Taking Back My Life — Here's What I Did to Improve My Tinnitus, Anxiety, and Depression

Hello everyone!

I started hearing the ringing in my ear on March 6 of this year, 2021. I also had a buzzing noise in my head. Before I keep going I want to say thank you to you all. I have gained a lot of hope and knowledge with the Success Stories. I will say my tinnitus has been around 2 or 3 out of 10 in the last 3 weeks. I believe this was stress induced so let me start from the beginning.

Before the tinnitus began...

I was dealing with depression and anxiety at the end of 2020. I was losing hope and had a lot of negative thoughts. These thoughts scared me. Scared me enough to want to fight to live. That sounds a little weird. It made sense in my head. Lol. So that's what I did. I fought. I fought to live. For about a whole month straight I was doing this daily. And yes I did this daily!

- listen to devotionals
- daily prayers
- reading the bible
- make gratitude lists
- essential oils
- open up to many people
- got completely off social media
- not watch anything negative
- go for walks
- force myself to do things (cook, clean, play with my daughter etc.)
- paint and draw
- read
- therapy
- meditation
- podcasts
- (no antidepressants)

I always said I never have time to do anything. But I made time. I found time. Well I started seeing a big difference in myself and in my life pretty quick. I had to start doing a lot of reflection and a lot of changing. But depression and anxiety overwhelms your body so much so although I felt better I only felt about 75 to 80 % my old self. So I knew I still had a lot of work to do. I was being positive. I was feeling good. And then all that changed. I started hearing this ringing in my ear. Omg. It was so loud in the beginning. I felt like I was going crazy. I would tell people and no one understood just how bad it was. I felt alone. But I promised myself to never go back to the dark place of depression so every day as hard as it was I kept Using my coping methods. I prayed more and spoke (begged) to God more than I ever had to please heal me. I was getting very anxious. I cried a lot. But I kept reminding myself to not fall back. And honestly that helped. I went back to wanting to fight.

I started doing research and reading articles. Joining this group. Started working on my stress. Started meditating again with a soothing noise in the background. I also reached out to a friend who is an audiologist (she lives in a different state so I couldn't see her) but she gave me some tips. Number one being DO NOT BE IN A QUIET ROOM ever!!!! Which honestly I didn't like Because it only reminded me of how I can't ever be in silence. But I started seeing a slight difference because it was making me pay attention to other things and not the ringing. I have a toddler and whoever has kids knows that it's not always so quiet so that would help. But even going to the restroom I turn on a video or I put on music. To sleep I put on a sound machine noise. I even started making my own noise. Like humming and singing. Or tapping. I started speaking out loud.

Speaking out loud helped a lot surprisingly. For example if I'm going to cook this would be my own conversation.

"Time to cook!"
Stands in front of refrigerator "hmm what should I cook today? Maybe some... or..."
"Oooh I haven't ate this in a while!"
"Yummy smells so good!"
"Mmmm yummy mmm"

I know it sounds kind of ridiculous but it preoccupied my mind and I stopped thinking of my tinnitus. And plus my 2-year-old daughter loves it and sometimes copies me. Lol.

There is one more thing I did. This I believe was more of a coincidence but it gave me a bit of hope. One night I was speaking to my husband about the vitamins most of y'all were taking and how I needed to order some. He remind me how I have the OLLY gummies. That's the name brand: OLLY. The ones we had at home was the one for energy and stress. So I took them. I swear I'm not lying. I felt a tiny pop in my good ear which I thought was weird. But I ignored it. I went back to cleaning and realized I didn't hear the noise. I couldn't believe it. I went into on of our rooms and stayed quiet and listened. And I heard nothing. Nothing but silence. I couldn't believe it. But I didn't dwell on it. Instead I enjoy the time. I did what I wouldn't do because of the noise. Like not masking the noise because for once it wasn't there. I tried my best not think about tinnitus at all in that little moment. But! About 5 hours later I woke up in the middle of the night and omg, the noise was loud. Even with the sound machine. It was loud. But still being in disbelief from how I had felt earlier I held on to that and reminded myself the noise will go back to it's normal loud. It took a while but it did. And that was the last time it got that loud. Since then it's been at a level where I can mask it. I took those OLLY gummies for maybe 2 weeks straight. I stopped just because I feel like it was ok. Because I'm training my mind to stop thinking about it.

I have faith that one day we will all have our life back. I have prayed daily for each and everyone of y'all.

I also did Reflexology and added a 30 minute body massage and omg, it felt amazing. I am reducing my stress the best I can. One thing will be to stop searching tinnitus. Which includes this group. I am going to log off and hope and pray to never have to come back.

I don't know if the tinnitus will ever go away but I know that I will not let it take over my life. So I pray you all will feel the same. For the ones who have endured this for many years, I am so sorry. So very sorry. My heart goes out to you and I hope it changes soon. I pray you find your break.

I did see an ENT and everything came back normal.

Sorry this came out so long. Take care people.

I hope it's ok to add this verse. It's one of my favorites.

2 Timothy 1:7
New King James Version
For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

 

@Vanessa Yanez, great post!

What were the OLLY gummies that you took? And how long did you take them for?

 

She said they were the ones for energy and stress... Interesting...