Young Adults with Tinnitus — Please Respond in Solidarity

I just need to know I'm not alone.

I've had a nearly suicidal few days (I think related to a med related spike).

Please, someone tell me it'll get better.

I'm only 22 and WANT to live my life (I have a wonderful boyfriend and family).

Just need good words and support. please.

 

Hello @Clare Johnson,

What were you on when T started?


Best regards,
Albert

 

@AlbertJ

When it started I wasn't on any medication.

A recent ENT said I had major sinus infection and inflammation so I've taken augmentin. I think it may be causing a spike I'm having recently. But I'm not sure.

 

Hey Claire. I'm 21 and I also have T. I'm also developing symptoms of Visual Snow aswell.

Trust me, I know that this can be scary. And it is.

But you're not alone. There's many here like you, and you can still go on to live a happy, productive life. Not a perfect one, but nobody can live a perfect life. That's just how it goes.

 

Hi Claire! I'm 26 and also have had it about 3 months now. Also struggling a lot, my life has literally come to a pause ever since I got it. You're definitely not alone in this.

 

28 here. What’s your cause/when was your onset?

 

It's good that your BF and family is worried about you. My family took forever to come around. (My mom has tinnitus because of Meniere's Diease and she didn't understand why I didn't just suck it up and ignore it.)

Confide in them the best you can, and tell your doctor about what is happening.

I suggest hitting up Doctors' Corner and asking Dr. Nagler. He'd probably know. He also has 10/10 tinnitus in both ears and lives a productive, happy life.

There's hope. Don't let this keep you down. Eat cupcakes, go out, mask the tinnitus the best you can.

It gets better.

 

Hi Clare.

I’ve had Tinnitus since I was 16. I’m 18 now.

Your tinnitus can improve over time if you protect your ears. I recommend taking magnesium, NAC, and curcumin or turmeric tablets. Some of our members here have reported their tinnitus is better when they take curcumin.

There are some clinical trials taking place right now that target areas of the brain responsible for tinnitus. Depending on where you live, Lenire, one of the devices that’s supposed to help out with tinnitus, is on the market right now.

There are also two other trials, the University of Michigan device and the University of Minnesota device, the former will hopefully be on the market in the next year or two.

Hope you start to feel better soon.

 

You're not alone. I'm 26 and am going thru my own personal hell. My hearing issues aren't as bad as some here, but it's all been devastating enough to be life changing for me.

I'm drawing strength from the hope in future drugs like FX-322 and others on the horizen. Hopefully one day there will be a treatment for all of us to hear perfectly.

 

Hi there! I am 26 now, had tinnitus since I was 21. I was completely devastated when I first got it because, like you, I feared that it would prevent me from living my life. The fear ended up being a lot worse than the reality. After about 8 months I was back to doing most things I did before without worry or concern (although I did start carrying and using earplugs.)

Hold on to the things in your life that you love and enjoy, because they will be your life raft. I promise the future you are imagining for yourself is much scarier than reality

 

The biggest culprit to tinnitus is loud sounds and places. I can tell you constant loud exposure, to sounds is what we need to stay away from. Wear ear plugs when In loud places, this can help out by protecting your ears and hearing. Gain support, talk it out, express yourself to those that care for you.

In my over 32 years living with this condition, it was my constant exposure to loud sounds that have changed my baselines multiple times in my life. The damage to my hearing kept making my tinnitus worst, It is - what it is, because I was not educated on tinnitus or hearing loss 32 years ago.

Our ears are very resilient, take care of them by simply avoiding loud places and try to keep your stress lower. Spikes don't always just happen due to sound exposure, stress can possibly annoy the ears and possibly keep a spike going as well....

 

@mrbrightside614

My onset was almost 3 months ago and started after a head cold where there was a whole lotta mucus in my ears. It never got infected though. Started with my left then spread to both. Has changed/does change in tone and intensity literally every day. But my left ear has always been worse and my right tolerable, which is what makes my recent change in the right so concerning.

 

26 this year, got my T at 22.

