Are Your Doctors Dismissive of Your Tinnitus Concerns?

[Emma]

I was wondering what has been everyone's experience with doctors and how seriously they treat your tinnitus-related concerns. Does your GP, ENT, neurologist or therapists take your T concerns as seriously as you do? Or are they dismissive?

 

[Sen]

despite having loud and intrusive tinnitus, it is not my major concern. if i had my exact tinnitus without the hyperacusis, ear spasms, and vertigo, i would still be working and somewhat enjoying my life. there is nothing that doctors can do about tinnitus so i feel no reason to mention it to them more than a few times. it's not that doctors are dismissive, it's that they don't know what to do about it, and therefore don't know what to tell you.

when someone comes to me with a problem, i will either try to help them, or tell them that i can't help them. if i fail to help them and they continue to bring it up, i'll probably see them as a whiner and be more likely to dismiss them in the future.

 

[Louise]

They dont know what to do about it and they also do NOT understand the misery, anguish, anxiety and panic it can cause. Now the anxiety and panic is something they can help with and should take seriously. But in my opinion they dont take that seriously either.

 

[daedalus]

The first doctors i saw were totally dismissive. ENT's and GP's. Useless. Some tried to tell me cheap kitchen philosophy like if i was a young kid. I told them to stuff it. Then i saw a renowned neurologist and it went better. Then after that i saw De Ridder.

 

[stantheman]

My blood pressure shot up because of the anxiety associated with the onset of tinnitus. I went to see a cardiologist for echocardiogram and stress test. Both turned out okay. He said he thought I was "overreacting" and that he gets bouts of tinnitus because of stress. He said there were two ladies working in the office with the T. No big deal. I say HA! No big deal for him!

 

[Louise]

My blood pressure shot up because of the anxiety associated with the onset of tinnitus. I went to see a cardiologist for echocardiogram and stress test. Both turned out okay. He said he thought I was "overreacting" and that he gets bouts of tinnitus because of stress. He said there were two ladies working in the office with the T. No big deal. I say HA! No big deal for him!

But they might have had a slight whisper, not something they could hear all the time and spoils everything.
I suppose he was trying to help you 'minimise' it though.

One NHS person I saw (a male nurse) tried to cheer me up by telling me that I couldnt hear it when I was asleep and so I had being asleep to look forward to!! True story. I know his motives were good though so I didnt react

 

[Louise]

The first doctors i saw were totally dismissive. ENT's and GP's. Useless. Some tried to tell me cheap kitchen philosophy like if i was a young kid. I told them to stuff it. Then i saw a renowned neurologist and it went better. Then after that i saw De Ridder.

Did you get anything useful out of the renowned Neuro or Dr. de Ridder? Anything to make the noise less?

 

[sworthi245]

I was wondering what has been everyone's experience with doctors and how seriously they treat your tinnitus-related concerns. Does your GP, ENT, neurologist or therapists take your T concerns as seriously as you do? Or are they dismissive?

I have a GP that I have been to for years, and he is usually fairly straight forward about most issues.

We discussed the T, which I would call mine probably mild to moderate (4 out of 10). It was about 6 weeks into my T. He recommended that I try a steroid shot, which I took, and some steroid noise spray - made me sick at my stomach. He also said I could go to an ENT for testing to see if there was any hearing loss.

I asked him if the noise did not go away if was there anything he could do for me. He looked down and away and said "No". I knew at that point that everything I have read on the internet was basically true. Learn to cope and move on. It did not take long to accept that I may have this for a while until someone finds a treatment or cure.

TTFN

 

[daedalus]

Did you get anything useful out of the renowned Neuro or Dr. de Ridder? Anything to make the noise less?

Nope. But at least i have no regrets.

 

[Louise]

Yes, because something just might have worked. I feel the need to be trying things, find it very hard to just 'be' with it.

 

[Lucy]

My doctor does not get into a discussion about tinnitus maybe because she knows she can`t make out a prescription and it will go away. No one, whether it`s doctors, other professionals or family and friends can perceive what a person with tinnitus is going through and I can understand that. If the boot was on the other foot and someone told me they had hissing, ringing and roaring noises in their head and ears I too would not be able to comprehend what they were actually going through. So thank goodness for support group like this as we definitely know what we are all experiencing!

 

[carlover]

I dont know where It was ,Its true though. A group of drs at a conference wore earphones that sounded like Tinnitus. They were told to bare It for the whole conference, The last one to take the headphones off lasted 6 minutes.

 

[Goofy]

My ENT did, he told me that he has T for years and he just wears earplugs when he rides his motorcycle. He must have a really mild case. He told me to wear earplugs when I am around loud noise and some people get use to it or it is gone in about 15 months or so. Beyond that he offered no help at all.

 

[Markku]

I dont know where It was ,Its true though. A group of drs at a conference wore earphones that sounded like Tinnitus. They were told to bare It for the whole conference, The last one to take the headphones off lasted 6 minutes.

Heh, this was a good story, thanks for posting it carlover!

I actually don't wonder one bit they lasted so short of a duration.

I remember pre-tinnitus when I had a MacBook which had this flaw where the CPU made this annoying (yet much less annoying than my tinnitus currently!) high-pitched whine and I couldn't stand it, I really couldn't. I had to have the machine serviced two times, they weren't able to fix it the first time and I think they replaced the whole logic board the second time around, which fixed the whine.

I just wish my own logic board could be fixed.

 

[Louise]

I've had a low threshold for noise annoyance for many years.
A few years ago someone's laptop at work used to start making a noise I found annoying after half an hour of being switched on, I used to stick a pencil in the fan to stop it. If I could ever hear my fridge in the living room sometimes that annoyed me.
I used to think it would be awful if some noise came from the neighbours property that I didnt like and which I couldnt get away ftom. Ironic eh?

I love Carlover's story.

 

[JasonP]

I talked with an ENT about T because it was really bothering me in 2010 I believe and he was cold, just looked in my ear, and said to learn to live with it. He then had my hearing tested and I did have some hearing loss but it was considered mild. I was willing to get hearing aids but acted like I didn't need them. I found out later they actually did help and they had ones with built in maskers that they didn't tell me about!! It could have saved me a lot of anguish. What a joke, no empathy.