- Sep 25, 2020
- 75
- Tinnitus Since
- aug 20, 2020
- Cause of Tinnitus
- most likely from acoustic shock/trauma
Hi everyone! 
I came across this forum from googling about tinnitus because it's been bothering me for over a month now (1 month and 2 weeks). I've been reading some success stories for while and a few not so successful stories which I try to avoid so I don't go down a negative spiral. I just want some positive insight from people who have come out of this successfully and how the process of fading went.
This might turn out to be a long post... so I will put it in paragraphs if you want to pick and choose what to read.
How it started
How I assume I got tinnitus, is from a loud car alarm that played IN a store so it was pretty fricken loud. It was on for about maybe 5-10 seconds. If I had known this would cause tinnitus I would have stepped outside. The next day I noticed a very high pitched EEEEEEE tone... which I normally hear when I'm in a very very very quiet enclosed area, which I learned recently to be tinnitus, but thought nothing of it back then because it didn't affect me until now. NOW I hear it over my tv, fan, and daily noises. The only time I don't hear is when I'm cooking or showering or out running errands. I can hear it faintly while I'm driving because I don't usually blast my radio. It's quite annoying and I can hear it at the market or store if I look for it.
How I felt/feel
In the beginning of the month I was really depressed because I couldn't focus on anything. I thought this would be the end of me... I couldn't enjoy my shows, or concentrate on homework... I was not feeling like myself and being a very negative person. Currently due to COVID-19 everything has been on hold. I used to love going out to the clubs and bars but after reading stories... it seems like everyone is saying to stay away from loud noises... I also work at a bar but it's not too loud and I may have to start working again once everything opens up. After maybe 3 weeks? I started to tell my self to just live with it... I've felt less depressed but I still feel very annoyed and down not knowing if I can go back to my normal life. I'm 29 and still living the party and social life so I don't know how I'm going to cope with not being able to go out to the clubs with friends.
What I have tried (doctors, treatments)
I called my GP and he prescribed me Prednisone because he thought my eardrums could be inflamed due to the acoustic trauma and referred me to an ENT. So I took a 8 day course starting with 40 mg reducing it down to 10 mg before stopping. I don't think it helped. I saw the ENT and he said my hearing is fine, nothing blocked, just basically my ears looked good... so he told me to buy Lipoflavonoid to see if it works... I took that for a month, I don't know if it was working... but I'm no longer taking it and it seems to not have gotten worse... I just started taking one a day vitamins since people have been saying to take supplements.
How my ears feel and how things have changed over the month
So I am 1 month and 2 weeks into this irritating noise. I don't think I have hyperacusis because noises don't hurt my ears... loud dishes or quick spurts of loud sounds don't seem to spike my tinnitus or if it does, very minimally? I do feel fullness in one ear or the other but it's random and doesn't last the whole day and appears maybe once or twice a week. In the beginning I had this weird pain in my ear, felt like a sharp pain that comes and goes, but now I rarely feel it. The ringing was unbearable in when I first developed it maybe like a 4/10 and this is weird but when I lie down it gets louder like 6/10 and it was a constant high pitched ring (eeeeeeee). So I decided to sit up majority of the time but all I wanted to do was lie down and relax... but I couldn't because the ringing would become louder. Then it started fluctuating... I would notice the pitch going higher but kinda twitching? I don't know how to explain... like it was broken or something... but when I lie down, it goes back to the steady EEEEEEE tone... at the end of the month I hear all sorts of tones... the annoying EEEE which is the loudest and the worst, the high pitched fluctuating tone, sometimes a tone that sounds like a high pitched vacuum, a high pitched buzzing sound and a high pitched hissing sound... and this is where I'm stuck at because I feel like it's going down but then the annoying EEEEEE comes back and I'm like... ughh noo not this again... but now it's occurring less than in the beginning of the month. The best it gets is to a hissing sound that sounds like air is coming out of something... but when I lie down it gets to louder hissing/buzzing sound? So I really can't tell if am improving or not due to all these fluctuations. I'm currently at a buzzing/hissing noise on a good day... which I have been having. The buzzing is still annoying but better than the high pitched EEEEE but I really just want silence... the occasional annoying high pitched EEEE likes to pop up here and there and it gets me depressed again because it's like a step back... now I say it's at a 3/10 unless I lie down it will go up to a 5/10. I don't know if I'm improving or just staying the same because I'm getting used to it (I can still hear it over stuff) but I really want to be one of those success stories where it just goes away (not habituation)... I want to be happy again
Questions I have
For those of you who have recovered from your tinnitus, how long did it take? When did you see improvements? And how was the fading process? Like did it suddenly go away? Or did it just decrease until it was gone?
Are you back to your old life doing things you normally do?
No negativity please
I really don't want to wear ear plugs... I tried and my own voice is really loud when I talk...
if I have to I will wear them to loud bars and clubs but not out to the store or normal activities.
THANK YOU ALL WHO TOOK THE TIME TO READ THIS.
