Success — One Year After Getting Tinnitus — Habituated

First and foremost, I would like to start this post by saying I have had tinnitus for more than a year and although initially was a big deal and trauma for me, it became just a general nuisance only about 2 months after. In the bulk of the post, I will just describe my experience with it and any takeaways but if you don’t want to read a wall of text the TLDR is “Tinnitus is massively traumatic, however for most people, with habituation, it becomes a mild nuisance and not a disability”.

The way that I really “kickstarted” my tinnitus was by going to a Kings of Leon concert right after I visited an audiologist who explicitly told me to be careful with my ears as I had a quite continuous beep sound in my right ear. I asked her at the time if this could have been caused by loud music and concerts and she said maybe but she can’t say for sure. Moreover, I had a reduction in hearing in the lower and higher ranges from 20 to 35-40 decibels… I still don’t know why I didn’t take my earplugs to the concert I think I thought to myself that because it was outside and the music won’t be too loud I won’t need them. I was very, very wrong… The band was deafening, and I remember thinking ok I will just move back as my ears were hurting already. Next thing I know me and my girlfriend were making makeshift plugs from paper tissues. Looking back I was being very careless as now I know that it takes literally seconds at very high volumes to do permanent damage to the ears so for those who still have doubts I can testify that even a bit of super loud sound of a concert could have lasting consequences. My ears were ringing after the concert, but it was not too bad. Two days later though I woke up with this almost like alarm loud sound in my head and it was really distressing. My girlfriend would try to comfort me, but I was literally having an anxiety attack. Breathing in a measured way helped but the biggest helper was time and habituation. A big initial problem for me was just constantly blaming myself that I was so careless with my ears. It took me weeks to just forgive myself and realize that I had to accept that I had this thing now and this is how silence would sound from now on. It was my fault but beating myself over was not helping so I really hope if you are in the same scenario to have the grace to be kind to yourself.

My timeline was the following, the first month was the hardest it had a lot to do with something called hyperacusis which meant my ears were sensitive to all sound which was quite brutal. I think the hyperacusis was temporary from the loud music trauma as nowadays I am not as sensitive. Moreover, my tinnitus would sometimes peak (dramatically increase in volume) and I would also have this “woof woof” sound like a washing machine drum in my ear. I believe this was directly related to whatever trauma I had in my ears. In addition, my ears felt full/stuck which but thankfully that has mostly disappeared since then and no longer have any problems when flying.

What I did for the first month was I stopped eating a bit because I read somewhere that fasting could help me. I tried taking cold showers it took like a variety of supplements I’m not sure if that helped or not with my hearing, but it did help with bringing a sense of control. I was extremely worried about how tinnitus and my sensitivity would affect my ability to work (I am a software engineer) or to do any of the things I enjoy, reading books, music, travelling. My GP was actually terrible at comforting me telling well this is how it's going to be, so suck it up…I literally broke down crying when I came home thinking that I could be like this for the rest of my life and potentially not being able to work just because I listened to loud music too much…It felt so shameful and just and I don’t know bizarre. Thankfully my biggest fears never materialized, and my condition improved to the point I described earlier in the post. Reading some of the success stories and experience of other people on Tinnitus Talk helped a lot!

I wish when I got my trauma if somebody told me right away that I will get better if not fully healed it would have helped me a lot dealing with it. I was very grateful to my boss who allowed to take sick leave for a week which meant I can just get my bearings as I was severely underslept and really distressed. Don’t be ashamed to ask for leave if the initial period of getting tinnitus or hyperacusis is incredibly traumatic for you,

While I was on sick leave I started reading voraciously about the condition and the more, I read the better actually I felt about it cause you can see things more objectively meaning tinnitus is quite common and most people have a good prognosis. Read the following book:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Living-Tinnitus-Hyperacusis-McFerran-Baguley/dp/1847090834

Which made a big difference especially by backing with some data the following statement:

“Tinnitus is massively traumatic but for most people, with habituation, it becomes a mild nuisance and not a disability”.

I remember seeing a graph in there literally showing a dramatic decrease in distress with time and from my own experience I can wholeheartedly agree with the authors. So just hang in there for most things will get better!

