From Tinnitus Success Story to Square One After Playing Drums

Hello,

My tinnitus began in 2020 for no apparent reason. I remember I was playing my PC, then felt dizzy and threw up, and then the same thing happened after a week. During this time, my tinnitus started, and I often felt dizzy. Over time, the symptoms receded, and I was left only with a faint ring in the background, which I would forget 99% of the time. I forgot about this forum, and I was living my life 100% normal.

Two days ago, I was stupid enough to go play drums for the second time in my life with some friends, and after 2 hours, when we left, I felt my right ear was muffled, and the ring was louder. I immediately cursed myself for being so stupid. The next day, when I woke up, the right ear was still muffled, even if not so much, and the ringing was louder (maybe it was 0.5 before the episode, and now it's 2/10).

The following day, I immediately took Prednisone 60 mg, NAC 1800 mg, and Magnesium.

Now, I am on day 2, and the muffling seems gone (thank God), but the ringing is still there. As a reference, I put my Google Home speakers to play soundwaves at volume 6 to cover it.

Even if the situation all in all is moderate, I am still terrified. I will continue with Prednisone and NAC and hope that I can go back to my baseline.

 

What’s NAC?

 

N-Acetylcysteine. It's an anti-inflammatory, anti-free-radical food supplement that is freely available and widely suggested for tinnitus.

 

I will try to write an update about my progress so far. It has been three weeks since July 5, the night of my mistake.

Week 1: It didn't seem too loud, but it was mentally hell.

Week 2: I had a stronger mindset and felt I could manage, but it was louder on Sunday evening, which was very frustrating. During the first week, I felt that ocean waves and crickets during sleep masked it 100%. Now, they don't seem to anymore. However, I still believe I can successfully habituate to this.

Week 3: Monday and Tuesday were not so bad. I almost started to think about what I would write in my success story at the end of this journey. I could read a book outside; it was just a faint ring in the background. Wednesday and Thursday were neither great nor terrible. It was present, but I spent an entire afternoon not thinking about it while sitting on my laptop and watching YouTube videos that masked it. Now it's Sunday, and since yesterday evening, I find it a bit louder than usual, which is depressing, even though I know the journey is non-linear. When it's louder, I doubt my recovery.

Sometimes, it has a bad impact on my mood. I also find it hard to understand how loud it is. Today, while walking in the city center (streets not too busy), it was mostly just a shadow in the background. Now I am sitting in bed with ocean waves at 30 dB playing from a speaker, and it's a distinct eeeeeeeee in the back of my head (not in my ears).

Other times, I sit on my balcony with outside background noise (not too busy) and ocean waves playing on the laptop or watching videos, and it's fully masked. The combination of that plus playing video games makes me forget about it. But if I watch TV at 20% volume, I can hear it.

Generally, I feel my ears are more sensitive than before, but I am not bothered by loud sounds. I don't think I have hyperacusis or anything else besides tinnitus.

Encouraging words, thoughts, and stories from people who have had similar experiences and feel better now would help me.

I have promised God that if I recover from this, I will volunteer for Tinnitus Talk or something similar.

 

Time and quiet are your best bet. I hope it gets better soon.

 

There was great improvement tonight. I usually play crickets, but the track sometimes stops for some reason.

Tonight, I woke up, and the crickets were not playing anymore, but I realized the loudness had gone down quite a bit, so I was able to sleep all night in a super quiet room with no crickets.

This morning, it stayed the same! I touch wood and keep my fingers crossed, but after three weeks only, it's a great outlook. I know there might be steps back, but today was really nice.

I promise again that if I recover, I will volunteer for Tinnitus Talk to help others

 

Just keep in mind that your recovery may not be linear. Your tinnitus loudness may go up and down over time. Mine has been trending down slowly.

 

I know, thank you!

What was your starting point, and where are you now after almost one year?

 

The starting point was three days of loud tinnitus, followed by only being able to hear it in a quiet room. Three weeks later, my right ear went out of control and became very reactive and loud. The only thing that would mask it was the shower. It made me panic almost daily.

Nowadays, I have some very quiet days and some bad days. The bad days are getting more mild as time goes on. Overall, it's been trending down. The way my tinnitus behaves and sounds changes a lot as well. My left ear is almost 100% tinnitus-free most of the time.

