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  1. S

    Habituation: Did You Go Cold Turkey?

    The TRT theory is that silence enhances T because, among other things, the auditory system turns up the gain when a person is in a silent environment. The standard analogy is looking at a birthday cake with a single lit candle in an otherwise dark room--the candle seems very bright. Once you...
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    Tinnitus Spike After Loud Music

    Noise levels in clubs can exceed 100db. Under the CDC guidelines, the safe exposure limit for sounds that loud is 15 minutes. Regardless of whether or not you have tinnitus, if you exceed those exposure levels, you're risking permanent damage to your ears and hearing loss.
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    Door Slam Decibel

    If a noise lasts less than one second (which I assume would be the case with a window being blown shut), the noise would have to exceed 130 db (which is the noise exposure you'd get from standing next to a jackhammer or pneumatic drill in operation) in order to damage your hearing. I can't...
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    Neuroscientists Identify Brain Mechanism Responsible for Tinnitus, Chronic Pain

    If I'm understanding it correctly, the new research seems to imply a completely different approach than the one taken by Autifony, which I understand will regulate the Kv3 potassium channels. The new research talks about the need to make changes in a gatekeeping system in the brain "controlled...
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    Hearing Aids for Masking

    If you don't really need hearing aids, you might consider these maskers, which I know some TRT clinicians use: https://generalhearing.com/professional/tinnitus-products/ They look very much like hearing aids and would, I assume, cost considerably less. I have hearing loss and use the Unitron...
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    Clonazepam (Klonopin, Rivotril)

    I don't know if your aware of this, but the organization that runs this website (the Citizens Commission on Human Rights) was established by and is still run by the Church of Scientology: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizens_Commission_on_Human_Rights For various reasons, L. Ron Hubbard (who...
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    Clonazepam (Klonopin, Rivotril)

    If I take 0.5 mg of Clonazepam when I go to bed and get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, my T is virtually gone. There's also a study showing that the drug can reduce T: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22626945 However I don't like taking that much Clonazepam at night...
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    Retigabine (Trobalt, Potiga) — General Discussion

    Thanks very much for your response. So people on this forum (other than you and the other two people Valeri mentioned in her prior post) have had a significant, permanent reduction in their T as a result of using this drug? I apologize for restating my question, but I'm just trying to get...
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    Retigabine (Trobalt, Potiga) — General Discussion

    I have the same question. I might consider taking this drug (if I can get someone to prescribe it for me) if there's a decent chance that it might permanently reduce my T. But most of the user reports in the other thread seem to indicate that the drug has, at best, a temporary effect.
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    Habituation Question (I am Worried I Will Never Habituate)

    It sounds like to me that the TRT specialist wants to you to mask your T in order to help you get over the period of initial anxiety that almost everyone who has problems with T goes through--if you can't hear your T, you can't continually check for it, which is making you freak out...
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    Tinnitus for 3 Years, Still Struggling and Need Advice

    I think it would be great if you could find another psychiatrist who would be easier to work with. If you're having problems coming off of an antidepressant, it might be because you're feeling the full-blown effects of a depression that the antidepressant was treating or at least reducing.
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    Tinnitus for 3 Years, Still Struggling and Need Advice

    If you don't mind my asking, what antidepressants were you taking, what was the dosage, and what did your doctor have to say about all of this?
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    Clonazepam (Klonopin, Rivotril)

    When my Tinnitus became intrusive, my psychiatrist prescribed clonazepam .5 twice daily. After about a month my anxiety was greatly reduced, so I talked to my doctor and stopped taking it during the day and had no problem dropping the dosage. It's now almost four months later, and I still take...
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    What Would You Do? A Potential New Sometimes Noisy Job

    If you're concerned about road noise, do you know what kind of car you'd be getting? My Lexus is very quiet; of course, you could also wear ear muffs or plugs when you're driving. When you have to go into noisy places, do you have any idea how much noise in db you'd be exposed to and for how...
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    Some Helpful Books That Can Help to Ease This Fight

    Tinnitus: A Self-Management Guide for the Ringing in Your Ears by Jane L. Henry and Peter H. Wilson. This book is about applying cognitive behavior therapy technques to tinnitus, and I found some of their recommended coping strategies to be very helpful. I also bought a copy of Dr...
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    Xanax Withdrawal. What Has Been Your Experience?

    When my T first become intrusive, I had the standard panic/anxiety reaction, and I was referred to a psychiatrist who prescribed .5 mg of Clonazepam three times a day. After about six weeks, I told the doctor that I was feeling much less anxious and that the drug was making me feel sedated...
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    Best dB-Meter?

    I haven't checked the entire scale, but in the range that I'm most concerned about (sounds above 80db), the iPhone app consistently shows a db level that is around 20db less than my stand-alone meter.
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    Best dB-Meter?

    FYI, I have the first app that is described in this link (dB Volume Meter) on my iPhone 6. Compared to a well reviewed stand-alone db meter that I purchased on Amazon, the iPhone app is grossly inaccurate--the db levels on the iPhone app are as much as 20db lower than the db shown on my...
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    Best dB-Meter?

