A Few Nice Success Stories from People Around Me

[Ghost]

1. My boyfriend's best friend had continuous tinnitus and hyperacusis for three years or so from cutting sheet metal (I think it was sheet metal) and it went away. It's been gone for around five years. He went to heaps of gigs and worked in construction with no ear protection for years before it happened, but cutting sheet metal was what triggered it. Now he's very careful (uses ear plugs at work and stands at the back of concerts with ear plugs in). He's a very relaxed person from what I know and doesn't have any mental health conditions. He masked it when he was really struggling and then it went away.
   
   
2. My friend from university had continuous noise-induced tinnitus and it went away after staying away from loud noises for a long time. I don't know how long he had it before that happened, but it was quite some time. He mentioned reading in a quiet environment for a year or something before it went away. It came back either due to further noise exposure or some other cause. I know this isn't what people want to hear, but it illustrates it actually going away. It currently doesn't bother him.
   
   
3. A support worker of mine said she had tinnitus "really badly" (in one ear I believe, but maybe both) and the doctor thought she had an ear infection, but it was unclear what it actually was. She was prescribed a vertigo/anxiety medication (an antipsychotic, weirdly) with ear drops and it went away. She went through a lot of trauma and clenched her jaw as a result of that and mentioned something in relation to it. She mentioned some kind of jaw/ear inflammation. That's all I know. That and she stopped jaw clenching. She was also dizzy and couldn't get out of bed. Although this situation is unfortunately not so clear, it did go away and she doesn't have it anymore (I spoke to her just over a week ago).
   
   
4. My boyfriend got tinnitus because he never wore ear plugs to concerts (he went to loads) and has worked in construction with no ear protection since the age of 16 (he's 30 now). He doesn't have anxiety or any other mental health conditions. He actually has to listen out very hard for it to hear it and he only remembers he has it when I ask him to describe it. He does have really bad TMJ Disorder though (muscular and structural) and it's louder on the side that his jaw is more dysfunctional on. He doesn't seem to care enough to do anything about it. The only change he made was wearing ear plugs when needed, but he continues his life as normal. It didn't change anything for him.
   
   
5. My university friend's friend has noise-induced hearing loss with zero tinnitus. This proves that the two aren't mutually exclusive.
   
   
6. I developed chronic severe tinnitus for what could be any reason in 2012/13 (least likely being noise exposure, but still possible) and it faded to almost nothing (extremely faint background hiss) from screaming in 2016. I had a repeat, and only last year I learned that I had severe TMJ Disorder the entire time, with some neck/upper back muscular issues. I believed people online and offline when they said TMJ Disorder is a less common cause until a new, intermittent sound appeared on my bad side for well over a year and my dental splint completely got rid of it. Another piece of evidence is that the continuous sounds kept getting louder on the same side without having noise exposure, and the bony bits in and around my ear canal hurt. Another weird thing TMJ Disorder does is that it causes my ears to produce so much wax with the constant ear canal interference. I've also had C-PTSD the whole time with severe, debilitating anxiety. I also have allergies that I haven't figured out yet (need to book tests), meaning my Eustachian tubes aren't working as they should. It should settle again when my conditions settle.

Just a gentle reminder: it's possible to have mild tinnitus from allergies and ETD for example (this is something we can't avoid initially), but if you have an untreated anxiety disorder alongside it, the limbic system can amplify it to what you perceive as a catastrophic level. Anxiety can cause it on its own, so imagine what it can do if say, you already have it from the above example? The trick is to view ear noises on a scale rather than the black and white "people either have it or they don't" thing and to take note of people's positive stories rather than scrolling through pages and pages of individuals panicking on their first day, never to be seen again. The countless people who have it and then it goes away won't ever post here when it's gone. Why would they?

Also I probably won't post again because I'm done with this topic, lol. There comes a point where being on here and Googling stuff can induce severe anxiety and I'm right there. I know what to do about mine and I have loads of work to do. Happy reading folks - hopefully the stories unrelated to me give you all some hope.

 

[buttercake]

THANKS.

 

[Matchbox]

I'm extremely grateful for you giving me hope, especially when it shows things change over months to years.

 

[Martinf]

but if you have an untreated anxiety disorder alongside it, the limbic system can amplify it to what you perceive as a catastrophic level.

This is so true!

 

[Gee82]

Here's another reported success. I recently spoke to a guy who had tinnitus many years ago. It came out of the blue and he was suicidal, desperate, lost sleep and all the usual stuff. He tried everything that was available back then but nothing worked.

Until 3 years later when he gave HBOT a go as a last resort. At first he got worse but after a month of daily sessions his tinnitus disappeared completely.

I thought HBOT could be effective only within a short time from onset. Any thoughts or experiences?

 

[Exit]

Someone I know got tinnitus from an exploding car tire.

It went completely away in 8 months.

