Wanted to Say Hello After a Few Weeks of Lurking.

Hello all.

I have had tinnitus on and off for a bit over a year. Not sure what brought it on. I love music and go to many concerts, have done so all my life but...I don't think I was exposed to anything beyond a relatively moderate level of sound. Not one to listen on headphones at a high volume or anything.

At first, I mistakenly thought there was some sort of electrical problem with an appliance in my home causing the humming...LOL turned out not to be the case. I started noticing the humming followed me faithfully wherever I went and even when I covered my ears.

Some days are not too bad...I can live with it. Other days it is stronger and much more disturbing/annoying/worrisome.

I have given it a good deal of thought and am willing to explore most reasonable options to improve my situation. If I can be rid of it...I would be ecstatic...but if I can't, I will have to adapt. So far I have been able to work around the sound and go on with life as usual. When I am very involved in work or reading or watching a show I enjoy...I seem to forget it's there. When all other sound is gone and I am not engaged in something that interests me, I hear it very clearly. Worked all day and it was not a problem but now that I am focusing on it...it is fairly loud.

I really have benefited from reading many of the posts here. It's helpful to know one is not alone. I thought no one else I knew had it and mentioned it at work and about a third of my coworkers had some level of tinnitus.

Wishing you all well.

 

Welcome to this forum,

I am glad you are able to cope with your tinnitus. Protect your ears, avoid loud places...

 

Your symptoms are very similar to mine except I have frequent periods of silence in addition to days with innocuous T and days with more intrusive T.

 

Welcome to the forum. Yes, T is very common out there and many people in our social circle may have it and no one knows much. I didn't know these two guys have bad T until I saw this video. LOL.

David Letterman with William Shatner - March,...

 

Thank you all for welcome.

Last night tinnitus was so loud it was my brain had been invaded by an army of crickets! Better today I think.

Funny @billie48 That you posted that video...coz when I found out what I had I searched for well known people who had it and it comforted me to be in such company LOL

 

@billie48 While I knew they both had T, I had never seen the video. Thanks Billie - makes me feel better to see them talk and laugh about it. PS I miss David Letterman!

@Ringadingring I swear there are no more comforting words to hear than "Yeah, me too." Very powerful to know we are not alone and we can help each other. Welcome to the forum!

 

Very good advice. Thank you for the reminder.

 

This was the list that gave me some comfort there. You're right it's nice to know we are not alone. http://www.stoptheringing.org/fame-wont-stop-the-ringing-20-celebrities-with-tinnitus/

 

Good job, keep working hard and don't let tinnitus overwhelm you. trying to keep tinnitus at its lowest levels are what we should aim for. Loud places and certain meds can spike up your tinnitus or just make it louder and very annoying. Hope all goes well for you

 

Thank you.
I actually think aspirin may be the culprit or at least one of them in my case. I never knew tinnitus could be a side effect. I have taken it regularly for many years for headaches, muscle aches. Not daily but...a few times a week and I have been reading tinnitus can result from use of aspirin.

 

Tinnitus can happen for a variety of reasons. From my experience, LOUD places and certain meds make it worst and horrible.....

It takes lots of discipline and patience to figure out what works with tinnitus. I been at this for almost 30 years, since 1988 and it took me a long time to finally handle it.

 

Well, you are able to handle it so even if it takes a long time...it can be done. That is something for those of us who are relatively new to this to remember.

I don't want to be pessimistic, but I think this is going to be with me for the rest of my life. So, although I am looking for ways to get improvement or yes...a cure would be great! I am looking at this as something I just have to live with. This is not fun but there are worse things and so far, I can manage. I find when I get particularly anxious breathing exercises help sometimes. Praying, chanting, focusing on something else. It is hard to do sometimes but usually I can get over the worst bits. I know some people have much worse tinnitus and maybe someday that will come my way. One day at time. Will deal with it if and when I get there.

 

I have dealt with this horror for almost 30 years, in the early years i was trying everything to cure and get rid of tinnitus. I experimented a lot, and tried many things. It all lead to me just accepting that my ears ring very loud and I have to live my life. There is a buddahist saying that i really like "If you expect nothing, then you won't be disapointed"

I found out, that you simply have to live with your situation, do your best in life and just live it... It can be very hard for those that recently got tinnitus, but over time you can adapt and move forward....

 

This is so true. Today at church I discovered a few persons that I knew for a while actually have had T for a long time and basically said the same thing. One lady told me she has had loud T for 20 years that never stopped. She was sleepless over it at first but eventually learned that she just has to accept the condition and live her life. Her T is so loud that she can't hear people sometimes. I asked her how she could deal with it all this long and her reply is just as @fishbone posted above, that she just needs to accept the condition and move on to live her life regardless. She is no super woman, just an ordinary person with this T challenge. She didn't even join any support group in her ordeal. People just learn the way to adapt to T and move forward as fishbone said.