Is It Possible to Fully Recover from Severe Tinnitus?

[Jkph75]

I don't know if mine is severe or not. I am wondering if it is possible for it to go away completely if you have it pretty bad. Or does having a pretty bad case mean you will have it forever?

 

[william adams]

According to T experts Julian Graham Hill and Kevin Hogan the answer is yes. You can find alot of videos on youtube featuring Julian Hill on how to habituate and actually get rid of T altogether. I just bought a DVD and CD program from Kevin Hogan to reduce the volumn of T and possibly eliminate it as well with hypnotherapy and medications. Alot of info from these two experts on T.

 

[Alue]

I have been wondering the same thing. I'm too tired and sleep deprived to explain my thoughts thoroughly, but it seems there are two different kinds of habituation.
First is the emotional reaction to tinnitus, how annoying the sound is to an individual can improve over time. This is probably true for everyone.
The second (which does seem to occur with most cases tinnitus) is the sound is normalized and filtered out of consciousness, is it still there, yes, but that explains why people can only hear it when thinking about it or when someone mentions it.

There are people with very loud tinnitus that have 'habituated' in a since and are not bothered by it even though it's always there, but I'm starting to wonder if some cases are just too loud or intrusive to ever be fully filtered out of consciousness.

 

[Sailboardman]

I'm on 26 months and have had some lower days or at least hours, but I'm a long, long way from habituation, if at all? I to used to get annoyed over little sounds that kept me awake or kept me from concentrating on things. Now, I have severe hearing loss in one ear, which is hard enough to get used to, let alone the T, which is overwhelming my brain and driving me nuts!

I try my best everyday to soldier on and get past it, but it's been a struggle, to have to give up peace and quiet and accept this vicious and invasive intruder! The fear factor for me is, this could be living in my head forever!

 

[Martin69]

On mild days, I would habituate in a second. On my normal days with my head full of electricity sounds, I may habituate in some years - if I am not completely nuts then.

 

[Jkph75]

I was talking about it actually going away. Habituation is something to settle for I suppose if it doesn't go away.

We are already habituating to it. I don't think about it every second of every day, but I certainly think about it a lot. I would say most of the time. In time, I suppose I would spend less time thinking about it. Really, I want what I am sure every one else wants which is for it to go away.

 

[volsung37]

Part of the problem unfortunately are internet forums like this one. The brain will learn to ignore intrusive but harmless patterns given time. However you have to provide the space to allow your conscious mind to forget the problem. I personally experienced this phenomenon with intrusive floaters in both eyes. I was tortured with them in my teens (long before the internet age). Nothing could be done about them and over a few years I gradually forgot about them. I literally couldn't see them. This lasted 30 years until I watched a youtube video on laser therapy for floaters. Now I see them again. If you keep reminding yourself of the problem or even worse have alerts set up it will be much more difficult for your brain to blank out the pattern. Julian Cowan Hill for example encourages people to stay away from internet fora of at least readonly the success stories. Its easier said than done of course and I myself feel a sort of addiction now to Tinnitus Talk checking in two or three times a day. A holiday abroad away from the internet would do many of us a great deal of good!

 

[joseph Ghass]

Yes, 18 months and I am 70% recovered.

 

[Marlino]

I'm 6 months in and 50% recovered. Have still spikes which highly distresses me, but they seem to get better (shorter).

Im still feeling partly disabled and for a big time of my life not well. But it was 100% , now its less 50%.

Now there are times when I actually have to search for the T to hear it. Hope these times expand. If you cannot find T in your head after lets say 5s in my opinion at least temporarily don't have T. So recovery must be possible. Unfortunately I have no clue how to speed up or encourage healing.

Still trying my self made LLLT from times to times...but its more for the psychological benefit.

 

[Jkph75]

5 months in. No relief in sight for me. I'd say this sound is at least 50db. There's no habituating to this shit. It's ridiculous that I have to live like this.

 

[Marlino]

I'd say this sound is at least 50db.

Can you mask your t? Is it still always same shit or do you also have better times?

 

[Jkph75]

I can mask it usually. I do have times that are better than others. It is especially loud first thing in the morning. I guess I am just cranky. I know other people have it worse. Just seems like they should be able to fix it or do something to at least lower the volume.

