Tinnitus Gone

Good progress It's easy to pay attention to the tinnitus in more ways than one. People usually keep track of what helped, what didn't, when it lowered, when it rose - when absolutely none of that should be cared about. Once you "let go" of monitoring it can be easier. I struggled with that. Not only until that focus exercise truly gels in your mind do you start having moments of forgetting tinnitus. The brain does that on automatic if you prepare it enough. I have newfound respect for how the brain works

I didn't have a job in the beginning of my tinnitus, but I wouldn't have been able to stay in one anyway. Moving back into Oslo while still having the tinnitus was hell. Mom helped me move and when she said goodbye and left, I had a breakdown and didn't manage to go to my new job the next day. I sat on the morning bus thinking, this can't be happening, this can't be real. If that's what anxiety feels like then wow.

I'm single too and didn't have many friends around during my time living with mom. But I didn't want to be with friends anyway, I had completely shut down. The distractions don't have to be major, though I couldn't read books. That felt too quiet. I cuddled up in blankets and grew miserable while watching TV series. I did start to put on the radio from the moment I woke up, and made sure every room had a distraction. The researcher told me to avoid listening in on tinnitus at all cost. I almost hated her for saying that because clearly this isn't a choice I have.

Cafés were a great way to go, because it's low chatter and the opportunity to focus on other things. I never learnt to sleep with sounds on though. I more or less forced myself to fall asleep in silence, and that took another month or so. Gaaah. Wish you the best

 

Morning @norwaygirl had to take a sleeping pill last night as i really needed to sleep! Had about6 hours. Just wondering how do you ignore it if thats all you can hear? Is there a trick?

 

Haha! That's perfectly fine I'm only happy for you, and can relate to just about everything you say about the way your tinnitus worked! When people told me to ignore it I thought, why don't you try being tortured by an internal buzzing screech-monster for every second of the day.

In fact, if I had read this thread while having my tinnitus, I would feel resentment for the author so I'm baffled by the positive response. To recover was an unrealistic, impossible thing. I was told to absorb myself in anything that would take the focus away off tinnitus, but how can you do that when nothing works? I didn't get the grip on it.

Having those short moments in cafés of not registering the tinnitus because I accidentally burnt my tongue on the coffee or something become the only thing I had to hang on to. Like being lost at sea and drowning, picking up anything just to stay afloat, a piece of wood, a feather, a leaf, anything.

I submerged myself in stories I wrote about this person dealing with tinnitus and who got better, so I know I used my imagination a lot to cope (and amen to drinking lots of wine in the process! )

 

I didn't try sleeping pills (no reason, I just hate taking pills and medicine ) and couldn't sleep with music or masking sounds. After a week with maybe 10 minutes sleep each night I assumed I would be so tired that I'd fall asleep on my own but I didn't. Only after reading the article on why tinnitus occur and why it's natural for it to go away did I manage a few hours of sleep. Maybe this allowed me to be calm enough, like a tiny part of my brain understood that it's possible to sleep and live normally with tinnitus, since it isn't permanent or anything to worry about. I'm saying tiny part because 99,99% of me was still terrified and desperate

But others try masking sounds, radio, etc. Maybe that works for you? If anything, have a clock in the room that makes ticking sounds and try focus on the ticks, because then you at least have something else but the tinnitus in the room. It's a training process. Sometimes I'd wake up and not hear the tinnitus, but then the very act of realising it wasn't there would make it audible again

 

Thanks @norwaygirl x the article you read is that the one you posted earlier on TRT?

 

I think so, it was at least some of what I read I remember it might've been longer but I can't find any other document that I've saved :/

 

Thanks norwaygirl , and I agree, T is in our brains, I suffer from it since 18 years, always thought it was from playing music in bands and hearing loss, but after a lot of reading (also success stories and experiences from other users) I come to the opinion it's something we create ourselves, it's a sign something's not ok in our body/mind, fear, anger, feelings of insecurity, maybe some other stress from gut issues, health issues, ... I've had all this for a long time, probably my whole life. I'm going to try some of your suggestions.

The only things I don't understand yet, is why loud music can give some people T but not others ... also, some people don't seem to have T while they are almost deaf, others have T while they have quite good hearing, ...

