Tinnitus for 5 Months... Will It Go Away?

Hi all,

I am a 24 yr old male, I have had tinnitus for the last 5 months. I'm not sure what caused my T.. It could have been marijuana withdrawals, yet it most likely was caffeine, and running listening to loud music through my ear phones.

The first signs of my T came on lightly, one night when I was in bed I could hear a ringing sound - this made me very anxious although I told myself this was only temporarily and that I would sleep it off and it was all be all good in the morning.. Unfortunately not, I woke up with the ringing louder and started worrying even more. First thing in the morning I went to my local GP and recommended/ got my ears washed out. But the T continued.

After I got home I tried to relax but couldn't, I searched the internet and read what tinnitus was, and read that it doesn't go away for most people. This sent me into a spiral of out of control panic attacks, uncontrollable crying, heavy breathing and anxiety..

The next week was unbearable.. The ringing increased as did my anxiety. When I did manage to get some sleep I would wake up in the middle of the night and start having panic attacks. I would then call a life-line support to get me through. In one day I made 25 phone calls to the same life line to get me through the day. Every day for a week I called support services.

When I spoke to people around me my words were shakey as I was scared all the time. I did not feel safe anywhere. The T was so loud, it was all I could hear, even while watching TV.

I spent must of the day sitting with my arms crossed, at times I would look over my shoulder suddenly for no reason, this could be apart of chronic paranoia; looking for things to get me that weren't there. I barely ate, and lost a lot of weight during this time. Time went slow, I was always stressing about how I would get through the day, like its only 8 in the morning what am I going to do for the next 16 hours before I eventually fall asleep? I just wanted to be unconscious. I tried doing things I use to enjoy like taking my dog for a walk, but 20m down the street I would break down uncontrollably and have to walk back. I tried going for a walk down the beach, but as soon as I get there I would walk for a minute or so but have to come back. During this time I was suffering from severe hypercausis. My ears were so sensitive, even stepping on leaves hurt my ears..

This all lasted about a week, the anxiety and T reduced slightly but the hypercausis gone which was a big relief.. I was ready to go back to where I was living and continue life with the struggle of T. The medication i was on really helped me back on my feet. The tinnitus has been up and down since then. After the first 2 months at night when i'm in bed I would get little T explosions that lasted for a few seconds, going really high pitched then back to its normal frequency.

After 3 months sometimes it would dissappear nearly completely, then it would come back. I remember it was nearly gone and I was living a normal care-free life. It was so low i could just hear it at night and it didn't really bother me, it just just cricket-noises chirping in my head at night, which was still uncomfortable but such a relief from the constant ringing laser noise.

Recently, about a month ago I decided to mow the backyard lawn using ear protection for about 30 mins. This caused my T to increase dramatically, nearly to the point it first started. This lasted 7 days then it went down again.. I find that noise exposure really increased my T, things like chopping wood, or going to a bar with music would increase it, although sometimes I did these things it wouldn't have any effect at all which I found weird.

5 months on and I get the job I have been studying 18 months for to get my qual. The tinnitus is nearly gone, and only bothers me at night or morning when i'm in bed. This was a great turning point for me and the start of my new life.

(At my workplace I am driving trucks and operating machinery. So its the first day of spring, first week into my new job iv been longing for but my ears are RINGING; there's a nasty hiss in my ears that wont go away and can hear 24/7 like it was when I first had T.

I am sure operating machinery even with ear protection has brought my T back to a high level.

I am now severely anxious and depressed again, and considering quitting my job because of this tinnitus bullshit that's ruining my life and destroying me as a person. Its not worth feeling like this, this is a nightmare, symptoms of hypercausis are coming back, and chronic depression increasing by the day. I don't even know who I am these days, completely out of character with very little self-esteem. Every day is a battle to get through work and complete set tasks, knowing that when I come home my T is going to be unbearable.

Am I doing more damage to my ears by operating machinery? I am using good quality ear muffs over ear plugs in my ears and it still seems to be effecting my T.

