Six Years Later: My Journey Through Tinnitus and Hyperacusis Recovery

[greengrassofhome]

Hello everyone,

I had completely forgotten I was a member of this forum. I saw it in my password manager, and it took me back to when I was really struggling and coming here to read nearly every day. It feels like a long time ago now.

I developed tinnitus and hyperacusis in mid-2019 from a gunshot. The first year was awful. I was wearing earplugs while driving and doing daily tasks. Even simple things like taking plates out of the dishwasher were difficult because of the clattering. I was constantly researching whether I would recover and how long it might take.

Then COVID hit. Some days were better than others, but I started to notice some improvement around that time, in late 2020. Whenever I got sick, things would get worse, but on some days, I didn't even think about it. I believe the reduction in daily stress helped, especially since I was working from home.

By late 2021, I would consider myself recovered. I no longer thought about it every day, and it stopped affecting my life in a significant way.

Now, in 2025, I still have the occasional day when it's worse than usual, usually when I'm sick. But I had some level of tinnitus even before 2019. The worst part was the hyperacusis, which started to fade about a year in. That has completely gone, and it was absolute hell while I had it.

Anyway, I just thought I'd post in case anyone is in the same position and looking for some hope, like I was. I know these kinds of stories really gave me hope.

Cheers!

 

[Furetto]

Thank you very much for your report.

To confirm, is this your timeline?

• After 1 year: hyperacusis resolved
• After 1.5 years: first improvements in tinnitus
• After 2.5 years: full recovery?

Is that correct?

 

[greengrassofhome]

Thank you very much for your report.

To confirm, is this your timeline?

• After 1 year: hyperacusis resolved
• After 1.5 years: first improvements in tinnitus
• After 2.5 years: full recovery?

Is that correct?

No worries.

I'd say 12-18 months is when the hyperacusis started to resolve. It was pretty much resolved by 18-20 month mark.

Tinnitus is harder to say, but I would get really bad bursts where I basically could hear anything in the first 12 months. It very slowly got better over 18 - 24 months.

Yes, around 2.5 years in, I wasn't thinking about it much anymore, and felt like I could mentally move on.

The feeling of having a blocked ear constantly for the first year was so distracting, constant reminder of the incident (which was totally my own fault, made it even more annoying)

 

[Jupiterman]

Tinnitus is harder to say, but I would get really bad bursts where I basically could hear anything in the first 12 months. It very slowly got better over 18 - 24 months.

Yes, around 2.5 years in, I wasn't thinking about it much anymore, and felt like I could mentally move on.

This is a typical response from someone writing a success story. It does not say anything specific about the tinnitus.

Let me put it to you directly, without any of the "got better," "not thinking about it," or "mentally better" talk:

Do you still hear your tinnitus? (Yes or no will suffice.)

Has your tinnitus reduced in loudness since the onset? (Yes or no will suffice.)

Thank you.

 

[SafeMusicFan]

This is a typical response from someone writing a success story. It does not say anything specific about the tinnitus.

Let me put it to you directly, without any of the "got better," "not thinking about it," or "mentally better" talk:

Do you still hear your tinnitus? (Yes or no will suffice.)

Has your tinnitus reduced in loudness since the onset? (Yes or no will suffice.)

Thank you.

No disrespect, but I've seen you comment negatively or suspiciously on quite a few success stories, and I'm not sure I understand the purpose of that.

I've been going through a second tinnitus onset for a few months now. Having had success after my first onset 15 years ago, I can confirm from personal experience that phrases like "get better," "not thinking about it," and "mentally better" can lead to "not hearing tinnitus" or "tinnitus being reduced in loudness," or at least the perception of that. Not for everyone, and not in every case. But it can happen, and I don't think we should downplay that.

Reflecting on my recovery from the first onset, when the tinnitus bothered me for about two years and was audible over most daily life situations:

• Did I still hear my tinnitus? No, unless I wore earplugs. In that case, a soft white noise was always present.
• Had my tinnitus reduced in loudness? Yes, at least probably. It's hard to say for sure because once "not thinking about it" became a reality, tinnitus stopped being part of my awareness. As a result, I stopped checking the volume, and gradually my perception became one of silence. Still, during the rare times I was reminded of it, it felt very, very quiet.

Again, I'm not saying this will happen for everyone. Some cases are obviously severe enough that "not thinking about it" is nearly impossible. Yet, some of the success stories I've seen remind me of my own experience, and if anything, they represent something I hope to reach again. In my opinion, there's no reason to keep casting doubt on these stories.

One reason people who recover might be vague about tinnitus is that they don't want to risk triggering a flare-up by falling back into old monitoring habits. One thing I am absolutely certain about is that checking in on my tinnitus volume has never helped, not even once. Still, it's incredibly hard to avoid doing when it becomes more intrusive. If you manage to break that habit, trust me, you don't want to fall back into it by checking whether the tinnitus is truly gone.

 

[greengrassofhome]

This is a typical response from someone writing a success story. It does not say anything specific about the tinnitus.

Let me put it to you directly, without any of the "got better," "not thinking about it," or "mentally better" talk:

Do you still hear your tinnitus? (Yes or no will suffice.)

Has your tinnitus reduced in loudness since the onset? (Yes or no will suffice.)

Thank you.

There's no need to be confrontational.

Ninety-five percent of the time, I don't hear it. I mostly notice it when I'm unwell, such as when I have congestion. I can't remember hearing it at all in the past month.

Yes, it was unbearably loud during the first year. That's why I ended up on this forum.

 

[hmmmmok]

Thanks for making the effort to post.