Does Anyone in the Medical Field Try to Help without a Paycheck as Their Motive?

[Taylorslay]

That's the problem. We don't have better treatment because you're just expected to habituate. The only way that will change is if it becomes apparent that habituation and leading a "normal" life is impossible.

My life is miserable with this condition. Any drug I take just makes it louder. It makes me moody and irritable. There is no relief. I can't sleep without medication, I can't enjoy music as I once did. Honestly how can I lead a normal life when I have to make all these adjustments because my brain cannot let go of a goddam noise.

That's a really big problem in line of research. People say "Oh it gets better on it's own" or you can just habituate. Yeah lucky ones get better. It is important to learn to come to terms with T. However, habituation does not mean it's going away. Which is what we are looking for. For T to go away. I think indeed it's important that people like fishbone and Micheal are very positive people about the subject and learning to come to terms with it. But we need people also like you and Bill B who bring some different light to the conversation. The more pessimistic side to the story. And for many a bitter reality.

 

[PaulBe]

@Ed209, if more people were depressed and unhappy because of tinnitus, it would show up in statistics... disability payments... so on and that would make a difference for research and attention tinnitus gets... too many live okey lives with T and then nobody from the outside cares about us or finding a cure. "Let them habituate"

I had a paper that I found once, written by a Sydney ENT as an opinion for the Law Society of NSW on the subject of tinnitus distress. It was in relation to workplace compensation and the difficulty of validating tinnitus objectively. Basically he told the Lawyers that people distressed by tinnitus were "that sort of people anyway" (hysterics I suppose) and it was all too difficult, so that is one example of how work is done to ensure we don't turn up too often statistically.

Shoulda kept the paper, it was a doozy.

 

[Gl0w0ut]

That's a really big problem in line of research. People say "Oh it gets better on it's own" or you can just habituate. Yeah lucky ones get better. It is important to learn to come to terms with T. However, habituation does not mean it's going away. Which is what we are looking for. For T to go away. I think indeed it's important that people like fishbone and Micheal are very positive people about the subject and learning to come to terms with it. But we need people also like you and Bill B who bring some different light to the conversation. The more pessimistic side to the story. And for many a bitter reality.

Well I have no shortage of pessimism. I can already feel my arteries clogging from it already.

 

[dpdx]

Oh look, another angry rant by me. Maybe you all are annoyed by them and want me to stop being so negative. Well, when the attitude of tinnitus sufferers and the medical/scientific community changes, then I too will change in affect.

Right now, there is a culture of acceptance going around. This idea that "we can't do anything so come to terms with it and live a good life with it there and no effort to try and rectify the problem". I'm honestly at the point where I would rather live in sheer misery everyday (I already do over different issues) than "accept" or "surrender" to this goddamn ringing. The brain is not doing you any favors by generating the noise. One paper I read suggested it is the brain trying to stop the loss of grey matter in the auditory cortex to apoptosis (cell death). Since these neurons are useless in the event of hearing loss, they should be allowed to die, your auditory cortex less functional, and your hearing ability forever impaired.

If anything, this shows how your brain is ruining your life to save one small cluster of cells at the expense of shrinking other, more critical areas of thinking. And no doctors care. PCPs/GPs do not care, nor do ENTs, audiologists, psychiatrists, therapists, neurologists, dentists, etc. These are all people who seek nothing more than to profit off your pain. Don't believe me? Then why is an intake session (which means they establish to basics of your tinnitus but can't gaurentee spotting cause and no purposed treatment) $300-500? Why are doctors so quick to prescribe a $3000 pair of hearing aids that will come out of pocket and barely improve quality of life?

I'm honestly getting to the point of taking raw electrically charged wires, not electrodes, and applying them to the area of my skull associated with the auditory cortex. Maybe the zapping will destroy neurons the brain needs and hopefully cannot repair or replace so the noise is lose forever. I go off high alert, my defenses go down, and in the event of an attack I am less prepared and more likely to die. Does this sound insane? Maybe, but so is that idea that brain areas related to judgment, emotional processing, tonotopical processing, and memory are compromised for one goddamn sound.

I may have the cure for cancer buried in my brain, but I would rather die prematurely and deprive thousands of people of that cure. I personally would like to induce tinnitus in various doctors and researchers, then when they complain tell them to get over themselves, throw a bottle of SSRIs at them, or a $3000 pair of hearing aids that will improve life quality by 5-10%.

Tinnitus destroys the brain, research has shown this. And NO, it does NOT show what MAY happen in tinnitus patients, is shows what IS happening in tinnitus patients. There may be variability in hyperactive parts of the brain, but until we are willing to take a pillow and smother those hyperactive areas until they either cool down and choose to give up any compensatory functions or simply die because they aren't being used. I don't care anymore.

Tinnitus does destroy the brain. I developed visual snow and dark eye floaters as a result. I feel like I am dying but very very slowly. Mind you I just turned 28 few months ago, last year during this time I was a healthy and confident 27 year old male. In less than a year my life turned upside down for the worse, god knows what else will happen to 5, 10, 15, 20..years.