The More I Try to Improve My Tinnitus, the Worse It Gets

I’ve got NIHL which I suspect I’ve had for some time with excessive exposure to noise throughout my teens.

Last year I got my first scare of tinnitus with a mild ringing in one ear. I adapted and scaled back on noise exposure.

More recently, I have continued to scale back and put in supports.

To date I have ditched headphones, ditched noisy environments, started measuring everything with a dB meter and reduced noise where possible, I wear plugs for unavoidable noise, quit the gym (too noisy), I started taking:

- Curcumin
- Alpha Lipoic Acid
- Nicotinamide Riboside
- NAC
- Vitamin E
- Magnesium

The tinnitus is now louder than ever. It’s a new hissing sound on top of the mild tinnitus I once had. It’s constant in one ear and now started in the other ear that was once fine.

So I’ve quit doing many of the things I love and basically tried anything and everything I can to help but it just keeps getting worse.

I know an element of it is me putting too much energy into it but there’s no doubting the sounds are there and louder which is very discouraging when I feel like I’m doing everything right.

 

If you can't try something with real evidence (bimodal stimulation), it's hard but the only way to live somewhat a normal life is to give a proper fuck. Sure, make sure to not stand next to jet engines or so.

 

I went to the ENT last week to finally check out my tinnitus. I had previously only gone to an audiologist. I took the audiology report with me.

A quick background. my tinnitus is only in left ear. I have high frequency hearing loss in both ears but it dips lower on the report (more loss) in the left ear.

The ENT was very fast with an accent. I felt very rushed but picked up most of what he said. Mostly I was just so overwhelmed and missed bits and pieces.

He noted from reading the audiologist report that the graph shows that the right ear has nerve cell deafness where it dips but the left ear doesn’t. He said the the nerve cell deafness in the left may just be to the same level of the right ear. And that the added loss on graph may be I think he said conductive? I think he was looking at the X’s and O’s In the graph?

He then looked in my ears and said something about the Eustachian tube in the left ear too. He told me to use Nasonex to support/fix the Eustachian tube in the left ear.

Now I do plan on calling and clarifying some things but I’m hoping I can get some help clarifying what I know so far. This will help me ask the right questions when I call.

Thanks!

 

Obsessing over your tinnitus (harder said than done) will make it worse. To me it seems like you have gone into a fear mode, fight and flight, which is quite normal. But when in this mode, it's almost impossible to get your focus off tinnitus.

Using a dB meter, possibly overprotecting ears and feeding your limbic nervous system that pretty much most noises is a danger to you - that makes, in my opinion, acceptance and possible habituation practically impossible.

Then again, this is just my opinion - based on my own experiences. There are so many different individual cases regarding tinnitus and sound sensitivity, and so many reasons to why we got it in the first place.

 

I have SNHL and bilateral tinnitus. I have tried many things to help tinnitus without any luck so far. Even if I don’t see benefit from something, I like to try anything. It helps me to feel I’ve got control over the situation even if it doesn’t eventually work.

So far I’ve tried mostly supplements. These include:

- NAC
- Nicotinamide Riboside
- Thiamin
- Alpha-Lipoic Acid
- Zinc
- Curcumin
- Magnesium
- Astaxanthin
- Theanine
- B-complex

Is there anything that sticks out that you think I could try to reduce tinnitus that I haven’t already?

Thanks.

 

Hi, I am very similar to you in that I also like to try everything and anything. If you are in the US I recommend this:

https://www.amazon.com/Gaia-Herbs-Vegan-Liquid-Capsules/dp/B00F1J7I8C

 

In what way does this help? I've been interested in trying Kava Kava for a while but I am not sure on how to proceed with it because it is confusing on what to get.

 

Thanks @GBB.

I’ve followed some of your journey on here. I like the active pursuance you have had on finding a remedy.

Is Kava Kava something that has worked for you? I’d be interested to see your master list.

My next order was going to be Magnesium glycinate and Huperzine A. I’ll add this in.

Thanks.