2 Years Since the Worsening of My Tinnitus

[Don Tinny]

2 years ago I thought that going to a rock concert with earplugs was 100% safe. It was one of the biggest mistakes of my life.

The entire first year I expected my tinnitus to improve, as it had happened the previous time. "Maybe in two years I'll be better." I was only reading about treatments and was very vulnerable to sad messages on this forum.

Now that I have spent two years without major improvements I know that I will have this for life, or at least for many more years. I understand that neuromodulation techniques are having very moderate results and that I cannot expect much (my tinnitus is severe most days, only once in every few days it's less severe). So we will see what the future holds. Everything looks very distant.

For some reason I can now read those "suicidal posts" without affecting me so much. I also have other problems and that is probably helping me with tinnitus.

Sometimes I start listening to music even with horrible ringing, my mind is weird...

Just TAKE CARE!

 

[Allan1967]

2 years ago I thought that going to a rock concert with earplugs was 100% safe. It was one of the biggest mistakes of my life.

The entire first year I expected my tinnitus to improve, as it had happened the previous time. "Maybe in two years I'll be better." I was only reading about treatments and was very vulnerable to sad messages on this forum.

Now that I have spent two years without major improvements I know that I will have this for life, or at least for many more years. I understand that neuromodulation techniques are having very moderate results and that I cannot expect much (my tinnitus is severe most days, only once in every few days it's less severe). So we will see what the future holds. Everything looks very distant.

For some reason I can now read those "suicidal posts" without affecting me so much. I also have other problems and that is probably helping me with tinnitus.

Sometimes I start listening to music even with horrible ringing, my mind is weird...

Just TAKE CARE!

Hi @Don Tinny,

What are your noises like? High pitched/low, a few, intense?

I'm trying to get to the psychology of what keeps people going, what keeps us turning up at work and trying to look engaged. What stops our relationships from crumbling.

How do you manage with severe tinnitus?

 

[Don Tinny]

Hi @Don Tinny,

What are your noises like? High pitched/low, a few, intense?

I'm trying to get to the psychology of what keeps people going, what keeps us turning up at work and trying to look engaged. What stops our relationships from crumbling.

How do you manage with severe tinnitus?

It fluctuates. I usually think after 2 bad days "well... tomorrow I´ll be fine". Lately it is hard for me to have more than 1 good day in a raw. The fluctuations make tinnitus easier to cope.
I live the present. I don't have big plans for the future but I think about my family. Sometimes I hang out looking at beautiful things on the Internet, imagining things I could have done in another life, with more accurate decisions, but not in a depressing way.

Sorry about poor English.

Edit: my tinnitus is tonal, high pitched. Different tones come and go.

 

[Allan1967]

It fluctuates. I usually think after 2 bad days "well... tomorrow I´ll be fine". Lately it is hard for me to have more than 1 good day in a raw. The fluctuations make tinnitus easier to cope.
I live the present. I don't have big plans for the future but I think about my family. Sometimes I hang out looking at beautiful things on the Internet, imagining things I could have done in another life, with more accurate decisions, but not in a depressing way.

Sorry about poor English.

Edit: my tinnitus is tonal, high pitched. Different tones come and go.

Accurate decisions as in better ones? Yeah... if I had listened to my gut I wouldn't be in this nightmare.

I am an immensely negative thinker.

 

[PeteJ]

Mine used to fluctuate but doesn't really anymore. When it does, it's minor and doesn't last long. A tone or two disappears and the volume reduces - one way to describe it as the tinnitus going from 9 or 10/10 severity to 8 or 7 (rarely) and then it goes back up.

How would you rate yours?

The worst part for me besides having ear pain too is the impact on my overall health. It is too much of a coincidence so I thin it has impacted and caused other health problems too.

The other equally bad part is that the severity has prevented me from working and there is no support for this. When it fluctuates, I hope it will remain reduced and then I wonder if I can work with it like that. Then it goes back to "9/10 severity."