 

Update after 40 days of the incident:

The tinnitus has been quite stable. I don't experience significant spikes or very quiet days; its perception varies within a certain range but remains consistent.

Overall, I believe most of the improvement has been psychological. During the first few weeks, I was panicking, but now I feel much calmer. I never had trouble sleeping, and some nights, I didn’t even need to use white noise like crickets.

When I get absorbed in video games, I completely forget about the tinnitus, which is why I spent all of last week playing games all day.

In my quiet apartment, when I’m doing chores, sometimes I barely notice it, and other times, I’m more aware of it. These fluctuations occur randomly throughout the day—go figure.

Even minimal white noise completely masks the tinnitus, so when I need a break in my quiet apartment, white noise does the trick.

When I’m out talking to people, I almost never notice it.

More than the noise itself, it’s the sensation of electrical current that bothers me; it makes me feel like my brain or ears are inflamed.

However, I’m staying positive. Forty days is nothing in tinnitus terms, and I think I’m already seeing some small improvements.

I’m following a complex regimen of anti-inflammatory and antioxidant supplements. However, 30 days is definitely not enough time for supplements to take full effect; they should be taken for at least a few months.

I’m staying positive and hoping to write a success story in the future. Fingers crossed—love you all.

 

Lucky. Be grateful and enjoy your life!

 

Yesterday morning, I woke up and was cleaning the kitchen in my quiet apartment. At some point, I wondered, " Wait... I can't hear any ringing!!!" My inner ear did feel sensitive and warm, but there was NO NOISE, and even if I searched for the ringing in my quiet apartment, I could hear only 0.1%, very quiet and distant.

I am writing this to keep track of the event for my future self.

Of course, later in the day, I could hear it again (and now I can hear it), but I hope it's a good sign towards full recovery! I'm 45 days in.

Keep your fingers crossed; I love you all!

 

Do you think that wearing headphones around your neck while playing cricket sounds could work as a makeshift masking device? I need very low-volume cricket sounds for complete tinnitus masking.

 

This is exactly what I was thinking. I can’t use in-ear headphones anymore because they were the cause of my tinnitus, so I can’t wear them. I also don’t use over-ear headphones, but I thought that when I’m outside walking or somewhere else and need to mask the sound, I could wear over-ear headphones around my neck and use low-volume masking. I haven’t tried it yet because I haven’t been able to work and buy headphones. If you try this and find it helpful, please share your experience. I’m also looking for a solution.

 

Two Months Update

Today marks exactly two months since the incident. Here’s an update on my situation.

The Objectively Good

• The feeling of warmth/inflammation in my inner ear has disappeared over the past couple of weeks.
• The very mild hyperacusis I experienced is also gone (the "DING!" sound from my elevator used to annoy me, but now it doesn’t really bother me).
• The occasional feeling of mildly clogged ears has mostly disappeared. I remember during the first few weeks, I would constantly yawn, trying to pop my ears, but now I almost never feel the need to do that.

From the success stories I’ve read, it seems that before tinnitus improves, other symptoms like hyperacusis or the sensation of "cotton ears" need to disappear. Only in the following weeks or months does the tinnitus itself start to improve.

The Rest

The last week of August was quite good. I felt the tinnitus was less intrusive, and I wasn’t reacting emotionally to it. A couple of nights, I didn’t even need to play crickets to fall asleep. I was thinking, "Am I about to write a success story soon? I bought all these supplements, and they’re going to be useless. What a waste." It was the first time I had an entirely good week.

However, the first week of September has been more average. I find that after experiencing good days, I get very frustrated when I return to an average day, and I react emotionally, even though I know this is part of the recovery process. The difference between good and bad days isn’t drastic—it feels like things are moving within a narrow range. Sometimes I even question if it’s moving at all or if my perception threshold is changing.

