Tinnitus? Not a Problem Any More!

Hi guys!

My name is Mike and I’m a 23 year-old student coming from Kraków, Poland. A few months back I came across Tinnitus Talk after developing stress induced tinnitus and some of the success stories I read here really helped me out in my darkest hours. Now, I’m very thankful that I have my own story to tell, and I’d like to try and return the favor.

Let me start with saying that I have struggled with anxiety and depression disorders for the last 5 years. I won’t bore you with detailed story, let me just say that after several months of constant, severe stress I developed mild ringing in my ear that just wouldn’t stop. And although I can objectively call it mild right now, at that time it sounded to me like unbearable, torturous sirens inside of my head.

I was just recovering from a major psychic breakdown and as you can imagine, T didn’t really help out with my mental convalescence. Needless to say, it began a downward spiral that ended with me being exhausted, miserable and completely hopeless. At some point I was really thinking about just giving up and ending it all. I just wanted this friggin ringing to stop.

During next couple of months I had my ups and downs, somehow managing to survive and not screw up my master studies that I've just started. I gotta say that I was extremely lucky to have my friends and family to support me, without whom I’d never be in the place I am right now. However, T was still giving me hard time, again and again pushing me to the edge of severe depression.

Fortunately, there came a point where I realized that tinnitus is just going to be a part of my life from now on and I can either waste my life while endlessly waiting for it to stop, or at least try to accept it. And then this crazy thought came to my mind that is an essence of this whole story.

It is not tinnitus that’s bothering me. It is how I react to it that is making me miserable.

I realize that to many of you guys those simple words might sound very shallow or even stupid, but honestly, it was a real game-changer for me. I basically realized that if I’m constantly trying to run from something, my mind will just assume that it is a threat and will trigger defense mechanisms in a form of fear and anxiety. And if the threat is living inside of your head, you will never outrun that bugger. Which leads to more fear, more anxiety and consequently depression. I know it’s just psychology 101 right there but it was just an important fact for me to realize. Simply because I could finally go on and start making friends with this endless ringing in my ears.

This is what I did. Instead of running away from tinnitus, I started to do exactly opposite. I tried to regularly listen to it every day, no exceptions. For me it took a form of mindfulness meditation, which helped me out before with my anxiety and depression, but it was as simple as sitting and just focusing on the sound. Moreover, when I found myself trying to run away from tinnitus, I actually started trying to provoke it, make it louder, inviting it into my everyday life. It wasn’t easy or pleasant, I assure you of that. And maybe I’m just one lucky dude. But it really worked.

After some time, I really started to accept the fact that my ears are making this frustrating noise. Later, it only bothered me only after waking up or while going to sleep, when everything was quiet, enhancing T’s strength. And now, well, I won’t tell you that my life is exactly the same as it used to be. I still have times when I wish that my T was gone. But I am very grateful to say, that it really, honestly doesn’t bother me or affect my life in any way. I changed my attitude towards tinnitus and with it, my emotions changed. I was in the deepest, darkest pit of misery and despair and now I’m just like every other happy dude living my life normally!

Just to sum up, what I’ve just written here is no rocket science. Most of you have probably come across similar solutions, some of you might have tried them with no satisfying results. I’m not here to tell you that it is the only right way or that it’s gonna instantly make all your problems go away. I just wanted to tell you that it really worked for me and I encourage you to try it. And if depressed, hopeless dude with long history of anxiety disorders could have done it, then I’m pretty sure that anyone can. You just have to find a way.

Hope it’s gonna work out for all of you guys sooner or later.

Take care,

Mike

 

Thank you for sharing this wonderful story of acceptance and courage. Mindfulness meditation is a powerful technique to help us face up with some unpleasant feelings/sensations. Your approach of bring tinnitus into mindfulness is a form of treatment therapists use for phobia patients. Whether we know it or not, the fear of this tinnitus sound is a form of phobia. By facing up to it instead of running from it, by trying to understand it instead of shunning it, it helps the brain slowly learning to accept this sound without all the negative emotional response. A job well done by you. Congrats to your success.

 

Ping @Dr. Hubbard.

 

Amazing and powerful Mike! Thanks for sharing.

 

Really happy it worked out for you buddy! I'm in a good place myself too! Although, drugs helped me overcome the darkest time of my life...I'm just so happy, overcoming tinnitus has gave me a new meaning in life to enjoy it as much as I can! I wish you the best of luck!

 

Thank you Milk for those wise thoughts. You must be a very strong person.
Ive had times where I felt I was finally at a point of the T being doable. Only it got worse so did the H.
The H is a killer for me. The actual pain breaks me down. Thats incredible how you finished school while you were under duress. I try to figure it out then I go out and my ears actual hurt, then I lose it.
This has been going on for years. Bless you man.

 

Thank You guys, I appreciate Your words very much!

Hi Ruben,

Look man, it's not that I am a strong person. On the contrary, sometimes I feel so weak and small that it's hard to handle. It happens especially when the anxiety hits and I feel like "dude, all people around me are dealing with their stuff and I have such a little problem and I can't handle it, ergo - I am so friggin weak." But I know that nobody is a superman, and while I often struggle with my weaknesses, I do try to accept them as a side effect of being a human So at least now You know, that You can actually be as weak as I am and still handle that sh*t

I have never dealt with any sort of chronic pain, like You have with your H, however, I have heard that the meditation, or mindfullnes, or whatever you call it, can actually help in such cases. And again, I don't want to make an impression like I'm selling this mindfullnes thing like an expert that knows it all and is certain that it is a remedy for everything. Honestly, I still know very little about it. But what I have learned, is that when You struggle with something and You keep fighting and fighting, You just make things worse for yourself. But if You accept the situation as it is, don't try to fix things, but just live through them as they are, some things tend to really get better and fix themselves. And meditation helps to accept I know that accepting something that is making You miserable is easier said than done. I encounter this thought over and over again and sometimes it's really hard. But I keep trying and I honestly think it's getting better



BTW, T still going on, and still not bothering me. I wish You guys the same! If You ever have any questions, hit me with a pm

All the best,


Mike