Sound Reactive Tinnitus. Help Please.

Hello everybody, could you please help me?

I have no idea how to try to habituate to my sound-reactive tinnitus. It goes "volume up" with any louder sound around me, even my own voice. Then it goes back down. Let's say a dog barks: WHOOF! My tinnitus goes: BEEEP! Let's say somebody (or I) yells: HEY THERE! My tinnitus goes: B-BEEP! Let's say I'm in a car. The tinnitus goes volume up until I stop the engine. Not persistent. Just reacting.

I know I could habituate to constant tinnitus over time, I did once before, but now this: after acoustic shock, when tinnitus became much louder and reactive. I'm 2 months with this. Losing hope. Looking for strategy.

Please, give me some advise how to try to habituate to this. Any idea or experience helps.

(I am planning to do TRT and whatever it takes. Now I am looking for coping methods in everyday life.)

 

I don't really have any advice for how to habituate again but I have the same kind of T as you do. What I do is wear musician's earplugs to bring the sound down 25dB and that makes my reactive T a little less... intrusive and much more bearable.

I wear them in the car, when I'm walking on the streets, when I'm at the store, when I'm in a coffee shop. Pretty much whenever I'm out in public.

 

Thank you. I got the musician earplugs too, yet I don't use them much. I try not to avoid the sound, as in hyperacusis protocol, I guess I should train the brain "it's all right". It's just so hard. I've read a lot about tinnitus, I get the Jastreboff principle, but I just don't understand this reactiveness.

 

Hi Barrowww, when I got my T 5 years ago, an ultra high pitch dog whistle, I felt the same way of my T reacting to sound. Then severe H followed and I had to wear ear plugs to protect from piercingly hurtful normal sounds. I bought $200 worth of various plugs ready for a life time of sound protection. But forum members advised me to not over protect to avoid developing sound sensitivity. So I took off the ear plugs slowly and reluctantly. Over the next year or so, H just faded. T no longer displayed the sound reactive tendency and now I can watch cinema movie without ear plugs. If it got really loud, I just used my fingers. LOL. I can also fly long inter-continental flights without using any ear plugs. Again, the fingers and the ipod ear buds if needed but rarely. So don't worry or panic about your sound reactive T. It may be just a temporary period before your ears and T settle down. Stay positive and relax. The less stress, the less loud the T may become. Nothing to lose by staying more relax and positive. Take care.

 

Thank you for encouraging words, Billie. I will hope and believe this reactive nightmare will pass. I am training my ears to the sounds as you said. It has cut me off socially. I guess I'll just have to carry on and believe my brain can fix this.

 

Ya, tell me about cutting off social life. During the darkest time, my ears couldn't handle any normal sounds, those from tv, restaurant, dishes, parties, driving, social conversation, not even the soft voice of my wife spoken too close. Gosh it was tough. I had to withdraw from social contacts and stay in my quiet room. But quietness or using the ear plugs means the loud and ultra high pitch dog whistle was absolutely unbearable. So I was stuck between the two monsters and choosing one means the other became unbearable. That was the dark, dark period of my life. But things take time to settle down and get better, at least for my case. Hope you will be just fine. Take it easy and be patient.

 

I personally would protect and avoid a lot of sound for the first few months. I believe my mistake was trying to get back into the groove too soon. I would go out to a pub around 70db at times, I ended up with permanent spikes and new sounds that are still with me today.

 

What brand of musicians earplugs did you get, derpytia? I have reactive t also, and am a musician. Time I invest in a pair of those Thanks.

 

@Barrowww ...I think you read this link below? If not I suggest you do. It may help you sort some things out.
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/tinnitus-vs-tinnitus-hyperacusis-some-basic-differences.5110/
Reactive T (or hyperacusis, or reactive hyperacusis, or whatever we call it) is a whole different animal to "normal T". I strongly believe you cannot treat it the same way. It's a real she-dog.

We had a very great guy on the forum called "I who love music", and you might want to search some of his old posts. In short he used to adopt a "cotton wool comfort treatment" for his T when it got bad. Also there are advocates of "silence" for a a meaningful drop in reactivity over time...yeah that actually holds.

Read the above link and you will see that my 'experienced position' on all this is that: A period of increased hyperacusis/reactive tinnitus, is a helluva lot better than a permanent increase in your volume of tinnitus! So I consider a period of "over-protection" an essential component to reactive T. My H goes down about 5% to 10% per year, irrespective. My increased T volumes - yes plural...do not!
Look closely, I say period ref. increased avoidance and sound protection...not forever.

Lastly, if your ears ever feel "bruised" too (usually only from temporal = time exposure to louder sound) watch out big time!!! That has invariably led to > T volume for me unless I pull back from sound radically. It's a clear "warning sign" that damage is lurking just around the exposure corner. Trust me on that!...Though as always, we are all different and ultimately you have to figure out your own road with all this.

Good luck...and as Clinton said: "I feel your pain".
Best, Zimichael

 

Mine are Westones er-25

 

Thank you all for your answers. After finally finding a doctor who tested my LDLs, I'm finding out that I really am hyperacustic (even when 3 doctors before told me I'm not, without even suggesting LDL). So I know what's going on now. I'll try to get help with this and see.