MemberThis is my advice for all the newbies so they know how to handle this terrible affliction. Please feel free to add your advice for all the newcomers dealing with Tinnitus and Hyperacusis.
1) Don't panic, tinnitus will reduce, it always does, usually it fades 1-10 months. After 11+ months it becomes much harder for it to fade away but its still possible. Most people feel better from 1-12 months. For a selected handful of people it will GO AWAY COMPLETELY, though dont bet on this because you are likely to have Mild Tinnitus. When I had Mild T last year it faded from Moderate to Mild in two-three weeks and remained like that. This was back in September-December 2017. You are probably asking yourself what is MILD TINNITUS like? Well I could only hear in a quiet room and sometimes I couldn't hear it at all unless I Searched for it
. Hyperacusis also gets much better, even more so than Tinnitus does. Once again DON'T PANIC! PLEASE! Try to forget it about it, distract yourself, the more you seek tinnitus the more it will wreak havoc. I became obsessed with my Mild Tinnitus and tried to eliminate it, it was foolish of me.
-My friend has tinnitus and he lives a great life, his tinnitus is mild (white noise), finishing his master's
-Another friend has mild tinnitus and she lives a normal life, her tinnitus is mild, though sometimes it can be acute
-Family friend has mild tinnitus that can only be heard in quiet rooms.
-My first doctor had mild tinnitus from tires blowing up in a small room, he lives a great life.
-My Audiologist has Tinnitus from playing in loud bands, he has mild tinnitus, has habituated, but has multiple tones. He still plays in a band and wears earplugs (P.S Thank you Mr. Audiologist for making my tinnitus worse when you didn't believe I had an acoustic trauma)
-Another family friend has tinnitus and he lives an ok life, his tinnitus is mild.
See there are success stories but they are not on this forum. Don't try to look for a cure and waste your time, damage has been done, but life is not over. If you keep stressing about it you will make it worse so the best is to just move on. Don't obsess over it or you will make it worse.
2. Hyperacusis usually gets better, dont overprotect your ears. Only protect your ears when exposed to hazardous noise. Examples of hazardous noise: Clubs, Cinema, Concert, Leaf Blower, Blender, Vacuum, Hair dryer, Blow dryer, Subway, Police/Ambulance sirens, Loud Venues. Rule of thumb if you have to raise your voice over the music in a restaurant then put the plugs in.
3) Always carry earplugs with you. ALWAYS! If you are exposed to sudden noise, cover your ears with your fingers. What I do is I cover my ear with that flap in front of it, don't know the medical term for that cartilage in front of the ear. I had an ambulance go pass me while I was outside on the street, it was loud as hell. I covered my ears with that flap in front and nothing happened (this was when I had Mild Tinnitus). Your ears CAN easily get damaged now, so be very careful with them.
4) NEVER EVER let ENT/Audiologist touch your EARS. No Microsuction, No Acoustic Reflex, No Tympanometry, No Caloric Test or Ear irrigation, No Electrocoleography, No VEMP, etc. ENTs will say they are SAFE but THEY ARE NOT! AT LEAST FOR US. Ear tests are quite dangerous for people whose ears are already damaged. Most forum users are sad that their ENT said "Go away, live with it". Some ENTs will say that but others will try to get money out of you. "Live with it" That is the best advice you can get. Leave it alone for 6-8 months and if you dont have Ear Pain or Vertigo accompanied with Tinnitus then don't do the EAR TESTS/DON'T VISIT ENT. I wish my ENT said that! My ENT diagnosed me with 30 diseases and because of that my tinnitus worsened. The more tests done the more money, your suffering is ENT's joy. Tinnitus has lags sometimes, so it can be delayed, for example you can be at a concert Monday night only to get tinnitus Wednesday Afternoon while being on a computer reading a news article. Tinnitus is primarily caused by acoustic trauma, TMJ, Ototoxicity, etc. Acoustic Neuroma is less common as is Meniere's Disease.
