How Do You Cope?

[Leah]

Went to ER last night. Had pain in my head was not sure what was going on. gee would a brain tumor be easier to cure?
Did a scan, was ok. Did find I have a urinary infection.hmm
Woke up and now I also have problems with my both ears making sounds and the fullness.
Never had attack this long, this bad. At my wits end. hubby just doesn't get it, says get a grip. He says everyone hears noises, not like this they don't..
I need some relief

 

[Lord of the Ring]

What you need is TRT

 

[Danny]

What you need is an understanding husband.

 

[daedalus]

And maybe understanding real life friends. We sympathise of course. Especially since we have had the same problem with people misunderstanding us but we cannot replace real life friends.

 

[Lord of the Ring]

What you need is an understanding husband.

That too. Very much.

 

[Leah]

Thanks you are so right!

 

[Sherri786]

Went to ER last night. Had pain in my head was not sure what was going on. gee would a brain tumor be easier to cure?
Did a scan, was ok. Did find I have a urinary infection.hmm
Woke up and now I also have problems with my both ears making sounds and the fullness.
Never had attack this long, this bad. At my wits end. hubby just doesn't get it, says get a grip. He says everyone hears noises, not like this they don't..
I need some relief

Sorry to hear that Leah, hope you feel better soon. Well I and few other sufferers here have learnt to cope somewhat with Magnesium supplements and camomile tea ( night blend) to sleep with, besides trying to figure out which food makes our T spikes, mine spikes with salt, white sugar, apples, corn on the cob, am trying to go gluten abd wheat free too just to see if that will help, long walks help me too. And yes I agree husbands mostly understand what we are going through nor do real life friends ! im alive today thanks to this forum and some very very nice and helpful people on this forum, specially karen. Hope one day we all will find some peace and quiet

 

[Sherri786]

* I mean husbands do not understand nor real life friends !

 

[Shuffle]

I have one friend who also has it, but he says he has always had it for as long as he can remember, and it's never bothered him as he's never heard anything else. He can't see why it irritates me so much. Mag suppliments initially helped mine but it's since spiked again. I had a spike a couple of months back after a wedding disco, which went down. Then it spiked again due to a sinus infection and I can't shift it this time . Been a month now. I just can't get it out of my head.

 

[Karen]

Shuffle, I think it's all the about the intensity of the tinnitus each of us is suffering. The people who are not bothered by it probably don't have spikes like we do, nor the intensity we've experienced. It's pretty hard to get it out of your head when it is at a high level!

I've actually had tinnitus for over 25 years, but before 2010, mine was not bothersome, and I could sleep and function normally. Ever since I took an ototoxic drug, however, it's been much worse. Mine has calmed down since 2010, but it's still at a much higher level than before. Oh, how I wish I could return to the good old days of moderate tinnitus!

 

[jazz]

I have one friend who also has it, but he says he has always had it for as long as he can remember, and it's never bothered him as he's never heard anything else. He can't see why it irritates me so much. Mag suppliments initially helped mine but it's since spiked again. I had a spike a couple of months back after a wedding disco, which went down. Then it spiked again due to a sinus infection and I can't shift it this time . Been a month now. I just can't get it out of my head.

@Karen is right, it's all about the intensity. I'm amazed when I read how loudness doesn't matter; it's all your reaction to the loudness. Well, I strongly disagree and so does nearly everyone on this board. Loudness determines if your tinnitus is in the background or front and center. When people first get tinnitus, of course, loudness may be less important. That's because a new, unwanted sound in your head is quite upsetting to people--regardless of its loudness. But, once you've had tinnitus for a while and understand it, then it's a question of adjusting to the noise. If your noise is low, your adjustment will be much easier than if it's loud. I've yet to habituate, but when I'm quiet I feel totally normal. When I'm spiking, I'm able to function, but my mood and performance are compromised.

That said, your tinnitus may still quiet down. Some people have setbacks that last for a few months before things return to normal. It is important to get enough sleep and, if you're depressed or anxious, you should seek medical treatment. Both antidepressants and anxiolytics (anti-anxiety medicines like Klonpin) do help many people. Just read the posts from people on TT! You need to find something that will give you relief. And, in time, your noise should go back to baseline.

And please always carry ear plugs, like the ones by Etymonic, with you in case you get in a loud situation. Weddings, movies, sirens--all these can damage your hearing. Everyone with tinnitus becomes vulnerable to additonal noise damage.

