Some Positive Tinnitus Paths and My Own Path...

Since developing Tinnitus about 8 months ago I have talked to many people and have a few stories of it going away or people getting used to it. My boss at work said his father had it for about a year when he was a teenager, his dad got used to the sound and after about a year it had just gone away. One of the worker's at my daughter's school has a neighbour who had tinnitus for about 3 years and it just went away. However she also knew someone who's had it for about 20 years, it got progressively worse and then got better and better to the point where he is able to live with it now, it only really bothers him going to sleep.

I also met a lady on the street one morning when I was going for a walk, I was having a really hard time with the tinnitus at that point and I had asked God that day to give me a sign it would get better. I was doing a stretch touching my toes next to the footpath when an elderly lady walked past and asked me if I could get my hands flat on the ground like she used to be able to when she was younger. I told her no but that even 6 months ago, I couldn't even touch my feet but with stretching everyday, now I can easily touch my toes. Anyway we started to continue walking and talking together and she told me her husband died about 2 years ago and I told her about my struggle with tinnitus. She said she and her husband used to have it and they'd joke about it together. I asked her if it got worse when her husband died and she said yes, but it has pretty much gone away now (occasionally it comes back but not for very long). I don't know what these people got it from i.e. noise induced, infection, stress induced etc.

My partner has had tinnitus since he was a child and can remember it clearly when he was trying to sleep at night as a kid, but he habituated and has lived with it, with no problem, his whole life (he's now 49). However he is going through a really stressful period with his business at the moment and when I started experiencing it, he is noticing it again now (which he's not too happy about)! My father also has tinnitus (noise induced from being in the navy when he was a young man, close to gunfire, before they wore ear protection) but it doesn't bother him at all, he is able to ignore it. When it gets loud, he just goes and does something else and it recedes into the background again. Most of the time he doesn't even notice it.

As for my own tinnitus, I got it during a really stressful period in my life about 8 months ago but I also has a burning sensation in my ear a month or so prior. At first I was a complete wreck, walking around the house not knowing what to do with myself, crying, being so so fearful etc. I was thinking how can I live with this, although ending it all wasn't an option because of my beautiful daughter. At the beginning it was a high pure tone all the time and then I started waking up and it was low in the mornings, like a open gas kind of sound and as the day progressed it turned into the pure tone again and it would peak around 7pm into a kind of electric head feeling. Then it started becoming later and later in the day that it would turn into the pure tone. When I was holidays and having regular massages and cranio-sacaral therapy, it was the low gas tap sound all day until evening when it would turn again to the pure tone (which is a horrible sound) but then it would calm down again before bed.

Around the 6 month mark, I was eating very healthily, going to bed at 8:30pm, reading for about an hour and then going to sleep, walking and doing yoga regularly, getting craniosacral therapy regualarly and the T was improving. Also in summer I went to the beach many times and went swimming, walking on the sand and only heard the waves, not the T for hours. Always after I left the beach it was so low for a couple of hours, I could hardly hear it. After my last session of cranio (and the osteopath did a manipulation to my neck), it was so low at times over the next few days that I could hardly hear it. At 8 months now, I've gotten a bit slack with my sleep routine, exercise and eating and it's cold down here now, so no beach and the T hasn't gotten better but it hasn't gotten worse. It's still low in the mornings if I sleep early and soundly but my sound has changed to a kind of electrical / crickets sound and it stays the same volume pretty much all day, and then it peaks a little at night (but much less than before) and then it settles down again. I have no ear pain at all now and it's not sound sensitive at all as it was a little in the beginning. The sound now is easily maskable, I don't hear it over the kettle, shower or outside mostly, but always hear it in the quiet house (however it doesn't freak me out anymore).

I am absolutely convinced of Julian Hill's experience (see his youtube video's and posts here) and the power of massage, yoga, cranio therapy and life changes to heal tinnitus. Now I am in the process of moving Northern Australia where I am from (to be near family and friends) and where it is warm and I can go to the beach and do hiking all year round. I really feel that the tinnitus will continue to improve and will either go away one day or will be become a non-issue in my life. I should also include that I spent $500 on sound therapy Perth which I try to listen to for 3 hours a day. I'm not sure if it has helped the tinnitus but it really helped me to mask it during the hard times and the classical music is theraputic and calming, I still listen to it when I read books. I don't mask to sleep anymore, I just listen to the noise and fall asleep and my sleep is back to normal. If I'm talking with people or at louder places like cafes, shopping centres, I don't notice it all. I feel very hopeful that if my life has improved so much compared to when I first noticed the T 8 months ago, then I will be so much better in another 8 months.

I wish everyone all the best and hope everyone's T either goes away or experience complete habituation. Much love and peace to you all.

 

This is a great and positive story, only 2 months in,
and reading this makes me feel so much better.
i hope this success and improvement keeps getting better