Fleeting Moments of Silence

[AlecP]

Over the last 6.5 months, there have been a few times (perhaps 4 or 5) where for a couple of glorious minutes it's as if my T has completely gone. I was lying in bed, the other night when I suddenly realised that I was having one of those moments, it was complete silence! There was no masking, background noise and there were NO sounds coming from my head, it was as if I had no tinnitus whatsoever. A few minutes later, there it was again, clear as day.....never mind ay, it was nice while it lasted

Anyone else experience this also? Why does it happen?

Cheers

 

[Rube]

Yes this has happened to me few times as well. I'm sorry but I can't offer an explanation for it other than maybe it's the path to habituation? But I certainly enjoyed it.

 

[Thongjy]

Over the last 6.5 months, there have been a few times (perhaps 4 or 5) where for a couple of glorious minutes it's as if my T has completely gone. I was lying in bed, the other night when I suddenly realised that I was having one of those moments, it was complete silence! There was no masking, background noise and there were NO sounds coming from my head, it was as if I had no tinnitus whatsoever. A few minutes later, there it was again, clear as day.....never mind ay, it was nice while it lasted

Anyone else experience this also? Why does it happen?

Cheers

Was it the position of sleep? Note your position of sleep and try again

 

[MikeS]

Yes, this happens to me. I've gone an entire weekend without T, only to have it spike like crazy the following week. I've woken up in the morning, and experienced silence for minutes, an hour, or a day.

 

[Fiore]

This is awesome that you experience silence Mike, I stills ay you should continue with neck therapy with a a chiro. Your is temporary it has tobe just have to find the right way to relax those muscles. Try googling how long do muscles take to recuperate after whiplash or neck injuries. I also read that pineapple helps muscles heal faster.

 

[Fiore]

Alec, this comes to show that maybe with time T will diminish to where you may only get it for periods and I think thats great. Are there any treatments or rules you are following for your T?

 

[AlecP]

Hey @Fiore
At the moment the only thing I'm doing is taking Gingko-Biloba every day, but after my supply runs out I will stop taking it as I don't think it's doing anything.

I hope you are right, I will re-iterate that there have only been a very small number of times when I've experienced total silence again, but each time is total bliss haha.

@Thongjy I don't know if lying on my back was the cause of the silence but it may be. On other days though, I will lie on my back and the T will be there as it always is. I just hope in the next 6 months my T dissipates to the point that I can only ever hear it at night, or when it's very quiet

@MikeS Yours may actually be caused by neck/back strain, so I absolutely agree with Fiore that you should potentially try some chiropractic treatment! It may not work, but at least you will have tried right?!

 

[Zechariah]

I've had this experience 3 times in the last 4-5 months. All in the middle of the night when I have woken up. The first time was about 4 months after my onset - I was still pretty anxious about my T back then and the silence felt so incredible that I almost started crying

Although I can't answer to your other question that why does this happen. It's as weird as the fact one of my T frequencies "travels" from ear to ear.

 

[erik]

I think most everyone with T experiences this sometimes. It happens to me every once in a while to the point where I think to myself---is it really gone? only to hear it again.

Which brings me to the question---IS it really silence (as many claim it does not truly exist) or a flashback to the way we used to be able to ignore tinnitus/internal noises before it became part of our conscious perception? hmmmm...inquiring minds want to know.

 

[Christian78]

For me it was trobalt. Before i had 2 times, but with trobalt i had 2 months.

 

[Gabrielle]

I have T for 9 month's now and I since the onset I have one, sometimes two days a week that T stops: complete silence, 100% quiet.

Don't know why, it's since the onset that I've been 'lucky' with those quiet days. There is no pattern of something that I do different. Also nothing to do with neck/sleep position or stress either. I don't take meds either, etc.

In the first month's it gave me hope. Because when it was quiet I thought "maybe I will recover and the T will gone"... but now I know that T will stay forever. Because it's 9 month's now, and still the same.

Just once or sometimes twice a week T stops. It's all in the brain.
When it stops, I go to bed in silence (how nice), but every other morning when I wake up, it's back.

