Trying to Cope

Hi all,

I've decided I really need to write something here because I've been trying to deal with this by myself and it's getting me nowhere.

So what happened to me: It's a bit of a long story and even as I write it it sounds absolutely bizarre! I'll shorten it down as best I can -

Nearly a month a go now I had an accident that left me in pain for a few weeks, about 2 and a half weeks into that I woke up and discovered that my arms and legs and face were feeling very strange, so straight away I went to the hospital.

The doctor just told me to take painkillers and eventually it would go a way. So I went back home and took just the normal run of the mill painkillers, Ibuprofen, Aspirin and Paracetamol.

At that point I had no tinnitus (although I have experienced in the past that kind of tinnitus caused from reasonably loud noise (I worked at an airport which is quite a noisy environment) but that was the kind that you would get in one ear and only hear at night, and after a day or two it would be gone).

However shortly after coming back from the hospital I seemed to have developed a hypersensitivity to pain and temperatures. This stayed with me for about a week or so.

Now around 2 weeks a go I went with a friend to a cafe to get a coffee, we sat down and after a few minutes I started to hear a ringing in my right ear, I then noticed that the light fitting near my head was producing a noticeable high pitch humming sound, so I moved straight away to the other side of the cafe but the sound seemed to move from just being in my right ear to also being in my left ear.

Fast forward 2 weeks and I've been through some pretty bizarre things. I developed what I also think was Hyperacussis, as I was hearing really weird tones from things from a long way off. That seems to have hopefully gone away a bit.

What I've got at the moment though is a very high pitch ringing sound in both my ears. The only way I can describe the horrendous sound is it's like when you hear a train braking and there is a horrible high pitch squealing sound. This sometimes goes down to the point were it is noticeable but is quite so it's almost bearable, but then for seemingly no reason it will increase again in volume to the point were it is very loud and really quite unbearable. The change in the volume can sometimes be caused by an increase in ambient noise and sometimes be caused by a decrease. It's just really quit bizarre!

The big problem is as well that I can hear it during the day as well as night. If it was a case that I just heard it at night I would probably be able to deal with it with using masking sounds etc, but hearing it all the time is crushing me really.

I'm pretty sure that the Tinnitus has been caused by my nervous system going absolutely crazy. It wasn't caused by any loud noise or actual damage to my hearing.

Is there anybody here that hears the same kind of noise with symptoms?

Also I've been trying to think about what to do long term with this problem if it doesn't go away. What do people do here for work? Do you try to find work outdoors where the problem is masked slightly by the ambient noise or work in offices?

I really appreciate any reply as I'm trying to deal with this and hearing from other people who are going through this is really helpful to hopefully try to find a coping strategy.

Thanks

 

Hi pb1, thanks for contacting me and it is nice to see you posting here so a larger sample of members will be able to support you. I can only relate my experience. It is not easy to find out the exact cause of T. It may be stress, anxiety, grief, ototoxic drugs, hearing loss, somatic causes. The best thing you can do now is to read up as many success stories as possible to learn some insights from those who get better. One common element of success is just time. So be patient. You may not be so stressed out by T as like now. We all have gone though the suffering at the start. So take it in stride.

Try some relaxing exercises such as leisure walking, swimming, outdoor, yoga, meditation etc. If you need supplements to help, you can try natural alternatives such as Camomile tea, Hops, Valerian tablets, Melatonin etc. Check out this site on using natural herbs for sleep problem:
http://www.christopherhobbs.com/lib...alth/herbs-and-natural-remedies-for-insomnia/

To help with the anxiety for the T sound, the best thing is to mask it. If you are already masking at night, then perhaps consider masking on the go with ipad or smart phone. That was what I did. Also if you can use a computer, try these sites:

TT’s own excellent masking sounds:
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/audioplayer/

If you need more masking sounds, here is free ‘aire freshener’:
http://www.peterhirschberg.com/mysoftware.html

Rain sounds are soothing indeed. You can mix your own rain sounds with this rain generator:
http://mynoise.net/NoiseMachines/rainNoiseGenerator.php

Search youtube with ‘masking sounds’ and you will also get lots of different nature sounds, such as rain, waves, waterfalls, running brooks, insect sounds, even shower & faucet etc.

 

Hi billie,

Thanks for the information, it's really appreciated!

I was also wondering if you know if there is a support group of people who meet up to help each other with this?

I'm not sure that such a thing exists?

Thanks

Phil

 

There may be but I am not aware of such group in Vancouver. Miss Glynnis Tisdale in St. Paul Hospital Tinnitus Clinic may know if there is one, as she is the well know tinnitus personality in town and she heads the only T clinic anchored in a hospital. She was the therapist there when I had my t new. She offers TRT too but I didn't go through it.