Spontaneous Recovery Stats: Many Recover (3 Studies)

Over the years, I've been treated on and off for my TMJ by a physical therapist.

I mostly don't feel any pain or limitations in my jaw, it's just that I can't chew, swallow, or move my neck without hearing any internal sounds. Similar to tinnitus (I guess?), it took a few years to habituate to it. However, ever since developing tinnitus, my habituation has been faltering. Most likely due to increased concentration to that area of my body.

Are there any other possible treatments you'd suggest?

 

I guess at this point you will just want to avoid any further trauma to your ears, and hope that you will be one of the people who report experiencing fading after more than a year of no change...

 

Whether you try or not, you will get there. With time your brain will lose focus on the tinnitus and the tinnitus will no longer affect you in any way. It will just be there and it will slowly fade into the background of your awareness until it no longer is in your awareness at all.

 

@stillsinging I wanted to share with you that I had very very extremely intrusive tinnitus for a year. Many times I wanted to kill myself and also did try but was stopped. I couldn’t sleep for days. Everyday I was crying in the middle of the night next to a fridge to mask tinnitus. I spent all my money on ENTs,

Neuromonics, audiologists, saw tinnitus specialists, psychiatrists and psychologists and even wanted to go to USA to see Jastreboff. I know fully what you are facing, please listen to us here. Don’t lose hope. Give yourself time, a lot of time... I know we all know it’s never going to go away but it’s true that you will not be like this down the road.

Protect your ears at all cost. This is the only effective treatment for me and best of all it costs nothing. I avoid loud noises and always use ear plugs more than is necessary. I learnt it the hard way after spending all my money on doctors and treatments. The best way forward is to protect your ears.

 

@stillsinging I had a lot of fading going on. First the fear faded. Then the anxiety faded. Then the depression faded. Then the attention to the tinnitus faded. Then the notion of having tinnitus faded.

 

Seems like tinnitus from acoustic shock has a good chance of fading. I do wonder about idiopathic tinnitus with regards to recovery...

 

Interesting thread. I'm 3 months in concussion caused tinnitus much like Ronnie Carzotto above. He hasn't been seen here in over a year. Maybe his eventually faded to a manageable level? I know I sure could use some hope. I think if someone said it will probably be gone in a year or even two I would feel better. I know that no one can say that though.

I certainly feel like my brain should turn it down in time. My concussion was mild, and it's hard to believe it's still haunting me in such a constant way. Turned my life upside down. Tinnitus is relentless and it dwarfs any other problems that I've ever faced before. Makes them all seem trivial in comparison. I'm amazed by the mental toughness that folks who have habituated have. They are inspiring.

 

As my hyperacusis is slowly getting better, my anxiety and fear are also getting better.

In turn, this helps me cope with tinnitus better. It's not fading, but at least I'm not continuously stressed out anymore.

 

Habituation is great, but it shouldn't be confused with actual improvement. Honestly the stories of actual volume decrease are far more meaningful. "You'll get used to it" is akin to saying "You'll always have it", so I actually think this is not the most supportive or optimistic thing to tell someone.

 

Thank you for sharing this. I did not realize this, as I was focusing more on the anxiety reduction, not the volume reduction. I still think that there are a lot of forum visitors that have more issues with the anxiety than with anything else. But I will take your point of view into account for my future comments.

 

Good to hear!

 

Interesting, but it stated that those soldiers were treated using Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy, which means it might not be completely spontaneous, however it would be nice if it was.

I wonder what such recovery looks like? Is the tinnitus constant for a year and then all of a sudden silence? Or is it linear? Or is there another curve like, for example, the longer you have had tinnitus, the bigger the difference is between two consecutive weeks?

I have had tinnitus for 5 weeks and don't really see much difference. But, if it may take two years to recover, then 5 weeks are like 5% of it, so if it was linear I suppose 5% isn't enough to notice a change, especially when it is not sudden but continuous.

But the fact that even 70-year-olds have recovered from tinnitus gives me hope.

C'mon, I'm only 19, I can do this!

 

I read on a website of one ENT that provides Tinnitus Retraining Therapy that they give it only to patients whose tinnitus is more than one year old, because according to their experiences, 50% of tinnitus cases disappears in a year spontaneously.

