Reactive/Unmaskable Tinnitus — Positivity Needed

I definitely agree, simply unacceptable. I didn’t even knew of the existence of tinnitus before I suddenly developed it, even less did I imagined that the reactive tinnitus beast existed.

Glad to hear that the reactive component of your tinnitus went away. How much time did it took to subside?

 

We call that Dysacusis aka distortions. I had the robotic distortion in people’s voice too. It went away over time too.

 

The first time I got reactive tinnitus, the thing where every sound has a robot echo added to it, it took 3 days to resolve.

The last time I had reactive tinnitus back in 2016, it took 6 days to resolve, and boy was I scared. KNOCK ON WOOD, it never comes back.

I'll pray for you brother. I hope - no, I want yours to go away. Hopefully we get cures as soon as possible.

Yeah for the first 3 minutes it was hilarious, I was trying to talk like a robot and then it dawned on me that this may never go away. Thank god it went away. Why can't tinnitus and hyperacusis go away like this. Why can't our brains just figure it out.

 

@KoolKat, how long did each recovery take?

 

Less than a week. The second time took about 6 days. I was really scared. KNOCK ON WOOD. That's why I'm hoping for some treatment ASAP as I'm simply a loud noise or infection away from torture. I reall wished Otonomy's OTO-313 worked. I was looking forward to that coming out.

 

@KoolKat, that's a very quick recovery. I'm 11 months in. Whilst the pain is gone, the reactivity is not.

 

I would like to add to the mix that I had hyperacusis and reactive tinnitus and have now recovered. This took around 18 months to heal. I strongly believe my tinnitus was linked to my hyperacusis. The reactiveness of the tinnitus calmed at the same speed as the hyperacusis.

Happy to go into detail if you need but I don't want to hijack the thread. Just saying that in my case the hyperacusis healed over time using sound therapy, CBT and meditation. There is hope.

 

@Darrenb111, well done on your success. I read some of your postings. You didn’t have noise-induced tinnitus and you wore a hearing aid to reduce/eliminate your hyperacusis?

Is this correct?

 

Thank you. My hyperacusis and tinnitus started unexpectedly whilst I was asleep! I can only theorise it was an inner ear infection caused by a virus or possible sinus infection. It left me with hearing loss from 5.5 kHz and above in one ear.

The hearing aid (Oticon More 1) hugely reduced my hyperacusis and also acted as sound therapy over a year's period. I believe this was the main driver to my recovery.

 

Did you use the noise generating features of the Oticon's or was it simply the amplification of the lost frequencies that helped?

 

Hi @Darrenb111 - did you have many noise related setbacks along the way before recovery?

 

I originally used a soothing beach/wave sound but I didn't find that helped me much, my hyperacusis felt like it was struggling when this was on so I turned this off after a week or so.

And strangely it was the amplification of the mid ranges, where I had no hearing loss, that seemed to help the hyperacusis almost instantly. Very counterintuitive I guess but seemed to work for me.

Not so many setbacks. I would find if my body was ill or I was very stressed with work/kids, my hyperacusis and tinnitus would play up. Sometimes if a loud sound got me, such as my daughter screaming in my ear whilst I was playing with her, this would also increase the sensitivity of hyperacusis and also raise my tinnitus level.

I did find, however, that the recovery time to my 'baseline' was around a week at the beginning and this gradually decreased in time as my body started to move towards habituation.

 

@Darrenb111, did you wear a hearing aid on only one ear or both ears? My hearing loss is only in one ear but my audiologist is suggesting that I wear the hearing aid in both ears, which I find odd.

 

I would suggest that anyone with really negative reactions to tinnitus stay off the internet. In the fist years after my onset, I had a hard time with it, but I found that focusing on it just makes it worse. I don’t care about my tinnitus any more. It’s not any quieter, I just decided to move on with my life and not let it bother me. I rarely come here any more.

 

Exactly so. I have my box fan, a little sound machine, the stove vent and the central heater or A/C fan for masking it. But there have been times it has really amped, like recently, and I had to have all of them running at once. That can backfire sometimes, the sounds become additive and could even make it louder. Sitting too close to a wall is not good for me either. Outside, it's either not noticeable, or not as loud.

The forum has been a place to at least feel like I'm not all alone w/ this dastardly problem. That does help, but we're all different on this. Going to in-person tinnitus self-help groups was a big mistake though!

But to be honest, I am noticing right this minute that it is more noticeable since I started typing here.

 

I can’t imagine going to a tinnitus support group and not having it make things worse.

I‘ve always thought tinnitus and stress/anxiety are very closely related (at least in a lot of people). Everything that I do that relaxes me helps. From how a lot of people seem to post online, I sense there is a tremendous amount of preexisting anxiety issues. I would include myself in that group.