New to Tinnitus Talk

Hello.
I should start by introducing myself. I am 14 years old and I've had tinnitus for 2 years. I have absolutely no idea what started my tinnitus. I didn't have noticeable loud noise exposure until after my tinnitus had started (and it's only gotten worse since then). I never had ear infections as a baby and never had tubes in my ears. I am thinking that it may be genetic for me, because both my parents have it. My mom got it through a single loud noise exposure in her 20s (about 25 years ago) and my dad doesn't have a known cause either.
At first, I thought the ringing in my ears was normal - not sure where I got that thought from! I eventually told my mom, because I knew she had the problem and protecting her ears is very important to her. I myself wasn't very worried. I didn't know tinnitus was a named condition, and I thought it would go away. Sadly, I was wrong. It's only gotten worse since then.
For July 4th, I went to my neighbors' house to watch the fireworks. They were setting off fireworks of numerous types on the driveway, and I absolutely refused to wear earplugs. "No one else wears earplugs on July 4th," I said. Well, maybe high school kids my age don't, but what I've found out after the fact is that earplugs are a necessity for fireworks. If only I'd known that beforehand... The "missiles" that shot multiple whistling fireworks up at one time were the ones that bothered me. I covered my ears when they set off the second batch, even though I was afraid I'd look weird. After the fireworks, while in the backyard with my neighbor friends and their cousin, I was extremely worried that my tinnitus would be worse, but I couldn't be sure until I got home and was in a quiet environment. To my surprise, when I got home, the tinnitus was manageable and much less severe than I'd expected. It was about midnight when I went to bed. I was lying in bed, relieved that the tinnitus wasn't worse, when after about 15 minutes of trying to sleep (I can never fall asleep in less than about 30 minutes anyway), a high-pitched squeal turned on in my right ear. AFTER I'd been home for an hour with no significant change! The 4th of July was 5 days ago. Since then, the tinnitus has been worse than ever. It's fluctuated, but still stayed at an extremely loud, high-pitched frequency. My hope is that the multiple tones in my ears will merge and soften eventually (this HAS happened before).
When I found this forum just this morning, I was feeling kind of desperate, so I joined despite the fact that I rarely join any sort of site right away. :3 I'm not sure if this forum is what I was looking for, because I've already noticed a couple instances of unnecessary profanity, but I figured it'd be better to write to actual people than to read those articles on the Internet that really don't have much to do with me. So, I'm here, even if I may be the youngest person on this site.

 

Welcome to the forum. You seem to have T running in your family and your ears a bit unstable before the exposure to the loud noise. Right now the ears and the brain neurons are in a bit of unstable or hyperactive mode. You need time to let it heal and settle down. Try to stay calm and use masking to help distract from paying attention to the T.

It is often suggested by members to get some prednisone treatment from your doctor asap soon after acoustic trauma or exposure to loud noise. Try to see your doctor to see if they can prescribe that to you.

The other things you can do is to get busy to distract from paying attention to T. If you are really stressed and anxious (which is bad for T), then try to do something relaxing, some breathing exercises such as abdominal breathing, enjoy hobbies etc. If you need some extra help to stay calm, try some natural alternatives, such as Lemon Balm, Valerian, Hops, Catnips, Passion Flower, Chamomile, Lavender, Kava, Melatonin etc. You can google search each of them to know their use and see if you can take them as a supplement. Talk to your parents and ask for advise before you do so. Check out this site on using natural herbs for helping to sleep or to calm the nerves.

http://www.christopherhobbs.com/lib...ealth/herbs-and-natural-remedies-for-insomnia/

The best way to me is to mask your T right now. I used to mask all days just to stay calm when my T is new. So if you haven't done so, here are some suggestions. Take good care & God bless.

1) Mask at bed time so you can sleep better. Find whatever sounds/music that are soothing to you. You can use a sound machine or sound pillow for this, or a computer with speakers.

2) If you need masking on the go, try load an ipod with nature sounds or music using itune. If you have a smart phone, you can download free APPs for soothing or T-masking sounds.

3) If you have computer and speakers, you can try these excellent masking sounds too:

TT's audio player: https://www.tinnitustalk.com/audioplayer/

or this online sound library, particularly the self-mix nature sounds: http://mynoise.net/

or download free sound generator ‘aire freshener’: http://www.peterhirschberg.com/mysoftware.html

or search youtube with words like 'tinnitus masking sounds', 'white noise', 'rain sound' etc.

 

A warm welcome to Tinnitus Talk Susan.
You will get support round the clock on this forum and make some friends too.....lots of love glynis