Those Who Have Had Tinnitus for at Least 1 Year: Does It Get Better at What % Rate?

[Jesse Pinkman]

@Lisa88
Yes, I agree. I believe T volume is hyperactivity of the neurons in your brain. The more hyperactive these gets, the louder T volume. Ive also read that there is a part of our brain that keeps us from hearing sounds such as neuron activity, heartbeat etc. So if that part gets damaged, I guess that could lead to increased volume aswell.

Edit: Dont get me wrong. Im not saying that reaction plays zero role. I do believe that positve or no reaction to tinnitus can lead to lower T volume.Its a complex process where your brain slowly plays less and less attention to the sound and finds it unimportant. But when you get your T, your T varies in volume. And a positve reaction to a higher volume is much harder compared to a lower one, and therefore is harder to deal with. Thus all Ts are not the same

 

[Mark McDill]

@Lisa88
Yes, I agree. I believe T volume is hyperactivity of the neurons in your brain. The more hyperactive these gets, the louder T volume. Ive also read that there is a part of our brain that keeps us from hearing sounds such as neuron activity, heartbeat etc. So if that part gets damaged, I guess that could lead to increased volume aswell.

Edit: Dont get me wrong. Im not saying that reaction plays zero role. I do believe that positve or no reaction to tinnitus can lead to lower T volume.Its a complex process where your brain slowly plays less and less attention to the sound and finds it unimportant. But when you get your T, your T varies in volume. And a positve reaction to a higher volume is much harder compared to a lower one, and therefore is harder to deal with. Thus all Ts are not the same

Jesse
Well said!

Mark

 

[Neenie]

So all tinnitus is the same? It all just reaction and perception?

Sure it is. Tinnitus is a PERCEPTION. Its not really objectively measurable. You can "match" the loudness and the frequency, but again, that is just your perception of it. Most people with tinnitus have subjective tinnitus. Which means it is SUBJECTIVE. In the same way that I might love a movie and you might hate the movie even though we watched the same movie. But that aside, I mean no harm. I am just trying to help you all. Trying to argue with someone that is helping you WONT help you. If anything it will make you angry. Trust me I understand you. Very well. All of you. I too spent probably a year of my life disregarding the help and support of many around me and instead just tried to make them understand how bad it was for me. Think about what that does to you. If you tell yourself and everyone around you that they dont understand, that your tinnitus it louder than theirs, that yours has increased in volume, that you cant ever mask it out. Think about this. What are you telling yourself when you tell other people that? Its like the "fat" thing. Tell yourself you're fat a million times every day and what will you believe? Anyway, this wasn't directly directed at you, but at all the people that try to argue with people that are really only wanting the very best for you.

 

[Lisa88]

Sure it is. Tinnitus is a PERCEPTION. Its not really objectively measurable. You can "match" the loudness and the frequency, but again, that is just your perception of it. Most people with tinnitus have subjective tinnitus. Which means it is SUBJECTIVE. In the same way that I might love a movie and you might hate the movie even though we watched the same movie. But that aside, I mean no harm. I am just trying to help you all. Trying to argue with someone that is helping you WONT help you. If anything it will make you angry. Trust me I understand you. Very well. All of you. I too spent probably a year of my life disregarding the help and support of many around me and instead just tried to make them understand how bad it was for me. Think about what that does to you. If you tell yourself and everyone around you that they dont understand, that your tinnitus it louder than theirs, that yours has increased in volume, that you cant ever mask it out. Think about this. What are you telling yourself when you tell other people that? Its like the "fat" thing. Tell yourself you're fat a million times every day and what will you believe? Anyway, this wasn't directly directed at you, but at all the people that try to argue with people that are really only wanting the very best for you.

Neenie, respectfully, know you mean well, and a lot of what you say makes sense, - distraction, less reaction etc, and know you have lived all this too.
But to say all t is the same. Well, that is not going to bode well. It clearly is so different with so many different individuals, different textures of sound, different volume perceptions - crickets, low buzzes, high kettle whistles, single tones, hisses, multi tones - t runs every gamut of sound there is. Just because it is subjective does not mean it is the same.
But yes, the art of not focusing on it is key.

 

[Markku]

I love you Neenie, and here are my thoughts:

Subjective tinnitus can get worse, it can become louder, making efforts to habituate that much harder.

There is a huge difference between tinnitus that can only be heard when plugging one's ears or being in really quiet, and with tinnitus that cuts through everything, and is incredibly loud. Plus all the varieties in between.

