Tinnitus: Initial Stress and Eventual Recovery

So I'm not precisely sure what caused my tinnitus. It started in the middle of 2020 a little after being laid off from my job, so maybe stress related but hard to say.

Initially it was extremely difficult for me to deal with. It was distracting and hard to get myself to do anything. It was akin to how debilitated I felt when I lost my sense of balance from an unrelated condition and felt like I was falling constantly (got over that but nearly as disconcerting IMO) I tried a few things and notched sound, and loud background music seemed to help stop it from bothering me though didn't reduce ringing volume. Sleeping with rain as a background noise from my phone helped on sleeping.

I had the most success with meditation. I tried self guided at first but had very limited symptom reduction, hard to distinguish from me hoping it was getting better. I really hit when I did some guided breathing exercises courtesy of Headspace. Over several weeks the volume of the noise went down, till I only heard it when I was trying to sleep. Eventually I don't notice it at all.

Over several months I noticed it coming back slowly and found that self directed meditation was less effective than guided breathing exercises, I try to do 20 minutes every other day. Right now I've got about full symptom relief, and meditate about every other day for 20 minutes to maintain it.

 

That’s encouraging to read. My doctor recently recommended meditation.

Is Headspace an app?

 

Good to hear. I have just downloaded the Headspace app to have a look.

Was your tinnitus severe, moderate or mild in the beginning? How many months after your tinnitus onset did you notice the volume and intrusiveness going down?

How many months after your tinnitus began did you start the meditation?

Thank you.