Hi I'm Julie

[Julie]

I honestly don't know if I can even be on this site already. I've only had the ringing in my left ear for over 4 weeks. But it's making me insane, I suppose it makes everyone insane in the beginning. The ENT said it was because I have a lack of sleep, too much salt intake and stress and my hearing is "perfect". So obviously, I tried sleeping more and maintained a healthy diet, also tried methods to calm down. Yes it got more silent, but often it's very loud again. I'm only 16 and have always ALWAYS been very careful with my ears since i've always, before I had this, said "the only thing I wouldn't be able to handle is tinnitus" not even kidding. And now it's here and I already want to end my life it's only been a month. But my point is. Shouldn't it be gone by now? I'm not tired nor anything. And I lost hope on it going away already... But I can't cope with it... I don't know what to do...

I do grind my teeth when I'm focussing because I have ADHD and that's sadly how I focus. If I learn to stop, will it go away? Or will i Learn to deal with it?

I went on this forum because internet only tells you horrible things and they only add to the stress. Pleased to meet all of u.

 

[Robert44]

Hi I'm happy your T is not from noise exposure. It might go away. Take care of your ears. Are you on any medication that is causing it?

I suppose it makes everyone insane in the beginning.

just the fact that you recognize that it's tough in the beginning is a good sign. When I first got T I wasn't able to think about that. It will get better and I think you have a chance of it going away. Your brain will learn to block it out and you won't always hear it. Good luck to you

 

[glynis]

Welcome to Tinnitus Talk Julie,
It could be the teeth grinding that's causing your ear problem.
The jaw pressure all inflame your jaw joint that is right by your middle ear and can cause tinnitus.
Have a read up on TMJ..Temperomandibular jaw joint problems....lots of love glynis

 

[billie48]

There are many young people who developed T and yet they get better. Don't project the future based on the current suffering. Yes, you know it, it is tough at the beginning because your limbic nerves take over and you function in fight or flight mode which tends to make things worse as they are. Given time and after learning some strategies, people do get better. Masking your T is a good strategy at the beginning. Have you done some masking yet? Young people seem to get better faster as they seem to be able to adapt and move on. Here are the success stories of some of them:

success story of 17 years old Zach:
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/fake-it-until-you-make-it.7590/

success story of Jari with T since 12 years old:
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/new.7670/

lana got T at 15 and getting better:
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/positivity.13050/

Zoe Cartwright turned totally deaf at young 15, and then developed unmaskable T (due to her deafness), and yet she moves on with life and even made a T film. Despite her T, she said she enjoys and loves her life. I have made a post about her in the Positivity Thread in the main support forum.

The Positivity Thread

 

[Julie]

@Robert44 No not on any meds, I used to take ritalin but that's been a while so I don't think that's the cause. But thank u! Really needed to hear that. And yes, I'm a positive person. Everything becomes a habit, if you lose an arm, or your eyesight, they get used to it too. So I figured I will too. How about you? Have you gotten used to it?

 

[Julie]

@glynis Okay I'll look it up. But question. If TMJ is the cause, and u stop. Is tinnitus likely to dissapear then? Thank you by the way!

 

[Julie]

@billie48

Yes, you know it, it is tough at the beginning because your limbic nerves take over and you function in fight or flight mode which tends to make things worse as they are.

What does flight mode mean? Yes I mask it with soft music and rain. But often I just let it be there, pretend it's the fridge or something. Because I feel like that makes you adapt quicklier and I'm impatient. And those success stories have calmed me down a lot! Mostly the first one! Thanks a lot

 

[Xenia]

Hi Julie

I am sorry to hear what you are going through. I had the most horrible high pitch squealing noise all last night and all day today, only in this past half hour has it changed from squealing to a hissss sound like someone opening soft drink bottle!

Hopefully the success stories can make you feel better and its good that it is not noise induced.
I think we might be going through sometime similar in terms of TMJ. I am hoping that if a mouth guard is fitted it can stop the tinnitus or at least reduce it. I understand how desperate you feel. I am a wreck myself!

 

[billie48]

What does flight mode mean?

The fight or flight mode is a mechanism for an animal (which humans are a member of that) to deal with a perceived 'threat'. It involves neural and physiological change to charge up the animal's body to be ready to 'fight' the threat, or failing to do so, to flee from it. It is our basic instinct of survival. In this highly charged state of the mind and the body, all our senses are keenly focused on the threat and thus the threat appear aggravated and our sensation of it highly augmented. So if the ringing sound is considered erroneously as a threat, the body will tend to zoom on it and all our senses are focused on such sensation, making it much more important, or 'threatening' if you will. We tend to block out all other senses and the deep focus on this threat magnifies its sensation on our body, thus making the T sounds so much louder and more threatening to our survival than it should be.

The trouble for T is that we can't really flee from it at our will. We can use masking or distraction to 'flee' from the T sensation but in true sense it is still there. So initially the body tends to 'violently' reject this sensation, and failing to do so, tends to reacts in a traumatic way with many distorted thoughts, fears, anxiety and panic attacks, sleeplessness & often depression. In the more extreme case, the brain can dangle out suicide ideations as a way out of the perceived, unshakable suffering for life. This is its way of 'flight' from the perceived threat, be that a mistaken one. But given time, when you suffer enough and nothing bad really happens, and your brain gets more used to the new normal of living with this 'threat', and with some strategies to train it to relax and to think more positively and realistically, your brain will get the message that this 'threat' is not real nor that dangerous, and that it has over-reacted to its presence, then the brain will be able to 'normalize' its reaction and you can handle T much better.

What really happens inside your body is that the T stimulus which was handled by the Amygdala of the brain (the fight or flight center) is now handled by the Prefrontal Cortex, another area of the brain which will moderate your acute reaction, and the Limbic Nervous System which controls the fight or flight function is now replaced by the Parasympathetic Nervous System which function to activate the "rest and digest" response and return the body to homeostasis after the fight or flight response, and you are much more able to handle your emotions, and the perceived sensation of T is more reduced to a level you can hopefully cope with. This can then hopefully open the possibility of habituation to the T. My humble 2 cents on this subject. God bless.

 

[Julie]

@billie48 thank you!!! I understand