I do agree with you though that if two people have equally loud tinnitus, it's very much possible one is greatly disturbed by it while the other is not so much. Also, sometimes people with softer tinnitus can be more disturbed by it than people with louder tinnitus.

But consideration must be given to the intrusiveness of the sound. I have no doubt that generally it is much, much harder to habituate to a severe intrusive tinnitus than it is to a soft tinnitus. Don't you think so too?

I just made this:

 

[PhilB]

But to say all t is the same. Well, that is not going to bode well.

I am sure @Neenie is capable of defending her own views but I do not think she said that all T is the same. She said (correctly) that most T is subjective. Even with subjective T, we can do nothing to influence the loudness or shrillness of the sound that we hear but we can work on changing our reaction to the sound. Reaction is the crucial thing, whether you are one of the lucky ones who only hear T when they put their fingers in their ears or one of the less fortunate who hear that high pitch tone even in heavy traffic or in the shower.

People do not start to get better until they stop saying "nobody else can possibly understand what I am experiencing". You only start to get better when you begin to think "I am strong enough to deal with this and I will overcome this problem". We are all engaged in the same struggle against our T so there is no point in arguing with each other on this point. I just chimed in because I wanted to express my support for Neenie's position on this issue.

 

[Sjoerd]

Its not really objectively measurable.

Yes it is. The amount of auditory map distortion and tinnitus loudness is positively correlated.

On-topic: for me it got much better, although the loudness is probably the same. I used to be able to hear it almost everywhere but now I only hear it in moderately quiet environments (and only if I am searching for it). Personally I think there is a difference between the loudness of your tinnitus and your ability to hear it over other noise.

 

[Zechariah]

Discussion goes a bit off topic but my opinion on "subjective T" is that it may be regarded as subjective right now but maybe we can measure it and make it sort of objective in future. Advances in imaging technologies may help with that (To my knowledge, MEG scans etc. can measure T already now - scales are yet to be determined). Humans are biological machines, everything is measurable with right tools (maybe even the feelings some day).

Subjective T/pain/whatever is only an excuse until the science provides tools to actually measure them accurately but I think this goes a bit beyond present day

This "TRT-stuff" about subjective T and perception makes me feel bad everytime when I even remotely read about it.

About the actual topic: Here is some info:

Tinnitus may improve spontaneously. In 1 cohort study,
nearly 50% of patients with significant tinnitus (moderate
severity, sleep problems, or both) improved after 5 years, with
43% of those improved reporting complete resolution and the
remaining 57% reporting only mild symptoms.26 In another
study,27 82% of patients who reported tinnitus at baseline had
persistent tinnitus after 5 years, suggesting close to a 20% rate of
spontaneous improvement. Similarly, subjects assigned to the
"wait-list" control groups of some clinical trials show small, but
significant, improvements in tinnitus distress.28 The largest spon-
taneous improvement is seen with short duration tinnitus, younger
age, and longer intervals between pre- and post-assessment. For
example, in 1 study,29 28% of subjects with acute tinnitus (last-
ing < 6 months) improved spontaneously in a control group that
received only educational information.

Source: http://www.entnet.org/content/clinical-practice-guideline-tinnitus

 

[Mark McDill]

Of course tinnitus has a perception component; but there must be something to perceive in the first place. Most on this site lived many years without tinnitus and can attest to possible etiologies (loud noise, antibiotic, nsaids, anxiety, etc.) at a specific point in time. It's untenable to say they had tinnitus all those years and simply did not perceive it; there must be an objective component (as well as a subjective component)

Equally true is how we perceive it and how we react to it; I've learned not to react to it (yeah, good for me) but many struggle and/or simply take longer to habituate (we are all individuals). For some, I think the sound is truly louder; whatever is causing the sound is simply 'ringing the bell' quite loudly and the afferent component of hearing just can't tune it out or turn it off.

Slightly off topic humor

Since the concept of perception came up I got curious and looked up the definition
- the ability to see, hear, or become aware of something through the senses.

Oh, it's the ability to be aware; what's awareness?
- knowledge or perception of a situation or fact

Oh, it's perception (wait a minute, that's circular )

So I looked up consciousness
- the awareness or perception of something by a person

I just found my own tail...

I'm not sure we have a workable definition of perception, awareness, and consciousness; and by workable I mean the ability to comprehensively point to all the chemical / biomechanical components that comprise perception, awareness, and consciousness and how these components interact.

I do believe we have a handle on the somatic-sensors and how data is processed at that level (and then passed on to centers of 'perception') but, frankly, I don't understand the actual process of perception.

