What's on My Mind...

I want the life I lived before tinnitus. When I read of someone who has suffered for twenty or thirty years I can't imagine how they made it, and yet, I'm well on my way. I'm that different person now, the one I never thought I would become. The one living day to day, making excuses for the self-pity, the medications, drugs, the isolation and the time wasted in faulty thinking.

 

Yeah man, I want my life to be the way it used to be too. How long have you been in? I can tell you that from my experience and lots of others that it does seem to become more tolerable with time. I have ups and downs but it's much better than at first. My dad has had it since he was about 50. He's 80 now. You can habituate to it. Hang in there. And welcome to the forum.

 

I so know what you mean, myself included. I am going on 6 years and it still feels like yesterday. The worst is I dont enjoy anything anymore at all nothing!!!. I wish there was a damn cure already...its easy for people whos t isnt that bad to say just live with it but if your T is above 50db (mine 67db) its very difficult, the only thing that masks it is opening the car windows doing about 70 on the freeway...

 

Thank you both, Jim and Greg, for responding to my post. Reading these replies has me fighting back the urge to throw a pity party. Which I'll admit, I've done, and quite often. The tinnitus has shown up at all of them and remains eleven years to this day - the loud uninvited guest who simply won't go home.

People working to cure tinnitus have almost succeeded. This I must believe. Otherwise, I've little in life to look forward to. There has to be reason to hope.

 

> whos t isnt that bad to say just live with it but if your T is above 50db (mine 67db)

The highest measured tinnitus was, if I remember correctly, 25 DB. What kind of test did you do?

Tinnitus loudness and "maskability" are two different things. For instance I can hear mine over any kind of volume, even at 100 DB of white, pink noises or most other neutral backgrounds. But when it's quiet, it's definitely not 100 DB.

 

. What kind of test did you do?
what kind of tests are there and how do i find them?

 

"Tinnitus loudness and "maskability" are two different things. For instance I can hear mine over any kind of volume, even at 100 DB of white, pink noises or most other neutral backgrounds. But when it's quiet, it's definitely not 100 DB."

I'm pasting this comment from another thread because I think it is relevant to your comment above. Sorry about the formatting, doing this from my iPad, not so easy.

My ENT was measuring the loudness of my T just as described above. His instructions were to tell him when I could no longer hear the tinnitus. He continued to turn up the sound until he got to around 70 to 75 db. At this point it was beginning to get painful but I could still hear the T so I stopped. So on paper my T level was measured at that volume. Quite alarming to me at the time and added to my worry considerably. Hear is the problem as I see it now. The signal from the brain that manifests as tinnitus is not sound. So trying to match the perceived signal from the brain with an external sound stimulus really does not work. It would be a little like saying, ok I'm going to put this clamp on your nipple and gradually tighten it. Now tell me when you can't hear your tinnitus anymore. Two different things. Of course the pain at some point will over ride your perception of the tinnitus. The point being that the perception of tinnitus is very subjective and pliable. Just knowing that my tinnitus level was at 70 -75 db made my perception of it worse. My tinnitus is not at 70-75 db but I can still perceive it when the external db is that loud and even much higher. I guess the takeaway is that your MD can do more harm than good if he/she does not have a firm grasp of the problem they are working with. Does this make any sense at all?
Jim, Mar 25, 2011 EditDeleteReport#5Reply

 

i have a test with a specialist comming up and im trying to get a grasp on what he can and cant do for me. i would like to be able to ask him some relevent questions, so i read these posts to try to figgure things out . sofar its clear as mud lolololol

 

"i have a test with a specialist comming up and im trying to get a grasp on what he can and cant do for me. i would like to be able to ask him some relevent questions, so i read these posts to try to figgure things out . sofar its clear as mud"

My audiologist was of little help to me. He administered tests and gave me the results with little explanation. This raised my stress level significantly and unnecessarily. Stress is a big factor for many. Tinnitus will not hurt you. It is your reaction to it that will get you. It's a mind game. Be smart. Don't over react, don't project. Keep busy, listen to music, use masking/sound enrichment.Don't let it rule you. There is a good chance you already know more than you doc does unless you get lucky and find a doc who is T savvy. Good luck.