I wish you all as good as possible a weekend.

Best regards.

 

[Ghost]

Just a correction in reference to my first story (1.) - my boyfriend's friend's tinnitus has been gone for two years now, not five. The rest is all accurate (he had it for three years, etc.).

For noise-induced tinnitus it just takes time to go away, for TMJ disorder/neck/postural tinnitus the muscles require rehabilitation, for anxiety-induced tinnitus the anxiety needs to go away first which takes time, for ETD/allergy-induced tinnitus the reaction needs to stop and then the inflammation needs to go away, for metabolic tinnitus the diet needs to be changed, etc.

I just read a story from @Jason C who said his noise-induced tinnitus took a couple of years to go away. There's another user who previously said his TMD-induced tinnitus went away after treating his condition, but I actually forgot his name on here. I recently messaged someone on Facebook who said their tinnitus went from being constant to intermittent (they have muscular issues and a combination of muscle relaxants/addressing their SCM and trapezius muscles with massage, plus some kind of physiotherapy achieved this). I also messaged someone who described her tinnitus as being "really, really bad" for 10 years and she got it down to barely being able to hear it in a quiet room after four months of massaging her SCM and trapezius muscles using trigger point therapy.

Anyway, I have far too many success stories to even fit in here.

 

[AliasM]

To add, I was speaking to my son's speech therapist's assistant 2 weeks ago. She had tinnitus for 7 months and got the usual learn to live with it advice. Then another GP happened to do bloods and found she had hypothyroid. They treated the hypothyroid and the tinnitus was gone within a week.

Lucky duck!

 

[Exit]

Many ducks are lucky... Only a few get shot

I wish I was a duck... Don't they regenerate hearing too ?

I have another one:

A person got tinnitus from a bad cold/flu, it took almost 2 years before it completely went away.

 

[Ghost]

THANKS.

You're welcome!

I'm extremely grateful for you giving me hope, especially when it shows things change over months to years.

Thank you! Yeah, things do change. I recently watched a woman say on YouTube that her purely anxiety-induced tinnitus went away completely after 9 months (but those 9 months were after she sorted her anxiety disorder out) and a guy posted about his going away randomly for no obvious reason one day after 20 years (I can't remember the cause). I also read that someone's went away after they figured out they had Eustachian Tube Dysfunction from allergies and took the correct medications to stop the allergic reaction and eventually the inflammation. There was even a guy who had it for years (I can't remember how many, but a fair few) who wore a neck brace to sleep at night and did certain neck exercises which faded his to a very faint background hiss. He attributed the faint hiss to hearing loss. I also read in the Success Stories category here on Tinnitus Talk that someone had theirs go away after 7 years when they stopped eating dairy. I'm assuming they probably had an allergy, because milk allergies mess with the Eustachian tubes (I recently read about a woman who had "hay fever/dust mite allergies" for years and it turned out she was allergic to something in milk (casein?) and her sinus symptoms went away. No idea if she had ear symptoms though, however they're likely to occur with anything that causes sneezing/excess mucous production.

This is so true!

100%. The woman I referred to on YouTube to @Matchbox had hers go away after 9 months and it was purely anxiety-induced. Like the anxiety literally caused it on its own. I wish I knew it was an anxiety symptom years ago. Jim Folk from anxietycentre.com had the same thing happen and was previously diagnosed with Meniere's Disease and noise-induced tinnitus, as well as a few other things I believe. Turns out it was his anxiety disorder fuelling the whole thing and it went away after causing him problems for 12 years.

Here's another reported success. I recently spoke to a guy who had tinnitus many years ago. It came out of the blue and he was suicidal, desperate, lost sleep and all the usual stuff. He tried everything that was available back then but nothing worked.

Until 3 years later when he gave HBOT a go as a last resort. At first he got worse but after a month of daily sessions his tinnitus disappeared completely.

I thought HBOT could be effective only within a short time from onset. Any thoughts or experiences?

I have no idea, but thanks for sharing with everyone!

Someone I know got tinnitus from an exploding car tire.

It went completely away in 8 months.

I wish you all as good as possible a weekend.

Best regards.

It does take time, yeah! This is encouraging to hear!

To add, I was speaking to my son's speech therapist's assistant 2 weeks ago. She had tinnitus for 7 months and got the usual learn to live with it advice. Then another GP happened to do bloods and found she had hypothyroid. They treated the hypothyroid and the tinnitus was gone within a week.

Lucky duck!

Wow, thank you for this! It's important to get bloods done to keep track of things like this. Also any vitamin and mineral deficiencies.

Many ducks are lucky... Only a few get shot

I wish I was a duck... Don't they regenerate hearing too ?

I have another one:

A person got tinnitus from a bad cold/flu, it took almost 2 years before it completely went away.

Oh, ducks too? I didn't know! I thought it was only chickens, haha! This is good to hear!