I often have fleeting T's when stressed or feared, so there must be a relation, and I think I have a lot of work because 18 years is long to reverse ...

all the best and thanks!

 

@norwaygirl Do you remember if your T slowly faded before going away?

 

@MeBeSurfer > you said you "wear hearing aids which seems to have really really helped. It masked the screaming T enough to where I could tune it out"

So @MeBeSurver, can you please tell me what kind of hear aids you've been using or used and what type of masking noise you used with them? ie what frequency and was it a notched masking noise? thanks very much!

 

Thank you so much for sharing your success story. I really needed this! You have accurately described all the emotions and stages so perfectly and it gives me so much hope! I believe this will help me and many others. Bless you!

 

I just have regular Phonak over the ear hearing aids. If I was in the market for new ones, I would have gotten ones that played zen tones. I didn't do notched therapy or anything. When I put the hearing aids in, I turned them up higher so that the sound of my breathing, footsteps, everything is super amped up to fight the T noise. I got lucky where my T seemed more in the background when I put my hearing aids in. The only masking I was doing was at night, playing a wierd beep-bop-boop R2D2 sounding robot track on YouTube that completely masked it. It was literally the only thing I could play that would mask the sound from inside my head. But yeah, there are probably better hearing aids that I have, but my Phonak's were the normal hearing aids and helped push it more in the background.

 

I've heard Chris Martin from Coldplay had it also, and is almost if not completely rid of it now - still doing concerts

I'm also under the opinion we create it ourselves, but only to some degree. When I first got tinnitus, I really HAD it So whether that was because of pressure in the ear (the doctor's didn't find anything though) or something in my body being off whack, or loud music or whatever, I was just desperate to get rid of it. Looking back, it was exhausting to connect it to food, drinks, stress, etc, because then you try every outwardly solution without the issue inside being addressed.

We have plenty of signals within our brains. Sometimes stuff happens that allow these signals to reach our everyday hearing - it doesn't matter in itself what these causes are. This is not unnatural, but it's supposed to go away as soon as "we get the message." With tinnitus, the noise is so loud and sudden and scary that I think the panic itself doesn't allow it to go away because you keep checking in on it. Is it there now? Now? How about now? Or now? Then you panic even more because why the hell isn't it gone yet??

If you've had it for 18 years then no doubt your brain's adapted to it and grown used to sending you the signal. It does take a turnaround but it's possible! Just hard work! If your tinnitus triggers by stress or fear then most likely it's got something to do with increased blood flow that somehow pressures a vein or who knows. Again, it doesn't matter because you can train your brain not to hear it. The pressure might still be there, but the signal isn't passed onto your awareness. I don't mean to sound so certain though... I'm not an expert but am talking from own experience

 

I never had a real feeling of it fading, but after a while of ignoring it would still come back, but then at a lower volume, yes.

In general I suggest not keeping track of tinnitus fading or increasing, but to just ignore it all the same The tinnitus shouldn't be given an ounce of attention.

 

norwaygirl, I am thinking that my recent Tinnitus is somehow a mental manifestation. The reason I believe this is because there have been some instances where I have basically "forgotten" to hear it. That being said, it isn't often. Mine showed up 2 months ago during a cold that gave me quite a bit of head congestion. I still have intermittent head congestion but for some reason I still feel like the ringing that is left is somehow being created by my fear. When I am relaxed and busy doing some things, it feels like it literally vanishes or very nearly does. But when I am on a search for yet another solution to the ringing, it gets SO LOUD! Does that sound right? Would that have been something you experienced as well? I feel like my life has been put on pause but there have been some very normal days and on those normal days, I don't hear the ringing hardly at all. Do you think I am having a few good days because those are the days with less ringing or the other way around, I am having less ringing because I am trying to have a normal day.

Also, another thing that makes me feel like this has a mental component is because the very first day I heard it was when I woke up one morning. It didn't upset me for some reason and then it was another 5 days before it started to freak me out. I cannot remember hearing it during those 5 days and I surely would have had the head congestion. So where was it? Did my brain just filter it out? And is the solution about getting it to do that again?