 

Sucks that it came from a head cold, ridiculous actually. I’ve read a few illness induced tinnitus success stories where it takes 8 months to a year to resolve. Again, ridiculous timeframe. But the consensus is that it usually gets better with time, provided you wear hearing protection in unsafe environments.

I think illness-induced (not medication induced) actually has the best outcomes.

 

Hey- I’m 22 as well. Tinnitus definitely sucks and I’m sorry you’re dealing with it! It definitely impacts my life a lot, but I have a lot of optimism about where we will be in terms of treatments in the upcoming years. I really do believe in 10 years we’ll have multiple decent treatments available for this, especially as it’s becoming a young person issue and is quite widespread. Have hope, take care of your ears, use your support system; you’re still in the early stages and it gets a lot more bearable for many people overtime. Best of luck, we’re all here for you.

 

I’m 25. Got tinnitus after a fever about 3 months ago. It’s still got me in a pretty intense depression, but I’m dealing with it much better now than I was during the first few weeks. Hoping this depression will soon leave me, and I can get back to moving through life the way I used to.

 

25 here ‍♀️ Got pulsatile in one ear at 23 and then tinnitus in the other at 24! It can be really scary and daunting but know that it does get better. Although I have some days that feel really scary again it always passes. Mine too is sinus related (I think).

 

26 years old, don't feel alone, we are thousands out there.

 

Hey @fishbone. Always a pleasure reading your posts for their positive message.

I'm at the ENT again today because I need to do something. I've been off of work for almost a month and don't see myself returning anytime soon. After my worsening last year I kept on working and finally crashed big time early January, almost a year later.

How do you do it? I hear my tinnitus just about everywhere. I can maybe mask it in environments that are uncomfortably loud to me, so that's no help at all. Tried exercise and this doesn't help much at all but I'm still sticking to it cause I like it. Tried masking, distraction... What do I do?

 

Let me share something with you. From my experience through out the decades, I prefer to have some *LIGHT*/low volume tranquil noise/sound in the background. The idea is to have some sound that CAN have your brain listen to other than your tinnitus. My tinnitus has no chance of not being heard, it's loud and can be heard over highway noise

Even at low volumes, tranquil sounds can still soothe the mind. We don't even have to fully listen for it. For the first time ever I just overcame a very horrible 2-3 month spike. I figured it would become another new baseline, this one was extremely hard.

Low volume sound therapy works for me, and it relaxes me. It may not work for all, so do find what works for YOU. The point is to find something that can help us relax. There are many tools and techniques out there.

I stuck to daily sound therapy and relaxation. It's gotten a little better and my ears are healing a little. Even though this new possible baseline was tough for me, I still stuck to my basics and foundations. Building up a foundation in your tinnitus journey is very important.

I use my lessons learned from my first days of the low static/barely noticeable hiss(took it for granted). Those days were the TOUGHEST for me. I had LOTS of unanswered question and was lost with what was going on. Now, decades later with tinnitus that is 5 to 10 times louder, I am not emotional about it. Yes, I am not pleased with this chaos that rings 24/7, but it's life, it's reality for me.

Building out our foundations, can be quite helpful for our tinnitus journey. I am still at the drawing board daily and I will always stand up to the tinnitus and take daily steps to possibly help my situation.

The point of exercise is to improve the physical and mental fitness. BOTH are key, but the mental aspect will always win for me. Doing a exercise routine can help the mind gain some relaxation. It can help the mind gain some distraction. Make sure that your exercise routine does not annoy your tinnitus.

ALL in all tinnitus has made me focus, on what I need to do on a daily basis to live with this condition. I will play by it's rules to some degree, but it will play by MINE as well. It's a give and take relationship. It has disciplined me and taught me many things. It has caused me to adjust my life. ALL in all, I accept what goes on. Just do my best to live a life that helps me and to try to come here and to help those that suffer

Having a plan, creating our routines early on can be quite helpful in our tinnitus journey.

 

I'm 21. I've had tinnitus since June. I'm feeling pretty suicidal myself lately, since my tinnitus is noise-induced and I wanted to have a career in music, but that's just not possible anymore. It's really, really hard to see all my friends live out there dreams and do what I want to do when I'm stuck dealing with this.

