Just an update guys...
I'm now onto my 5th month my tinnitus journey.
I stopped taking Gaba supplements all together about a week ago. I found that it was too much of a downer for my general mood for the long term. It definitely helped take the edge off in the beginning, with similar effect as pharma grade benzo without all the nasty side effect. I think its best used as an anti anxiety treatment and works very well to calm you down, which in-turn can calm your tinnitus volume. But only in moderation
My current bed-time concoction which works very well and allows me to sleep like a baby.
3 mg of Melatonin, L-Theanine, Magtein (Magnesium L-Threonate), herbal tea with Valarian root.
I also listen to soothing ambient noise like, pink or brown noise, and nature sounds.
These two in combination are my favorites.
These days my tinnitus has lowered significantly in volume but has changed to higher frequency somewhere between 9-10k hrz. Oddly enough my brain seems to have adapted well to this frequency, its not as distressing to me for some reason, its more of an annoyance.
Ive actually been experimenting with what I believe is called neuro-modulation? or a form of it...
A musician actually developed his own method using some free downloadable software combined with a breathing exercise which is supposed to stimulate the vagus nerve. He based his techniques off a study that was used to eliminate tinnitus in lab rats, but was never approved for human trials by the FDA, allegedly. I've tweeked his method after reading the article he refers too.
https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/rebooting-brain-helps-stop-ring-tinnitus-rats
In his video he says to match the tone of your tinnitus and play that tone.
But according to the article, the scientists played tones that were close to the tinnitus tone but not the exact same frequency. The idea behind this theory is to draw the neurons away from the tinnitus tone and reset them to a different tone in the brain. First I'll play my tinnitus tone for a few seconds to stimulate the associated neurons, then I'll play tones lower or higher alternating between them for the rest of the exercise. Stimulating the vagus nerve is the key for this to work.
There is definitely something to it because I've been doing it for the past few days now, and it definitely messes with my T in a positive way. I even woke up this morning with very low to no tinnitus for a couple hours, it sounded more like a soft hiss rather than a tone. It came back as the day went on, but I'm definitely sticking with it.
I'm also not using headphones.
I feel that may be too intrusive for my ear. instead I just plug my good ear with my finger while I listen to the tone from my laptop at a low volume.
Here is the link to his youtube video.
God Bless!