    I suggest you do a search on Amazon for "db meter record"; there appear to be several meters that will record a log of db measurements, but they tend to be on the expensive side. For example...
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    I Need Some Support

    I would be interested to hear what others say on this point. If you are concerned about further damage to your auditory system, there are guidelines for the amount and duration of sounds (in decibels) that may cause hearing loss. For example, this is the webpage from the U.S. Centers for...
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    I Need Some Support

    Is your T reactive to loud noises--have you found that loud noises cause your T to spike?
  22. S

    2004 Jaguar X-Type

    Yes, Jags are notoriously unreliable. The original poster said it was a 2004; I would be very careful about buying an 11 year old Jag. You better have a good mechanic.
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    What Precautions Should Be Taken to Prevent Tinnitus from Increasing?

    This study reports that caffeine intake is associated with a REDUCED risk for tinnitus: http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/08/13/caffeine-may-reduce-tinnitus-risk/ The study concludes that “no evidence was found to justify caffeine abstinence as a therapy to alleviate tinnitus", but noted that...
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    Message to All Who Habituated and Moving on With the Life

    There are obviously recognized standards for noise exposure; the CDC/OSHA standard is no more than 8 hours of exposure for 85dba, etc.: http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/noise/chart-lookatnoise.html If the concern is that additional noise exposure will damage your hearing by disabling additional...
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    Yet Another Benzo Withdrawal Thread

    As I understand it, Benzos are supposed to be prescribed for anxiety or panic disorder. I'm surprised that doctors would prescribe them as sleeping pills; it seems to me there are much better options for that. When my T first became a problem, my anxiety went through the roof--I've never...
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    Does Tinnitus Get Worse Over Time?

    Again, unless there are studies that show T consistently worsens as hearing deteriorates, I don't think you can make this generalization since the connection between hearing loss and T is so tenuous. In any event, if hearing deteriorates, you can always get hearing aids that will amplify the...
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    Yet Another Benzo Withdrawal Thread

    Based on the prescribing information, the maximum recommended dose of Clonazepam for panic disorder/anxiety is 1.5mg per day, but in some cases the dosage can be higher, but it should never exceed 4mg per day. By comparison, the recommended dose of zanax for anxiety is no more than 4mg; for...
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    Yet Another Benzo Withdrawal Thread

    10mg of Clonazepam per day is a huge amount. Did a single doctor prescribe that much of the drug for you?
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    Yet Another Benzo Withdrawal Thread

    The guy in the second withdrawal video said he took 4 to 8 mg of xanax per day for two years. He didn't say how he got that much of the drug--was a single doctor prescribing this? Or did he go to multiple doctors or buy it off the street? And then he quits cold turkey with no tapering???
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    Does Tinnitus Get Worse Over Time?

    I think the question that's being asked is whether intrusive tinnitus--tinnitus that's bad enough to cause a person to seek medical attention--gets worse over time. Is anyone aware of any studies that focus on this issue? If so, I'd love to hear about them. If, as I suspect, there are no such...
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    Long-Time Tinnitus Sufferer

    The "40 Year Cure" sounds a lot like cognitive behavior therapy--if you change your negative thoughts about T into positive statements, then that will help change your emotional response to your T and make it more manageable. There's a really good book on CBT and tinnitus, Tinnitus: A...
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    Why Do Doctors Say Tinnitus Won't Hurt You?

    My GP certainly recognized that tinnitus can be debilitating, and he immediately (after a phone call) prescribed anti-anxiety medication (clonazepam) and sleeping pills; I've already been on an antidepressant for years. My GP also referred me to an ENT, who did a complete work-up and sent me to...
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    Help Please (Mirtazapine Withdrawal, Tinnitus Going Mad)

    Did your doctor suggest that you stop taking the mirtazapine after three weeks? If so, did he or she say why? From what I can find on the web, mirtazapine is an antidepressant that can take several weeks to work, so I'm not sure why your doc would take you off of it after just three weeks...
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    How Has Trazodone Worked for You? Has It Helped Your Sleep? Does It Make Tinnitus Worse?

    I have been taking Trazodone nightly as a sleeping pill since early June, when my tinnitus spiked. The doctor prescribed 100mg tablets; I started out taking half of a pill (50mg) and then started taking the full 100mg. My tinnitus has since settled down, and I'm now also using hearing aids...
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    Hearing Aids

    The masking feature just comes with the new hearing aids, even though I don't need it. More and more manufacturers are evidently adding that. Thanks.
  36. S

    Hearing Aids

    Currently I have loaner hearing aids, the Unitron Moxi-2 behind-the-ear model (without tinnitus masking). I've ordered another more up-to-date model of the Unitron behind-the-ear hearings aids, which have a tinnitus masking feature and which should be in shortly. I put the hearing aids in when...
  37. S

    Hearing Aids

    When I switched GP's three years ago, the new GP discovered hearing loss then, and he was the first to perform a hearing test on me in many years. For years I played in orchestras and bands--cymbals clashing near my unprotected ears, among other things--so I wasn't that surprised by a diagnosis...
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    Hearing Aids

    I'm a newbie to this board. I'm 61 years old and have previously been diagnosed with moderate hearing loss in the upper frequencies. A few months ago, tinnitus appeared, mostly in might right ear. Up until a few weeks ago, the sound was just annoying, and I found that I could usually just...