5) HABITUATION is possible, don't think think its not, but only for people with Mild/Moderate Tinnitus, the more intrusive the harder it will be to habituate. I had Severe Tinnitus for 8 months and I haven't habituated. However when I had Mild Tinnitus last year it took me so fast to habituate - 1 month. So if you have Moderate Tinnitus you are likely to habituate, in other words your brain will push the sound to the back of the head, you will not be aware of it, but it will be there. Imagine a loud clock ticking in your room, for some people sleeping in your room would be impossible, but for you its just a non bothering noise, your brain filters it -this is habituation.
6) THIS FORUM is a great help but it can bring huge problems, as it can induce a lot of anxiety and stress. There are a lot of tormented souls on here, but remember this is a minority, us frequent users on this website are severe cases, we come here to vent and this place is where we suffer. If you spend too much time on here you will also become a horror story. REMEMBER THERE ARE MORE SUCCESS STORIES THAN HORROR STORIES! It is just that most people who live with it don't come here, there is a huge skew which makes it seem that this is the end. Remember more success stories than horror stories.
7) READ @Michael Leigh articles on how to deal with Tinnitus and Hyperacusis. If you are new to tinnitus please get in touch with this amazing and educated individual, he means well for everyone and is a genuinely nice guy. I am surprised he didn't write a book that would help people with this terrible disease.
8) EDUCATE, EDUCATE, EDUCATE!!
In school we learned about nonsense and useless information which didn't really help me in life. PLEASE MAKE SURE TO EDUCATE PEOPLE ON THIS. Tell your friends and family what Tinnitus/Hyperacusis is. My grandfather who is 73 never heard of tinnitus, when I played a YouTube video of my tinnitus frequency he didn't believe it. He was shocked to hear such a horrible sound, he threw his mp3 away as he likes to jog/walk with them. I tell my friends to protect their ears.
We need to educate the public on hazardous sounds.
9. SOUND OASIS MACHINE
To help you with hyperacusis, so the ears get accustomed to every day noises, and for the brain to push tinnitus further back into the brain.
If you have any other questions for me feel free to contact me or send me a pm.
Yours truly,
Dp/Dx
1) Don't panic, tinnitus will reduce, it always does, usually it fades 1-10 months. After 11+ months it becomes much harder for it to fade away but its still possible. Most people feel better from 1-12 months. For a selected handful of people it will GO AWAY COMPLETELY, though dont bet on this because you are likely to have Mild Tinnitus. When I had Mild T last year it faded from Moderate to Mild in two-three weeks and remained like that. This was back in September-December 2017. You are probably asking yourself what is MILD TINNITUS like? Well I could only hear in a quiet room and sometimes I couldn't hear it at all unless I Searched for it
. Hyperacusis also gets much better, even more so than Tinnitus does. Once again DON'T PANIC! PLEASE! Try to forget it about it, distract yourself, the more you seek tinnitus the more it will wreak havoc. I became obsessed with my Mild Tinnitus and tried to eliminate it, it was foolish of me.-My friend has tinnitus and he lives a great life, his tinnitus is mild (white noise), finishing his master's
-Another friend has mild tinnitus and she lives a normal life, her tinnitus is mild, though sometimes it can be acute
-Family friend has mild tinnitus that can only be heard in quiet rooms.
-My first doctor had mild tinnitus from tires blowing up in a small room, he lives a great life.
-My Audiologist has Tinnitus from playing in loud bands, he has mild tinnitus, has habituated, but has multiple tones. He still plays in a band and wears earplugs (P.S Thank you Mr. Audiologist for making my tinnitus worse when you didn't believe I had an acoustic trauma)
-Another family friend has tinnitus and he lives an ok life, his tinnitus is mild.
See there are success stories but they are not on this forum. Don't try to look for a cure and waste your time, damage has been done, but life is not over. If you keep stressing about it you will make it worse so the best is to just move on. Don't obsess over it or you will make it worse.