Since your tinnitus isn't noise-induced, I think there's more hope for you. One of my teachers was telling me that his Uncle got tinnitus when he went on an airplane with an ear infection. He dealt with it for years until one day he just heard a loud pop in his ears and the tinnitus was gone. Sometimes, our bodies just need time to figure stuff out. I hope that's the case for you.

 

Hello! 26/F here.

 

I'm not technically a YA, because I'm already 31, but due to circumstances and my own stupidity I'm at the stage of my life where a YA would be. Don't have a job, don't have kids and so on. And struggling greatly. With tinnitus and depression, anxiety predating but exacerbated by tinnitus. You are definitely not alone.

 

I'm twenty. I've habituated.

I do feel a little guilty-blessed (if that's the feeling I'm getting while typing this) that my T is relatively light, though I do experience spikes, but yeah. When I first had it, I was much like you OP. The unceasing, high-pitched screech in my ear was murderous to my mood. I could hear it over the air conditioner at college, it kept me up while I was trying to sleep, I don't go to clubs but the idea that I absolutely couldn't lest it get worse (or attend the movies, or x loud area) made me sad as hell. A small pleasure of mine is riding the bus to uni and staring out of the window while listening to Spotify--or rather it was, I can't do that anymore because of T. It hit me harder and still does hit me worse than you could expect. I know people that listen to their music 100% all the time and have never reported so much as a buzz, and it's so damn frustrating because I don't think I ever surpassed 70? It's utterly insane and sad.

Hell, I can hear it now if I stop typing. And that's with the TV on in the other room . The thought that, at any moment, I could be in the wrong place at the wrong time and it could get even worse is truly terrifying. I didn't go anywhere without ear-plugs in my ears for that first year or so.

Sorry if this is rambly, but I usually calm any stress I'll get over it by realizing that I'm not blind, I can still walk, I'm not dead, so it isn't that bad. I can keep going. And people are working on a proper cure/treatment, so all hope is not lost.

I hope this doesn't sound patronizing or anything, I'm not trying to make your worries seem dumb (because they aren't, T is eerie as hell), I'm just giving a snapshot of my experiences with T.

 

I was 22 when I got my tinnitus. I'm 29 now. Having spent most of my 20's with moderately severe tinnitus, I wish I could tell you that it gets better over time, but it does not. It is always the same. Sometimes it spikes and gets a little bit worse, but it always returns to the same baseline that has ruined my social life and robbed me of the prime years of my life. If I lived a century ago with this condition I am sure I would have killed myself. But as horrible as it is to live with constant tinnitus, it is the promise of a cure that keeps me going. I am optimistic that medical researchers are very close to curing tinnitus. The progress is painfully slow, but if suicide is the alternative, I believe it is worth the wait. Someday we will experience silence again, and it will be glorious.

 

22 this year, got it when I was 13...

I want to live normal life for the first time please I was a kid when I got it I didn't experienced life at all. I'm so disconnected from this world, from normal problems, from normal people. I don't understand them and they don't understand me. We live in a different world.

I can thank the ENT that saw me in my first hours of Tinnitus, she said that kids doesn't get Tinnitus and I'm making it up because it's disease that only old people have... so no hospital, no steroids, no treatment when I still had a chance.

Now I don't live at all, I just sit in my house year after year crying waiting for a working treatment. It will only get worse with time (and it does already). Everything because of one stupid ENT and using Headphones.

 

I'm so sorry that this is happening to you at this young age, and I'm so mad at your ENT's ignorance. It's not 100% proven that steroids or any other treatment help, but to shrug it off as an old person's disease is unforgivable and so stupid.

 

I got it mild when I was 10. Nobody cared to investigate why.

 

I’m 26 and I have it in my right ear. It came on about 6 months ago and just like you, I’ve had days where I feel completely suicidal. I’m struggling to live with this and wake up everyday hoping it goes away.

 

That's the worst thing to do man, we all wish for it, but there comes a time where you gotta accept it otherwise it will just keep eating away.