How Can I Just Get on with My Life and Stop Thinking About Tinnitus on a Consistent Basis?

[JasonP]

I feel like I am wasting a lot of time trying to fight tinnitus. I was on Lamictal since December and had some times of focusing on tinnitus but was able to still function every day even though I thought about tinnitus probably every day. Last week was my best. I thought I was "cured". I had energy, wasn't depressed, and at times I couldn't even make out my tinnitus with my hearing aids on. I think I would be okay if I hadn't of had acoustic trauma tinnitus back in December which added new tinnitus sounds which screw up the masker I had on the right ear. This past Tuesday, the "floor dropped out" when I noticed my tinnitus. I was thinking the medicine I was on was going to take it away more and more and also keep me from being depressed. When Tuesday morning came and I noticed the tinnitus I could not even function. I have been depressed for days since then trying to fight the tinnitus and depression. The depression will probably go away eventually but it seems to always come back and I waste so much time reading about tinnitus and trying to cure it that I feel like I am ruining so much of my life. Does anyone know of a good anti-obsessional drug to take my mind of this crap? I tried to fight it for years now and I keep having a roller coaster ride with it. What pisses me off the most is I can't mask it. I would be okay if I could just mask it but since I can't I think I need medication. I don't want to numb out but what choice do I have?

 

[Engineer]

Have you tried wearing a noise device? The sound from these wearable devices is good at distracting one from T and helping with habituation. They helped me get off sleep meds and begin habituation.

 

[JasonP]

Have you tried wearing a noise device? The sound from these wearable devices is good at distracting one from T and helping with habituation. They helped me get off sleep meds and begin habituation.

I wish it were that simple. My tinnitus isn't maskable on my left ear and ever since December it got screwed up even more when the hearing aids were amplified too much and my ear was damaged (I believe). It has this additional sound like something is winding up and then releasing over and over again and then there is these clicks that sound like someone running a finger on metal brush bristles. Lastly, is the original noise which was a whistle that couldn't be masked but with new meds I could have adapted to that. If you knew of anyone that had a masker for the sound of rain that might help instead of white noise.

 

[fishbone]

I feel like I am wasting a lot of time trying to fight tinnitus. I was on Lamictal since December and had some times of focusing on tinnitus but was able to still function every day even though I thought about tinnitus probably every day. Last week was my best. I thought I was "cured". I had energy, wasn't depressed, and at times I couldn't even make out my tinnitus with my hearing aids on. I think I would be okay if I hadn't of had acoustic trauma tinnitus back in December which added new tinnitus sounds which screw up the masker I had on the right ear. This past Tuesday, the "floor dropped out" when I noticed my tinnitus. I was thinking the medicine I was on was going to take it away more and more and also keep me from being depressed. When Tuesday morning came and I noticed the tinnitus I could not even function. I have been depressed for days since then trying to fight the tinnitus and depression. The depression will probably go away eventually but it seems to always come back and I waste so much time reading about tinnitus and trying to cure it that I feel like I am ruining so much of my life. Does anyone know of a good anti-obsessional drug to take my mind of this crap? I tried to fight it for years now and I keep having a roller coaster ride with it. What pisses me off the most is I can't mask it. I would be okay if I could just mask it but since I can't I think I need medication. I don't want to numb out but what choice do I have?

Hey Man, it sucks..it really does... I feel your pain...been feeling this garbage since 1990. One new thing that i have been trying is hypnosis. It helps a little, but as i have always stated...My tinnitus is super loud and crazy, but the hearing loss bothers me much more.

I wish I could say that..don't focus on this maddening noise, it can be hard but it is possible. You gotta try to train your mind to not focus on the sound of tinnitus. I have damaged ears..jacked up ringing but I manage to listen to my iphone and my mp3 on a daily basis. Noise/music is actually a great therapy against tinnitus and it helps your brain not focus on tinnitus and its madness.....

