Noise induced tinnitus told will go 100% within one year

Hello, I'm nineteen in uni. I am in halls so have a fire alarm inside my room, just above the door. Around 2am 5/10/2013 I was listening to music pretty loud through new headphones I bought a few days earlier. After an hour or so the fire alarm went off, and it is so loud. So, I had the music playing directly in my ear and the fire alarm that I could hear in the background. Having listening to music this loud before I have had ringing for a few seconds or minutes before. It must have been the fire alarm as well as the music at the same time that has damaged my ears. Thanks to the drunken student who set the fire alarm off for fun or whatever non serious reason, I now have tinnitus and my life is a nightmare.

I have seen three doctors. They have all told me that it will go 100%, and although they cannot give me a prediction of when it will go they have said no longer than a year. I am now over 9 weeks into it, and sounds like a constant high pitched tone. I have to sleep with a fan on about a foot or even less from my head, which doesn't bother me as prefer sleeping with it anyway and have done for years, I have to have the TV on and the sound of rain playing through youtube. Coping with tinnitus is the hardest thing I have ever had to do, and I can't believe it is not over yet. The worst is not knowing whether it is permanent or not, despite the doctors saying 100% it will go - I am a natural worrier, anxiety runs through the family but before tinnitus I had that under complete control and never had any anxiety attacks since the day I decided I was better than that, to sit there panicking over nothing. Now they I get them sometimes, but mostly I am living in constant fear of the ringing lasting forever. I will not accept that, I refuse to live my whole life with tinnitus. I know I may sound overly dramatic to some people reading this but tinnitus really is underestimated. People have committed suicide over it and I want to live, I don't want to be one of them and never have considered it before I got the ringing. Anyone in a similar situation (with noise induced tinnitus) please respond, especially those with success stories although if I had a success story I definitely wouldn't be reminding myself of it by browsing these forums. When my tinnitus goes I will post my success story and that will be it, that chapter of my life will finally be over. Here is a quote that comforts me: "Everything's gonna be fine. Stay optimistic. If there's dark clouds coming up, they'll leave again. They always do." - Noel Gallagher.

 

I would like to point you to Meestijn's post here. After reading it I'm convinced that everyone with tinnitus should read it. Yes there are some horror stories but it's not all doom and gloom. The important thing to remember is that as time goes on you'll either habituate or it will heal. The only way forward is up, a positive change.

 

I had noise induced T 15+ years ago that lasted months then went away completely. There is always hope.

 

Noel Gallagher has t, am i right? stay strong young one... i´m also devastated with this evil t ... i´m 5 weeks in, and coping a tad better!!!!

 

Not the 1st T story related to fire alarms. In the UK fire alarms are 65dB - 120dB. In US and Canada (I think) up to 100dB-110dB, even inside hospitals where people can't just stand up and leave without help.

 

Hi Jonny, I am in an eerily similar situation to you. I am also 19 and at university, and have also been suffering from tinnitus since October, caused mainly by a loud club night I think. In many ways it has been making my life absolutely miserable, though often I am able to not think about it by getting on and preoccupying myself with lots of things (work, seeing friends etc.). The only way I can describe it is as the sound of crickets/cicadas in my brain, so it is very high-pitched, meaning I can hear it over the sound of pretty much everything (TVs, white noise, fans etc.).

I know this will come as no consolation to you at all, but it has been comforting to hear that someone my own age also has tinnitus; a lot of my peers and friends seem a bit ignorant of it and seem to dismiss it as a problem, I don't know if you have found this as well. Everything you say about it being the hardest thing you've ever had to deal with and the constant fear associated with it I totally understand, those exact thoughts are running through my head right now as well.

I am interested to know who told you it will 100% go away, was it just a GP/doctor or was it an ENT specialist? I am currently awaiting an appointment with an ENT specialist, and so would be interested to know what your experience with them was like (if you have had one)?

Keep positive my friend, even if this stays with us, we can't let it rule us and our lives! From all I've read, this is definitely something you can deal with (much as I find that hard to believe at the moment) and become used to. To back up what RevMarine posted, here is another website that I have found very useful in trying to adapt to it, although it is a bit different in the sense that it tries to deal with habituating and managing the noise rather than seeing when and if it will go away.

http://blog.szynalski.com/2010/12/24/tinnitus-tips/

 

Hey Jamie, sorry for the late reply! I've just been trying to take my mind off the ringing as much as possible. I went to my ENT appointment the other day and had a hearing test. They say I have perfectly normal hearing so it's good news that I don't have any hearing loss, just the ringing that needs to fade preferably sooner than later. They said essentially that there is no cure and have referred me to a tinnitus clinic, I will have an appointment in a few months probably. To answer your question I seen three GP's, each saying it will go 100% (I asked them continuously reiterating, they didn't say 'yep it's tinnitus don't worry it'll go 100%), one of them said within a year. Although, I told the ENT specialist this the other day and he said that he wishes he could say the same but there is no way of telling it will go and he doesn't want to give me false hope. He did say it's likely to fade within time and it's good I'm young with no hearing loss. I'll be happy if it reaches 10% of what it is now so that I only hear it when in quiet rooms rather than it constantly competing with any noise that I attempt to block it out with. I have always slept with a fan on though for around 6 years as it was always hot in my room (despite living in Manchester) and I didn't like sleeping in silence. Ah tinnitus is the hardest most depressing and frustrating thing I have ever encountered.

What are you studying? I'm studying web design and development at Northumbria uni. It's been almost five months now since the ringing started, my only wish in life is for it to go then I will be perfectly happy - I don't see all of my 'problems' before tinnitus now as problems, tinnitus is the only one. Anyway, keeping a positive state of mind, days after it goes or significantly reduced to around 10% like I said I'll be on here to post a 'success story', only when it goes though not when/if I can cope significantly better with it and learn to accept it which I refuse to, as I don't consider that a success story. Keep me updated! has your ringing got any quieter?