How Does Your Life Partner React to Your Tinnitus?

[zombiechick]

My spouse is extremely supportive. Doesn't care about the background noise and encourages me to get comfortable as soon as I get home, turn on my sound machine and he knows it's really getting to me. He is determined to make sure this Doesn't take over my life. I'm really lucky.

 

[Fangen]

My boyfriend has T as well. He had it for many years now even though he is only 25.
I have had it for over 5 months, and I have been more anxious about it then he ever has. He is not scared of loud noises or getting his T worse. I am very scared indeed of getting louder T. But he is supportive although somewhat oblivious to my anxiety. He cannot relate because he has never been bothered of scared by the noise.
He got it from lots and lots of rock concerts, and he sort of feel that it was worth it. So therefore he doesn't care too much about it. Or he is just bad at showing feelings, who knows. He does have medium hearing loss in one of his ears.
Neither of us sleeps with any maskers or background noises. Life is most of the time exactly the same as it was before I got T, beside being more careful with noises and seeing a therapist of course

 

[Off-Kilter]

If this is when you're actually asleep, it sounds an awful lot like sleep apnea.

Thank you for the information, but it's not when I'm asleep. It's just that sometimes I "switch" to thinking about it, which overwhelms me and so I stop doing anything (including breathing!)

This isn't actually dangerous, it's more like when something surprises you so you catch your breath.

 

[Mentos]

Well it may sound weired by my my wife has T for 12 - 13 years already (I have mine for 2 years) and since she is fully habituated and never complains about it she does not really understand the struggle I'm going through. So since her T is not a problem for her, than she also thinks that this should be no problem for me and does not let me complain or self-pitty on it. "Move on with your life" she says, "you can't change it, neither can I so stop mourning and live your life to the best you can with this small annoyance". Pehaps in a way it's better, it sometimes forces me to put my shit together and move on. But all in all for quite some time my relationshop with her suffered since I'm no lnger the same person I used to be when she met me and she still complains about it from time to time. So not only I have to deal with my T but I also have to fight for my relation with my wife so that T has as little impact on as as possible.

 

[RonnieCarzatto]

My spouse was initially frightened by my drastic change in personality. To go from happy and fit to a depressed, miserable wreck was a shock to our lives. It was tough. She would get angry that tinnitus is all I focused on. But she grew to understand when she did a little research on the topic. She supports me big time, she set up a fan and white noise in our room, but expects me to be proactive and maintain a positive attitude. She simply doesn't want me to give up.