Three Month Anniversary and Still Alive

Amazing, I cannot believe I survived 3 months with that thing.
I want to thank you all for support. Initially I though to just ignore the forums but I cannot.
Reading all stories helps me a lot and learning more about T just makes things better for me.
I would like to summarize my experience so far.
Initially when I got the T I got into alarm mode and freaked out completely.
The stress was so big that it contributed to increasing T instead of calming it down.
It really takes time to realize that not much can be done and the best way is to ignore it.
But how do you ignore that animal? Not that easy.
Nevertheless the fact, I believe we should be trying all possible solutions and hope for the best.
For me its hard as I still dont understand why this happened and what is the cause.
Was it the root canal or my experiments with music or just listening to music over time?
Probably I will never learn.
I can only say it happened already and I must move forward.
I must accept it and hope for the best.
There was one time when it disappeared completely for whole night. That was the best night in my life!!!
It is great to read success stories and the positivity tread. It helps a lot.
Also, I love the fact that Dr. Nagler is here with us and supports us so much.
I want to point out that I am still able to to stuff I love to do. The more I do it the easier is to forget about the T.
Yes, you must ignore that thing. Don't let your brain to pay attention to it.
I know easy to say, so hard to accomplish, but I keep trying.
It does not go away but at least I am learning how to deal with with.
Again, thx to everyone for support.

 

Hey bwspot, you are doing pretty good at 3 months. Thinking back, at 3 months, I was still in a world of suffering and anxiety/panic attacks ruled my days. You are going to be just fine. Take care.

 

thx, at this point i just wonder what steps i should follow next?
Should i do more exams?Should I do to ENT? Should I look for audiologist? Should I take any supplements?

 

I am also wondering about how to forget about or ignore something that I hear all the time.

 

The only thing that works for me is to be extremely interested in stuff i like to do.
You must be so into it that you forget about the world around you.

 

I think on the mental side of thing, try not cave into panic or negative reaction. Keep drilling the brain with positive confirmations, such as reaffirming to yourself that you are now seeing improvements and given time and being positive, things will only get better. For me in those days full of setbacks, I would try to imagine that I have a driller's job in the 3rd world without ear protection. If that driller can go home happy he makes the income to feed his family while he faces incredible noise level on the job daily, I am happy I didn't cave in to the ringing, and that I can have my life back without fearing this noise too much. It is not a perfect analogy. That was just me and my way of coping. Of course, the critical element for me, and perhaps many others, is just the passage of time. When we can manage to convince the brain that T is not a threat, just an annoyance or discomfort which you try to learn to accept and tolerate, then slowly the brain will be able to fade out or reduce the intensity of the perception of T. That is at least my own experience and I don't imply my experience works for others.

 

I am trying my best to approach it with ease. Yesterday was tough for me. For no reason it spiked and now is louder. Stupid thing!!!

 

Well done on your positive attitude bwspot... Inspiration to many kindred spirits out there for sure. I have also had T for 3-4 months now and have succumbed to the fact it's there...

My philosophy is if i can't control it then worrying about it will only reduce my ability to influence the things i can control... a bit crude but seems to settle the stress levels a bit.

You mentioned root canal as a possible cause... i'm interested to know what made you think that as my T started after a bad experience with a dying tooth. The antibiotics didn't work so i took way too many painkillers and ended up on morphine in AE to the take pain away... tooth extracted the next day and because of the infection the anesthetic didnt work. Almost instantly my T started??

Anyone else had a similar experience? Any evidence to suggest this could be a cause?

 

When my tooth was prepared for crown i had lots of pain. I was hoping to get a crown with no root canal, but the dentist decided to do root canal after few days of pain. After root canal there was more pain. The temp crown was too high and they did not believe me and did not know how to adjust it. Then the permanent crown was too high too and they could not adjust it either claiming all was perfect. 1 month after that T started. At the same time I did some audio research which confuses things as my T might be music related but happened after the procedure. After root canal I went to audio show and never had ringing after that. Later I was listening to music and comparing songs. Not super loud but I was paying lots of attention to details. Then after T started I went ENT and was told that root canal might be a cause so I went to another root canal specialist and he said it was not done correctly and he redid it. (1000$ out of packet) Old dentist did not return money. After root canal was fixed the crown was still high. I found new dentist and he corrected it but the tooth keeps coming out like it was hammered with that high bite for too long. My though is that initial root canal was done with too much intrusion to nerves and high bite might aggravate gums and nerves and contribute to ringing. But who knows.

 

" My philosophy is if i can't control it then worrying about it will only reduce my ability to influence the things i can control... a bit crude but seems to settle the stress levels a bit."

Thank you Lee for that. That is an incredible and realistic thinking that can lead the way to healing over time. The less worry or negative reaction about T, the more the brain will be able to reduce the stress level of T and the more likely it will be able to fade T out of consciousness given time when it is no longer perceived as a threat.

 

Bwspot that sounds like a torrid affair, i read somewhere that traumatic pain can trigger T and it certainly sounds like your dental experience was highly painful. As you say it could be linked to something else such as audio... I share your confusion. Until a few years ago I was an avid clubber who dabbled with djing and music production so perhaps my T is an after effect of that or culmunation of many factors??? It seems like yourself to be too much of a coincendence to get it straight after the dental tragedy for it not to influenced by this event.

Not knowing the root cause is almost as frustrating as the ringing, thats a big almost though lol... At least with a broken arm its obvious how it happened so one can take more care etc...

Perhaps i'll never know, i haven't been back to the docs yet as he said the anti inflamatory OD could be a cause and may work its way out of the system.. It hasn't so i'm going back for some tests also starting to get a bit of ear ache now as well, its directly below my ears at the top of my jawline.

Is this common could anyone recommend any rememdies to alleviate this?

Best wishes Bwspot ...

 

Hi Billie48 and thank you for your kind words, i can see from your comments you are able to see the glass as half full for which i have the utmost respect. From what i gather we are all different in terms of T and how it affects us and my heart goes out to those who are struggling with coping at this time. Postive suggestions such as your drilling analogy can offer solace to those who need support so well done you for sharing.

It is completely understandable for T to be stressfull i guess all that can be done is to manage the thoughts. A tip that worked for me is understanding how mind works. The subconscious loves drama and once a thought is seized it can be difficult to let go. The question is, can these automatic negative thoughts be stopped completely?

Absolutely not (in my experience) we are human and the laws of relativity suggest that we need bad to know what good looks like (think about that for a second... without bad good would not exist this would simply be 'as is'). This is why I like your drill worker analogy as it acknowledges the thought and manages it positively.

A wise man once said to me negative thoughts are like waves... know matter how big a defence is built the waves will still crash against it. It is best to let nature take its course and let the waves come in and then go out.