Noise Induced Tinnitus — What's Your Short and Long Term Experience?

For those with noise induced tinnitus, can you describe your experience immediately after your tinnitus onset, and also your long term experience?

I'm interested to know if, after your noise exposure, you got fluctuations in the pitch or new noises months after the event?

I had a noise event in October last year and since then my tinnitus has been all over the place. In the beginning I was getting a noise like someone rubbing their finger on a wine glass rim, then I was getting beeps in my left ear, my main tinnitus was louder, then the beeps went and has now been replaced by something quieter, and now my main noise is a higher pitch sound and like a million nerve cells all eeeeeing at the same time like fine needles.

Is noise induced tinnitus such a random unrelenting beast?

 

I have a medium to loud bunch of tones that sound like the wine glass thing. Right now as i write this its been louder i am trying not to think about it i just the same but its very difficult.

 

I'll try to summarize my experience:
1) biggest mistake of my life - using my computer - watching a YouTube video - I decided to switch from my headphones to the speaker - done this several times but this time, switching the setting to speaker/audio out - resulted in the volume setting going way up. I was playing a video at the time and it came out the speaker at high volume and I was sitting at the computer chair in front of the computer - I turned down the volume immediately but that did it. I had ear pain and around a day later I had loud buzzing
2) it fluctuated from 'loud cicadas' sound to a low volume (same but lower volume) and at times, it went to virtually white noise/static and sometimes I couldn't hear it or thought I couldn't hear it - that moments of relief could last anywhere from a few minutes to an hour or two (when I was really lucky)
3) I went into a grocery store and a loud screeching sound on the intercom after an announcement caused a spike so my patterns from before changed to a fire alarm/kettle boiling, high pitched still sound of tinnitus - severe and the fast, relentless, high pitch was just as bad but somehow different. It settles down sometimes to low volume and on occasion, to a static noise/almost hiss sound but that is rare. When it is really low volume, it's usually around 10 at night when I'm lucky - and I can sleep, well, sort of. Not quality sleep but at least, it's still sleep

I try masking/distracting - it only works when the volume is low or it has settled down. I mostly use a smartphone app of crickets (sometimes, frogs).

I tried music, waterfalls, sounds of a brook and a standing fan - none of these work. Maybe those people are right who say you need something 'similar' (in pitch?) to your tinnitus - in order to mask it or settle your t down? Other sounds seem to 'aggravate/provoke' the tinnitus. I don't know any other way to describe it.

This is the current 'state of things' as of this post. This fluctuation is 'good' according to some people but I crave it becoming mild - the loud spikes or whatever you wish to call them is still torture. I would rather it just become mild (or the miracle of it just going away) than have to consider habituation.


Ooops, this post is getting lengthy. I was trying to summarize. My apologies.

 

When mine became worse it was hell on earth. It was all over the place and sounds would come and go and constantly morph in real-time. There was even a really random day that I remember where it faded back to my childhood level of tinnitus and what I’d consider silence (I’ve never had true silence, even as a kid I remember hearing a high pitch sound at bedtime but I thought everybody heard it).

Anyway, it took a long time to come to any sort of mental stability and every time I took a step forwards I’d take two steps back, that was just the nature of it. It’s not easy. Now it’s much steadier but it still fluctuates, however, the main difference is my emotional response. I just don’t acknowledge it most of the time even though it’s always there and it’s always loud; I essentially made my brain get bored of it, and eventually it stopped bothering my conscious awareness because I’d eliminated most of the strong emotions I had towards it. It sounds like psychobabble and I’d likely have been highly irritated by a post like this 4 years ago, but I’m telling the truth of my experience today.

However, my biggest concern is that it may get worse, so there’s always a shadow looming over me and this is the reason why I haven’t gone back to live music yet.

The best thing you can do is look after your mental health as that’s the key to feeling better about yourself. I’m not saying everyone can achieve this because I have no way of knowing, but by sharing my experience of having loud intrusive noises all over my brain and in both ears, I hope some can take some hope that they too can reach the point I’m at. Don’t change your life completely to accommodate it because in my opinion that’s one way of empowering it. Your brain shoves it in your face if it thinks it’s a threat all the time, and after I spent far too long being desperately sad and miserable I knew I had to change the way I was behaving. In the end I just let it wash over me and I ignored it. I refused to allow it to make me feel one way or another and to help me do this I kept myself busy with new hobbies and I started exercising again. At first it feels impossible, but the more you ignore it without feeling a certain way about it, the better it gets.

 

It went to virtually static for an hour - bearable - I could habituate to that, I think - and I am only saying this because I am desperate for relief. I went into a long term care facility to visit my Dad and the elevators had screeching sounds but nothing affected my T.

I can't say it enough, I don't understand this affliction - it makes little sense - I am glad that researchers/scientists are doing studies on it - I wish we could do something so that more funding is given or more attention - and that even more is done. I need a Cole's notes from them because it's such a complicated affliction.

My left ear is sore from ear plugs - I don't know how often to use them and I don't know if noise/sounds impacts T or when/if it does - when / how often/ etc. etc. - this is my experience and it fluctuates - so, 'acoustic trama' = fluctuation and most of the time, torturous high pitched and loud and the odd time it's very low in volume or even just a static hiss that is barely perceptible is the only relief I get and I'm so glad to get it. I just wish it would fade into that for good. Then, maybe I'd habituate and could wait for a cure...