If you need support you can always PM me

 

[JasonP]

Hey Man, it sucks..it really does... I feel your pain...been feeling this garbage since 1990. One new thing that i have been trying is hypnosis. It helps a little, but as i have always stated...My tinnitus is super loud and crazy, but the hearing loss bothers me much more.

I wish I could say that..don't focus on this maddening noise, it can be hard but it is possible. You gotta try to train your mind to not focus on the sound of tinnitus. I have damaged ears..jacked up ringing but I manage to listen to my iphone and my mp3 on a daily basis. Noise/music is actually a great therapy against tinnitus and it helps your brain not focus on tinnitus and its madness.....

If you need support you can always PM me

Thanks for your help! Have you tried extended hearing aids? Siemens/Signia make some that go to 12khz now but you will have to get a audiogram that goes that high. The 7bx or 7px models. They help some but still can't mask my T. Check out mynoise.net if you want to listen to some cool music with equalizers and whatnot. That probably helped save my life in the beginning. My hearing aids take out all of the sound that is able to be masked. I just wished they would take it all out. I am even thinking about trying a Neurontin/Klonopin combo but I really wish I could get off the benzos. I heard Trileptal can help with benzo withdrawal. Thanks again for your help. I am so sorry to hear about your tinnitus. I hope it improves. Right now, I am testing Trileptal, Melatonin, Mangnesium, Klonopin, and Lamical in that order. Sure hope it is safe. I wouldn't recommend it but it has been driving me to severe depression. I can't function without ampflied hearing aids. I got them to overamplify certain frequencies where the tinnitus is located. Sure hope it doesn't hurt my ears. I think my hearing aid specialist needs to know what he is doing and limit all sounds above a certain level. Right now, my breathing seems to affected by all these meds or it is all in my head. Hopefully it is the latter and nothing bad will happen.

 

[Sound Wave]

You start with ten seconds, then one minute, ten minutes and so on. It's hard but possible. Look into mindfulness.

 

[Nonna]

JasonP I can't find your other thread. Starkey bluetooth hearing aid. Any sound you want.

 

[dudeguywithstuff]

I've read a lot about mindfulness and how it helps. It's helped me a lot.

Basically, spend 30 minutes a day just listening to it and allowing the sound to exist without fighting it internally. No judgment. People have done this, and they said they did it for 2 - 3 months without thinking it was working at ALL. And then BAM. Their fear of the noise was gone.

You should try this. Just maybe you'll be rewarded with having your life back. Isn't that reason enough?

 

[JasonP]

Good news guys. That was back in the end of May when I was going through that. The last really bad depression I have had was probably before the last week of June.

The past few days the tinnitus is there but it hasn't bothered me at all. I have been energetic and motivated like I have not been in years. This could be a good thing or bad thing because I might be Bipolar II.

I will say though that I haven't felt this strongly non-depressed before in a long time. My anxiety has also dropped an astonishing amount. What I did was keep taking my Lamictal, reduce my Klonopin slowly to about half of what I was taking, and then the final thing was I started eating more fish. After eating fish for 3 days in a row I got really energetic and didn't care about the T. The hearing aids still help a lot though.

It is possible I will crash and to be honest, I would like to be a little more "down" than I am but so far it's okay. At any rate, my advice to those that are depressed is to eat salmon each day for a week and see how you feel unless you are allergic of course or it does something weird to you. It really seems to help my brain and also seems to help with dry eyes too.

 

[GregCA]

It doesn't matter what it is that works for you. Whether it's fish or fairy dust, if it works for you, keep doing it (as long as it's not dangerous)!
Now I would like to find my fairy dust...

 

[Muffs]

It's funny how this shit works. The loudness can be the same from day to day but the annoyance level can vary. How your mind reacts to it is the key. Habituation even when achieved you still can get annoying days. I've had a few setbacks even after I habituated and thought I'd never get back because my brain locked into it again. But let it take its course, even if it sucks and will bother you it will naturally feel less in time. Although it might actually still be the same level. The mind is the key. Good luck.