 

[jeannie]

yes I have had this happen, very strange indeed, but so wonderful!!!!

 

[MikeS]

I think most everyone with T experiences this sometimes. It happens to me every once in a while to the point where I think to myself---is it really gone? only to hear it again.

Which brings me to the question---IS it really silence (as many claim it does not truly exist) or a flashback to the way we used to be able to ignore tinnitus/internal noises before it became part of our conscious perception? hmmmm...inquiring minds want to know.

I think most everyone with T experiences this sometimes. It happens to me every once in a while to the point where I think to myself---is it really gone? only to hear it again.

Which brings me to the question---IS it really silence (as many claim it does not truly exist) or a flashback to the way we used to be able to ignore tinnitus/internal noises before it became part of our conscious perception? hmmmm...inquiring minds want to know.

It's not habituation. My T fluctuates wildly. When I hear silence, it is real. And when my T spikes, it's very intense. Sometimes it's in my brain, and sometimes it's in my left ear. I don't even know how I'm supposed to habituate to a moving target.

 

[Fiore]

It's not habituation. My T fluctuates wildly. When I hear silence, it is real. And when my T spikes, it's very intense. Sometimes it's in my brain, and sometimes it's in my left ear. I don't even know how I'm supposed to habituate to a moving target.

EXACTLY how mine is like. It needs to either get lost or pick a set spot so I can habituate -___-

 

[RaZaH]

Yes, happens to me , seems to come back with a vengeance though. So I have mixed emotions about it.

 

[MikeS]

EXACTLY how mine is like. It needs to either get lost or pick a set spot so I can habituate -___-

Do you know the cause of your tinnitus?

 

[Matt01]

Hi,

Firstly, great avatar original poster, I loved that first series in the travel tavern, cried with laughter many times! I have had quite a few moments of silence or near silence in the first 11 weeks, most of Friday and Saturday were very quiet and Sunday morning I woke up to 2 hours of silence. Tuesday night was awful though, I don't know whether this fluctuation is good or bad. Since then it's back to core baseline, distant morse code beeping. I know many people here say it's very difficult to get rid of T, but I do believe in the power of the human body and brain as an amazing thing, and I am not giving up hope yet.

Matt

 

[CarolinaGuy]

I too have entire days where my T is so low I can only hear it if I go in a quiet place and listen for it, and it isn't terribly intrusive even when I do that.
I consider it "effectively" gone at those times, because if it only would stay that way, I could much more easily "habituate" (get used to it) and live with it that way for many years, I am sure.
Today is one of those days.

Of course, it always comes back loud again. (so far). Tommorrow will probably be another loud day for me.

I wish I knew the mechanism for this. If T can be low on some days, then why couldn't it be low everyday?

Don't get me wrong, I consider myself lucky to have these low-volume periods and not 24-7 blasting. It's frustrating though, to think that there must be something that causes the shift, yet there seems to be no knowledge about what can be done to make it diminish all the time. I asked an ENT, all he could do was say enjoy the good days, get better sleep, take some Xanax, etc.
Complete ignorance of the mechanisms behind variable T.

I would be willing to be a research subject if someone was actually willing to study the mechanisms behind these changes. Maybe then we ALL could have reduced volume days more often.

 

[Fiore]

Do you know the cause of your tinnitus?

Well I never had ear ringing until after the impacted ear wax (was having ringing and pain because of it) wound up getting it syringed out, one ear, ENT said it was inflamed after the procedure so he prescribed me some drops which i didn't read fully until after 5 days of use-contained Lidocaine (i believe the side effects to that is T if im not mistaken) he suggested i use it on the other ear as well because i had minor wax buildup but nothing that can't be cleared out with drops he said..the day after the procedure and when i applied the drops was when it started ringing.

