Tinnitus Is Unfair, Period

If I was 70 years of age, and then got tinnitus, I wouldn't give a crap.

If I was recklessly abusing my ears, and then got tinnitus, my fault.

But no, it had to come just as my life began to be good. About to move out, start at university, get a car license, get in my first relationship..

...and then, one night, I decide to lean my head on my hand while watching TV... and that is supposed to ruin my life?

You can't make this stuff up.
It's like a sick joke.

 

@Alex Brussel

You are not alone. Many people get intrusive T without doing much to deserve it. Did you get any hearing loss from that very mild head injury?

 

No I am away from home in a small place with no actual clinic. Does it make a difference? I heard they dont generally test like all frequencies.

 

They usually test up to 8k. Hearing loss above that typically happens as we age (even before we turn 20), so unless there was a significant loss it might be difficult to tell if any loss above 8k was caused by trauma or simply age-related.

However, an ENT can check if there is fluid in your ear or wax. Both can be relatively minor conditions that cause tinnitus.

 

20+ years of habituation...there is no universal cure...words are difficult to comprehend on a forum... myself, my mind has embraced it and absorbed it as its own...

 

Life is unfair, period.

 

You got there before me Lex and well said

I understand that you're upset @Alex Brussel and you have ever reason to be. As @Lex rightly says: Life is unfair period. You are in the very early stages of tinnitus. Most probably it will calm down and you will habituate at some point in time. That's if you want to move on with your life and I believe that you do. As you said, if you were 70 you wouldn't give a xxxx. I assure you that you would. So you have many years left in front of you to enjoy. If you're fortunate you'll be like many other people that successfully habituate to tinnitus and are able to carry on with their life doing everything that they want to. Tinnitus, will then be the least of your problems as you will have much bigger ones I assure you. Life is problematic and very few people escape problems. Please read the post below.

I advise you to click on the link at the bottom of the page and read my article: Tinnitus, A Personal View. Try to read it in full and not skim through it.

I wish you well.
Michael

Life Is Problematic

I have spoken to many people that have intrusive tinnitus. Some that are new to its sudden onset, and others that have habituated for a while, but for some reason a resurgence of the tinnitus has lasted longer than a spike, and has left them feeling insecure and with the believe that things wont improve. I just want to say that I have also been in these situations.

At times like this, one might find themselves thinking: My life is over. Why can’t they find a cure? Why did this happen to me? Someone phoned me up who I had been counselling for a short while and was having a particularly difficult time with his tinnitus and said. Every time that he’s out he can’t stop looking at people’s ears and wondering what it would be like to be them and not hear the sound of roaring tinnitus. The negative vibes I thought, we all get them and they can come upon us with little or no warning. I knew he was feeling sorry for himself and we are all entitled to feel that way but I wanted him to try and look at his situation differently.

I explained that even the most optimistic and successful people have down times and they don’t necessarily have tinnitus, for life is problematic and few of us go through it without problems. We have no idea what another person is going through so be careful what you wish for. He continued listening. I know tinnitus isn’t easy especially when it’s severe but hold on to the thought that it will improve. I still had his attention so continued.

In an attempt to make him feel better I mentioned that life throws challenges at us and puts obstacles in our way. Perhaps if everything came easily to us we would never grow and develop and in some cases not reach our full potential without some struggle, or appreciate the good things that we have in life. He mentioned that he was a maths teacher, happily married with two children and had a business with his brother. He agreed that things hadn’t always gone smoothly but overcoming certain problems and issues in his life seemed to make everything worth while, until he got tinnitus. I understood where he was coming from, but at the same time trying to reassure him that things would improve although it may take a little time.

His doctor prescribed an antidepressant but he didn’t want to take them and asked me what I thought. It wasn’t my place to advise him on this issue but I told him of my experience with medications for my tinnitus and the help I had received at ENT.

When I first had tinnitus I had taken antidepressants for a while, which helped me not to become too down. In later years I took clonazepam 2x 0.5mg when my tinnitus was severely intrusive. It helped a lot. I was advised of it’s addictive nature and closely monitored by my GP. I mentioned that I only take them once in a while now.

This gentleman kept in touch and told me he decided to take the anti-depressants. Then he went quiet for a while. One evening I got a call from him, telling me his tinnitus had reduced and was improving all the time and he had returned to work which made him very happy.

Michael

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/tinnitus-a-personal-view.18668/

 

There is alot of talk about getting used to it, but considering that its mild enough that I do not hear it during the day, do you reckon it might simply vanish if I do not expose myself to loud sounds?

 

Yeah, there's a good chance. Stop stressing about it, protect your hearing when necessary and go on with your life.

 

Since your tinnitus is low I don't think you have much to worry about. There is a good chance that it will completely go. It won't matter if the tinnitus doesn't go completely as your brain will learn to ignore the sound. I advise that you never use headphones even at low volume.

Try not to sleep in a quiet room. Buy a sound machine and use that by your bedside.