My perception of the tinnitus doesn’t seem to follow any logic:

• Sometimes, I can barely hear it when I’m just doing something in my quiet kitchen.
• But when I’m riding my scooter in traffic, I can always hear the "eeee," even though it’s a much noisier situation.
• Sometimes I can hear it over average traffic noise while walking down the street, but other times I can’t.
• Whenever I play video games, I tune it out completely. (That’s why I’ve logged 160 hours on Baldur’s Gate 3 in the past few weeks!)
• In the first few weeks, I found it too stressful to sit outside and read without any masking noise. Now, I can do that more often.
• Sometimes I don’t hear it while watching YouTube; other times, I do.
• In a quiet room, sometimes I think, "It’s not that bad," and other times, "Aaaggh, go away!"
• If I pay close attention, the volume seems to follow my heartbeat.

I’m continuing to follow a whole food supplement protocol that I’ve created, and I’ll update you on the progress at month 3.

 

If I may rant a bit tonight, this experience reminds me of when I had prostatitis (inflammation of the prostate).

You’d feel discomfort most of the time, then suddenly, you’d have good days, followed by bad days again. You’d try to find a pattern—maybe related to food, exercise, or something else—but there wasn’t one. The doctor would prescribe some supplements that seemed useless, but you’d keep taking them anyway. Eventually, as months passed, the bad days became fewer and fewer, and now I only experience discomfort for about a minute each month, if that.

When you get an inflammation, like in a tendon or shoulder, it can take months to heal. The ears are the same, if not slower to recover—just much more annoying. Keeping a positive attitude and waiting it out is key. Goodnight!

 

It's a blessing if you have activities early on in your tinnitus journey that can completely distract you from the ringing or help you block it out.

After six months, I still rely solely on masking to distract me from or block out my tinnitus, especially on bad days.

I think you're on a great path to habituation because you've already had positive experiences and maintain a positive attitude.

I also take nutritional supplements, some even before I got tinnitus, like magnesium, vitamin D, and lavender extract. Some say these don't help with tinnitus, while others believe they can.

What supplements are you taking, @Furetto? Do you take vitamin B6 or B12? And do you know if they help restore the brain’s filtering function or the hearing system?

That’s me—waiting and working toward tinnitus relief and, hopefully, recovery! But I still have far more bad days than good. Like you, I can’t see any pattern that explains why some days are good and others are bad.

I would trade suffering from tinnitus for almost any other illness because, for me, tinnitus isn’t just an annoyance—it’s an extreme burden. It prevents me from enjoying life with my wife and children and from earning a living.

 

I have created the following protocol after reading numerous medical studies, aiming to cover all bases: anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, pro-neuroplasticity, and nerve health.

With breakfast: Omega-3, NAC, Redamase (a bromelain and curcumin complex), Ginkgo Biloba.

With lunch: Omega-3, Magnesium L-threonate, Tioneural Retard (ALA and B vitamin complex).

With dinner: Omega-3, Ginkgo Biloba, Redamase.

Before sleep: Melatonin with a zinc and selenium complex.

All of the above are natural food supplements, which can also be taken for general health.

If anyone has feedback on my protocol, I’d be happy to hear it. ChatGPT mentioned that it’s a well-balanced and thought-out program.

Only 6 months is not that much of a time. Don't worry, Kai. I am sure one day, we will write a success story together! I am looking forward to that day!

 

Thank you so much for your incredible encouragement! I‘m looking forward to that day, too, when we both habituate and write our success stories!

 

You may get some placebo benefits from taking those supplements. But things like Ginkgo Biloba are just a waste of money. I tried many supplements and spent a fortune, and none of them helped my sleep, anxiety, or tinnitus.

 

Even if Ginkgo Biloba didn’t work for you anecdotally, every study that used the specific formulation EGB761 showed statistically significant improvements in the test subjects compared to the placebo group. The only studies where no improvements were observed over the control group were those that did not use this specific extract but rather generic "Ginkgo Biloba."

Even if it doesn't work for me either, Ginkgo Biloba is still a useful supplement for combating general inflammation and free radicals. If it doesn’t help my tinnitus, it will still benefit my overall health.

Please avoid making negative comments on everything we say.

P.S.
Another thing to keep in mind about supplements: a lot of people try them and say, "They didn’t do anything for me."

This is entirely possible, but it's important to remember that most supplements need to be taken consistently for at least three months before you may notice any effects. If you only took them for one month and didn’t see any results, that’s not surprising.

For example, when I had prostatitis, my doctor prescribed a supplement course that lasted three months. I had to go through multiple rounds of these three-month courses before I fully healed.