have hearing damage, normal things can hurt you badly. Some major things to look out for are, ultrasonic cleanings at the dentist (just dont!), ear wax removal with a sucker (don't even take the risk), Concerts, clubs and loud bars are a no no for a WHILE (should i even need to mention this). Also airplanes can be bad, so wear some ear protection (Peltor headphones 35db).

 

Hello,

Did you get your T due to a very loud noise ?

Regarding the Sleeping, have you tried to put the Fan on ?

At the beginning I used to do that, even if we were in Winter...

And today I will put it but this time, more because of the Summer Heat...

Take care of you !

 

Yes I always sleep with a fan on as my room is hot. My T is not easily masked. The first night I was able to sleep with it, but the continued nights I could not shut it off, it just gets louder and louder til it screams. Even with sleeping medication I wake up. I think my tinnitus is either loud noise exposure over time, not just one instance, and anxiety kept it around. It's only been 1.5 weeks but it's worsening I feel. I just would like it to not ruin my life. I hate this thing.

 

Did you use to listen to Music through headphones ?

I used to for many years, really didn't help for sure !

And also anxiety, stress and other didn't help either...

I know this is really hard to live with but try to rest a lot, drink a lot of water and try to relax as much as you can...

 

Yeah I would listen when I was younger, not so much now but when I would exercise a couple years back. Sometimes I'll listen to headphones at work but only for 2 hours max a day, sometimes never. I don't doubt I did damage to my ears but I don't believe I have hearing loss either as last time my ears were checked, they didn't mention it (about 6 months ago). I have been eating healthier and drinking more water. I am trying to stay calm. If you pray, please pray for me. Does anyone think this may still be temporary? My ear feels stuffed now.

 

Hey Beth!
first of all please know that its gonna get better.
right now is a bit shocking but it would probably will go away or you will get used to this.
first of all, see and ETN,
next... get an audiogram... with that study you are gonna learn more about the possible causes.
me for example i believed that my tinnitus came from loud music (years and years of loud music exposure)
and it turned out to be another thing, i encourage you to go to an ETN
and remain busy, so you dont focus a lot n the tinnitus

 

No I haven't. My GP can't see me until the 17th then I'd need to wait for a referral or august 23rd and pay $157. I can't afford that right now.

I wish I could just stop thinking about it.

 

Welcome to the forum @bethcoast. Sorry to hear your struggle with the new high pitched T. I have ultra high pitch T also and I can hear it over most things when it spikes, like it is now (lol). I could hear it above the jet noise in recent flights and above the raging roaring rapids of the salmon rivers I fish. On top of that I also had severe hyperacusis. H turned all normal sounds piercingly hurtful. T & H turned me into a mess initially. So I have true empathy of your fears and sufferings with this new, alien sensation.

Being so scared or anxious of T initially is a very normal reaction of the body trying to protect us from harm and danger. We are often very scared when T is new because T is both an alien sensation and a new ailment to your body. Our brain doesn't understand T and doesn't know what to expect. Failing to shake T, the brain just reactions in trauma and shock. Your limbic nervous system kicks in overriding the normal parasympathetic nervous system and you function in fight or flight mode, the defensive mechanism for a human in face of a danger. The fight or flight center or the Amygdala is in control now making every sensation quite acute and intense and you easily succumb to fear and worry as that is how the body tries to protect you. It tends to tell you to be aware of the threatening object which in this case is the new T. That is why we tend to monitor T non-stop initially and can't seem to help it.

You are right by trying to stay calm. By being calm and positive, and be more accepting of the new normal, by educating ourselves more about T (like what you are learning by joining this forum), and by doing some relaxing or interesting activities or by going back to living life again, our brain will have a better chance to restore the normal parasympathetic nervous system, and the pre-frontal cortex will take over processing the T ringing stimulus from the scare-crow center, the Amygdala. One of the functions of pre-frontal cortex is to suppress the fear reaction. It will also let you handle other negative reactions/emotions more normally.

