Update on My Tinnitus 5 Months Later

Dear Tinnitus sufferers,

I am updating my progress from my noise enduced tinnitus 5 months after it began.

I can say that it has quietened down from noise that could be heard over running taps and even flushing toilets, to a very quiet high pitched noise. I am aware of this only when I listen out for it, or if it is perfectly quiet, or if I am trying to sleep sometimes.

The very high loud hiss of the crickets is gone.
The pain is gone from loud noise
The pressure in my ears, as well as the cloudy hearing loss is also gone

What worked for me was 100% rest of my hearing. I wear earplugs (silicon) when I play music. i dont go to concerts or to noisy bars any more. I avoid anything louder than a vacuum cleaner. No drills etc. I would use headphones when listening to music at a sensible volume, but not ear buds.

If I could give any advice I would say that you should have the attitude that your hearing can get worse, and to protect it at all costs. This way, not only will you stop your T getting worse, but it might even heal a bit.

Being busy in the early days helped a lot, the more you listen for your t, the worse you will feel about it and the more frequently you will stress to almost panic about it. This is the worst mistake you can make when fighting this thing.

Finally, I think that there are a lot of false promises out there re treatments etc. Diet and exercise is important, but for some it wont make the T any better or worse.

I would also say that T returns now and again, sometimes loud enough to be concerned about it, but as yet has not remained. I will never be careless about my health again.

I hope you guys will get well to the point of being almost normal, which is what we should aspire to. There is no perfect with our hearing, as it gets slightly worse as we age anyway. So I would say to have realistic goals about what to wish for and to aim for.

I would also say that I was very lucky indeed. I possibly was just short of exposing myself to permanent catastrophic damage. It seemed this was the case for the first 6 weeks. 2 months later it had improved to the point of not being freaked out by it, while still hearing it. a further 3 months down the line, it is hardly interfering with me at all. I would settle for my improvement if it were to stop now.

I wish everyone peace and strength.

 

Thanks for your post! I'm on my 9th week with T and has gotten better... Sometimes I don't even hear it for hrs in a day... I'm sleeping without masking it.. I'm hopeful that it will go away or it will lower even more...I'm also going cold turkey with the anxiety and panic attacks.. I can say that for a week and a half I have not had one yet... I started a new job and continue to do my daily chores... The first weeks it was crazy .. I eve my thougt about suicide.. But thank to God's grace and the support of my family I'm past that stage and I do feel better.. T still bothers me at times and I wish I did not have it ... But I don't feel out like before!!! Thanks again for this post .. It gives
Me hope!!!! Hope everyone feels better too!

 

I'm on the sixth month, for the first time, I've gone a complete week with out the hiss.
My situation is pretty much the same. Started super loud, with a pain and fullness feeling in the ear every day for a months. 3rd month , I had days when it I couldent hear it at all... Then is would come back like with a vengeance! I wanted to die. But, with the help of God, my body or the devil Over time its lowered in volume each reoccurrence.
Strange condition for sure. Take the original posters advice. It's good, I wish his posting was here 6 months ago!
If you just arrived to the world of t.
It's ok to be panicked. It's scary shit!
Doctors make it worse because they say there is no cure, they talk about brain scans and living with it. Just see one doctor, it could be wax build up.. Have em check your ears, getting a hearing test is good t or not.. Then don't go back. No cure for the cold either... But as you know.. It will go away.
I have two friends in the real world that had it years ago and now don't. Unless the listen for it.. When I say listen for it I mean you really have to think about and considerate to hear it. One changed his lifestyle, the other partied like a rock star. With proper hearing protection of course. My advice, Don't eat too much sodium. Burritos, McDonald's Chinese food. Also Avoid loud sounds in the beginning Will cause both will cause flare ups.
Flare ups.
Take vitamins, use melatonin to sleep.
Shop at whole foods. Look at every package.. Keep soduum low.. Like zero.
I lost weight in the begining.. It takes awhile to find a heathy diet.
If this crazy t didn't go away, there would be millions of crazy people walking around the streets. For The majority of folks it does fade. If you notice it getting less loud, that's a great sign...
6 months does sound like for ever.. But in the big scheme of things.. It's a blink.

 

thanks for the positive share cricket. What was the cause of your T/H, I know you mentioned it was noise induced.