 

This is "almost" the same experience I am having except that I had a light cold (9 weeks ago) that they think caused an infection ,maybe. My T is also a lot more modulated though from what I read in your post.

 

Yes we are the same. My T doesn't really get louder per se, just more intrusive. And we are the same in that it might have been a sinus infection (according to Dr. ) that has blocked my Eustachian tubes because I hear crackling. This isn't the first time I've had either of those things but it is the only time I've had the ringing/hiss. Either way I'm beginning to feel like I am holding onto the sound somehow and need to learn to ignore it. I feel like chasing a medical cause could keep you from not thinking about it, even if it is somehow related.

 

Same here but I can't let it go and am doing Intensive Out Patient Therapy (CBT) to hopefully help because I am hanging by a thread sometimes....

 

I've slept with sleeping pills (or at least attempted to) almost every night for the past 2-3 years, the higher the dose, the lower the T. Using a fan to mask the noise helps too.

 

I agree! Clearly tinnitus is a thing and it's real, but it must be a mental component somewhat. I felt that clearly in the period right before it vanished completely. If I went on forums or thought a lot about it, it would be ever present. In the "forgetting" it would be gone for real. Though that's not strange. I believe the signal is upkept because we remain receptive to it despite it not being a danger or something we really need to be alerted of. I think to our awareness and awake self, the sound is extremely alarming since it feels so unnatural, hence we're "telling" our brain to keep us informed by remaining our focus on it. There's no reason for tinnitus to last. I can't think of how it's any other way as I got rid of it literally by setting my focus onto other sounds.

Soon as you wake up, put on the radio. Soon as you sit down and begin to notice the tinnitus, get up on your feet and go to the kitchen or outside or a café or wherever. Always distract yourself. It can be very tiring to do this, I thought I'd never be able to relax again, but gradually the brain/tinnitus follows and learns that it's not that important to make you aware of its signal. You really do forget. I think you already have a "strong" brain (how scientific ) in the sense that it has filtered it out from the start. There will be ups and downs - I felt like I wanted to die for instance - but just be focused I'm here for you! Keep me updated!

 

You've heard wrong, he still has it.

 

With all due respect, I've been reading this thread and what you say about Tinnitus and not giving it attention certainly makes sense. Everything you have been describing in regards to distracting yourself and viewing Tinnitus as benign has to do with habituation techniques, most of this comes from TRT like the link you shared with me.

However ... if yours dissapeared completely it is far more likely that it resolved on it's own accord. You mention someone like Chris Martin, a extremely busy celebrity who is constantly surrounded by music and probably other distractions, he still has tinnitus, so if what you are saying is the "cure" to tinnitus how come he still has it?

Don't get me wrong I'm really happy for you yours has gone and I certainly believe keeping distracted and masking + sound enrichment helps to habituate to (mild - moderate) Tinnitus but I'm not convinced you "cured" your T by doing this.

 

I remember reading somewhere that he had gotten a lot better, some interview on youtube. But that was habituation after years of training.

I'm no expert, I have no idea, but I do know that it didn't ever leave me on its own accord. I also did more of distraction than I did trying to cover the tinnitus up. My focus wasn't on the masking but on the other sounds and things going on... If that makes sense. Again, I have no clue. I just know that it not once felt easy to cope with. As to artists, it may be that continuously being in a loud environment might never keep it away as the tinnitus will always be maintained. It would be too strong. The only way might be to get out of that environment. When I say mine is gone doesn't mean that there's a black and white in that sense. After two months where I thought I'd gotten rid of it, it came back as something woke it and I was terrified again. I'm sure I could still trigger it if I really went in for it! But it's too far "back" in my awareness to make it through (is my belief...). It didn't go back on its own. It took forcing it there x 10000000 times a day. I don't know if I can explain this enough so other people fully understand it. It's just a transition of it being in the forefront to it getting in the back, and the way to get there. That road might be different for everyone. And for those whose tinnitus naturally disappear on its own? Sweet!

I quit going on forums because I knew as long as I was there, I'd never believe it could be gone, and reading other peoples stories was so devastating because I did realise that this isn't something people get rid of. Getting out of forums and ending up in the lonely process after that was even worse because no one in the real world knows what cures tinnitus either and so most likely there is no cure. But if I didn't try the ignoring thing out then I'd rather not live and so I had to try everything.