 

[Jkph75]

So, what did you guys do to get better? I'm really not getting anywhere overall here. It takes anywhere from 30-50 db of sound to cover this up, yet I don't have a hearing loss that matches. Idk how you could possibly get used to an alarm going of every time you enter a quiet room. I read that most people have tinnitus that is 6db of sound. I have no idea what happened to me.

 

[Alue]

I can mask it usually. I do have times that are better than others. It is especially loud first thing in the morning. I guess I am just cranky. I know other people have it worse. Just seems like they should be able to fix it or do something to at least lower the volume.

If you can mask it, it isn't 50db (over sensory level). I have had my volume matched in a sound booth multiple times over periods of time with a lot of consistency, and it was always between 28 and 31 db/sl. Though admittedly that wasn't frequency matched. I can hear that on an airplane and just about anywhere but the shower. Masking volume is not the same as matching volume.

Not that it's a contest... intrusive T sucks for everyone.

 

[Jkph75]

If you can mask it, it isn't 50db (over sensory level). I have had my volume matched in a sound booth multiple times over periods of time with a lot of consistency, and it was always between 28 and 31 db/sl. Though admittedly that wasn't frequency matched. I can hear that on an airplane and just about anywhere but the shower. Masking volume is not the same as matching volume.

Not that it's a contest... intrusive T sucks for everyone.

Ha This is a contest I would happily lose What is the difference between masking volume and matching volume? Idk where I can find out what the matching level is.

I would think a plane would make more noise than the shower. Maybe it isn't your volume level. Maybe you can't mask the pitch.

 

[Alue]

Masking = minimum volume needed to mask the tinnitus.
Matching = estimated volume matching over sensory level. It really has to be done by an audiologist in a sound booth.

Masking volume will almost always be louder than matching volume.

My shower is pretty loud, it's high volume (quantity of water) and high pressure.

 

[Jkph75]

Masking = minimum volume needed to mask the tinnitus.
Matching = estimated volume matching over sensory level. It really has to be done by an audiologist in a sound booth.




Masking volume will almost always be louder than matching volume.

My shower is pretty loud, it's high volume (quantity of water) and high pressure.

How did you get audiology to do that for you? Then again officially knowing mine is worse than most people's probably won't make things better for me.

 

[GregCA]

I would think a plane would make more noise than the shower.

Depends on your distance to either one.

 

[mintblue]

I don't know if mine is severe or not. I am wondering if it is possible for it to go away completely if you have it pretty bad. Or does having a pretty bad case mean you will have it forever?

Coming up on 4 years and only hear it in complete silence. Rarely ever hear it in environments with a minimal amount of noise. Some weeks I swear I'm cured and then sometimes it comes back. Considering how much work I've done on my own mental health during that time, I'd say I'm recovered. Hang in there, we're all in this together.

 

[Sam Bridge]

I don't really hear it outside unless its silent. How do some people claim they don't hear it when watching tv though? Unless your watching a programme where theres a constant sound going on? If it is two people talking then theres always going to be a pause in the dialogue where you would hear t again???

 

[Alue]

How did you get audiology to do that for you? Then again officially knowing mine is worse than most people's probably won't make things better for me.

Clinical trials.

That's the thing, I took comfort in knowing that most people seem to get better after 3 to 6 months, but later I realized most of those people can only hear it in certain places or when it's quiet. That probably makes up for the majority of tinnitus cases and why doctors don't see it as a big deal. When I first got it and talked to people about it, I figured everyone with Tinnitus could hear it if they looked for it in most environments.

 

[Sam Bridge]

Clinical trials.

That's the thing, I took comfort in knowing that most people seem to get better after 3 to 6 months, but later I realized most of those people can only hear it in certain places or when it's quiet. That probably makes up for the majority of tinnitus cases and why doctors don't see it as a big deal. When I first got it and talked to people about it, I figured everyone with Tinnitus could hear it if they looked for it in most environments.

Im in bar and if i listen for it i can very slightly hear it, is that what you mean?

 

[Jkph75]

Clinical trials.

That's the thing, I took comfort in knowing that most people seem to get better after 3 to 6 months, but later I realized most of those people can only hear it in certain places or when it's quiet. That probably makes up for the majority of tinnitus cases and why doctors don't see it as a big deal. When I first got it and talked to people about it, I figured everyone with Tinnitus could hear it if they looked for it in most environments.

What were the trials? Did it help at all? I don't want to go looking for my tinnitus. That's a sure fire way of making it louder. Normally, there's no searching for it. It's like an alarm unless I do something to cover it up.