Maybe I'm just ignorant and cannot perceive (perception)

Mark

 

[Lisa88]

Discussion goes a bit off topic but my opinion on "subjective T" is that it may be regarded as subjective right now but maybe we can measure it and make it sort of objective in future. Advances in imaging technologies may help with that (To my knowledge, MEG scans etc. can measure T already now - scales are yet to be determined). Humans are biological machines, everything is measurable with right tools (maybe even the feelings some day).

Subjective T/pain/whatever is only an excuse until the science provides tools to actually measure them accurately but I think this goes a bit beyond present day

This "TRT-stuff" about subjective T and perception makes me feel bad everytime when I even remotely read about it.

About the actual topic: Here is some info:

Tinnitus may improve spontaneously. In 1 cohort study,
nearly 50% of patients with significant tinnitus (moderate
severity, sleep problems, or both) improved after 5 years, with
43% of those improved reporting complete resolution and the
remaining 57% reporting only mild symptoms.26 In another
study,27 82% of patients who reported tinnitus at baseline had
persistent tinnitus after 5 years, suggesting close to a 20% rate of
spontaneous improvement. Similarly, subjects assigned to the
"wait-list" control groups of some clinical trials show small, but
significant, improvements in tinnitus distress.28 The largest spon-
taneous improvement is seen with short duration tinnitus, younger
age, and longer intervals between pre- and post-assessment. For
example, in 1 study,29 28% of subjects with acute tinnitus (last-
ing < 6 months) improved spontaneously in a control group that
received only educational information.

Source: http://www.entnet.org/content/clinical-practice-guideline-tinnitus

Thanks so much for this. Love hopeful studies. Where exactly did you find this? I clicked on the link below and couldn't find that text re 5 year study.
Do you have another link you can provide?
Thanks so much!
Lisa

 

[Zechariah]

Thanks so much for this. Love hopeful studies. Where exactly did you find this? I clicked on the link below and couldn't find that text re 5 year study.
Do you have another link you can provide?
Thanks so much!
Lisa

The link is there "Published Guide" but here is the straight link: http://oto.sagepub.com/content/151/2_suppl/S1.full.pdf+html

 

[Telis]

Sure it is. Tinnitus is a PERCEPTION. Its not really objectively measurable. You can "match" the loudness and the frequency, but again, that is just your perception of it. Most people with tinnitus have subjective tinnitus. Which means it is SUBJECTIVE. In the same way that I might love a movie and you might hate the movie even though we watched the same movie. But that aside, I mean no harm. I am just trying to help you all. Trying to argue with someone that is helping you WONT help you. If anything it will make you angry. Trust me I understand you. Very well. All of you. I too spent probably a year of my life disregarding the help and support of many around me and instead just tried to make them understand how bad it was for me. Think about what that does to you. If you tell yourself and everyone around you that they dont understand, that your tinnitus it louder than theirs, that yours has increased in volume, that you cant ever mask it out. Think about this. What are you telling yourself when you tell other people that? Its like the "fat" thing. Tell yourself you're fat a million times every day and what will you believe? Anyway, this wasn't directly directed at you, but at all the people that try to argue with people that are really only wanting the very best for you.

Wow..just wow. Because you don't have the tools/equipment at this point in time to measure tinnitus objectively, it's all the same? Well...isn't that convenient, you can't see it, well it must not be there...just the imagination/perception of the sufferer. Ahh...all auditory/brain damage is the same!? All T is the same!? Ya...sure.

 

[Mr. Cartman]

Wow..just wow. Because you don't have the tools/equipment at this point in time to measure tinnitus objectively, it's all the same? Well...isn't that convenient, you can't see it, well it must not be there...just the imagination/perception of the sufferer. Ahh...all auditory/brain damage is the same!? All T is the same!? Ya...sure.

I love @Neenie too, but for the sake of my own blood pressure, I need to leave this thread.. Lol

 

[Jesse Pinkman]

Sure it is. Tinnitus is a PERCEPTION. Its not really objectively measurable. You can "match" the loudness and the frequency, but again, that is just your perception of it. Most people with tinnitus have subjective tinnitus. Which means it is SUBJECTIVE. In the same way that I might love a movie and you might hate the movie even though we watched the same movie. .

