The Positivity Thread

I'm happy for you @billie48 . Thank god the exams came out fine .

 

Happy for you..have a wonderful day!

 

Thank you Rog for the kind thought. I thank God too for that. You have a good day and God bless you.

@kirsty, I like your idea of pursuing or continuing a hobby in life after T. In fact in my earlier days searching out for anything which can help living with T, I came across the concert pianist Paul Tobey who was once featured on ATA publication. He had a few years of misery with T and yet recovers. His turnaround happened when he put his full attention & energy to prepare for the chance to perform a piano recital in Carnegie Hall, the mecca for concert pianist. So he strongly proposes the use of a hobby or to engage in an interesting project to distract from T. That idea triggered my desire to return to my hobbies of fishing, gardening etc. plus some new ones. The result is a good relief from oppressing T during those activities. This gives me the confidence that I will do just fine over time. It is a worthwhile and enjoyable strategy to pursue in our battle with T. Enjoyment & therapy, why not? It makes perfect sense. LOL.

 

If I'm cured within 8 years, i'm gonna be glad it all happened.

 

I have been living with T for 2 weeks only and this thread made me feel better. I still dont know if this is temporary or permanent but the forum helps a lot. Yesterday I went to bed at 9pm and woke up at 8.30am. 11H 30min sleep with T ,not bad. It was my best day so far!!! When I woke up he was there. Sometimes light, sometimes quiet. He was going on and off trying to piss me off. Go away T, I have stuff to do and I cannot date you anymore!!!

 

I like your positive attitude towards T. You are doing so well just weeks into T. Congrats. I was in a total panicky mess in my first few months, depressed, scared to death, anxious, sleepless and had to depend on meds to survive each day. So you are way ahead in your recovery than me. Keep this attitude up and you will be just fine. I never thought about 'no dating' with T in my early days. When T just spiked and wanted my attention right away, I just told it to 'take a ticket and wait in line' as I was busy. Different words but same result. LOL. I think this type of approach is called 'Mindfulness', to humanize T and to tease or joke with it instead of caving in to T negatively in a mental mess. It can help us moderate our response much better. To me, it is just another approach of positivity to solving challenges in life.

 

Good luck to you , I know that you are fine, thank you for all you help! stay positive and God blee you and your family!

 

Today, i went to a music festival with ear plugs ( i was stressed, but one of my friend with T supported me).

And this night, No worsening of tinnitus ( i took corticoids and vasodilator just in case^^) or in fact, no worsening in the loudness ( my T like to change pitch or mive from one ear to the other)

( i just hope no worsening tommorow)

 

corticoids. I always wonder if one is on steroids does it make the inner susceptible to sound waves cutting down the hair cells?

 

Yesterday was a great day! I attended a graduation party. It was outdoors so I only heard my T a little when we first arrived--later on, when we were going home I heard it again. I had forgotten about my T for 4 hours!! I had a really good time--laughed until I had tears rolling down my face with my niece and socialized with the family. Today its very noticeable but it's not bothering me at all and at least I know that habituation is starting.

Thank you all for your support and encouragement. I truly believe that although it might be tough at times, I'm going to be okay. We all need to stay positive.

 

Thank you alifalijohn. I hope you get better. God bless you and your family too.

 

Talk about stress! I sold my house 10 days ago which is great, but they only gave me 12 days to pack up and move. I have to be out by July 3, and after 22 years you can image the amount of stuff I've accumulated. Luckily I have a lot of family and friends to help. But it's been crazy; up at 5 am to start packing, throwing mounds of stuff out, etc. On top of that, I broke a filling and had to go to the dentist to have it repaired. Being so busy does push the T to the background, and I've even had a few relatively quiet days which helps. I'm going to move in with my sister for awhile...her husband has ALS and believe me, that makes T seem like nothing. He has no use of his legs, can't talk, has trouble swallowing, and now his arms are getting weaker. I hope to help her take care of him until I can find a new place to live. I'll report back when things settle down a little!!