Nowadays, if I go to a club or somewhere else where is loud I have always a pair of plugs with me (they are on my keychain). I would recommend who want to get plugs don’t overreact and get 30 dB reduction ones as for almost all things they quite the overkill I got myself such and it is too much I use right now about 21 dB reduction and looking to get nice custom ones at around the 16 dB range.

Regarding sleep, for the first 2 weeks of my tinnitus, I had big problems with sleep, especially because the sound could get much louder at times while I was asleep and just wake me up. However, after I got used to it and I remember explicitly trying not to think of it as annoying. More as you know like cicadas in the forest or some general calming background sound. I would almost just let the tinnitus ring me to sleep which has been quite helpful. Another trick which I got from the forum was imagining an external object in my head, like an old TV, which is just emitting static as sound and that really helped with my putting my mind at rest. I believe there is something to do with your attitude to the sound and how distressing it is.

In conclusion, it has been a year with Tinnitus, I had mild hyperacusis for about 3 weeks and past that it has been a mostly nuisance for me and although I remember being very distressed during these times now it no longer has a massive impact on my life. I definitely still hear my tinnitus but it does not bother me much and a lot of times my brain just filters the sound anyway.

Hope that helps somebody and if you have any questions post here or message me directly. I generally don’t check the forum so please don’t take it personally if I take me a bit of time to respond!

 

How long did it take for the fullness and blocked feeling to go away?

 

Hey. So did your tinnitus decrease at all or is it still at the same level? Also is your tinnitus somatic?

 

@Mi1, I think it was right about at 2 months after the trauma, maybe 3 tops.

@MarkX yes the perceived loudness decreased somewhat with the sensitivity to sound again about 2 months after. My tinnitus is not somatic, it's only from loud sound.

I think there is some kind of healing process in the first 8 weeks after a trauma. However, past the two months I can't really see any improvement in loudness. It's always there but because it's quite constant it's easy to filter out. Right after the trauma used to vary a lot which made it much more uncomfortable.

 

Do you have hearing loss as well?

 

@basma yes I do. I have a threshold of 35-40db at the 4k to 8k Hz range. Interestingly enough I took my measurement right before my trauma and then after and although my tinnitus had become worse there was no further hearing loss.

 

How did you sleep at first? Anyone have any luck with CBD? What about when it wakes you up with piercing noise and panic? Feels like my life is over. I never realized how great my life was before this (as I previously struggled with depression and anxiety disorder). Wow—to go back and feel more grateful. This is a nightmare.

 

@Dyanne If you had your trauma recently talk to your doctor and get for the first week or so something to help you sleep. Also take sick leave if you can. The first 2 weeks for me were really hard I could barely sleep. I do suggest going through relaxation and exercises and trying to listen to the sound without attaching emotion to it. Some masking might help although I found with my sound easier to just listen to it and try to just not fight it.

Hope you get better and remember for most people there's significant improvement! Let also your loved ones know that you are in need of extra support. If needed consider therapy. In the UK you can get referred for free.

 

I use this free-mium app (android & apple): https://www.rainrainapp.com/
-I only have the free version and use the Mississippi Nights & Cicadas, mixed together and playing at the same time. I monitor the db's to be below 60db. Also, I have a fan and air purifier on for more masking noise.

I posted on other general sleep tips/optimization in a post on libido:
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/problems-with-libido-—-theres-nothing-sexy-about-tinnitus.36876/#post-472090

 

Hello there,

How bad was your hyperacusis in the first month? Did it come on right after you noticed your tinnitus or was it gradual?

 

Keep in mind that he might not respond anymore, Kalos' last visit was only a few days after his story. Most people leave TinnitusTalk after habituating. Glad he still wrote a success story though

 

@Yuuls sorry for the late reply as I said I rarely visit the forum. So my hyperacusis was bearable but uncomfortable. For example being next to a busy road felt quite painful while say someone using a fork on a plate was alright. I still find my ears more sensitive, 2 years after, but not nearly as much. The hyperacusis went away I think after the first month or so and this is where the sound started to stabilise in pitch and sound. 2 years after I am in the same place as my original post, my tinnitus is annoying but does not impact my life in a significant way. Good luck to all who are reading this.