Does Tinnitus Get Worse Over Time?

[Zimichael]

Absolutely it can get worse...Details in my "Profile" and "Information" tab, re four levels of T over nearly 6 decades.

Fortunately though, for the vast majority of people who get T (or H) this is very rare. Most get it once and it stays at that level and is non "sound reactive". Pretty easy to deal with really after the understandable initial panic and time given for adaption...Thus the high statistics of the general population with tinnitus (nearly 20% is the number I see a lot) but whom it "does not really bother".
I'm sure we have all bumped into many people who we have no idea have T until the subject comes up, and then they say: "Oh I have that too, but I forget about it as it doesn't bother me at all until I think about it."

Agreed, that kind of T is not much of a hassle to live with at all. Did it for 50 years!

Zimichael

 

[linearb]

Would you mind me asking what the trauma was?

Obscenely loud concert that I attended while already in a bonkers state of stress.

 

[Asian]

Is is a complex neurological problem and since no one exactly knows what causes it no one can tell whether it will or will not get worse. However, only around 10-25% of the sufferers actually seek medical help which means that around 70-80% of the people habituate naturally. There are many-many cases where people live with tinnitus for 20-30 years and some people actually manage to forget they have it (for decades). Also, if you look around this forum, especially under research news you will see that there are different treatments being worked out and it is likely that in less than 10 years there will be better treatments available.
Try to determine what affects it. For example, in my case good night sleep makes it milder, whereas stress fatigue and negative emotions make it worse. I havent noticed loud noises (street noises: constructions, cars etc) or coffee and moderate amounts of alcohol making it worse. Find out what changes your tinnitus and try to avoid the things that make it louder.

I think if it improves overall in the first year then there is no way it will become worse overtime. Of course we all have to be careful with our ears regardless

 

[Naddesh]

Wow, you see now why I say don't go around forums like these?
Supportive when you're depressed as hell, absolute anchor when you're trying to make your life something more than Tinnitus.
No getting older doesn't mean louder Tinnitus, I mean seriously people I realize you're scared but shit really?
Tinnitus RARELY EVER gets worse unprovoked, not by age hearing loss which is slow and non traumatic to the brain I mean loud music like he who loves music had.
Losing a few hearing cells by years won't provoke Tinnitus and it won't certainly make it louder, if it's a masking thing you have cochlear implants and hearing aids, in 30-40 years by the time you'll be old there will be 10x better stuff for hearing loss and Tinnitus, just don't think about it, don't be a jerk to your ears and most importantly stay away from the forum, dang.
Look you want proof?
Take my great grand father, lived in the country, shot guns 24/7, got mild Tinnitus, drank like a fish, had Tinnitus from 30 years old he is now 98 I asked if it ever got worse, NO, unless it was a spike it's the same as he has had since it began.
Don't worry about it, really, I mean think of the medical advances 1980-2014 now think of the medical advances with all the new technology say 2014-2030.
Shit they thought was incurable then is now, shit that's incurable now will probably eventually be curable in 10-20-30 years.
But generally just continue to be habituated, don't care about it, and stay of the forums.
Now I'm going to sleep so good night from Serbia and stop being so anxious, I'm still 60% sure it was the anxiety that made my Tinnitus worse and my hearing sensitive.

I love people like you and @Asian!

 

[Zechariah]

I love people like you and @Asian!

I better not link the facts then

 

[Naddesh]

I better not link the facts then

Oh your comment is highly necessary. Do what you want...

 

[Zechariah]

Oh your comment is highly necessary. Do what you want...

No need to be rude There is just this thing called reality which I reminded here. Sorry about that, in reality chronic T will get worse on 10-20% of the sufferers.

 

[Naddesh]

No need to be rude There is just this thing called reality which I reminded here. Sorry about that, in reality chronic T will get worse on 10-20% of the sufferers.

Are you telling me YOU RATHER BE NEGATIVE with great odds like 80% (for non-worse T) than positive? May god help you with some hope and positivity. I am a realistic person and I always tend to think all bad things Will hoppen to me. Now I realise WHY. You are one of them who are first to full those empty gaps in people who are scared. I am not scared but people who is DO NOT DESERVE your "10-20% actually get worse". God bless. I wasnt asking for that when I Said i love people like Asian and llilja because of their optimistic attitude.

 

[Asian]

No need to be rude There is just this thing called reality which I reminded here. Sorry about that, in reality chronic T will get worse on 10-20% of the sufferers.

