Tinnitus Worsening Changed My Life — It's Depressing Knowing There's No Cure

Hello everyone, ever since I can remember when it was absolutely quiet I could hear a very faint ringing in my head and ears before bed with no fans or TV's on. I thought this was normal and never noticed it the rest of the day. I would wake up refreshed and ready to start the day but 4 weeks ago it got way worse and never stopped and I can hear it all the time now...

I'm not exactly sure what made it worse but I believe it was from a bad cold or flu, COVID-19, the COVID-19 vaccines, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs or exposure to loud music at a party. It's not the loudest tinnitus, but I can still hear it over a box fan or ambient nature sounds when I go for a walk. The first 3 weeks were really depressing and hopeless and a couple times I even thought about suicide...

Fortunately I found a sound masker that is at 18 kHz that completely negates it. I'm still getting used to living with tinnitus, but it's really depressing knowing that there is no cure and I can never sit in a quiet room again and have to live 24/7 with white noise maskers. I found this place while learning about tinnitus. It's good to see there is a community with other people dealing with this who understand sometimes you can't simply ignore it.

I listened to one of the Tinnitus Talk Podcast episodes with Dr. Rauschecker and decided to join up. It was really inspiring to see some researchers that actually care and are actively searching for solutions. I think I will donate what I can to help the forums and keep the podcasts going.

Hopefully tinnitus research gets the proper funding it deserves and they find a cure one day so we can all enjoy a moment well deserved silence.

 

Welcome to the forum. Yes, you are not alone here as many of us have been where you are. The initial months are often the worst time but many do get better over time. Many wrote their success stories to tell others how to get better including my story "From Darkness to Light...". So don't despair that you will suffer with tinnitus forever. Over time you will join others especially after getting support in the forum and after learning about the helpful strategies. So stay positive that things will improve over time. This will help speed up the process of recovery.

Take good care. God bless.

 

Welcome Roy5990. In a very quiet environment, everyone will hear a background hiss. This is just how the hearing system works. Long before I had tinnitus, I would notice very early in the morning when the house and neighborhood were silent and I lay quietly in bed, I could hear a background hiss, sometimes quite prominently it seemed, that would instantly disappear as soon as I got up and did anything. Years later talking with an ENT, he noted that this is a typical feedback loop in auditory amplification systems and is totally normal. Of course, things can change so that it is not normal. Hearing loss and other assaults can cause that background noise level to increase and be ever present. A noise trauma catapulted me into the realm of disturbing tinnitus and hyperacusis.

I'm not a fan of ENTs, but I do feel that you should get this looked into since you don't know what caused the change. It could be a loss of hearing, the result of medications, vaccination, virus or a number of potential (and unlikely) physical problems that if diagnosed early could be corrected. So, you should consider seeing one.

Certainly, you should avoid any questionably noisy activities, which applies to absolutely everyone. That just means that if you are going into a noisy environment or doing things where random loud noises could occur, then use hearing protection. If you do something where you are not sure if it will be an issue or not, or if you are not sure if you should use hearing protection, then YES, absolutely use hearing protection.

Most people seem to have a stable tinnitus that, other than being annoying, they can easily live with. For some it becomes much more and becomes a struggle. Be careful that yours doesn't change into the latter group.

 

Hi roy5990, that stinks that you can't pin point where you got the tinnitus from. I use a sound masker to when I go to bed. My tinnitus is really loud, so I can't turn up the masker volume to match it. Maybe I should look into the kHz to see if it could help me.