What subjective tinnitus means is that youre the only one who can hear it. Thats because your percetion of the tinnitus is caused by an electromagnetic signal sent to your brain, and only your brain, so youre the only one who can percieve it. In contrast to objective tinnitus where there are processes that actually generates a sound wave, wich can progress into anyones ear and then be converted to an electromagnetic signal so that other person also can percieve it. These electromagnetic signals are not all the same. They may vary in frequency, amplitude etc. Pain is also a perception. It is percived when your brain recieves an electromagnetic signal from some part of your body. If I pinch your arm, yor brain will recive a different signal compared to if I stab your arm. Two different signals that your brain will percieve differently. It would be silly to say that pain is 100% subjective and cannot be measured. Everyone agrees on that its more painfull getting stabbed compared to pinched

 

[Hottopic29]

Its been a year now its not as loud as the first few months .. I got mine 3 hours after taking a anti biotic azithromycin in one ear .. or could have been from the massive panic attack that azithromycin gave me .. but I still have it its mild sometimes I hear my ear ringing ontop of my tinnitus lol but that only lasts a few seconds then goes away I wish It took the tinnitus with it too ..I get stressed out over it sometimes still.. some times I dont hear it at all ill even go into the bathroom and close the door and its still not there but thats only about 3 times a month that happens im starting to think mine will go away one day .. might try Zoloft my doctor recommended it to help me cope more im hoping it lowers the sound or makes me forget

 

[Linds]

Good question.
I'm just past my 12 month mark, and can say my tinnitus is actualy louder(or that is my perception).
Does it worry me? No. I habituated after 3 months.
Do I wish to hear silence again?
Ummm, I have forgotten what that is like.
I think if my t disappeared completely overnight, that I might have a similar experience to when I first contracted t.
Some panic at the unexplained change.
A friend of mine has had t for years, and he told me that he would actualy MISS his tinnitus if it went away!!
I'm not at that stage yet.
Someone said accepted is the key. I kind of agree with that.
My t is always audible.
Sometimes I tune out and hear it less.
Do I think there will ever be a "cure?"
No. Not in the next few decades anyway.
Does that mean there is no hope? NO
Do I think a person can get better? YES.
There are many ways to help one "cope" until habituation occurs, this forum is one of those ways.
My personal opinion is if someone has not habituated after 12 months then they should seek psychological help, ie cognitive therapy.

Kind regards

Linds

 

[sandra72]

@Linds How loud is yout T? Do you hear it all day long?

 

[Linds]

Umm, well, it is hard to mask.
Normal white noise like a fan or air conditioner doesn't even come close to masking it.
When I'm in the shower it is masked.
When the cicadas are in full song at our place it is masked.
Because I'm habituated I'm not always trying to anylize it or monitor it.
I hear it all the time, but I don't react to it so it is only sound, not the end of the world.

 

[Linds]

I know if someone is new to tinnitus it is hard to believe that things will get better, but they do eventually.
For some it takes longer.

 

[sandra72]

I have it almost 8 months now. I am doing better than in the beginning. Some days my t is low and i only hear it in silent and some days i can hear it all day. Dont hear it in the shower or a running faucet and not when i am driving in my car. When i am busy with my horse i also dont hear it. I hope that some day i really dont care about it anymore.

 

[Linds]

Do you use masking devices?
I didn't really mask my t. Only when I felt like I was going over the edge.
Sometimes in the early days I would sit in the shower for about an hour just to get some peace.

Doing things that you enjoy, like when you are with your horse is a good way to help habituation in my opinion.
You are concentrated on other things and your brain is getting used to the idea without you reacting to it.

 

[sandra72]

I didnt mask my T when sleeping but now i do. Listen to rain sounds. I sleep fine. When i dont think about it i dont hear it. But when i think about it i hear it. I do everything the same as before i got T. When I am in loud places i use earplugs, also when i am having a party of cinema. I dont use sleepingpils of antidepression pils. When i am at home i set the tv on, music i like. It helps a lot.

 

[mamag]

Hi there. I have had T for about a year now. I was a mess when it first struck - and it was loud, high volume ringing. So bad I need to take meds to sleep. Plus my anxiety levels went off the charts.

I actually have recently gotten to a point where it doesn't really bother me so much. the ringing has gone down to more like crickets chirping or TV snow. Occasionally noise sensitivity in loud situations strikes - but that's just more annoying. I sleep fine now with no meds. Every once in a while I get a low vibrating hum - I will mask that with a humidifier as that seems to stop that sound. Even when I hum that sounds momentarily stops. Go figure.

Anyway - it is better and much more manageable.

You will get there!