Has anyone had there T go away after 5+ months?

Has anyone had there T go away whilst operating machinery in the workplace?


Thank you all for reading my personal story on tinnitus, any feedback is much appreciated.

 

Hello Julian!

The bad news first. If you've had tinnitus for 5 months non-stop. There is a good change it will stay. Sorry to say that, but that is just how it is.

The good news is. Tinnitus is not your problem. Your reaction to it is. As time passes on you will get more and more used to it. You will start to have the ability to not react to it. It will be a part of you just like everything else. Eventually you will get tired of hating it, and just accept it as it is. Another good news is that as you get used to it, you will get the ability to put it out of your mind. The ringing will be there, but you will not notice it. It will take less and less space in your focus radar.

I've had tinnitus, the loud type, for 2 years now. I can sit in a silent room again, no problem. Tinnitus is there, but I have accepted it. I don't have a negative attitude to it anymore. I can even ignore it in silent rooms to the level that I don't notice it (like it's not there). Not always of course, but a lot of the time I can.

How did I get there? To be honest, I think we just need to use the time. You will suffer until you get tired off suffering, then you start to live again. Tinnitus can't hurt you, it's just a mental game, in my opinion.

The first 6 months for me was a living hell , I had almost no habituation going for me. I just hated. Then, after those first 6 months, things started to happens slowly. The last 4 months I have almost not cared about tinnitus. I can actually imagine a life like pre-tinnitus again. I had moments I thought my life was over. Trust me.

About your work. If you work in a noisy environment. You should probably start to look for another job. Even tho you can get used to tinnitus, you don't want to make it worse. I don't know what kind of welfare systems you have in your country, but if you have the opportunity, just quit right away and take welfare until you can find something that fits you better with tinnitus.

 

I agree with meeruf. I don't know how much help I can offer because my T is mild -- at least it is now. I was in the exact same situation, except that I don't have a job. My ears were literally screaming, but I learned to be focused on something else when my T was worst. That decreased my T dramatically, and I moved on with my life. It's still hard for me to fall asleep, but when I wake up in the morning I don't listen to it anymore. When I hear it I just think 'aha, there it is again. This is just another day with T'. I have had it since February, so I highly doubt that it will go away
When I have bad days I mask the sound with white noise and binaural beats. Binaural beats have also decreased my T a bit

 

This is the best description of the process to get better and @meeruf has put it concisely in one nice short paragraph. I will quote this in future replies to newbies if they ask how is it to get habituated. I may add a bit of my advice but in essence this embraces the process. If you have some strategy which can help speed up the process, all the better. Perhaps having fun hobbies or having good distractions in life, or using CBT principles of challenging your distorted thoughts, or doing mindfulness meditations etc. will help seed up the process. The final stage of surrendering to the reality and accepting it as part of one's life is crucial to end the T tyranny. You don't have to like T, but having a peaceful co-existence with it without supplying more negative reactions is the beginning of living a more normal life. Not saying it is easy. As Meeruf puts it, giving it enough TIME is crucial to the habituation process and each person differs in how much time it needs.

@Julian2241 , I don't know if your job is bad for your T. You are the best person to decide. But I have read Jade's success story who drives an 800 ton truck for a living. She said her T was louder than the truck noise. She suffered much until she realized that most of her colleagues have T too and they are doing fine and living normal lives. So she said screw T and starting to ignore it. By not reacting to T negatively anymore, she reclaims her life. The rest is history and here is her story:

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/6-months-tinnitus-still-going-strong-but-so-am-i.3226/

 

hi! i'm 13 and about three months ago i noticed a ringing in my right ear when i was trying to sleep. it doesn't bother me throughout the day, because i can only really hear it when i'm in dead silence or like at night when i'm in bed. it gets really annoying and i have no idea why i have it? like it came out of nowhere and i don't listen to loud music or anything. do you think it will go away? like i'm still really young and have a lot of my life ahead of me so i'm really scared