This process is similar to a child being afraid of the dark because of not understanding what it is all about. Fear sets in and stress builds up and the child cries to get help and to relieve the stress. Later on and growing up the child learns more about the dark and the fear fades and no stress/fear will be forth coming to trigger the limbic system. Likewise with our tinnitus experience, our brain needs to take time to understand T more and be more hardened to it so the fear reaction will subside. But this process takes time and may take learning some good strategies. I mention some helpful strategies in my success story dealing with both severe T & H. Perhaps you can benefit by checking it out below. Don't panic nor despair. Good life can be back. Believe it. Take good care. Yes, I will pray for you for sure. God bless your recovery.

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/thread...w-i-recovered-from-tinnitus-hyperacusis.3148/

 

@bethcoast_

I was where you were, only a week ago. I absolutely know the concerns and anxiety going through your mind.

It's been a little under two weeks for me, but I have absolutely improved over the last couple days, so I know you can as well.

I posted this today to the General Support Thread: Staying Positive. The Back to Silence method helped me keep focus, but there's a recent youtube video By Dr. Hubbard (who posts here) that greatly improved my hope and outlook on my anxiety from the sound I included in my post. I watched it several times, and took as good a care as I can to follow the instruction. I wouldn't skip any of it, even when he explains Tinnitus. The basic CBT, mindfulness and strategic audio therapy strategies he lays out greatly helped me within a few days to simply calm down - I believe the Back to Silence method posted here is a rough version of of CBT that's relatively easy to do which is why it helped all those other people.

I don't believe supplements are the answer to curing tinnitus. If you're having trouble eating, I would suggest taking a multivitamin to ensure you're getting some essential nutrition. When I had trouble eating, I found that I could force myself to eat some food even with just a few sips of water to help wash it down.

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/posts/?post_id=266206

If you have any questions on my experience, which sounds rather similar to yours, please ask.
This, too, shall pass.

 

it will get better trust me. in the first 2 months I had constant high pitched T and it drove me nuts. I would hear it all day at work and sometimes wake up in the middle of the night from it. I took a bunch of supplements, none of which helped either.

As helpful as this forum is... reading some of these stories of peoplehaving T for decades made me think mine would be forever too.

But by the 3rd month the T has quieted down about 50%. I would have good days and bad days. but the general trend was theres more good days than bad.

Its now the 4th month for me since noise induced T. and as im typin this i cant even hear it anymore. this week i had 4 good days and 1 not so good day. but even the bad day was much better than the first 2 months.

So dont worry, the majority of people will recover (even if not 100%), the T will significantly improve. It just takes time.

 

Did you do anything specific to achieve this success? Thank you for your encouragement.

 

I did notice that the Back to Silence method I tried today, really helped to calm my nerves. I think my biggest hurdle is to stop checking on it and reading the horror stories. Or all the methods and supplements to try.

 

Just avoid loud environments. I had a few temporary spikes from going to bars and movies. Even with earplugs. Which leads to me think the spikes were from anxiety and not actual harmful. Either way I avoided those now. Atleast until my T completely goes away.

theres nothing specific that helped. I had a earache that somehow toned down my T, but my recovery was already pretty noticable before that.

Supplement didnt help except magnesium which i found to help me poo. had a hearing exam which came back normal. tried steroid nasal spray which didnt help either.

Exercise did help though. I found it much easier to fall sleep after exercise since im so tired i dont stay there lying and thinking about my T making it worse. also melatonine helped with falling asleep.

Unless you had some significant trauma to the ear (gun shot level noise). Your ears should def recover in time

 

If that is the case then it may take longer than a few week. My first experience with T took 18 months to fully fade, but it did fade to zero.

 

May I ask if you are male or female and your age? I feel like my tinnitus worsened because I focused on it too much and it sky rocketed my anxiety. I wish I could sleep at night, it literally wakes me up from the loudness, but I guess that is the anxiety as well.

 

Any insight as to what I should do to help the process? the ringing goes from both ears and my head.

 

no problem. im a 31 year old male. The first time i had T, it was only for a day after going to club. Which was strange because i go clubbing almost every other week for years. Guess I just pushed my luck that time. After the T went away, i went clubbing again like a idio and the T stayed this time.

