Hi Bob:
Sorry for the late response. I believe I got my Tinnitus from taking Verapamil. A high blood pressure medication. I started taking this medication and I didn't experience any side effects, but after 1 month I suddenly got my Tinnitus. It was the craziest thing, I woke up one morning, and everything was absolutely normal, then I went to the bathroom to brush my teeth, and turned on the TV. As I was watching a show on TV, out of the blue I heard a loud siren like noise. It sounded like the smoke alarm went off. One second I was normal, and instantly the loud siren noise turned on. Initially, I just shrugged it off as the smoke alarm, but it was so loud, I went to the alarm to turn it off, but to my surprise the sound wasn't coming from the smoke alarm. I then went outside of my house thinking there was a fire alarm or truck outside, but nothing. It took me about 5 minutes to realize the loud siren was actually coming from within my head. Of course I was a little nervous, but I figured "oh well" this is just a temporary thing that will go away soon". Well.....after about 15 minutes I started to get a little scared, so I went on my computer and looked up "Ringing in your ears", and once I started reading that it was called Tinnitus and that there was no known cure, I started to get really concerned and frightened. From that point on I was consumed with trying to find a cure and trying to do anything that would get rid of this constant ringing. Nothing worked (except of course the Ambien), so I just kept spiraling into this constant state of monitoring the ringing and thinking about nothing but my Tinnitus. After a few months of misery, I finally met a person who had Tinnitus, and started off just like me, but over a period of time she habituated and is now living a happy, healthy and normal life. Once I knew that there were people who actually habituated from their Tinnitus everything changed for me. I had hope again. And once I had hope, no matter how big or small a chance it was, that's all I needed. In a matter of a few months I began habituating, and with each passing week I became stronger and stronger, and Tinnitus had finally lost it's grip on me. Today, I still have Tinnitus, and some days are louder than others, but I really don't think about it anymore. I just accept that my Tinnitus is just a normal part of my life now, and it is nothing big. It's just a normal insignificant thing to me. I think the key for my habituation success was getting the success stories and knowing that thousands and maybe millions of people were just like me and have habituated fully from their Tinnitus. If the first thing I read about Tinnitus was that you could habituate from it and live a normal happy life, then my entire reaction to it would've been so different, and I wouldn't have suffered in those first few months. Anyway, sorry for rambling on, and giving you more information than you probably wanted. I guess my message to everyone out there, especially those Newbies is...you can overcome your Tinnitus and you can habituate 100% from your Tinnitus, and you can get to the point where you actually stop hearing your Tinnitus. Your life can get back to being normal and happy again. If I knew this as a Newbie, I would've been so relieved and so happy, and I would've probably habituated in a month. That's awesome!