Will I Enjoy Long Walks on the Beach...

endless, high-pitched tinnitus! Who doesn't!?!

I'm a long time lurker - first time poster. I've had tinnitus since 4/2010 but only in the past month has it become unmanageable (or perceptively).

Story is the same as many, went to too many concert and listened to the damned iPod too loud! One day after a concert the same old buzz started but decided to never stop. I've had ups and downs throughout the years but have found ways to cope and habituate. It hasn't been easy, but I've managed to do it.

This November my ENT recommended I get my "absolutely gigantic" tonsils out because of strep and possible sleep apnea. With tinnitus I've learned to be weary of doing anything to my body in fear it will increase the T but this seemed pretty logical and necessary. What started as a gradual increase has now become an all out assault. Coping mechanisms like fans, certain noises, etc... can no longer mask the T. I find it hard to even watch movies or listen to music without it interfering. Worse, I feel the pitch has shifted ever so slightly so all the work I've put in feels out the window.

I understand most of this is in my head, and hopefully this is simply a T-Spike that I need to work through. Regardless is scares the shit out of me; and of course I do what many T sufferers do: blame myself. Rumination is a curse and this only magnifies it.

*deep breath*

That's my sob story! I'm looking forward to bitching and moaning with fellow sufferers and glad to finally participate in such an active community.

Will

 

G'day Will. You and I are singing from the same hymn sheet, I'm afraid.

I too had Tinnitus which I suppose you could say I was habituated to. It was always there, buzzing away in the background, but it never bothered me... certainly not in a way that impacted my lifestyle. Then, about a month ago, I somehow seemed to experience the perfect storm of suffering from some weird virus that laid me low for a couple of days, my usual sinus issues and trying to use an old radio (through headphones) for a couple of minutes that I could neither tune properly, nor decrease the volume on. Add to that a bit of work stress and voila! I now have the sound of a billion electrical strikes surging through my head non-stop.

I know (now) that the effects of long-term noise exposure are cumulative, but to suggest that the sudden increase in my Tinnitus volume was unexpected is to say the least. Not only had I only recently added several new records to my expensively accumulated collection, but I'd even resolved to get some dental work done for the first time in almost 10 years. I'm now rethinking that, and pretty much every other aspect of my life.

Like you, I've been doing plenty of ruminating. What if... I hadn't got some inexplicable virus? What if... I didn't take my largely pointless job so seriously? What if... I hadn't been trying to listen to the cricket on a cheap and nasty radio? Would I be sitting here posting on some other forum instead?

I'm trying some hearing aids out on Thursday and I'm sort of resolved to the fact that that was probably a 'sooner rather later' scenario anyway. But like you, the scarcely comprehensible new volume of my Tinnitus scares me immensely.

I remember as a teenager my Mum saying to me, "turn your music down, you'll make yourself deaf!" Ironically if she had said "turn your music down, you'll give yourself a screaming ringing noise in your ears" instead, I'd have listened to her.