It is very hard the first few months for everyone that gets T. But it gets better for vast majority of the people (like me), so dont worry too much if you can.

 

Did you ever have small instances of T? I would always hear slight rings after a concert but they would go away. This continuous T happened after I was breathing heavy though, I layed my head down and had anxiety come over me, then bam! ringing I fell asleep to music that night...went on the next day obsessed with listening to it, was able to sleep that night but has continuously gotten worse and now I am unable to sleep, what did you do to sleep? I hope it fades... thanks again.

 

Hi Beth,

Sorry you have to go through this as well. Your tinnitus is fairly new, so there is a chance it will go away. Best thing to do is to avoid further noise exposures and to stay calm. You can try some supplements which may help, but the jury is still out on their exact effectiveness. Try to use white noise or nature sounds to sleep (make sure it doesn't completely cover up the tinnitus, but at a level below your T.

I know it's not easy and i but know you are not alone. Feel free to post in the support forum and take a look at the Success Stories section. It's hard, and often times easier said than done (I myself have been struggling a lot with it lately) but try to get stay calm and try to get some good sleep. Going for walk or exercising can help with that.

I wish you the best and hope you feel better soon!

 

Yes i used to always hear faint ringing after the club which dissapears the next day. So did all my friends.

The time when i got T. my ears was feeling very full. and the T started 3 or 4 days after the event.

the funny thing is, all those years i went clubbing not knowing about T and hearing damage and was fine. But i read about tinnitus on reddit a few months ago and i remmeber thinking this sounds really bad to have. And then a month later BAM. TINNITUS!

 

Just time, and protect your ears from loud sounds (no earbuds, no concerts, ect) There is no treatment other than time

 

@bethcoast_ While i think my T has significantly improved on its own. Its possible that supplements also helped. here is a list of what i took if you were wondering.

NAC - antioxidant. took a week after onset for 2 to 3 weeks.
Tumeric - fights inflammation. Took for 2 to 3 weeks after onset
Fish Oil - reduces inflammation. lower blood pressure. Still taking it
Magnesium - relaxes muscles. reduce anxiety . still taking it.
L-Theanine - reduce anxiety. take sometime when anxious.
Acetyl L Carintine - improve cognitive function. still taking
Melatonine - sleep aid. still taking

hope this helps

 

Hi Bethany, welcome to the forum. I'm a 48 year old male and have had this since February 2016. I was just sitting on the couch with my wife when it just popped into my head. Not sure what actually caused it? I just joined the forum about a week ago. You were very smart to join so early after getting Tinnitus. I thought I was alone and it was very confused. I didn't think there was hope as the noise would get so loud. My doctor gave me a prescription to sleep. At times I need to sleep in order to get relieve from the noise. I will take a pill and take a nap in the middle of the day sometimes because its so damn loud. I just had a second opinion from another ENT on Monday. He says he has studied tinnitus and there is no known cure. He suggested to do whatever you can not focus on the noise. I know its easier said then done. Haven't found anything that works yet. Not giving up. I know if I watch tv and there's something really good or something that really has my attention, I don't notice it as much. So I think that there is something to it? Hang in there, there will be good days and bad. My advice is to look for something to distract you from the noise. It may take a while, but you may get lucky? Who knows? If your not feeling yourself and little down, come to this site and talk to someone. Start another conversation. As you can see everyone here supports each other in there on way.
Wish all the best in this weird and confusing time in your life. Hoping you get well soon.

 

This also includes vacuum cleaners, blenders/food processors, and lawn mowers.

There is a good chance that it will be temporary.
Check out
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/spontaneous-recovery-stats-over-70-recover-3-studies.21441/

You may want to take vitamin B12 supplements (in addition to NAC and magnesium).

Back when I was in the acute stage of my T, I found amitriptyline (10 mg) helped me sleep. It is non-addictive and I would not feel drowsy the next morning.

Sound enhancement (that gives you something else to listen to besides your T) helps a lot too. For high pitched T, try listening to the sounds of crickets/frogs.