Young People with Medium to Loud Tinnitus? How to Cope?

I'm sorry for posting so much on here, sometimes it's really difficult to deal with and this is the only place where I feel people can understand. Having a lot of anxiety lately due to T increasing. I've been protecting my ears but loud noise exposures and hyperacusis are making things worse.

I keep thinking, "Oh, God I can't live like this." And it hurts more because no one around me can really understand and I feel like I'm being a burden by complaining so much.

Panic attacks day after day. All I do is cry. Do any young people on here have medium to loud tinnitus? How do you cope?

 

Well, thankfully I had mild H in first month and something that was anxiety related and it generally just went away in time. As for T, ironically I surround myself in sound. All in healthy levels, not going beyond 70dB and fortunatelly T is not that loud so it drowns in that sound. T aint that bad when as a result you have to experience it only for couple hours each day.

Also one older doc recommended me that I dont use fans or something when I go to sleep, but rather pleasant sound. I always found sound of rain hitting window very relaxing, for whatever reason, and downloaded an app that has it and I put that next to my bed each night. His reasoning was that I need to start associating sound of T with something relaxing or pleasant and therefore reprogram my head from going overdrive when detecting T. For reason I dont really understand, my T is louder when I am in horizontal position so I hear it. But with it, I hear rainfall (or crashing of waves, I like that sound too). I have been doing that for weeks now and I dunno, I just dont care anymore that much. Than again, thankfully my T is at mild level and can be overpowered by simple sound of traffic or conversation.

And at the end of the day, even though I am 25yo, I have been through worse. Much worse. It didnt break me. And if those things failed, this sure as hell wont succeed.

 

I'm 28 and have had pretty loud T since I was 23. I can hear it in virtually any normal sound environment. I've habituated over time and T has become the least of my problems, although I'd be lying if I said it never bothered me at all. It can definitely be hard sometimes.

 

No matter how loud over time it gets easier over time. The percentage of being with ease with your ears goes up and up.Hehe after 23 years I totally forgot my constant 4/10 tinnitus ..now I had a spike a month ago to 7/10 and it is still a lot louder than it was..worst the sound changed, so again my brain will need time to rehabilitate it .. annoying but worth it and always possible, once you done it you can live a great life again. There is a good american concept which is fake it until you make it .. so tell yourself it is a great noise of the universe talking to you and it is something good for you ..associate good feelings to it ... in time you brain starts to believe it. Read positive stories here, change your life to live active and healthy ...

Btw well if there is an omnipotent God that invents and insect that eats the eyes if children from the inside .. to make them blind and gives children unhealable cancer ... this God is a pure maniac .. and utterly evil ..

The longer you believe in yourself the easier it gets. Wish you all the best Wojtek

 

I'm new here and I don't usually join forums but when I got my tinnitus not long ago I started panicking like you(still do sometimes) because I felt like I was too young to have such thing.
That's when I found this forum, and it was kind of sad to see how many people my age were suffering too, but also reassuring for me since I felt like I was alone in this.
What I'm trying to say is that you came to the right place to discuss your worries, and you're not alone.

I have mild unilateral tinnitus (either that or the tinnitus in my other ear is too mild to hear) probably due to loud-noise exposure , and I am full of regret, but back then I was completely ignorant about the permanent consequences of listening to slightly louder music.

I guess I was just more prone to getting this, or there are other factors that have caused it; I don't really know.

Just like you, I still have worries most of the time but I feel like the more you focus on it the worse you think it is.
The (literal) damage is done already but that doesn't mean your life is over! don't let this take over your life and try to avoid loud noises and protect your ears as much as you can, at least, this is what I'm doing.

 

Are you referencing the Stephen Fry speech about God? I agree with you, I don't understand how a loving God could allow something like this sometimes...

 

I feel you Iam 18 and got tinitus last month and it is really loud Iam not sure what Iam going to do It is very difficult especially in the evening

 

I'm 16 and I've had both Pulsatile and regular tinnitus for just short of 3 months now. To describe the dying-cat-parade that is in my head:
- A loud 'voovoovoo' that vibrates my skull at times. That would be Pulsatile tinnitus.
- My regular tinnitus is two toned. Combine a dog whistle and a dentist drill at the highest volumes and you'll have a sound that is similar to it. The second tone is a constant static which I have in both ears (as my Pulsatile is only in my right and the other is in my left), and that is fairly loud.
- Sometimes the tones change and throws in a hissing noise.
- Also sensitive to sounds. Not as much as I was in the beginning though.

My tinnitus is likely noise induced (still looking into it) but there's been no found cause for my Pulsatile tinnitus.

Disclaimer: I 'habituated' a lot faster than most, oddly enough. It is different for everybody but the goal is usually the same. How and when you reach it depends on you.

I suffer from bad anxiety and was having a lot of panic attacks in the first month or so. I couldn't tell you how I cope because I don't know how I am fine today when I was a mess not long ago. I just keep on living. There is no conscious effort for me. I wasn't allowed any aids for sleeping or anxiety so I really didn't have any choice but to do it myself.

All I can say is that my life is pretty much back to normal and i am happy. I can still hear my tinnitus (hard not too) but I don't listen to it anymore. As soon as it stopped being a threat to me, I stopped being afraid of it.