2. Hyperacusis usually gets better, dont overprotect your ears. Only protect your ears when exposed to hazardous noise. Examples of hazardous noise: Clubs, Cinema, Concert, Leaf Blower, Blender, Vacuum, Hair dryer, Blow dryer, Subway, Police/Ambulance sirens, Loud Venues. Rule of thumb if you have to raise your voice over the music in a restaurant then put the plugs in.
3) Always carry earplugs with you. ALWAYS! If you are exposed to sudden noise, cover your ears with your fingers. What I do is I cover my ear with that flap in front of it, don't know the medical term for that cartilage in front of the ear. I had an ambulance go pass me while I was outside on the street, it was loud as hell. I covered my ears with that flap in front and nothing happened (this was when I had Mild Tinnitus). Your ears CAN easily get damaged now, so be very careful with them.
4) NEVER EVER let ENT/Audiologist touch your EARS. No Microsuction, No Acoustic Reflex, No Tympanometry, No Caloric Test or Ear irrigation, No Electrocoleography, No VEMP, etc. ENTs will say they are SAFE but THEY ARE NOT! AT LEAST FOR US. Ear tests are quite dangerous for people whose ears are already damaged. Most forum users are sad that their ENT said "Go away, live with it". Some ENTs will say that but others will try to get money out of you. "Live with it" That is the best advice you can get. Leave it alone for 6-8 months and if you dont have Ear Pain or Vertigo accompanied with Tinnitus then don't do the EAR TESTS/DON'T VISIT ENT. I wish my ENT said that! My ENT diagnosed me with 30 diseases and because of that my tinnitus worsened. The more tests done the more money, your suffering is ENT's joy. Tinnitus has lags sometimes, so it can be delayed, for example you can be at a concert Monday night only to get tinnitus Wednesday Afternoon while being on a computer reading a news article. Tinnitus is primarily caused by acoustic trauma, TMJ, Ototoxicity, etc. Acoustic Neuroma is less common as is Meniere's Disease.
5) HABITUATION is possible, don't think think its not, but only for people with Mild/Moderate Tinnitus, the more intrusive the harder it will be to habituate. I had Severe Tinnitus for 8 months and I haven't habituated. However when I had Mild Tinnitus last year it took me so fast to habituate - 1 month. So if you have Moderate Tinnitus you are likely to habituate, in other words your brain will push the sound to the back of the head, you will not be aware of it, but it will be there. Imagine a loud clock ticking in your room, for some people sleeping in your room would be impossible, but for you its just a non bothering noise, your brain filters it -this is habituation.
6) THIS FORUM is a great help but it can bring huge problems, as it can induce a lot of anxiety and stress. There are a lot of tormented souls on here, but remember this is a minority, us frequent users on this website are severe cases, we come here to vent and this place is where we suffer. If you spend too much time on here you will also become a horror story. REMEMBER THERE ARE MORE SUCCESS STORIES THAN HORROR STORIES! It is just that most people who live with it don't come here, there is a huge skew which makes it seem that this is the end. Remember more success stories than horror stories.
7) READ @Michael Leigh articles on how to deal with Tinnitus and Hyperacusis. If you are new to tinnitus please get in touch with this amazing and educated individual, he means well for everyone and is a genuinely nice guy. I am surprised he didn't write a book that would help people with this terrible disease.
8) EDUCATE, EDUCATE, EDUCATE!!
In school we learned about nonsense and useless information which didn't really help me in life. PLEASE MAKE SURE TO EDUCATE PEOPLE ON THIS. Tell your friends and family what Tinnitus/Hyperacusis is. My grandfather who is 73 never heard of tinnitus, when I played a YouTube video of my tinnitus frequency he didn't believe it. He was shocked to hear such a horrible sound, he threw his mp3 away as he likes to jog/walk with them. I tell my friends to protect their ears.
We need to educate the public on hazardous sounds.
9. SOUND OASIS MACHINE
To help you with hyperacusis, so the ears get accustomed to every day noises, and for the brain to push tinnitus further back into the brain.
If you have any other questions for me feel free to contact me or send me a pm.
Yours truly,
Dp/Dx
