Tinnitus Absolutely Does Get Better — Most People Just Don't Come Back to Tell About It!

Hey guys and gals!

Loooong time lurker on these forums. I felt that it was my duty to come here and tell you about my experience. Before I get to far ahead of myself I would like to apologize for the grammar and format as I am not an English major and just a regular person that once had crippling tinnitus.

I first experienced crippling tinnitus in 2016. I woke up in bed with this loud ringing in my ear and freaked out. Went to the doctors and they had no answers. After I went on Google and researched everything I thought my life was over. It was EXTREMELY HARD for me to wrap my head around me living with this condition for the rest of my life. I thought my life was over.

I’ve gone through some rough patches in life, but this was the worst. My relationships and career suffered greatly.

I Googled way too much. Google was my enemy during this whole ordeal. My mind was consumed by other people’s experiences with tinnitus and I quickly realized that most people that get better do not come back and post success stories.

I decided to come back and tell you that it ABSOLUTELY DOES GET BETTER!

People that get better rarely come back here to post. I was one of them but felt like I was obligated to because I know how awful you can feel. Please reach out to me or anyone else if you need guidance or help.

 

"Crippling tinnitus" - as in unmaskable?

 

Most people with mild stable tinnitus get better yeah.

 

Is your tinnitus better now or bearable? I’m happy for you. This is nice to see as I’m at the moment kind of scared because tinnitus is still new to me. I got it last year April. It’s scary but I have accepted it and deal with it.

Do you have any advice?

 

Thanks for your enthusiastic optimism @Adam Reynolds. I'd sure like to believe I'll get better in time. I'm having one of those bad days today, so I'm not the most optimistic myself right now.

What was your tinnitus experience like and how long did it take for you to recover? Did you do anything in particular to aid in your recovery?

I bet I could rummage through your history here, but thought I'd ask up front since I'm exhausted right now from the day I've been having, and I'm ready to try to get some shut eye, cheers!

 

I'm happy to hear your tinnitus improved to the point you "got your life back" - it's encouraging to hear that after so many years there still is a chance of improvement

 

Some people do get better and some people don't.

 

Did you not mention recently that your tinnitus does not spike as easily, and is ‘better’ following a terrible 7 month period?

There are several people on here who have habituated to severe multi-tonal tinnitus after a few years. Maybe you will get to this point eventually.

 

Oh yes, I am much more stable than before. By habituate you mean not hear it? That would be impossible of course, at least at the level it's now. If you mean that I don't suffer as much anymore and try to do things I enjoy regardless (that don't spike me), then yeah, I guess you can say I somewhat habituated.

 

I see you post here quite a bit. You obviously have a severe case of tinnitus.

Have you ever tried any therapy? CBT or TRT?

You have a much lower chance of tinnitus reducing in volume with your current mindset.

I read this after I wrote the above to you. Seems like you are habituating slowly.

The noise never fully goes away in people who habituate. They just stop caring about it.

 

Thanks for clearing that up.

No, I didn’t mean that you won’t hear it. I don’t think many truly severe cases will get to that point, but they will be more able to cope and enjoy life again.

It’s important that people reading this know that even catastrophic cases can see improvement. Everyone thinks their tinnitus is severe/catastrophic in the beginning. It’s a very delicate period.

 

There's a point when these things stop being effective. I passed that a while ago.

Well, It still impedes my everyday life quite a lot. I can't really go outside or to gatherings etc.

 

Oh yeah I agree. 99.9% of people will never get as bad as me. However I was patient and improved somewhat eventually.

 

CBT or counseling are good options when one is trying to deal with their current volume of tinnitus, however they are completely powerless in the face of severely reactive/unstable tinnitus, as @AnthonyMcDonald mainly refers to. Stability is key here.

The volume of the tinnitus is objective and can very likely accurately be measured with future technology. I think objective volume improvements (or worsening) is completely independent of one's mindset. The mindset may however be very important with regards to how we deal with the tinnitus, but that's entirely different.

 

That's true, read member @Telis' early posts and compare after 4-5 years. He practically got his life back over the course of about 5 years (volume reduction plus habituation). Unfortunately, like many, we get complacent (myself included) and worsen to unfathomable levels - then we say we miss our old "severe" tinnitus.

I hope he is alright today....

 

Seems like @Telis often takes long breaks from the forum and then reappears. Hopefully he has improved.

 

My tinnitus also has a stable direction. It's definitely getting worse every year.

 

Hey Day! Yes and no. It doesn’t bother me like it used to.

 

Sorry to hear that

 

My tinnitus was far from mild. It’s still there but I’ve learned ways to cope with it and my life is back to what it was before.

 

Yes it gets better.

 

Does it spike daily from noise less than 40 dB?

 

Tinnitus is such a complex ordeal, there could be many moving parts within it. I have dealt and still do with many aspects of it these days. Seeking improvement is something all of us want. I like to think about it this way - I have dealt with many setbacks (some have, really impacted my tinnitus) and then a new journey begins.

