Overwhelming New Tinnitus and No Sleep

Hello all, I'm 20 and the ringing in both ears started 5 days ago. I was being treated for a respiratory infection and on the third day of antibiotics I got home from work and noticed the ringing. I wasn't terribly concerned at first because I figured it would just go away, I went out Saturday night thinking I'd be fine if I just plugged my ears and then to the beach yesterday. By the time I got home I practically couldn't here any ringing at all but by last night it was so loud that masking wasn't helping. If you've stuck around this long thank you. Anyway, I didn't sleep at all last night as I became extremely anxious and could feel my heart racing and palms sweating while wondering if I would ever get a good night's sleep again. Is this going to get worse? I'm going to the doctor today to find out more. I'm just so scared that it will only go downhill from here.

 

Hello and my prayers are with you. What works for me is humming to myself my favorite songs. Alone I hum out loud if people near me to myself. Putting the focus on something else. Maybe thinking of your favorite activity or hobby. Not allowing this to defeat you. Twenty years I still have hope mine will be cured one day.

 

Sorry about your suffering. The initial period is always hardest. Your fearful and anxious reaction as well as sleeplessness are very common among new sufferers. Don't panic and don't despair. Things will get better. Your T is still relatively new. Try to be positive and hopeful so you can keep anxiety and stress level under control, as these are bad for T. Being more positive and accepting is the best approach when T is new. Your ears & T may take some time to settle down, and your body needs time to adjust to and accept the 'new normal' to learn to flow with it. Resisting something we can't control much will generate fierce emotional storm to the body, and the emotional pains are manifested in anxiety, panic, depression, sleeplessness & lack of energy or enthusiasm. If possible, try to adjust, adapt and to accept the new normal, whatever the case is, especially if it is beyond your control, while at the same time applying some effective strategies learned from the forum so you can get better and better as time goes on. Try to read many success story to learn some insights and give you hope. I have written my story. Hope you find something useful there.

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/from-darkness-to-light-how-i-recovered-from-tinnitus-hyperacusis.3148/

In the mean time, if T is causing too much anxiety and you don't want to use meds to control it, then masking is a good way to help the situation. I used to mask all day just to prevent panic attacks from hearing my ultra high pitch loud dog whistle T. Try these if you haven't yet:

1) Mask at bed time so you can sleep better. Find whatever sounds/music that soothe you. You can use a sound machine or sound pillow for this.

2) If you need masking on the go, try load an ipad with nature sounds or music, or use smart phone.

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

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

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

Make your own rain sounds with this rain generator: http://mynoise.net/NoiseMachines/rainNoiseGenerator.php

You can also search youtube by typing in the masking sounds you like, such as 'rain', ‘white noise’, ‘tinnitus masking sounds’ etc. and you should get a good list of sounds to choose from.