The way I see it is, I'm young and have my life ahead of me. I don't want to put it on hold for a noise in my head and ears.

 

From reading your other posts, you are such a stronger person than me!

 

I don't think I'm stronger than anybody. The reality is that I was a mess in the beginning. At first I was in denial. Denial turned into suicidal, being depressed, daily panic attacks, losing over 14lbs, and doing nothing but curling up in a ball in bed and crying. It took me 16 years to be the person I am today and it took tinnitus a day to erase who I was and who I ever hoped to be. That's scary to me.

I still do get intrusive thoughts and I still feel trapped/claustrophobic at times. Sometimes I cry just to let it all out and sometimes I just don't want to do anything but lay in bed, but those things are normal to experience, even once you've gotten passed the 'my life is over' stage of tinnitus. But I still get back up and move on.
Tinnitus is a background noise to me like the air-conditioner, the drone of the PC, or the little screaming children at my work place who think that my ears are the microphone to a karaoke machine, with the only tracks to choose from being any song from the Frozen movie.

Don't get me wrong, I am strong. I'm just no stronger than you or anybody on this forum. We're all running the same race. Some of us may be slower than others but that doesn't mean they're any lesser than the faster runners.

 

I was in denial as well, at first. But when my T got louder I could no longer pretend it was just the hum from the fridge or some other explainable noise. I had to learn to accept it, which I still fully haven't been able to do.

It must be hard to work at a childcare center with all that noise around, but it's good you can manage it. I didn't notice how loud little kids can scream and screech until I got T. I never thought I'd be annoyed by a cute little chubby-faced toddler before.

Viewing tinnitus as a background noise seems like a wonderful idea. I'm not bothered by the whirring of the dishwaser or hum of my computer so it'd be great to be able to view tinnitus as just another background noise.

 

I'm in my twenties. I wish I knew exactly how I cope, all I know is that I eventually do. I believe everyone copes differently though.

I've had T for a long time and in my case it makes it easier to handle. My T might change but my situation remains the same, I still just hear noises. I'm strict at not allowing myself to have too many thoughts about my T that are negative. I also go tired of caring at some point and gradually start to live again after being down.

The most important thing you can do to help yourself is to try really hard not to obsess about it. Catch yourself when you are having negative thoughts and stop yourself by directing your attention onto something else. Just do it, even if you know that it won't help your anxiety or whatever negative emotion you are having. Not allowing yourself to drown in these thoughts and emotions is a nice habit to have with this condition. It makes getting out of the ditch easier but it takes time, sometimes a lot of it.

I'm recovering once again. Where I am now is a better place than the one I was in when I signed up, but it's still not ideal yet.

 

It is very rare for somebody not to be able too accept it, at least to some degree. It always seems impossible until you actually realise that you aren't looking for it every time you walk into a room, standing in the same spot everyday to see how loud it is this time, or sticking your fingers in your ears. I believe you can do it.

I don't want to spam your thread so I wish you the best of luck and if you ever want to talk, feel free to message me!

 

I'll tell you this much, your tinnitus might be relatively new. So try to keep it protected and your ears protected. I never knew that tinnitus could become the annoyance it can be and just how loud it has become. No one educated me almost 30 years ago and what it was and just how loud and much louder it can get. Yes, any noise is no fun and we hate it, but if your noise is just a low tone hiss and you barely hear it, then be very thankful.

I once had that low hiss too, at the beginning. Due to lack of knowledge and my mistakes, it has become full blown and a level 10 in both ears. The cool part is that, i am not bothered and don't even pay attention to it or at times don't even know that i have it. I am too busy with many things to even give tinnitus, the time of the day....

Be well

 

What kind of mistakes? I don't know what I'm doing wrong. 5 months in and it keeps worsening.

 

My biggest mistake was listening to LOUD music and damaging my ears. If your tinnitus keeps getting worst, there has to be a reason behind it. Go see a DR and get it checked out. Avoid Loud places, having a proper diet could help out with tinnitus.

Tinnitus is an ugly ordeal and im sorry that anyone has to suffer , from this.

 

Thank you @fishbone,
I have visited countless doctors and had countless tests.
No conclusions.

 

Do you have loud tinnitus or a low tone/hiss?

 

High pitch tones. Both ears. I think in my head also. I also have this high pitch screeching. I would say moderate level. 5/10

 

I also have T and the only way I try to cope is with Winston Churchills words - "never never never give up"

 

Hi Butterfly! I cannot say I am coping well or am an expert by any means (although I have gone through most threads front to back ). I try to get out of bed and head outside. It is by no means a cure, but I find I feel much better when I'm not sitting at home. I don't feel like I am strong enough to sit at home and not be bothered by it at the moment. At night I also mask it using gentle rain noises. I also try to be positive, but I know, it's by no means easy. I think just how unpredictable life is, and how quickly things can change. I can still do so many things, and I still have hope that things will get better with time. I also try to talk to family and friends, find someone who understands you at least somewhat. It's what keeps me going (barely).


By the way, does anyone else experience ear fullness? Does it ever go away? I am three months into my new LOUD spike and my ears constantly feel stuffed. Does this ever go away? Or is this the new normal?