 

[Don Tinny]

Mine used to fluctuate but doesn't really anymore.

That sounds scary.

Moderate days are essential for my mental health.

It is difficult to express it in numbers. On bad days I listen to it all the time, I have almost no way of masking it with the sounds of daily life. On moderate days there are ringing sounds that are not there and I don't hear it so easily. Those days I live more normal. Weeks ago I had 4 good days in a row, but lately I have only 1 good day every 2 or 3 bad days. : S

 

[Don Tinny]

Accurate decisions as in better ones? Yeah... if I had listened to my gut I wouldn't be in this nightmare.

I am an immensely negative thinker.

I wish I would have liked tennis instead of Heavy Metal. But I've had loser hobbies all my life, haha.

And I always took crap drugs (with prescription). Acuttane for acne, sertraline for premature ejaculation and the worst of all ... finasteride for hair loss. That surely generated horrible changes in my brain.

 

[Tinniger]

Moderate days are essential for my mental health.
Weeks ago I had 4 good days in a row, but lately I have only 1 good day every 2 or 3 bad days.

It is actually outrageous that scientific literature does not write anything about "good and bad" days.

The majority of tinnitus sufferers know the phenomenon.

Even waking up in the morning with the impression that the tinnitus is gone. And one then lies there quite happily in bed and listens to the ticking of the alarm clock and enjoys the silence... and in the course of the day this miserable hissing reappears....

 

[Trudy in Tucson]

What keeps me going is getting a new puppy. When I got Ella (pictured, 8 month old German shepherd), my tinnitus and anxiety were through the roof and yes, I was feeling suicidal for 2 weeks! I could not even enjoy her young puppyhood, I felt robbed of that. Emotionally better now (on Effexor) but the Demon T gets a little better and worse,due to meds, loud noises, sugar, stress, whatever. I still get very depressed at times. I do have hearing aids with maskers and they do help most days. The other day I found out I could get a full bred all black german shep male for free (he's only 2 days old so I have to wait). I want Ella to have a baby brother. For the first time in a long time, I was really excited and didn't think of my T putting a halt to all my activities. Dogs can heal. When the hell are they going to come up with some kind of definitive cure? Scientists say coming up with a cure is almost impossible because there are so many reasons for the devil T. But there are a lot of reasons people get heart disease, and they have effective treatments. Why not for our problem, which as we all know is debilitating, stressful and depressing. Well the idea of getting a new pup gives me hope. Get a dog if you don't have one. He or she will be the reason you get out of bed most mornings! Thank you guys for all the great suggestions and your honesty!

 

[Don Tinny]

What keeps me going is getting a new puppy. When I got Ella (pictured, 8 month old German shepherd), my tinnitus and anxiety were through the roof and yes, I was feeling suicidal for 2 weeks! I could not even enjoy her young puppyhood, I felt robbed of that. Emotionally better now (on Effexor) but the Demon T gets a little better and worse,due to meds, loud noises, sugar, stress, whatever. I still get very depressed at times. I do have hearing aids with maskers and they do help most days. The other day I found out I could get a full bred all black german shep male for free (he's only 2 days old so I have to wait). I want Ella to have a baby brother. For the first time in a long time, I was really excited and didn't think of my T putting a halt to all my activities. Dogs can heal. When the hell are they going to come up with some kind of definitive cure? Scientists say coming up with a cure is almost impossible because there are so many reasons for the devil T. But there are a lot of reasons people get heart disease, and they have effective treatments. Why not for our problem, which as we all know is debilitating, stressful and depressing. Well the idea of getting a new pup gives me hope. Get a dog if you don't have one. He or she will be the reason you get out of bed most mornings! Thank you guys for all the great suggestions and your honesty!

Thanks for answering.
u
I have a puppy dog, a cat, a little daughter and my couple/wife is pregnant. My T got worse when my girl was 3 years old (now she is 5) so I lost a lot of beautiful moments too.

I hope your dog give you better days!