 

Thanks for that. Your positive message confirms two important ingredients in the battle with T:
1) Get busy with life and occupy your attention to something else. This can takes the form of life's events such as moving as Deb is going through, such as preparing to go on a trip, to pursue something really interesting to you, hobbies, sports, outdoors, fishing, photography etc. etc. Distractions from paying attention to T will give you those mini breaks, which are very important to convince you that you will have more and longer breaks to come, thereby giving you confidence that T is beatable if not curable.

2) to put T in perspective comparing to other crippling chronic diseases will help us moderate our reaction to T. A big part of T suffering is mental. If you can win in the mental game, your suffering will be a lot less.

So what I did to help myself? I used to play blind or handicapped during my initial days to convince myself that T though horrible sensation at the start, is really not as limiting as other challenges. I convinced myself T is just a noise, be it a very annoying one, that if I pour enough positivity in life, I have a good chance to get used to it over time.

I used to find youtube video clips of people working in very loud noisy jobs (such as drillers, miners etc) and played it at real life volume to convince myself to tolerate my ultra high pitch loud T). Not a perfect analogy of course. But these people gladly take a job drilling mines 1000+ ft down to earn a living, for life. So perhaps I will accept this T sound just to have my life back. Silly reasoning but powerful outcome. I ceased to struggle with T any more. I let T do what it wants to do, but I am free to move around, can see the beauty of the world, able to communicate, enjoying chats like this on Internet, able to enjoy great foods of the earth, able to enjoy my family and love ones, able to enjoy any hobbies I like. I have my life and freedom back by thinking & living this way. Millions out there have this ringing but accept it & move on. I decide to do likewise. Now I don't give a dime what T does, high or low, mad spiking or base line ringing. Now I am free from its tyranny. I can tell it to go to hell while I enjoy this earthly heaven. Not a bad trade off. This is just being realistic with my own ultra high pitch T. If I resist my reality and get stressful every time it rings, it will bring untold misery for the rest of my life. By accepting and flowing, life is a lot easier and now even enjoyable and productive. Definite a great trade off.

 

This is so refreshing and inspiring. Thank you Demi for setting this up.

I have been suffering with tinnitus since Feb. 2014 after a concert I attended. The ringing is 24/7 and is a high pitched, irregular rhythm that I find myself having a difficult time getting used to.

There have been 10s-100s of times where I relive the day I went to the concert and regret every bit of it, and in doing so find my Tinnitus spiking higher from the stress of my emotions towards it. However, despite the negativity which it constantly attempts to curse me with, I also find myself thinking of things in a different way all together.

Like some of you have already said, I too find myself looking at my loved one, my surroundings and my life in a very different way, one that I find brings a smile to my face. I am so much more loving, feel so much more love, feel tears of joy in just being around my loved ones and simply am so very grateful for the life I live now more than ever.

I still deal with some very difficult times with tinnitus and still fear leaving this world as the man who lived with tinnitus. However, I NEVER stop reminding myself that one day I will listen to my tinnitus, not with pain or agony BUT as my meditation guru, my teacher and my spiritual leader to ensure I keep myself grounded. I told my girlfriend that I am trying to condition my mind to see it as an Ambulatory siren, one that is ringing to bring me help from the daily negative thoughts or emotions I may experience and bring my mind to the beauties and joys of my world.

Thank you all for being a part of this network and reminding us all that we are not alone! Let us never give up.

 

billie48 - Reading your comment was truly a great start to my day. Thank you.

 

Positive idea came to my mind. What if the ringing means the opposite of the hearing loss. New cells are being developed due to the stimulation and body is trying to find a way how to enhance the hearing system and during that process we are sensitive to sounds , etc. So, now when i hear ringing I think that I am actually getting better. The more ringing the better i get.

