Tinnitus Talk Support Forum

So what I'm worried about isn't the pain, it's more the reactiveness. I think exposing to sounds is working for H, but at the other hand it means the reactive T is going wild. So I would also like to go into complete silence and see what happens to the T.
Obviously I can't do both but from what I've read, overprorection only does make H worse temporarily.

@Kiyomi The fact that you're having improvements already is a great sign! I think you'll hear this often in here but improvements are never linear. I've had improvements, then a plateau at that level, then improvements again months later.

You're only a month in, it might be good for your mental health to find a way to accept that this is a long haul thing.

I feel like reactivity may take longer to improve than H. Mine has improved tons; in the beginning everything spiked my T. I had to eat quiet foods, drink water in ways that avoided letting water slosh/splash in my mouth. When washing hands I had to let water drip onto my hands bc running water would send me to hell w/ T.

For a while, no one in my home could watch TV w sound or vacuum bc even tho I couldn't hear it, I would get increased t from that. My mom had to come in and flush the toilet for me. My siblings would unwrap food for me bc I couldn't handle plastic wrappers. It was insane how easily I spiked. Whenever someone took a shower I had to go to the opposite side of our home bc that would spike me even from afar.

Now many of those things don't spike my t the way it used to. I can let the faucet run as I please, i can open plastic wrappers on my own, I fan flush the toilet etc. I still can't do artificial audio properly, but I've given in a few times and listened to music by leaving a speaker in one room and going into another to listen.

I went from being able to do that for 20 mins to about 1.5 hrs before the T becomes unbearable. It's not worth it yet however, as it gives me setbacks so I haven't done it recently.

I think going into silence may be a good idea. I wouldn't wear hearing protection 24/7 unless you absolutely need to. If you read @AnthonyMcDonald story, he had similar symptoms as you and I. He recommends time and silence for improvement. It sounds like he had it as bad as I did, but after 3 years he has improved enough that he can travel and his T is now relatively stable.

OH MY GOD THE RAIN. The fucking rain. That was the one thing that would send me to the absolutely worst parts of hell. There was no way to avoid it.

I tried sleeping in the bathroom downstairs (no windows, far from the roof), I put my car in the garage and slept in it, but nothing could stop it. I would spend the entirety of rainy days just wallowing in the worst 20/10 t you could imagine. S started creeping into my mind sometimes bc of that. Luckily now the rain doesn't bother me as much. I still get minor spikes but nothing compared to before.

I've even been able to do walks in light rain a few times without too much problem wind was also a problem initially too. Light breezes would cause severe spikes.

But now I can handle windy days well, I can even handle driving short distances despite all the road/wind noise.

I had terrible terrible reactivity. I still do. But it has improved. It just takes time. It seems like it may improve for you as well.

I had to wear double hearing protection 24/7 bc my LDLs were so low. Probably near 0 db at some point. Right now it's probably at around 60 db or so. It doesn't seem like yours are that low, so I would suggest finding a quiet place in your home where you can be without any protection.

It may be coincidence but it seems like some of my improvements happened when I was able to spend consistent time in quiet environments without ear protection. I just can't be consistent with it bc there's always planes flying about. Plus everyone has different work schedules so I really only get like 2-3 hrs of quiet time at home. And sometimes not even that.

However now as my LDLs have improved, I'm able to spend a little more time without hearing protection. So I'm hoping improvements will start being exponential from here on.

That was a whole wall of text, sorry lol but I want to be detailed with my experience so maybe you and others can find some peace of mind from it I know when I first got t and h I spent all my time scouring the internet/reddit looking for positive stories of improvement. They're what kept me going.

@DesertRain My symptons are really mild compared to what you and others experienced. Apart from certain noise that spikes my T to 3/10 for a short time, nothing really affects my T(in a bad way), be it sudden loud noise, food or anything else. I'm also able to listen to music to some extent, although it still sounds off sometimes and not for too long.

But I'm still struggling mentally, as I'm still not past the acceptance phase. I can't really cope with the fact that I destroyed my ears yet my life was just starting.
And also all my hobbies that are affected by this. Be it gaming, video creation, language learning or music.

I have some good days but it's just really hard to stop myself from comparing my life with before and now or getting reminded of what happened. Everything reminds me of it, be it my room, other people enjoying their life, me using hearing protection or my ears just feeling off.

And the moment I'm doing something without hearing protection and being able to forget about all of this, my H kicks in and I hear all kinds of new sounds that I did not hear before. Be it coil whine, fan noise, some random hissing somewhere etc.
Does this sensetivity go down with time?