Search results for query: *

Thank you for this thread, I couldn't agree more! I hate the term "distorted thoughts," and the assertion that the way I "think" about my tinnitus makes it worse. What is distorted about these thoughts: 1) I went 65 years of my life with nary a problem with my hearing or a hint of tinnitus...

John: I just stumbled onto this thread and have read all your posts. I found your thoughts and feelings about your condition to be both interesting and inspiring. Like you, tinnitus/hyperacusis came to me at a later stage in life - I am 66, and my sudden onset occurred 8 months ago out of the...

My taper is going very well. I am down to 0.25mg of Valium, which is a like a crumb. This is my last week of that then I jump on May 2. I have had no symptoms other than up and down tinnitus, which could be what I am stuck with for good. However, I have had more frequent days when my tinnitus is...

Since the onset of my tinnitus 7 months ago, the hearing in my right ear has felt vaguely muffled and sometimes kind of distorted with louder noise sounding like a broken speaker. Both of these sensations seem to get slightly better with I "clear" my right ear with a Valsalva maneuver (force...

Thanks for the reply. I have tried the "Cat Ears" and "Wind Blox" devices while cycling, and they provide minimal wind noise reduction. So, yes, I now cycle with EarPeace high fidelity ear plugs all the time. They really do block a lot of the extraneous wind noise but allow me to hear cars...

Ditto all of this... perfectly stated.

Hey All: Update on me, the OP. I quick tapered off Ambien in early January. I also converted from Ativan to Valium in early January and started a slow taper. I will be done and benzo free in about 3 weeks. So far the taper has gone well; no other symptoms to speak of other than loud, variable...

Tinnitus is a problem of both the ear and the brain. The conventional wisdom is that tinnitus starts with a lesion or disruption in the auditory system, anywhere from the outer ear through the auditory nerve, which then sets up a standing pattern of hyperactivity in the auditory cortex. Why the...

I have moderate to severe high frequency hearing loss, sloping from 4000 Hz to 8000 Hz. My tinnitus varies from soft crickets to a loud hissing. Both forms are very high frequency. I think it is generally accepted that we hear tinnitus in the frequencies where we have the most hearing loss.

Contrast nails it in this thread. The literature cited is the best there is on the subject. Tinnitus is virtually always caused by some disruption to auditory inputs to the brain, and then the brain maladapts to that disruption by becoming hypersensitive in the DCN and auditory cortex...

I had Pfizer #1 on March 5. No immediate change in tinnitus. I keep a log of my tinnitus symptoms, and three days after the vaccine I had 3 consecutive days of very quiet tinnitus (2-3/10). It ramped up again to normal baseline level (5-6/10) after that, and is now maybe a little worse. I get...

The sounds come from the auditory cortex part of the brain; that has been proven by brain imaging studies. The most prevalent theory is that some disruption in the communication between the ears and the auditory cortex (loud noise, ear infection, age related hearing loss, etc.) sets off a...

That's a tough call. After my tinnitus started last Labor Day, I got to into my GP within a week of onset. He also called it SSNHL, even though I didn't notice any change in my hearing, and suspected a viral infection. He put me on 50mg Prednisone for only 5 days, and an anti-viral for 10 days...

Alcohol has no effect on my tinnitus. If anything, it makes me relax and not care about it so much. Caffeine also does not affect my tinnitus. I am not a big believer in food and drink effecting tinnitus. It does what it wants to do, and I have never been able to correlate it to anything.

I have a had a few moments like that as well, usually upon waking in the morning. It's like magic, hearing silence again. But then as you notice the silence, the tinnitus begins to creep back in. I too have wondered if this is a physical thing with ear/brain connection, or if this is the...

Update on my status. I cold turkeyed off the Ambien on January 6 and haven't touched it since. Also converted from Ativan to Valium on January 4 to begin tapering off the benzo. After quitting the Ambien several of the symptoms I was feeling just stopped. In particular, the brain fog and...

I'm going on 6 months since the sudden onset of my tinnitus. These last 5 months have been a nightmare for sure, and my quality of life has substantially declined. However, I am not giving up hope for some level of habituation, and the ability to recapture much of my previous joy of life...

I have reactive tinnitus where the baseline whiny high-pitched hissing will literally ramp up in volume in direct response to ambient noise so that it can be clearly heard over everything. It will then drop right back down to baseline after the noise exposure. I have never been able to mask my...

That's a damn good question, and one that I don't think medical sciences has a clue about. I have been to three audiologists and two ENT's, and none of them are able to even speculate why some tinnitus is "constant" and not-reactive, while other tinnitus responds in various ways to ambient...

Syb: My tinnitus/hyperacusis came on very suddenly 5 months ago (at the age of 65!) and I have been struggling mightily ever since. My tinnitus is reactive as well. When I am exposed to ambient sound the high pitched hissing, mostly in my left ear, just ramps up to get on top. I occasionally...

I am 66 and have been diagnosed with "age-related" high frequency hearing loss. The medical term is presbycusis. Attached is my audiogram. I would kill for some of your audiograms, which show pretty minor hearing loss. My high frequencies are pretty much gone. Weird thing is that I never even...

Distressed

Thank you for helping relieve some of my guilt about getting myself into this mess. As for how I am doing - I have successfully weaned entirely off Ambien without any insomnia or other withdrawal effects. And I converted my Xanax over to 5mg/day of Valium, which I am now tapering off via the...

Mine peaks through the day as I am working, reaching maximum loudness around 6-7pm. Lately, it has been hitting the 7-8, maybe 9 level by then, and is a very high pitched whiny hissing. Usually it calms down a bit after I eat dinner. By bedtime it is manageable, as I usually don't have a...

