What’s The Longest Time Habituation Can Take?

Hi folks,

I’ve read about people habituating to tinnitus over different time frames. 1 year, 1.5 years, 2 years, etc.

Is there some upper limit past which, if I haven’t habituated by then, then I’m very unlikely to ever habituate? Like if it’s been 5 years and I’m nowhere near habituated by then, is there little hope of habituating from there on out?

Maybe a related question, what’s the longest period you’ve ever heard it taking for someone to habituate?

 

Longest time I've seen for habituation to kick in is 5 years.

 

Nature seems to act slowly with some people, but most habituate within a year or two. There is a general guide, which makes no mention of time frames, for the stages of it. You are probably in stage two. Eighteen months seems to be about average, to start not noticing it most of the time. Other factors could come into play, and everybody is different.

Here's the info about the four stages, from the ATA. Many people never make it to total habituation, but this matters little, as it's more of a slight annoyance at times than an actual problem.

 

I'm relatively new to this terminology as I developed reactive tinnitus, hyperacusis & some lower sound tolerance last November.

However, I have read anecdotal claims that people have habituated after 5 years. There was a TRT or Neuromonics study (I can't recall off top of my head at the moment) which claimed a certain group of people who hadn't habituated after a number of years because they didn't try TRT or any similar type of treatment actually did habituate after going through their program. I would assume the worse one's tinnitus is, the longer it would take to habituate, if ever.

But then again in 5 years from now there may be a very good treatment for tinnitus. One can only hope.

 

Depends on severity of tinnitus and / or hyperacusis.

I am not sure if we can talk about habituation or about changes in hearing, which would be different...

 

What if you're using BTE sound generators for most of the day to mask the sounds and then taking Benzos, or ADs or other sleep aids at night to sleep? Does this delay or prevent habituation? Maybe those 4 stages are specific for people who have tinnitus but don't require any of the above treatments to get through the day.

And also, in my case I have reactive tinnitus plus some form of hyperacusis and low/mild sound tolerance. I've had this now since November 2020 and started sound treatment, BTE pink noise, since January 2021. And when I take them off at night or during the day nothing seems different from the onset of it except my reaction to it is more tolerated from using them during the day & taking medications to help me sleep. Otherwise it's still far too loud to get any sleep without the use of medications & other natural sleep aids.

I don't however use sound at night. I can only tolerate about 6-8 hours of the sound generators during the day.

 

I thought SSRIs delay habituation?

 

I can only speak from my own experience. The first year was hell for me, with all kinds of problems and I had a very difficult time coming off benzos, which I took a few times a week, for a few months. The odds are that you will habituate. There have been many cases just as bad as yours, or worse, and most all eventually felt better and no longer post here. The brain learns to block it, for the vast majority of people.

 

I know Dr. Pawel Jastreboff is on a YouTube video saying benzos prevent habituation, at least with his experience with TRT.

However, I don't believe he has proven this with any scientific evidence, just his clinical 'experience,' or so he says.

Not sure about SSRIs. I question his hypothesis because how does he know it's the benzos that are to blame and not the severity of the tinnitus these individuals have? How can he differentiate that? It would be impossible.

So it works in his favor to dismiss the serious cases by blaming it on benzos or other things he lists such as going through a lawsuit, or whatever else he blamed for those that didn't have success with TRT. It's really a blaming the victim mentality.

 

When I first got tinnitus it took me well over a year to habituate. The first permanent spike I got it took about 1-2 months. The second permanent spike, about 2-3 weeks. You see where I'm going with this. Each time it's gotten easier for me and I've been less freaked out about the changes to my tinnitus.

 

I have significant reactive tinnitus and hyperacusis. At times my tinnitus is quite loud because it is reactive to environmental noise. It's been 2 1/2 years now. I'm not sure what real habituation is, but I can say that I deal with it better now than before. In certain situations I can go for long periods, 1-2 hours, where I really don't pay much attention to it. It's always there of course, but it doesn't make me upset like it did before. Mine is quite loud, so I expect it will still be a few years before I can go an entire day without it bothering me.

Habituation to the point where I don't really hear it anymore? Uh... very doubtful. I'm just looking for that place where it doesn't have a constant negative impact on my daily living. Hoping that 1-2 hours becomes 6-8 hours.

 

It is my personal opinion that there is no upper limit. You could be doing the wrong things for years that prevent you from habituating. Once you start doing the right things you may achieve habituation. I think you can learn a lot about the right things to do, by reading the habituation success stories.

Also from the stories I have read on this forum, I suspect that how much the tinnitus affects you emotionally is a big factor in slowing down habituation. I have read stories of people that started with a loud tinnitus but were not so much emotionally impacted and they quickly habituated.