No it necessarily doesn't. As mentioned several times, there are millions of people who have stable T or even reduced T over decades. Some even forget about it for very long periods, of course with very mild cases. But it necessarily doesnt get worse for everybody. There are many lifestyle factors included as well and how you take care of your ears as you grow older. Whatever might be the case, tinnitus is finally being taken seriously now Nd there are drugs and treatments under development. So the scenerio isn't as bad as it was 10 years ago. It might still take a few years for the drugs to reach us but there definitely is a lot to look forward to for tinnitus.

 

[Zechariah]

@Naddesh I wasn't being negative or positive. Just threw in some numbers. You choose how you want to take it and it seemed to be pretty negative.

@Asian true, that's what 10-20% means.

 

[Naddesh]

@Naddesh I wasn't being negative or positive. Just threw in some numbers. You choose how you want to take it and it seemed to be pretty negative.

@Asian true, that's what 10-20% means.

Think about people who tends to not visit doctors and getting included in those stats. Think about all the people in less developed contries who got T from a bomb explosion. Do you think T is a big thing there? No losing family members are, or other worse problems. My point is that there is probably a LOT of people who does not search for help or becomes a number in the statistics. I believe a negative mind will make your T worse. I had that experience one week ago.

 

[Zechariah]

Think about people who tends to not visit doctors and getting included in those stats. Think about all the people in less developed contries who got T from a bomb explosion. Do you think T is a big thing there? No losing family members are, or other worse problems. My point is that there is probably a LOT of people who does not search for help or becomes a number in the statistics. I believe a negative mind will make your T worse. I had that experience one week ago.

You are right, there is a great chance that the numbers are actually much higher. Like 30-40% in reality at chronic T sufferers.

 

[Naddesh]

You are right, there is a great chance that the numbers are actually much higher. Like 30-40% in reality at chronic T sufferers.

Keep being strong brotha

 

[linearb]

So... here's a thought.

"Do our bodies break down and deteriorate over time"?

Do some people live their entire life without ever really bothering to think about that until they're old and broken, yet others start to obsess about it to their own great detriment while they are still relatively young and healthy?

 

[erik]

I doubt there are any longer term studies on chronic T sufferers to know for sure if it gets worse with age and time. We just have spoken word from those who have had it for decades and some say yes and some say no. Of course, your T may stay the same but if your hearing gets worse over time, naturally the T will seem louder.

 

[Gosia]

I haven't read all the answers here, but I've read many and it's amazing how different they are. So here is mine : for the question asked the only honest and answer is : it can but it does not have to. Globally : nobody can tell. It takes as little as reading a little bit of this precious forum to know it definitely can get worse ( due to some new traumas or for no apparent reason ) and that it definitely does not have to. Do we have studies counting the percentage ? I wish there was. From what I read here and on a few other foreign forums if it gets worse, it's usually because of lack of care of hearing and ears . Sometimes just because time passes by , which can be associated to further cells damage just because they get old, but it's not a rule. Knowing that we should do our best to take care of our bodies and not think too much about what will be in 20 years , because anyways, in 20 years we'll have the cure , I believe.

 

[Nucleo]

My take on it is if you got T from an obvious acoustic incident it won't get worse unless another accident happens. If you got T out of the blue for no apparent reason, then there is probably some underlying progressive pathology so it might get worse.

 

[Silvine]

If you don't worry about it then it gets better that's why habituation happens. If you do worry about it it takes longer to become habituated. If you worry about it a lot and obsess about it then it gets worse. It doesn't actually get louder it's just that you make a bigger deal about it in your head.

 

[1MW]

Worse

 

[Gosia]

If you don't worry about it then it gets better that's why habituation happens. If you do worry about it it takes longer to become habituated. If you worry about it a lot and obsess about it then it gets worse. It doesn't actually get louder it's just that you make a bigger deal about it in your head.

There are numerous examples of people here whose T got worse even though they were perfectly habituated. And it's not only the question of attitude. There's no reason to deny the facts.

 

[tinnitussufferer]

Are you telling me YOU RATHER BE NEGATIVE with great odds like 80% (for non-worse T) than positive? May god help you with some hope and positivity. I am a realistic person and I always tend to think all bad things Will hoppen to me. Now I realise WHY. You are one of them who are first to full those empty gaps in people who are scared. I am not scared but people who is DO NOT DESERVE your "10-20% actually get worse". God bless. I wasnt asking for that when I Said i love people like Asian and llilja because of their optimistic attitude.

i think what people like you are seeking is reassurance rather than truth. The truth is not reassuring in some cases. My own doctor told me my tinnitus would go away. That was 10 years ago and Im still suffering. I would rather have the truth than lies.