Here's a link the Etymonic ear plugs. They are great and don't distort as much as the foam plugs. Please note they come in two sizes. The blue is for smaller ears and the white is for larger ones:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0015WNZ9K/?tag=tinntalk-20

 

[Shuffle]

@jazz Thanks for the positive thoughts, I need them at the minute! I'm still hopeful this will go down back to where it was. Doc says I have no wax now, and ENT Can't find anything. I'm on my own now, like all of us. I used to have this at a level where I could cope with it happily, but it's loud at the moment. (Originally got T after a rock concert, had syringing due to wax, T went completely apart from a very feint ring in the opposite ear to the noise induced T, went on like that for 7 months, then see the 2 spikes I posted about above!)

I love those plugs, I have a set on my car keys. Trouble was at the wedding I was getting a Taxi! D'oh.

 

[Eric]

If you want your husband to understand,go to the ATA website and find a T recording similar to yours (mine is screeching) Download it to your ipod or Ipad. Adjust it to a level similar to what you perceive. For my case it is usually between 3/4 to full blast Ipad level of the screetching sound. Have them spend a couple of hours with your sound. It might make a difference. I have had that screeching sound continuously for the last year and a half. None of my loved ones lasted more than one minute, and I barely ever complained. But now, when I ask them to tone down to relieve my ears, they are more understanding.

http://www.ata.org/sounds-of-tinnitus

 

[James]

All of the above nailed that one, the husband thing, ooohhh that's no good.

My latest coping one-day thing is a good nights sleep and stress management.
( not that I'm any good at either of those two).

 

[Leah]

Karen, thanks for the link for earplugs, look forward to using them instead of the foam.
Eric many thanks to you also, will educate my family and friends, maybe even a doc or two.

 

[Karen]

@James,

How is your pulsating? Is yours still about the same? Mine is maybe just a little bit softer these days. How are you doing?

 

[Leah]

oh no, re-reading Karen's post about ototoxic drugs.. looked them up and am taking a couple now

 

[Karen]

Hi, @Leah,

Which drugs are you taking right now? If they are necessary, it's probably best to see your doctor before you would discontinue any medicines that you need. Maybe the doctor can suggest a substitute medication for you, that is not ototoxic (?)

 

[Leah]

Yes, I need to that, thanks for your posting about the drugs I did not know.
I feel like I have to educate these docs I am seeing. Making arrangements for acupuncture and
finding a T management clinic in my area. I need to find the people who know about this.
I have said this many times, so glad I found this forum.

 

[nanner]

Sorry Leah! When your hubby is old and gray and crapping his pants and needs your help...tell him to get a grip.

 

[Philip Cardone]

Hey Leah tell your hubby to get a grip for not caring about a problem that can drive you nuts and keep you awake at night

 

[Georgia]

Hi leah,

Firstly get your husband on a website like this because he clearly doesn't understand what T is. And T sufferers go through the hell of a lot! He needs to understand so then he can support you and not tell you to get a grip! If someone told me to get a grip. Well..... I'd tell them to... Never mind!

I find that natural sounds eg running water, and rain pitter patter. Are very soothing and effective.

Try herbal teas i don't know why but I feel so at peace. Hearing aids are good at masking tinnitus.
I've heard about acupressure but go see your doctor who takes care of all your hearing first just to be safe.
I've been to a lesson of meditation and I barley notcied my T.

So don't worry there are a lot of things that make life easier with T.

 

[linearb]

@Karen Well, I strongly disagree and so does nearly everyone on this board. Loudness determines if your tinnitus is in the background or front and center.

We're all different, for sure -- but for me, loudness generally follows distress, and not the other way around. Meaning that when I am bothered by tinnitus enough to become anxious about it, my limbic system activates, I get thrown into fight-or-flight mode, and that literally makes the sound relatively louder (because that's exactly what fight-or-flight is supposed to do: crank up the gain on your senses to make them more acute and keep you alive in times of danger).

The first year or so that I had the T I have now, I would never have believed what I just wrote... I would have said, "NO! It's SO LOUD! That's what causes the distress!" But, I've watched the "loudness" come and go enough times in direct relation to my relative stress levels, that I have come to view my T as a very accurate -- if annoying -- measure of how stressed out I am.

When I was really locked into fight-or-flight mode for months straight, it was just a constant blur of hellish days that seemed to crawl by slowly with a loud scream in my ears, and it went on long enough that I simply did not believe that the anxiety had anything to do with the perception of the noise, but it absolutely does. When I'm happy and relaxed I can go hours without thinking about my T, even in relatively quiet environments. (I actually have recently switched to sleeping without a fan, despite having needed one for sleep for decades prior to the onset of my T a decade ago.)

There are several large-sample-size studies which assessed loudness and distress in a large number of people, and found no correlation between loudness and distress, so that's where that idea comes from. However, it's not like those studies were repeated dozens of times over decades, so it's hard to say how much of a tautology this is.