 

Thank you ADiCin too for your inspiring positive post. We love to have more and more positive posts from members to keep this Positivity thread strong & thriving. We may not cure our T but we can overwhelm it with positivity, a minute at a time, a step at a time, an event at a time, a day at a time, and ultimately we beat the bully in our life.

 

Wish you the best

 

Why 8 years? Just curious

 

Here's a positive note; this thread simply dwarfs all other threads!!!

It is now 13 pages, has 350 replies and a whopping 10,106 views!!!

To put it in perspective, the second place thead (Ototoxic drugs: drugs that cause tinnitus) has 63 replies with 5,976 views.

I motion we make a new award 'author of the most popular thread' and give it to @demi

This is awesome!!

Mark

 

this just proves that people want more positivity than one would think
depression is not the solution to the T
let the P kill the T !!!

 

Hope everyone is doing well, Ive been trying not spend so much time on T sights, ive been quite active today. Lately ive been working out again, mountain biking and kayaking whenever I can, trying to take advantage of the weather before its to late. Back to studying for my LSAT, so far so good,my concentration is somehow better than it was the first time, mental endurance is improving, and am scoring higher on my practice tests then when i was when i was t free. Last week has been so normal its weird, i honestly can go hours without noticing my T, when i do its for a minute or less and it doesn't cause me to lose my focus or any distress. TAKE CARE ALL.

 

Awesome positive update, Cullen. Your progress towards habituation is amazing. Love to read your informative posts and now positive posts too. Hope you come back often to visit and hope you keep getting better.

I spent last week Canada Day holiday at a beach bbq with the entire family. What a fun day full of the love and blessing of family kinship. Besides great foods, nice scenic location, I enjoyed spending time with my children & grandchildren. I took the kids to play swings, visit the tree house, slides, picked shells by the beach, teaching the grandsons how to throw a rock to bounce multiple times. We even found a kelp seaweed and played 'cowboy rope' with it. What a fun day out and I never paid a second of attention to my T. There is much positivity in life other than T. Way back when the sufferings was so intense, I had catastrophic thinking that the rest of my life would be nothing but immense suffering from T. What a lie from the T bully. These are cognitive distortions. Life can still be enjoyed after T if we flood our life with positivity. Long live this Posititivity thread.

 

It's great to hear from you cullenbohannon! I'm really impressed with your progress. Please stay in touch from time to time. I'm going to take a break for awhile soon too, as I went 4 hours without noticing my T and now I'm not distressed by it. I've been hearing it on and off all day today --and I notice that I do hear it more when I'm on the board.

 

Sounds like a lovely day billie! It's funny but I live right at the shore and I never go to the beach! I do love to go to the boardwalks though and eat funnel cakes and greasy fries!

When I lived in Texas I used to go to Galveston all the time but here at the shore there are just too many summer people and tourists, so us locals don't go near the beach.

 

You have made great progress, Kathi. It wasn't too long ago when you visited TT with nothing but anxiety and stress. So heart-warming to see TT helping so many newer T sufferers to get back on their feet. Geez, all of you talking about taking a break now gets me thinking about my turn. LOL. Seriously, do take breaks when you feel the need to do so. It will help build the confidence that you can be on your own now and the future is all bright. But do come back once in a while to say hello and update us the wonderful news of breaking free from T tyranny.

 

I will always come back @billie48 Maybe in the future I can help new sufferers the way you and the other members here helped me. I'm no where near as far along as Cullen but I never thought I get this far! I remember when I used to be terrorized by the noise--I'd wear my iPod all day long and feel sick if I heard my T. I may never be one of the lucky ones who don't hear T unless they listen for it--but I do forget about it for periods of time when I'm engrossed or busy. I can live with it as it is now --even with the bad days because they are nowhere near as bad as in the beginning and that was only 8 months ago!

 

http://www.lifebuzz.com/just-stop/#!basc3S

 

I check in on this thread every couple days, and I am so glad that all the positivity continues! This thread is proof that you can still live a happy life after T!

 

@demi You have T since 12/2012 how are you doing?