How can it ever be a cure at all if people still have it and have had it for 30 years or more? I don't know. It's exactly what I told the reasearcher as well. How can it even be that people can get rid of it? I just know I wanted to die from it. It was like holding around one small fingertip while dangling in a big black void that would swallow me. You don't have to be convinced I cured my tinnitus by this, but people DO recover without the cause being that the tinnitus had run its course anyhow! I have met those people, also those who had had it for many years and didn't think it would work. If I had tinnitus now and logged onto here, I would hate all of my posts and the way I explain things because this person clearly doesn't know how impossible it is to get rid of tinnitus. She's living in luckyland where she did some focusing on other sounds and it just disappeared, what a naïve idiot.

I don't know what else to tell you, except that I am speaking from my own point of view. Maybe you're right? Who knows? But I do know, from my whole experience of this and what I went through, without me saying it's based on any kind of facts or wrongs, that it didn't go away on its own.

 

It happens all the time, a lot of people's tinnitus goes away on their own, habituation probably played a part as well as does distraction, I wouldn't go around saying that this is what ''cured'' your tinnitus and that people who had it for 18 years need to ''change their mindset'' though. Believe me, I am doing all I can to distract myself from tinnitus and am partaking in daily life as much as I can, I am not aware of my tinnitus for good parts of the day now but it's still very much there and I don't believe what you say helps with anything other than habituation. Again I am very happy for you and that yours disappeared but again I don't believe it's something anyone has conscious control over.

In regards to Chris Martin:

Chris Martin (Coldplay) en Sean Dhondt over...

 

Gingko biloba... has it ever helped anyone?

 

Maybe as a placebo

 

I didn't believe any of that either!! Trust me! There is no conscious control! There is no tuning in or out of it! There is absolute forcing a million trillion times until the brain itself, the part we have no control over which is most of it, takes over and stops making you aware of the signal. It's like throwing the ball to someone else. You're not the one doing it in the end, that's the whole point! I'd never use that term, to change the mindset. Being positive is all good, but having had it for 18 years will take extreme willpower for many more years to come! I spent 60+ nights EVERY night focusing on the clock in our living room to try and hear only the ticks and none of the tinnitus. First it would work 5-10 seconds nightly, then 10 seconds nightly for two months, then a full minute nightly on the third/fourth month! It takes forever, and definitely for those who has had it for many, many years!

 

This is a natural process and it's called habituation, your brain sorts this out itself once you manage to view tinnitus as a neutral stimulus, there is no ''forcing'' this other than distracting yourself, the help of sound enrichment (such as a clock or whatever) helps with this. Some people habituate to the point they are no longer (consciously) aware of their tinnitus unless they search for it ... In your case since it is gone completely (as you said yourself) it seems more likely it actually went away. No doubt your ''exercises'' helped but again it happens all the time, you did not even have it for a very long time to begin with ...

Simple example here, my psychiatrist has had tinnitus for over 12 years due to an accoustic trauma, the way he deals with his tinnitus is through mindfulness aka completely focussing on something else than his tinnitus, exactly like you did with the clock, he's been doing this for more than 10 years. His is still very much there but he habituated to the point it no longer bothers him. He works in a silent office and can focus completely on his work, reading, helping his clients etc.

Another example I have; a personal friend of mine has tinnitus, did the same thing you described, completely distracting himself with painting, reading, walking on the beach etc. Now his tinnitus is no longer in his conscious awareness, however when he is stressed it flares up, it never left.

Last example, one of the forum members here habituated to a point where he only hears his T when he thinks about it, he habituated to the perception of it, also by distracting himself away from it. Point being he still has T, he is just not aware of it.

You say yours is completely gone, that is remission, it happens all the time, it's not a trainable thing.

 

Sure, if I sat down for three solid days and focused on tinnitus, it would probably show up - but I don't, so in my mind and my life it is completely gone. The very last thing I struggled with was the whole issue of dodging every thought I had about tinnitus, because then I'd hear it again. I do feel it's strange to have someone decide for me that it's remission. And also; the distraction part IS the forcing. That's the absolute toughest part.