The setbacks could bring back old issues that I may have faced years ago and it could bring on new elements as well.

It's like having to start over at times and this can be difficult.

As I said, there are so many parts to the tinnitus we face each day.

All of us are unique and deal with certain issues and situations.

For me getting "better" is more subjective - If I am dealing with multiple issues because of my tinnitus, seeing even one part of it improve, can be a small win for me.

In my decades living with tinnitus, I rely on those small wins.

It takes and it has taken "lots" of efforts to see those small wins, but it's possible for them to happen.

This philosophy lends itself, to life outside of tinnitus as well.

We need to try to find our "small" wins.

 

Well said @fishbone x

Totally agree.

 

Since I have not logged in for a couple of years, I thought I would post here since I did "come back" after remembering Tinnitus Talk after seeing it in an old email.

And why did I forget about this site? Since my tinnitus doesn't bother me (I've had it for six years). It is still around, about a 2/10 on most days, going to a 4/10 on many.

Now, I did get some volume relief early on, bringing it down from a 6-8 when it started, making it easier to habituate (mine is caused by TMJ, so some relief through therapy was possible).

The best advice I remember about habituating is that you have to separate the emotional response from the noise. Early on it was anguish, anger, sadness, and so on, and a video I remember (but can't find now) was to simply state out loud the feelings you are feeling about the tinnitus. Now I hear it and simply think of it as noise, I don't have an emotional response to it.

I had to go through a lot to get there - not only physical therapy but also emotional therapy. And I had to accept that I will have this the rest of my life. Accepting that I think made habituating easier since I did all I could do, and now it will be a part of me until I die.

So most of the day I don't hear it - I watch TV, read, listen to music, have conversations, and I don't hear it. Like right now, you don't feel your bottom touching whatever you are sitting on, until you read that sentence. Your mind is bombarded by stimuli constantly - touch, sight, sound - most of which is filtered out if it doesn't need your attention. After a time (sometimes years), for most, the tinnitus will become one of many stimuli that is filtered out, like your seat bottom.

It isn't easy, and I was doubtful about this when it started, thinking it was something for people who have given up. But I think it is true for most if you give it time.

 

Did you ever get TMJ treatment for your tinnitus? Did you get your bite fixed?

 

I’ve had tinnitus since 2002 - there are ups and downs.

To be honest with you, getting older with tinnitus, I’ve found it to be worse than what it was 20 years ago. Changing hormones and neck issues may not be helping but am not 100% sure on that.

Yes, it can ‘get better’ for some but for the many of us who’ve had this condition over numerous years, more often than not, that sadly is not the case. Sorry, just being realistic. After 2 decades you kinda have to be.

I also think that threads with these titles should have the title toned down somewhat. It does give false hope to people in great distress with this condition.

 

I do not post here much anymore, and rarely check in. But this is the type of thread that deserves more attention.

For anyone whose been around long enough to remember me, I had it pretty awful. I wore earplugs to do literally anything because of the hyperacusis. Tinnitus screamed over literally everything.

These days I'm completely fine. It took years to get here, but most days I have absolutely zero tinnitus. Even if I was to wear earplugs and the noise reduction cans on top of them.

That's not to say I never have tinnitus. These past 2 weeks I can hear it when I lie down for bed a bit. Happens this time of year. I think my sinuses get a bit inflamed from the heat in the house until my body adjusts to the season change. My left ear is still a bit sensitive at times. It fatigues pretty easy. Years of DJing with a monitor blaring an inch from that ear is the culprit there. I definitely have some hearing loss.

My positive outcome doesn't mean everyone gets a second chance of silence (most of the time) - but it does show that it's possible, even after years. My hearing issues were the worst thing that ever happened to me. I know how shit it can be. I feel for every one one of you.

I play drums / guitar daily. I exercise caution of course, but I have my life back 100%.

Lastly, if any of you ever have questions about what helped me and what didn't help me - I'm more than happy to tell you at length and I swear on all that is holy to me that I won't try and sell you anything.

 

It's great to hear stories like this. It gives many people some hope.

Do you ever go to any loud warehouse events now with earplugs? It's probably the biggest thing I hate missing out on now, and am considering trying it out sometime if I recover enough, but am aware it's super high risk.

 

Well, I have a small child these days - so I don't really go to raves at this point. But I absolutely have gone to them, and I frequent concerts - like 15-20 a year. Hell I've done a few 3-day festivals. I wear custom molded earplugs. Usually 25 dB of reduction ones. When I'm in loud small rooms playing guitar in a band setting I use 15 dB of reduction ones because I need maximum clarity to decipher harmony. if I am playing drums I wear over the ears cans.

Honestly, if you don't have hyperacusis - going to a loud show with earplugs in WILL NOT impact your tinnitus. Basically every musician / person working in that field has at least some tinnitus. Most that are smart enough to wear earplugs are doing it because they already had some damage and started to protect their hearing. It absolutely stops the damage from getting worse for literally the dozen or so of people I know that are in this situation.