 

Ok, dear brain, please delete these multiple tones within the next 6 months. Thank you.

 

Damn, I rolled the dices ten times straight and all my results were in the 51-100 range. I guess I'm f$$$!

 

Do you mean it's possible to make tinnitus permanently louder by moving the jaw forward?

I just did this, before reading what you said, and noticed that my tinnitus changes a lot in intensity when moving my jaw. I hope I didn't do something bad. It does seem louder now!

 

You, like I, must wait for better treatments or a cure.

 

No, make it louder for as long as the jaw is pushed forward. When you relax, the sound ought to go back to normal.

 

No, you probably didn't do any damage, don't worry too much about it.

Many tinnitus sufferers can modulate the volume, intensity or even the tone of their tinnitus. Susan Shore and other researchers as well try to use this characteristic in their work with bimodal stimulation devices.

https://dizziness-and-balance.com/disorders/hearing/tinnitus/somatic tinnitus.html

 

I have avoided coming back for awhile out of pure superstition, but I wanted to provide a positive update.

My tinnitus disappeared entirely after an inpatient residential stay - it was caused entirely by my anxiety, depression and OCD. Like others on this site, I find that it will occasionally reoccur in high stress situations (for seconds at a time), and often when I do not realize I am stressed.

I also want to apologize for any fear or distress I caused with my very fearful/dark posts. I was in a bad place mentally, but also wanted to come back with positive news here in case anyone like me was suffering because of mental issues.

Edit: medications that helped: Abilify and Cymbalta. Life changing.

 

Tara how are you getting on with T - has it got any better??

 

I presume a "residential stay" means at a psychiatric clinic. I had pretty much the same thing - but after taking high doses of Valium initially and then tapering off to 2 mg at night. Unfortunately, when I returned home, the tinnitus basically came back. I have also experienced it in my parents' place when I went back to the UK.

So I am wondering if there is such thing as psychological tinnitus (which, I guess, is similar to tinnitus caused by stress) that can go (almost) completely once we sort out the mental side of things.

I note that someone else on here said that their tinnitus completely vanished when they went away on holiday.

@stillsinging, I imagine you have left Tinnitus Talk behind you; but, if not, would you have any further comment on how your tinnitus dissipated?

 

I am currently 2 months in to acoustic trauma after gunshot went off by my head inside my closet. Is there still a chance mine can get better?

 

Yes.

 

They said up to a year there's a chance of tinnitus of going away but we still see here every now and then success stories of people's tinnitus going away after a few years.

 

I first started hearing tinnitus around this time two years ago and strongly believe it was brought on by stress as we have been suffering with infertility.

I want to give you newbies some hope and I am happy to report that it really has got a lot better.

It is ever so slightly there but honestly doesn’t bother me at all and I just feel like it is a part of me now. I am lying in bed now and to be truthful I can’t even hear it.

 

@monkey124 - that's great news, very happy for you.

@NYCGuy - I understand that tinnitus can get better, but I am talking about the specific scenario in which one changes their environment in a big way to a low-stress environment and this seems to make their tinnitus disappear incredibly quickly.

I wonder what is going on in this case and if there are other stories of this happening.

 

Thank you. I will try and hold on to hope.

I have 2 pictures of audiograms. 1 the day after my injury, and the second 2 months (8 weeks) after my injury. I pray it can continue to improve.

 

My initial tinnitus completely resolved. It was bilateral ringing caused by an AC/DC concert without earplugs. People ask me about the timeframe. I usually say about two years but the thing could’ve resolved sooner. I just stopped caring about it. It was also easily masked so I wasn’t as aware of it unless I was in a quiet room. Truth be told I feel almost foolish - how out of my mind I was about that level of tinnitus compared to what I have now - high-pitched torture. I can’t mask this one - from another acoustic trauma 2.5 weeks ago.

I also had tinnitus in my left ear that came on in 2020 and resolved in 2021 due to hearing loss. My hearing recovered after a year. Not back to perfect but back to what is considered the realms of normal and my tinnitus also resolved. Completely. It can happen. I am proof. I’m praying three times a charm.

 

@Forever hopeful, I gotta ask.

If you do get your 3rd time lucky and you return to normal again, are you going to be more careful?