New to Tinnitus — My Experience with Masking

I'll provide a very limited experience data point so take it for what it's worth, but maybe it will be useful for somebody.

So my story only started a little over two weeks ago, so I obviously don't have as much experience as many others here, but figured I would add my two cents on what I have experienced so far. As background, a few weeks ago I woke up with extreme ringing and profound single sided hearing loss. No acoustic trauma or known cause. Going through oral prednisone and dexamethasone injections (MRI normal), with a very minor improvement - still hearing loss at the 80+db level pretty much through all frequency ranges. There is not a lot of optimism that it will significantly improve too much more at this point, although it's possible.

It's hard to provide a quantitative measure of the severity of the tinnitus I am experiencing, but it's 24x7, very loud (in one ear only), at around 8000Hz, and never stops, so it's hard to imagine that it would be classified as anything but fairly severe but I'm sure others have it way worse.

My initial reaction was that I needed to mask the tinnitus whenever possible. I could not imagine not using masking. I used an app on my ipad playing a rain-like noise all the time when in my office and at home when possible (I've got two young kids), which definitely made things more tolerable. But what I have found is there is a major re-bound effect whenever I have to leave the comfort of the masking sound. Every time I had to leave the office, or go anywhere where I could not mask I would basically panic, and the tinnitus would feel like it got much worse. Especially in the evening or night after masking all day. I decided this was not going to work for me, so I decided to try and approach where I simply would not use any masking for a couple of days and see where it landed. What I have found is that after a few days of no masking (rough couple of days), I have been able to try and "ignore" the sound more successfully on an hour-by-hour basis. I think it's because I am avoiding the peaks and valleys due to continually masking and unmasking throughout the day. It's giving my brain a chance to adjust to a constant tinnitus noise, and although I wouldn't say I am anywhere near "habituated", it seems to me that avoiding masking might be a better path (or at least quicker). Seems to be a better start for me anyway, and I am in a more hopeful place. It also seems to me, possibly because my office is very quiet, as soon as I leave the office and there is a little more background noise (just normal office stuff) my tinnitus actually seems to decrease and be more manageable.

Full disclosure: I am using white noise (pillow with speakers) to help me get to sleep, with a timer set to turn off after 15 minutes, but sleep has certainly been a challenge, waking up 4-5 times a night, but I am hoping that will get better as well. I have been trying to avoid medicating to help sleep.

Anyway, just figured I would share my experience so far, maybe somebody will find it helpful. I realize that everybody's experience and reaction is different, this is just a description of what I have experienced so far.

Good luck to all.

 

When I first got tinnitus, it was a pure tone at 15,000 Hz .... And very loud... Ugh! I used masking hardcore for the first roughly seven weeks. I think being able to put the tinnitus "on hold" is helpful early on while you deal with the psychological impact that the tinnitus onset brings.

If you were doing full masking before, I recommend trying partial masking instead (a sound that you can still hear the tinnitus over but that provides a more relaxing environment). This way you can still hear the tinnitus in order to habituate to it, and you can decrease the volume of your partial masking sound over time. I just used a desk fan while at work for background noise.

I still use noise at night (all night long)... I've always found noise helpful to sleep to, tinnitus or not.

It's still early on for you. For many people, the tinnitus shifts to something more bearable over the first few months. This has been the case for me... The loud 15,000 Hz tone is gone (it persisted for a bit over one month), I have had a lot of strange sounds in the meantime, but for the last couple of weeks it has been sort of a light hiss.

Good luck! If you can maintain a positive attitude (as best as possible anyway) --- and it sounds like you're trying --- I think that over the next few weeks you will become pretty successful in learning how to manage the tinnitus.