Tinnitus for 30 Years — Hopeful That There Will Be a Cure Soon!

Hi there all. I'm Gert. Living in South Africa with tinnitus for almost 30 years.

I first noticed this strange noise sounding like a group of Cicada beetles many years ago while our family was at a lake near my home town. Nothing out of the ordinary happened that I can remember, I just started to experience the sounds. I remember asking my sister if she also heard the loud Cicada beetle noises since it irritated me immensely. I was amazed that I was the only one hearing these sounds. Well, life went on. I just “lived” with it. What else can you do. In those days I don't think that tinnitus was even mentioned to the doctors in South Africa. Well, I gave it a good go.

Being older an obviously being cognizant of the future and what I still need to achieve before retirement, it makes me very anxious and that is also not very good for the tinnitus. I tried many things that I researched online which ranges from meditation(impossible with tinnitus btw. without masking sounds), masking sounds itself(which makes my tinnitus even worse after use, I have to be very selective) and even Naltrexone(prescribed by my doctor, and I didn’t like it). O yes, and the answer from the ENT was literally, we can’t do anything for you. I’ll send you to an audiologists to see what they can do. They obviously promised the world. I was supposed to be part of a PHD study program on tinnitus. Did all the administration, was never included in the study.

So, why am I here? Since I personally don’t know anyone else with this condition/curse, I thought it would be awesome to just be able to have a chat with someone or a group of people whom understand what I’m dealing with. I also have to say that after reading some of the stories of the people on this forum, I think I have less problems. It seems like people that have chronic tinnitus from a younger age might have a better chance of making it till the end. It seems like some people on the forum just cannot handle another thing in their lives. I just want to say guys, I know it’s hard, I know it’s debilitating, but hang in there. I started to listen to the Tinnitus Talk podcast and it seems like help is on its way. Maybe not soon, but I’m hopeful. I was actually relieved to realize that what Dr. Josef Rauschecker is researching is a potential solution to our problems. What he said makes sense to me. Our volume control to certain sounds are broken. Well, I actually think it is stuck. It almost feels like a sound equalizer in which the high frequencies are set to the highest volume and it is stuck in that position, with a constant tinnitus noise fed into its input are directly wired into the brain.
Hopefully the research will find the answers soon and we can all go for a frequency volume control tune-up or even replacement. Can’t wait for the day when they announce the solution to our problems.

So, at the moment I find tinnitus relieve using some masking sounds, but I have to be very selective with the masking sounds I use. If I use something like white noise I get good relieve while using it, but afterwards it just amplifies the tinnitus. I also found that using masking sounds with white noise make my ears pain and so do certain parts of my brain. Not because of the volume I'm playing it at since I try to keep the volume just at the same level as the tinnitus. I think it has something to do with the sound you experience from the tinnitus. The tinnitus I experience is quite high, so lower frequency masking sounds works better for me. Like Gregorian songs or even Tibetan temple bells. Or even better, a combination of the two. The Mantovani Orchestra’s more contemporary music also works great for me. It calms the soul and brings temporary relieve. But, as soon as the masking sounds go down the tinnitus is back, full blast. I normally wait until I’m super tired before I go to bed, so I basically pass out, I don’t fall asleep. I try to sleep for at least 7 hours a night, but I normally get to 6 or maybe 6,5 hours. I also don't drink any alcohol at all, it makes the tinnitus much worse for me.

For now we are doomed with this curse fellow tinnitus sufferers, but I believe the research show great promise.

Stay strong...