Terrible week but I think I'm okay...

I had a dire family emergency. I almost lost someone very close to me and spent days at the hospital. I don't want to say what it was due to privacy but it was the worst thing I've ever been through. It's very strange but the whole time --5 days and nights--I was aware of my tinnitus but it just didn't matter a fig or I would think, 'how fk'n annoying' and go on to what I had to do. Many times I just forgot until I got in a quiet place. Then it got really weird when I would hear my T and it felt kind of normal!

Things are better. I am better. So far, my family member is recovering and the future looks good--although I try to keep my head where my feet are--in the present.

Love you all. Everything you all told me is true.

 

Sorry about your family emergency. I am glad to read it is getting better and better and better.

 

Sorry to hear of your family emergency. Hope everything will turn out ok. But your story illustrates how important it is to have the brain not zoom in on T. When it is distracted and the brain on something else much more important, T just gets faded out of consciousness even though the same ringing is always there. When we get to the stage that even normal events in our life can fade out T, habituation will be a certainty.

 

Hey Kathi! What a scare! Sorry you had to go through that, but very glad to hear things are better!!!

@billie48 is so right (as usual!), the habituation process involves our brains learning to fade the "noise" out, even though it is still present. I hope that through this experience you have been able to realize that you can live with T!!

I pray things continue to improve for both you and your family member!! And I applaud your perspective of keeping your focus on the present!!

Best to you!

Jeff

 

Glad to hear that your family member is recovering - hopefully they will get better soon! Am glad at your epiphany too - I sometimes feel like you do, but I seem to keep taking "two steps forward, one step back". I think an emergency like yours makes us realise that T isn't such a big deal compared to what could happen. Take care.

 

I really like what everybody above me wrote...

hope your family relative will be ok!!

and I love it when T fades out of consciousness!!

 

Hope everything works out x

 

Thank you everyone! I always feel supported here. My family member is recovering. I'm also glad to find out that I can still step up when needed and forget about myself long enough to handle what I need to.

@citigirl13 I have taken two steps back when thinking I've made a big step before. I think as @here2help says, it's what we make of the difficult days--we need to just continue on living as if we didn't have T. I'm not sure I will ever truly habituate to where I only hear it when I listen for it, but I do forget about it when I'm doing things and the sound really doesn't bother me anymore (most of the time). I also forgot about it when I had to help someone I truly love and care for--it wasn't about me so maybe helping someone else is part of our answer.

 

@Kathi I believe you are strong and you will fully habituate. You will realize after a year how much more you accepted the T. God bless.

 

Thank you so much for such kind words and encouragement. God Bless you and yours also.

 

Thank you @Karen--encouragement from you is a gift. It really helps when the veterans give support. I am in such debt to you all. Just a few months ago I never would've believed I could live with T. Today, I'm living a normal life--today I was at a Christening for my husband's great nephew. It was a blessed event and made me very happy to be able to enjoy the day, the family and just life in general.

 

Hugs to you, @Kathi. As you said, you are living your life -- concern at a family emergency, joy at a christening -- just as you would have without tinnitus. Yes, there may have been a few times within those events that your T annoyed you some. But you were part of those moments just as you would have been without tinnitus. I don't know if this would be the classic definition of habituation. But: it is proof that tinnitus is not running your life. You are. Which is everything.