If you can train enough not to hear it, even if it's only on occation, this means it's trainable. As I don't focus on it for the rest of my life, I won't hear it. That was the entire motivation for my training; not to ever hear it again by forcing myself to forget about it to the point where the forgetting went on automatic and maintained itself.



I wish this could be in English but I'll post in any way. It's really interesting! https://tinnitustips.no/norske/eva-signe-falkenberg/ (Eva Signe Falkenberg is a researcher and professor)


"For the tinnitus related nerve activity (TRA) to become bothersome, the weak signals given off by TRA needs to be processed in the central system (in lack of better term during translating). It is this processing - not the tinnitus sound itself - who decides whether the tinnitus will become bothersome. The expression; we hear with our brain, not with our ears, is fitting here." (...) "The degree of annoyance and its presence does not depend on the tinnitus sound alone, but to a large degree the conditioned response and cognitive (intellectual) factors and processes.

With these processes comes handling and perception of sensory input, thinking, problem solving, fantasy etc. We teach the brain what signals to track. In this "training" other systems of the brain are connected, for example the part that runs our emotions, the limbic system. Feelings of fear and anxiety are often a part of the problem when tinnitus occur. (...) The body's equilibrium state is affected which leads to high tension levels and alertness. This leads to increased focus on the annoyance, enhancing the experience of the sound. The person then usually enters a vicious circle where negative thoughts and feelings are given the dominant role. Anxiety and tension again lead to over-attention of the sound, increasing it further. This causes irrational fear and triggering of the survival reflex."

After the following part about habituation, this is summed up: "The superior goalsetting of this treatment is to achieve a defusion and a habituation of the tinnitus signal that leads to the brain no longer registering or hearing the signal."

Guidelines for the patient:

– Move tinnitus out of focus.
– Listen through tinnitus onto something else.
– Stop checking own tinnitus.

This deconditioning process - which is a learning process - implies the person needs to start thinking in new ways, which can be a threshold for each and every one after many years of a fixed thought pattern concerning their own pain.

The process can be compared to removing a pathway that has been worn in. You have to stop walking on it shall you see the grass grow back. You have to give it time. The grass doesn't start growing the day you stop walking there.

An example of this is from a treatment project conducted in Oslo in the years 1998-2000. A woman who was completely rid of her tinnitus she'd been strongly bothered with for 20 years, avoided talking about the tinnitus for months after, when she by talking about it/focusing on the phenomena experienced a momentarily relapse.


The project she refers to:
"The treatment project was conducted at the Institute of Pedagogy by the University of Oslo in collaboration with Briskeby competence centre, where 200 people were given treatment in the period 1998-2000. The team concisted of two ENT doctors, two hearing teachers (again, in lack of better term), one physiotherapist and one psychologist. The results coincide with the experience and mapping of other countries. Straight after completed treatment, 60% claimed to be less bothered by their tinnitus and 72% felt they mastered it better. Some where completely rid of it. Amongst those rid of it and those less bothered by it, several had described the same volume of tinnitus."

I'm just writing all these 1) because it's interesting, and 2) because habituating to the point of not hearing it at all is not remission, and it's definitely not up to anyone else saying it's been a remission when he or she really doesn't know what has been going on.

 

Literally everything you said points to ''habituation of perception'' which is one of the goals of TRT, it seems the professors work is heavily influenced by TRT, if you are not familiar with this I added a copy of the book for you (and others) to read. Habituation of perception (can) take(s) place after habituation of reaction and is aided by use of sound enrichment, distraction and psychologically reframing tinnitus. The process itself however is completely natural and happens outside of our (conscious) influence. If your tinnitus is completely gone this is not habituation so it can only be remission, if you can still find your tinnitus (even though it might take some time) you are habituated, big difference ...

 

After watching a loud movie... I started to stress out. I did not hear T right away but had a feeling that I was coming from a concert, more deafness than T. I used the exact same youtube videos... My hearing after the movie was that of a 40 year old... the day after 31 year old. I’m 37.

Seems like hearing loss recovered (as far as I could tell) but the T tone stuck...

Coincidentally, I also used those youtube vids in a critical phase... no sure way of knowing though.