All the best
Michael

 

It might go away, it might not. But the longer you keep worrying about it going away, the longer you will take to habituate. Try accepting that you will have it the rest of your life. It presence is really beyond your control now, but your reaction to it is not.

Good luck.

 

Life is unfair, I know people that have had cancer, epilepsy, diabetes in or before there twenties.

 

Hi Michael,

Any sound machine(s) that you would recommend above others from your experience ?

 

Oasis sound machines are the best. Model S-650 is popular. Their best is: model S-5000. Google Oasis sound machines. They are specifically made for people with tinnitus and they can be connected to a pillow speaker.

 

Very true.

Life is unfair and the world is filled with people facing unfair circumstances and challenges.

I truly hate tinnitus. I think hearing loss at my age is very unfair. I can think of many other health conditions or personal struggles that I would rather face.

But I also think perspective is important. Shortly before I lost my hearing, a friend lost their young child.

I have no doubt that if given the chance, they would trade their loss and pain for mine without hesitation. But as a parent myself, that is a trade that I would never, never make.

 

Indeed, I have mild hearing loss in at two frequencies in my T ear(right), my left is all normal. I don't really notice the hearing loss though as I don't think its severe enough. Saying that I am only 28 so i look after my ears a lot better now, no ear phones , cut down on concerts ect. How old are you if you don't mind me asking?

 

Hi @Alex Brussel ,
Sorry to hear about your tinnitus .
Try not to judge your future as how you are now with tinnitus.
Life has a way of sorting things out and our brains natural filter will develop and help you adapt to Tinnitus if it becomes long term.
You have a bright and happy future ahead of you with or without tinnitus.
Love glynis

 

I'm in my 30s. My hearing loss is in the right ear, too. It's two frequencies essentially lost but all sounds are muffled for that ear.

I have always been cautious with my ears: very rarely went to concerts or used headphones. Actually really have not done any of that since college. So it's painfully ironic that I lost hearing despite protecting my ears from noise.

My hearing loss was from a virus, nothing more than what I thought was a simple cold. According to my ENT specialists, viral hearing loss is more common than people realize.

 

Have you totally lost them two frequeincies? Like , I think that's called a profound loss.

 

No, not totally lost. I can just barely hear those frequencies above 90 decibels. My doctors classify it as a severe loss.

 

Things happen man, it's how you adapt and react that makes all the difference. Tinnitus is not fair, in this world many things are not fair, people still move forward....

Yes, tinnitus is unfair ..as is life...we simply try to adapt and move forward....

 

Listen to him, protect your ears, and live your life to the fullest.

 

Mine too @Tinker Bell. I've had tinnitus since I was a young teenager, so I was always fastidious about protecting my ears, playing in rock bands, plugging my ears with with acoustic 'wool' in the eighties, before foam plugs were even invented. My band mates thought I was a weirdo for doing so!

But nothing warned or prepared me for a virus that took a bunch of hearing away and left me with an unearthly level of sound that 10 months on, I see no hope of accommodating. Like you, just a sensation of a very mild flu, then bang! All my decades of self protection and virtuous lecturing of people around me, to protect their ears and here I am bleeding on this forum.

And like your ENT, mine tells me too that such viruses are indeed very common, but I know no one who's suffered the same fate. No one even speaks of such things. So I feel the irony you speak of Tinker Bell, exquisitely! Other than breathing air, we've done nothing to bring this on. Go figure!

 

Sometimes, I don't know which is worse, knowing your ear problems are your fault or getting them out of nowhere with no clue. Maybe neither is worse. Maybe it's just two different kinds of bad.

 

If you do nothing to jeopardize a recovery (loud music, night clubs etc for a while) and wait it out you may be lucky and it may fade with time. If you don't hear it through the day, then it may be something are able to live with even if it doesn't go. We overuse an awful word here known as "habituation" which really means you've learned to live with it. I stick by what I said on your other thread though. Many GPs can do basic audiology testing so I hope that's the case where you are going.

 

I'll add, it may be viruses, but tinnitus also turns up in auto-immune disease states like Lupus and MS which (at this time) are not thought to have an infective cause, so the problem of this kind of tinnitus onset probably lies with the immune system's reaction to whatever antigen it finds, be it virus, bacteria or one's own tissue.

 

I agree @Lex guilt versus anger, neither are helpful emotions...

 

I have both, plus regret, all targeted at myself. It makes dealing with T and H so hard. The emotional burden I'm carrying feels heavier than my ear problems sometimes.

I used to think I had it worse because I have only myself to blame. But my friend who was standing beside me at the festival all throughout didn't even get temporary T. So maybe I've been too hard on myself, maybe some people are just more susceptible than others, which explains why some people get T for inexplicable reasons.

 

@Alex Brussel after the initial emotions: shock, fear, anger you will find acceptance. The fact that you can't hear it much during the day means habituation is going to be around the corner...keep distracted so you don't over monitor... as time goes on you won't need to do that either...x

 

If you are in a quiet room in the day you don't hear it? What is it about night time that makes it appear?