 

oh and one more question, did you try pink noise or sound therapy?

 

It was a combo of wax build up and sound induced trauma years of DJ'ing. This resulted in some minor hearing loss in my left ear. (for me it was in just one ear... the left) I was told by the technician (not the doctor) that conducted the hearing test that hearing loss will cause noise. The mind is looking for a sound that it can no longer pick up from normal hearing. He had been through it in past.. I think that was why he worked as an ENT tech.. Again the doctor was useless.. Too afraid to say.. hey it will likely go away.

I used an app called white noise on my iPhone. In fact this is the best way to gauge your progress. I started with midnight crickets. At first I had both the high pitch hiss and the cricket sound going in my head. Eventually the cricket noise in my head stopped.. I was left with a loud ass hiss.
The twilight cricket sound in the app. It has both the white noise and the cricket frequency .. the white noise has a breathing pattern... 3 months in, I switched to the purple noise.
I noticed every few weeks I was turning the volume slightly down on the app.. not my much though.. buckle up.. it's a long freaking ride..


Remember to keep the volume of the white/purple / pink blue.. whatever matches the best.. slightly lower than the sound in your head... you want to be able to hear both your noise and the apps noise.. you don't want to cover it up completely. The purpose is... retraining your brain to look outside your minds eye for that sound.

If you're new to this.. don't buy a online trick.. just don't eat shitty.. no salt, sodium.. coffee , don't eat out of a bag or box. avoid orange juice, pasta (pasta keeps sodium in your system longer... If you smoke herb.. this will not help you.. you might want to break for six months till it chills.. same with drinking.. it will make it seem louder..
I smoke ecigs.. hard one to stop. I kept puffing all the way through.
(now i'm smoking herb again.. and did a good amount of drinking in vegas over the weekend.. no problems..
but.. i do have a tendency to listen for it when i'm high.. and i will notice is way way way the f back there..

Also drink massive massive massive massive amounts of water.. avoid the tap.. get delivery if you can afforded it.
24 bucks 3 tanks .. drink it all before they deliver the next batch.. worth it.. look up foods that have low sodium.
salmon has 125 .. sword fish has like 60 grams. pick the sword fish. steak is good.. keep it organic.

And if your brand new new new.. give yourself a week of hard core dr google searches, forum lurking.. and the rest.. than thats it... stop.. searching and reading.. I bookmarked a few positive post i found along the way and would check those out instead of starting the search loop all over again.
I suggest not joining a forum. unless it persist for longer than a year..
but if it does go way.. and for most it does... come back and be positive.. more of those post are needed...the
reason you don't see them.. people forget.. they move on and get distracted by the rest of life's BS.

 

hi! i'm 13 and about three months ago i noticed a ringing in my right ear when i was trying to sleep. it doesn't bother me throughout the day, because i can only really hear it when i'm in dead silence or like at night when i'm in bed. it gets really annoying and i have no idea why i have it? like it came out of nowhere and i don't listen to loud music or anything. do you think it will go away? like i'm still really young and have a lot of my life ahead of me so i'm really scared

 

What about spicy food? And caffeine? Will those affect T, and maybe also sleep?

 

@khayla don't worry, main thing is to not let it control you. You're still young, the best advice I can give you as someone from the same age group, is that your physical and mental willpower must be strong. Have you seen an ENT specialist? You should also talk to your parents or someone close. Moral support helps, a lot.

 

What does 'H' mean?

 

thank you do you think it will go away considering my age or do you think i'm stuck with it for life :-/

 

Idk, you're still young, so there's a chance it'll be gone, although it might not be so easy. I guess what you do, or how you feel/react will all play a part. I too feel like I still have a lot ahead of me. I guess I'll have to be more positive and patient. You should too. Let's pray for each other and all who are having the same problems, it can only make the world a better place

 

thank you, i'll try being positive about it hopefully, theres a cure one day because i feel like no one is really aware about tinnitus and how it can affect someones life

 

@khayla I am no expert I had it for more than a month. Like Cricket said most people get over it and don't like to come back here. As far as my understanding goes, either you can think about your T all day long and wait for it to heal/habituate with time or you can stay positive eat good food and exercise and it will heal/habituate with time. In both cases most of the times it does get better. But which case you find it is actually better

 

I strongly agree.