New to This... Frustrated

Hey all i had a head cold about a month ago and my T started about a week ago and has progressively gotton worse. Im a server and i can barely concentrate at work, i havent paid attention to my fiance, i cant hold a conversation with anyone if the room is silent, i cant hang out with my daughter in silence. The doctor at the hospital told me its earwax buildup, tried that tried the ear drops he gave me nothing. I also get dizzy at times, and occasional headaches. Its only my left ear, its really weird. As a mom i need to learn to control my anxiety and worries. Any advice would really really help thank you!

 

Hi,
Sorry that you got T, welcome to TT. Do you know the cause of your T, just cold and/or earwax? If so that means there may not be a damage in your inner ear and this in turn may mean that it may go away by itself. Have you had a hearing test?

As your onset is very recent, you can try Prednisone, it's a steroid that's known to be effective against Tinnitus right after the onset;
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads...dexamethasone-others-oral-and-injections.348/

Tinnitus is almost always a symptom of another problem; one of which is Meniere's Disease that also causes dizziness. It might be good to check for it.

Some things noteworthy;

1. It starts with ignoring the ringing. Focusing on it will make it more and more important among all the sensory inputs that you have and it'll either be physically louder and/or your perception will be. To ignore it, make yourself busy at all times. Silence or lack of activity shall lead to focusing on your T. Your brain should be in panic mode right now obsessed with the ringing and drawing all your attention to it. Do not allow your brain to do that, make yourself busy.

2. Sleep well, it's crucial. May be the hardest thing but do whatever needed to do it. Mask it with white noises, natural sounds, etc; take drugs if needed. The negative aspects of anti anxiety/anti depressant drugs are negligible IMO when compared to not sleeping. When you do not get enough sleep, your brain shall not be able to calm down and progressively your T shall got worse.

3. Stay away from sugar/caffeine and anything that causes spikes in brain activity. T is a brain problem in which it's trying to compensate a problem in the inner ears but failing to do so and causing hyper excitement in auditory cortex. So anything to dramatically increasing brain activity is not good. Sugar causes a temporary energy spike, caffeine keeps your brain awake. You need to cool down your brain.

4. Stay positive. Negative thoughts shall exacerbate the T through a known mechanism. T is a brain thing but created as a result of a neural network and limbic system plays a great role here. If you do not stay calm, your brain shall have a considerably harder time to tune out this alien signal. But if you ignore and do not be in panic mode, eventually your brain shall start considering this sensory input as a harmless one and tune it out. Slowly but surely. Also, maybe not in the immediate future but, there are a lot of research going on in ear area and there'll definitely some sort of treatment in the long term.

5. Read all the success stories, they'll give you courage to get through these hard times.

It's the hardest in the beginning. It'll be much easier later on, so hold on.

 

Welcome to the forum. @liquefact has given you great advice. I will give some specific suggestions in the area of masking and some natural calming herbal supplements.

When T is new and the ringing is causing much anxiety and panic or sleeplessness, it is advisable to get masking ASAP so you won’t be so anxious and fearful. Stress and anxiety are toxic to T. So try masking if you haven’t done so. Here is a TT thread with an audio player for many good masking sounds. It also comes with nice tips for new sufferers . There are also links to ATA & BTA with loads of more info. The more you understand tinnitus and how it works, the less fearful and stressful you are and which is good for T.

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/panic/

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/audioplayer/

If you need more masking sounds, here is free ‘aire freshener’:
http://www.peterhirschberg.com/mysoftware.html

Rain sounds are soothing indeed. How about making your own rain sounds with this rain generator:
http://mynoise.net/NoiseMachines/rainNoiseGenerator.php

Search youtube with ‘masking sounds’ or specific sounds and you will also get lots of different nature sounds or white noises, pink noises, etc.

For helping to calm the nerves and improve sleep, you can try natural alternatives such as Camomile tea, Hops, Valerian tablets, Melatonin etc. It is also advisable to cut excess intake of salt, sugar, MSG, caffeine, alcohol etc, and try supplements such as NAC, Magnesium, Zinc, B12, D3 etc. Do read up the success stories so you can learn some insights how people get better. Just copy success. It is a good strategy. Good luck and take care. God bless.

 

See an ENT. Get a hearing test. Contemplate enrolling in the AM-101 study - the sooner the better if you do.

AM-101: www.tinnitus-study.info