 

[Frederico_23]

accoustic trauma tinnitus gets worse over time... gets worst over noise expousere

 

[passerby]

No need to be rude There is just this thing called reality which I reminded here. Sorry about that, in reality chronic T will get worse on 10-20% of the sufferers.

...and don't forget to count in all the idiots who didn't understand what tinnitus is on their first "iteration" of the condition: "Tinnitus...? Nahh, who cares. Why don't I attend another concert just to prove to myself that it can get worse..."

Undoubtedly, the last fool has not been born. Yet...

a (concerned) passerby

 

[passerby]

If you don't worry about it then it gets better that's why habituation happens. If you do worry about it it takes longer to become habituated. If you worry about it a lot and obsess about it then it gets worse. It doesn't actually get louder it's just that you make a bigger deal about it in your head.

"It doesn't actually get louder..." Excellent. In that case there would be no need to ever wear earplugs at a concert once a person has first contracted tinnitus.

Wanna be the first to test the hypothesis...? I am sure I can locate the next AC/DC concert for the purpose. Do let us know how you get on...

 

[passerby]

Are you telling me YOU RATHER BE NEGATIVE with great odds like 80% (for non-worse T) than positive? May god help you with some hope and positivity. I am a realistic person and I always tend to think all bad things Will hoppen to me. Now I realise WHY. You are one of them who are first to full those empty gaps in people who are scared. I am not scared but people who is DO NOT DESERVE your "10-20% actually get worse". God bless. I wasnt asking for that when I Said i love people like Asian and llilja because of their optimistic attitude.

If you want facts, then you need look no further...

www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/survey-results-rate-your-tinnitus.9803

www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/survey-results-tinnitus-talk-mini-survey.7904

In particular, pay attention to chart #4 in the 2nd link above.

a (concerned) passerby

 

[Alex Senkowski]

I wasn't feeling like shit before, but I am now.

 

[Bart]

If you want facts, then you need look no further...

www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/survey-results-rate-your-tinnitus.9803

www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/survey-results-tinnitus-talk-mini-survey.7904

In particular, pay attention to chart #4 in the 2nd link above.

a (concerned) passerby

These surveys on TT are seriously flawed, because all people that vote are members on this forum, and people who visit support forums are generally not doing very well, 99.9% of people with T are not in this forum and they did not vote on one of these surveys. Just my opinion anyway.

It might worsen at some point in time, or it might not, we can not predict the future and if it happens there is nothing you can do about it anyway, so just try and live your life without worrying too much about things we have no control over or do not know and that might or might not happen in the future.

 

[passerby]

These surveys on TT are seriously flawed, because all people that vote are members on this forum, and people who visit support forums are generally not doing very well, 99.9% of people with T are not in this forum and they did not vote on one of these surveys. Just my opinion anyway.

Hmmm... your logic is equivalent to saying that only terminally ill cancer patients visit www.cancerforums.net or that you would never find severely impacted diabetes patients not visiting http://diabeticnetwork.com/community. Perhaps quite a few tinnitus patients simply have no interest in visiting a forum because... either way, it makes no difference to them (and their suffering) - so why sign-up?

The only logic you can relatively certain of is the reserved proposition i.e. you are not very likely to find non-tinnitus patients visiting a tinnitus forum for 12 hours per day. Every day. And especially on a Saturday evening! That I would agree with.

a (concerned) passerby

 

[Bart]

It is not equivalent, as we know cancer is progressive, it will kill you and it is scientifically proven to be a fact, there is data on it. I am pretty sure terminally ill cancer patients will hold surveys of how bad it wil get. The majority of people with T have it very mild and do not feel the need to seek medical help or visit fora, but does that mean that the majority will end up with loud T ? If you have any peer-reviewed papers on that I will gladly change my mind.

I am not saying it will not get worse, just as I am not saying that it will, we simply do not know, the rest is speculation.
Why worry about something that might or might not happen ? It will not help you in any way, on the contrary, it will only add to the problems we allready have.

All that survey proves is that for a minority of people on this forum it tends to worsen, why or how is not disclosed by the survey, all I know is that from most accounts of former co-workers and friends that also happen to have T, some for decades it did not get worse. Most is the key-word here. That does not prove anything off course, just as that survey does not prove anything.

 

[Alex Senkowski]

All that survey proves is that for a minority of people on this forum it tends to worsen, why or how is not disclosed by the survey, all I know is that from most accounts of former co-workers and friends that also happen to have T, some for decades it did not get worse. Most is the key-word here. That does not prove anything off course, just as that survey does not prove anything.

Yeah, I highly doubt that every T sufferer in the world participated in the survey.