POSITIVE REPLIES WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED.
I came across this forum from googling about tinnitus because it's been bothering me for over a month now (1 month and 2 weeks). I've been reading some success stories for while and a few not so successful stories which I try to avoid so I don't go down a negative spiral. I just want some positive insight from people who have come out of this successfully and how the process of fading went.This might turn out to be a long post... so I will put it in paragraphs if you want to pick and choose what to read.
How it started
How I assume I got tinnitus, is from a loud car alarm that played IN a store so it was pretty fricken loud. It was on for about maybe 5-10 seconds. If I had known this would cause tinnitus I would have stepped outside. The next day I noticed a very high pitched EEEEEEE tone... which I normally hear when I'm in a very very very quiet enclosed area, which I learned recently to be tinnitus, but thought nothing of it back then because it didn't affect me until now. NOW I hear it over my tv, fan, and daily noises. The only time I don't hear is when I'm cooking or showering or out running errands. I can hear it faintly while I'm driving because I don't usually blast my radio. It's quite annoying and I can hear it at the market or store if I look for it.
How I felt/feel
In the beginning of the month I was really depressed because I couldn't focus on anything. I thought this would be the end of me... I couldn't enjoy my shows, or concentrate on homework... I was not feeling like myself and being a very negative person. Currently due to COVID-19 everything has been on hold. I used to love going out to the clubs and bars but after reading stories... it seems like everyone is saying to stay away from loud noises... I also work at a bar but it's not too loud and I may have to start working again once everything opens up. After maybe 3 weeks? I started to tell my self to just live with it... I've felt less depressed but I still feel very annoyed and down not knowing if I can go back to my normal life. I'm 29 and still living the party and social life so I don't know how I'm going to cope with not being able to go out to the clubs with friends.
What I have tried (doctors, treatments)
I called my GP and he prescribed me Prednisone because he thought my eardrums could be inflamed due to the acoustic trauma and referred me to an ENT. So I took a 8 day course starting with 40 mg reducing it down to 10 mg before stopping. I don't think it helped. I saw the ENT and he said my hearing is fine, nothing blocked, just basically my ears looked good... so he told me to buy Lipoflavonoid to see if it works... I took that for a month, I don't know if it was working... but I'm no longer taking it and it seems to not have gotten worse... I just started taking one a day vitamins since people have been saying to take supplements.
How my ears feel and how things have changed over the month
So I am 1 month and 2 weeks into this irritating noise. I don't think I have hyperacusis because noises don't hurt my ears... loud dishes or quick spurts of loud sounds don't seem to spike my tinnitus or if it does, very minimally? I do feel fullness in one ear or the other but it's random and doesn't last the whole day and appears maybe once or twice a week. In the beginning I had this weird pain in my ear, felt like a sharp pain that comes and goes, but now I rarely feel it. The ringing was unbearable in when I first developed it maybe like a 4/10 and this is weird but when I lie down it gets louder like 6/10 and it was a constant high pitched ring (eeeeeeee). So I decided to sit up majority of the time but all I wanted to do was lie down and relax... but I couldn't because the ringing would become louder. Then it started fluctuating... I would notice the pitch going higher but kinda twitching? I don't know how to explain... like it was broken or something... but when I lie down, it goes back to the steady EEEEEEE tone... at the end of the month I hear all sorts of tones... the annoying EEEE which is the loudest and the worst, the high pitched fluctuating tone, sometimes a tone that sounds like a high pitched vacuum, a high pitched buzzing sound and a high pitched hissing sound... and this is where I'm stuck at because I feel like it's going down but then the annoying EEEEEE comes back and I'm like... ughh noo not this again... but now it's occurring less than in the beginning of the month. The best it gets is to a hissing sound that sounds like air is coming out of something... but when I lie down it gets to louder hissing/buzzing sound? So I really can't tell if am improving or not due to all these fluctuations. I'm currently at a buzzing/hissing noise on a good day... which I have been having. The buzzing is still annoying but better than the high pitched EEEEE but I really just want silence... the occasional annoying high pitched EEEE likes to pop up here and there and it gets me depressed again because it's like a step back... now I say it's at a 3/10 unless I lie down it will go up to a 5/10. I don't know if I'm improving or just staying the same because I'm getting used to it (I can still hear it over stuff) but I really want to be one of those success stories where it just goes away (not habituation)... I want to be happy again
Questions I have
For those of you who have recovered from your tinnitus, how long did it take? When did you see improvements? And how was the fading process? Like did it suddenly go away? Or did it just decrease until it was gone?
Are you back to your old life doing things you normally do?
No negativity please
I really don't want to wear ear plugs... I tried and my own voice is really loud when I talk...
if I have to I will wear them to loud bars and clubs but not out to the store or normal activities. THANK YOU ALL WHO TOOK THE TIME TO READ THIS.
POSITIVE REPLIES WOULD BE GREATLY APPRECIATED.
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