Its most likely that, already had my teeth looked at, no jaw problems. Used clindamycin for 1 week and then also took the intramuscular shot for infection all for dental work but that was way back in December so I'm scratching that off the list, my onset was 2/2/15 (sigh)

Question guys in the shower the running water drowns out my T but as soon as I turn the water off my T is full blown loud! it scares the hell outta me then it calms back down. :/ That really confuses me and leads me to believe its noise induced :/ or maybe its because i don't hear my T for the moment i shower that when it all goes silent it surprises me idk...

 

[CarolinaGuy]

Lots of people report that their T is masked or temporarily inhibited by the sound of the shower. It's a "white noise" kind of sound.
As for the loudness after a shower, that might just be because it jumps back into your mind suddenly if you are listening for it.
I don't think the shower is nearly loud enough to make your T permanently worse, though. Unless you are using a fire hose to take a shower - ha!

 

[AlecP]

@CarolinaGuy THAT IS EXACTLY HOW I FEEL! If my T permanently stayed as low as it can get, like when I have those silent or quiet moments, then I'm sure I would habituate very quickly and T would no longer be a problem in my life! The fact that it fluctuates up and down day after day, for no apparent reason makes it difficult to get used to. Just as you're getting used to quiet again, the next day your blissful illusion is shattered. Good luck to you and everyone else anyway, hopefully we can all get there and beat T someday

@Matt01 Haha cheers, I do love a bit of Alan Partridge :L I wish we could just make our brains stop identifying or indeed producing the signals/sounds that we hear on a day to day basis. Maybe one day there will be an effective treatment but I suppose it is a long way off.

I too am at least thankful that I have some quiet days, and a few fleeting moments of silence.

 

[Indianajohn]

I would give anything to have a few moments of silence...

 

[Kathi]

This happens to me but it's not complete silence. My tinnitus just gets lower so that it's easy to forget about. Recently I had five days of low tinnitus but it came back with a vengeance and I haven't had a low day this week. There is no rhyme or reason to it--the only good thing is that I don't care anymore. My tinnitus has fluctuated since onset--I used to get really depressed after a day of really low tinnitus and then it would return very loud. Now I know it will always return and that's a relief--I know that sounds strange but it has helped me get to the point where I don't care--I just carry on with my day. If I have to mask, then I mask. I'm habituating to living with tinnitus and life is pretty good.

 

[NiNyu]

Question guys in the shower the running water drowns out my T but as soon as I turn the water off my T is full blown loud! it scares the hell outta me then it calms back down. :/

That sounds more like H (hyperacusis). The noise of the shower boosts your T?

Anyhow, I had this moments of almost complete calm silence a few times in the first two weeks. Now it's a fluctuating hell. And H kills it. No way one could ha-bitch-uate to that!

 

[Fiore]

That sounds more like H (hyperacusis). The noise of the shower boosts your T?

Anyhow, I had this moments of almost complete calm silence a few times in the first two weeks. Now it's a fluctuating hell. And H kills it. No way one could ha-bitch-uate to that!

Hmm could be, but it doesn't hurt though :/ isn't H painful?

 

[Kathi]

Yes, I've had this happen--recently I went for five days with very low or no T--I almost thought I was cured but I know better from the last 16 months. My T cycles--it's really loud for a few days and then it's quiet--just a squeak. I have had short periods of silence too. Five days was a first and it hasn't happened again. It always comes back with a vengeance. I can't explain it and at first it really inhibited habituation until I finally accepted that it will always come back and I should be thankful for any 'time off'.

Over the last 6.5 months, there have been a few times (perhaps 4 or 5) where for a couple of glorious minutes it's as if my T has completely gone. I was lying in bed, the other night when I suddenly realised that I was having one of those moments, it was complete silence! There was no masking, background noise and there were NO sounds coming from my head, it was as if I had no tinnitus whatsoever. A few minutes later, there it was again, clear as day.....never mind ay, it was nice while it lasted

Anyone else experience this also? Why does it happen?

Cheers

 

[linearb]

I would be willing to be a research subject if someone was actually willing to study the mechanisms behind these changes. Maybe then we ALL could have reduced volume days more often.

My current plan is to get an EEG headset for $800, and start making a record of the electrical output from my auditory cortex and temporal lobe during times of low/med/high ringing....