 

[DebS]

I've had mine more than a year and when I think back to where I was this time last year, I can see I've improved. I hear the T all the time but it varies. It usually builds up over the week so I have one or 2 bad days (loud) followed by one or 2 quiet days. I can't figure out any pattern or triggers so I've stopped trying and now just accept it. And I found that acceptance is key to habituation. I don't use masking anymore and I find that even when the T is loud, it's more of an annoyance than a cause for panic like it was last year. I'm hoping that as the months go by I'll get to the point where it's just background noise that can be ignored.

 

[Mark McDill]

I've had mine more than a year and when I think back to where I was this time last year, I can see I've improved. I hear the T all the time but it varies. It usually builds up over the week so I have one or 2 bad days (loud) followed by one or 2 quiet days. I can't figure out any pattern or triggers so I've stopped trying and now just accept it. And I found that acceptance is key to habituation. I don't use masking anymore and I find that even when the T is loud, it's more of an annoyance than a cause for panic like it was last year. I'm hoping that as the months go by I'll get to the point where it's just background noise that can be ignored.

Deb
I'm in the same boat; I've habituated but I'll still turn on the masking when it gets too much. I have no idea (still, after two years) the singular (largest) component that affects my T pattern. Mine will be none existent, I'll be busy and engaged (T totally out of my thoughts) and it will turn on. Why? I have no idea.
However, like you, it doesn't bother me anymore; it's just a puzzle I would like to solve.

Mark

 

[Genevieve]

My T has become probably 50% worse since 1974. But my ability to deal with it has improved by 50%. Hmmm. Yes, it's kind of like being back where I started.
Good question.

Hi @I who love music, I have read your success story on the thread, congratualtion! It was due to an acoustic trauma when you were very young am I right? Can I ask you If you had the usual "emergency treatment " back then in the 70,s for noise trauma? If you went immediatly to an ENT did they told you if you had a lot of hearing loss? In fact the thing I still can't understand it's why so many people on this forum had developped T without hearing loss and on the other hand you have people with lot of hearing loss but no T, it's still so strange and so confusing for me! (sorry for my English!)

 

[Genevieve]

I'm not near a year yet, coming up on 5 months.
Not sure if my T has got any better or not, however my reaction to it has.

It's either quieter or my brain is just zoning it out. Have mostly managed to rid myself of the anxiety associated with it, so I am hopeful that on the year mark i'll be even further on in recovery. Unless of course the tinnitus worsens, which is the big fear....

Yes you're right @eldudebro it's my big fear too! How can you possibly habituate when the T become worst over the years? And the worst part is that you have to protect your ears all the time in noisy places and you cannot do the things you used to love (I took singing lessons that I had to stop, because I couldn't stand anymore the loud piano of our singing teacher)

 

[I who love music]

Hi @I who love music, I have read your success story on the thread, congratualtion! It was due to an acoustic trauma when you were very young am I right? Can I ask you If you had the usual "emergency treatment " back then in the 70,s for noise trauma? If you went immediatly to an ENT did they told you if you had a lot of hearing loss? In fact the thing I still can't understand it's why so many people on this forum had developped T without hearing loss and on the other hand you have people with lot of hearing loss but no T, it's still so strange and so confusing for me! (sorry for my English!)

Yes it is strange.
I have only a mild upper range hearing loss in one ear.
A long time ago a doctor told me I damaged the "Hairs" and the ones that remain have to do the job so they have become sensitive and that's tinnitus. That's what he told me. About 1975.

 

[Sailboardman]

Yes it is strange.
I have only a mild upper range hearing loss in one ear.
A long time ago a doctor told me I damaged the "Hairs" and the ones that remain have to do the job so they have become sensitive and that's tinnitus. That's what he told me. About 1975.

You have only mild upper range hearing loss in one ear! You are lucky. Your T must be mild also, unless you have had more loss over the years. I've tried your BTS method for 3 months now. I'm still not even close to where you're at with it. My T is loud and intrusive and my hearing is severe, 65-70 db's from 2-8k standard test, but I hear zero high frequency. You can't imagine, the madness I hear in my head!

 

[I who love music]

You have only mild upper range hearing loss in one ear! You are lucky. Your T must be mild also, unless you have had more loss over the years. I've tried your BTS method for 3 months now. I'm still not even close to where you're at with it. My T is loud and intrusive and my hearing is severe, 65-70 db's from 2-8k standard test, but I hear zero high frequency. You can't imagine, the madness I hear in my head!

I can imagine. It's in my post "Mega T."
I'm not lucky - I've been tormented for over 40 years. But I'm determined to not describe or respond to my T the old way. I am amazed though.