To New Tinnitus Sufferers, Some Advice and Encouragement

Hi!

I haven't posted on here in some time, but it's been about a year since my ears started ringing, so I wanted to give some encouragement to newer sufferers.

I'm still not sure if I got tinnitus from a medicine I was on, from a concert, or from an inner-ear condition of some sort (either Meniere's disease or Vestibular Migraines). It's likely from both listening to way too much loud music, and an inner-ear disorder. I have episodic vertigo, and disequilibrium, and have for 14 years, so I have a history of my ears not cooperating.

Anyway! If you are new to this, and you think you're losing your mind, be encouraged, you WILL adapt, and/or it will go away. The first three months were horrific for me, but then my body, and my nerves calmed down, and I managed to get things under control. Here are several things that helped me.

1. I found out several months into my tinnitus that my uncle has had tinnitus for 40 years, and he lives a perfectly normal, functional life. He told me, "yea, it's annoying!" and just sort of brushed it off. And then I found out a very close friend of mine also had it. And somehow this helped normalised things for me, and really helped me relax. So find someone with tinnitus you know, and talk to them about it.

2. Meditate. Meditation has very real psychological and psychological advantages for all of us, especially those prone towards nervousness. In very real time, it calms your body, and mind, and one also learns to be grateful. Check out Headspace - try it for 10 days for free. Also UCLA has free guided meditation.

3. Look over your diet. It certainly affects my T. If I drink alcohol, my tinnitus screams. I'm not promoting snake oil here, but if your diet consists of pizza and oreos, you're not helping your chances of longevity. Check out the book on the Blue Zones - there is much to be learned from these cultures about diet, and how to find joy (despite our circumstances).

4. Ignore the doomsayers who are on tinnitus-talk. There are a few, and there are some depressing stories on here, but understand, internet forums aren't always such a good place to generalise about peoples experiences with illness, or anything else, for that matter. Overall, this website was a huge help for me to chat with folks about their experiences, but understand that there are hundreds of thousands of people with tinnitus, whom aren't on here, and just go about their lives. That's encouraging to me, because it shows humans are resilient, and learn to adapt.

I still struggle, trust me, but it's so, so much better than when it started. I really didn't know how I was going to move on, but I did, and so will you.

If you have questions, please don't hesitate to ask. I'm sure others could offer some of their advice, as well.

Be encouraged, my friends.

Mark

 

Thx man...almost a month in...i hope i get lucky but we all what the odds of that are...

 

Keep your head up, and really consider the advice I suggested above. You'll quickly find just in your sphere of friends and family that there is a few tinnitus sufferers, and trust me, that will somehow help your system relax.

Tinnitus is a confusing thing that science doesn't seem to know a ton about, so in that sense, it's overwhelming, I understand. And it's overwhelming at first because it's so entirely annoying and for many, greatly affects the nerves, but rest assured, your reaction will change, and your mind/body will adapt.

Best wishes, my friend -