This is pretty severe hearing loss in the normal speech/music frequency range. What antidepressants do you feel caused this? Most SSRIs are not considered to be ototoxic. They may increase tinnitus due to serotonergic stimulation, but they do not cause sensorineural hearing loss like NSAIDs...

There is a whole school of thought that the best way to deal with tinnitus is through habituation. The proponents of habituation say that one should live their life as if they did not have tinnitus; give it no attention or significance, push it into the background and move on. In the early...

I've been taking a low dose of Trazodone (25mg) every night for about 5 weeks to help with sleep. It has worked well for me, makes me drowsy in about 20 minutes. My psych wanted me to wean off Ambien, and use Trazodone instead. The transition has gone well in terms of sleep, but I did notice...

No ear wax. No other distortions really. I have high frequency hearing loss, diagnosed with presbycusis (age-related hearing loss - I'm 66). My issues are pretty severe tinnitus and mild hyperacusis. But the asymmetry of my voice being too loud in one ear but not the other is just weird.

I suffered sudden onset of tinnitus on Labor Day of 2020, and over the next month I also developed sound sensitivity. My tinnitus has always been louder in my left ear, but over the past 6 weeks or so I have noticed that my right ear seems muffled and my voice seems too loud and somewhat...

I am almost 4 months from my sudden onset of tinnitus (August 30). It took about a week to go into freak out mode and on September 8 my GP prescribed Xanax (0.25 mg 2x/day) and Ambien 6.5 mg CR for anxiety and sleep. At first the Xanax seemed like magic and literally stopped my tinnitus for...

Vicki: I feel your pain. My tinnitus started out of the blue on August 30, and my life has been totally turned upside down. It started out as kind of gentle "crickets" sound in my left ear, but within a month it transitioned into a very high frequency and loud whiny hiss in both ears. In...

Michael: Your post does not address tinnitus caused by age-related hearing loss, or presbycusis. I am 66 and had a sudden onset of tinnitus and hyperacusis. Subsequently, I was determined to have high frequency hearing loss, not directly related to noise exposure. Not sure what my prognosis...

When my tinnitus hit on September 1, my GP prescribed Xanax 0.5 mg to 1.0 mg/day as needed. I pretty much took 1.0 mg every day for 4-5 weeks during the initial freak out phase, and then I started a long taper with .25 mg cuts every 4 weeks or so. Not the best way to do this, and I had days of...

Hey All: I first posted here in mid-September after suffering a sudden onset of tinnitus and mild hyperacusis, so I am just now 3 months into this nightmare. After it was confirmed that I have bilateral high frequency age-related hearing loss (presbycusis - I am 66), and that my tinnitus was...

Pretty much just one... a ringing, hissing sound that gets louder mostly in my left ear in response to ambient sounds and my own voice.

I am responding to the OP. I'm not exactly sure what I have, so maybe someone can help me classify my symptoms: I have a continuous high frequency hissing tinnitus sound. Some days it is louder than others, but it definitely reacts immediately to sound, especially high pitched sound, where I...

I am 30 days into my tinnitus journey/nightmare. I was prescribed Xanax, 0.5 mg 2x day, by my GP for anxiety caused by tinnitus. I have to say that it does really help me. Takes the edge off and lowers the volume a couple of clicks for a few hours, which is great when you just need some sort of...

Great OP, thank you for this. I am new to the whole tinnitus experience, now approaching one month since sudden onset. I too did not have any recent exposure to loud noise, and I first noticed it while mountain biking on a quiet country road when I heard "crickets and cicadas" that weren't...

Hey Matthew: I just posted here for the first time about a week ago. I am much older than you (65) but just experienced the same sudden onset of tinnitus on August 30, very similar to what you describe. Mine started while I was out on a gentle mountain bike ride on a quiet dirt road, when all...

Thanks Lyris, appreciate the concern and advice. Not sure I can take a few weeks off as I think exercise really helps with stress, but I am wearing my ear plugs when riding which makes it so much more pleasant.

Thanks for reply man. I have been using these Ear Peace ear plugs and they are working pretty well. They cut wind noise and I can still barely hear cars approaching. so not perfect but better than no protection. Still dealing with big time T going on three weeks. WTF?

Hey All: I just posted my first thread earlier this week. I experienced an acute onset of tinnitus while on a mountain biking vacation a few weeks ago. It started as loud sounds of crickets/cicadas mostly in my left ear. I thought this sound was external, but when I stopped and covered my...

Newbie

Great post indeed, thank you! I am only 2 weeks into this tinnitus journey, and see your point about all the pseudoscience and scary stories. I am at the point where I am still reading everything, and trying to learn all I can because tinnitus is a scary and freaky experience for sure. We...

In response to Bill Bauer's post above, I was not on any medication when this started up, other than a single Advil PM taken a few nights per week. I should add that along with a 5-day course of prednisone (10 mg/2x day), my GP also prescribed a 10-day course of the anti-viral drug...

Billie, I just read your post about positivity. Thank you so much for that, it's a wonderful testimony to inner faith and perseverance. Could you share how your T and H started, what you thought the causes were?

Thank you for the reply. I will read you previous post for sure. Do you think it is possible to have a delayed reaction to an acute acoustic stress such as the ambulance siren going off right next to me, or is it more of a cumulative phenomenon? Also, is hyperacusis typically caused by...

Hey Everybody: I am brand new to this forum after suffering my first ever "intrusive" tinnitus attack just two weeks ago. A little background info on me. I am 65 years old, in very good health, and I'm currently on no medications at all. I am a avid cyclist and ride about 100 miles a week...