Is Tinnitus Getting Quieter a Good Sign?

[noisebox]

Just trying to gain some hope. I'm just wondering if T getting quieter is a good sign. I've been in a big relapse from T gone most days to catastrophic T caused by many things but not noise. 7 months on its getting quieter but higher, is that a good sign?

 

[glynis]

Hi noise box,
I'm hopeful for you that your tinnitus is settling and you are habituating to your tinnitus sound for the second time ....Stay positive ....lots of love glynis

 

[noisebox]

Thank you Glynis, I don't know, Ive lost all my confidence this year. Still have the H too but working on it daily.

 

[glynis]

Tinnitus and the unwanted emotions and your hyperacusis will cause your social skill problems getting out and about and that leads to low confidence .
I lost my confidence and slowly and surely built mine back up again over time and talking therapy really helped me gain my confidence even a simple thing like getting on a bus or down the town on my own and around busy shops and dealing with unexpected issues that my hubby would normally sort out .
Hope a better 2016 for you...lots of love glynis xxx

 

[Telis]

Tinnitus and the unwanted emotions and your hyperacusis will cause your social skill problems getting out and about and that leads to low confidence .
I lost my confidence and slowly and surely built mine back up again over time and talking therapy really helped me gain my confidence even a simple thing like getting on a bus or down the town on my own and around busy shops and dealing with unexpected issues that my hubby would normally sort out .
Hope a better 2016 for you...lots of love glynis xxx

Why did talk therapy help you get on a bus? How can someone talking to you help your ears deal with noise better?

I went to Talk to someone at 180 per hour, they told me to get back into the world which I did at the expense of further damage to my ears.

 

[glynis]

Hi Telis,
I lost lots of confidence like noisebox,
I talked to a man weekly and about the fear I had going to places with my ear problems,tinnitus and Menieres and sever asthma and worked on building up my confidence and mixing again in public as the anxiety with it built up into a social phobia .
It was more of the emotional reaction to tinnitus etc that caused the problem that had built up over months and before I realised I did not want go out but was a long time ago.

One problem my severe Bilateral tinnitus has caused is I can not locate any sound in any direction and still carn't .

..lots of love glynis

 

[uae96]

Why did talk therapy help you get on a bus? How can someone talking to you help your ears deal with noise better?

I went to Talk to someone at 180 per hour, they told me to get back into the world which I did at the expense of further damage to my ears.

With tinnitus there's a lot of emotions / and how you're personality is involved in how you deal with it , maybe if someone else has you're t and h they would've been gone long ago but u seem to have a very strong personal which makes you deal with that bs , so what I'm saying cbt , talk therapy bla bla could help a lot of people cope with they're t that have anxiety issues

 

[Telis]

With tinnitus there's a lot of emotions / and how you're personality is involved in how you deal with it , maybe if someone else has you're t and h they would've been gone long ago but u seem to have a very strong personal which makes you deal with that bs , so what I'm saying cbt , talk therapy bla bla could help a lot of people cope with they're t that have anxiety issues

I have ear pain, pressure, distorted hearing and really bad H. It has nothing to do with my personality, it has to do with the damage done to my ears. i don't think I had/have enough anxiety/fear regarding my ears. I keep making them worse becasue I can not stand wearing ear plugs and in my mind I don't think they can get worse. So when a therapist convinces me not to have bad thoughts/fear and to go out and enjoy myself, it's not a tough sell for me, but is that the right advise? Or is she setting me up to blow my brains out further down the line when my ears get so bad that I can't take it anymore , all becasue I ignored those anxious thoughts. Sometimes fear and anxiety is a good thing. It's our system alarm telling us there is danger. Maybe we should listen to our bodies more instead of some talking head that has no clue about what is happening with our ears.

 

[Nucleo]

One problem my severe Bilateral tinnitus has caused is I can not locate any sound in any direction and still carn't .

This is not because of tinnitus per se, but rather hearing damage.

 

[linearb]

I have ear pain, pressure, distorted hearing and really bad H. It has nothing to do with my personality, it has to do with the damage done to my ears. i don't think I had/have enough anxiety/fear regarding my ears. I keep making them worse becasue I can not stand wearing ear plugs and in my mind I don't think they can get worse. So when a therapist convinces me not to have bad thoughts/fear and to go out and enjoy myself, it's not a tough sell for me, but is that the right advise? Or is she setting me up to blow my brains out further down the line when my ears get so bad that I can't take it anymore , all becasue I ignored those anxious thoughts. Sometimes fear and anxiety is a good thing. It's our system alarm telling us there is danger. Maybe we should listen to our bodies more instead of some talking head that has no clue about what is happening with our ears.

Well, there's definitely such a thing as getting bad advice, and that might be worse than no advice, unfortunately.

There are, apparently, a lot of people who have some form of tinnitus where the feedback loop between perception -> conscious thought -> fear response -> perception, is a big part of what's driving the condition. So, for people like that, "get back out in the world" is probably good advice, provided "out in the world" doesn't involve firearms use, toxic drugs, etc. But, that doesn't mean that it's a good idea for anyone with "ear symptoms", because completely different underlaying etiologies with different progressions, can cause similar symptoms. So, it's hard to say what any one person should do, and professionals are inherently biased by whatever experience they have.

That said -- if we look at what you're describing more in terms of being a chronic and painful condition which is eroding your peace of mind and quality of life, there is a pretty good wealth of data at this point indicating that people who live in chronic pain who adhere to certain cognitive and social programs, have better outcomes across the board than matched controls who don't do those things. Again, this isn't me telling you personally "you do have a degree of control in this and you can improve your quality of life through meditation / yoga / etc" - I don't know you, and science doesn't work like that, you can't take an abstract generalization based on a wide data set and then apply it down to a specific case with any degree of certainty. All I'm saying is that in general, people who live with debilitating pain of one kind or another who do those things on a regular basis over a period of years, have better outcomes than people who don't. On the flip side, you have shit like an anecdote in Oliver Sachs Musicophilia about someone who struggled with tinnitus long term, only to have it go away completely after having a stroke. That's pretty fascinating, but probably not a good reason to go try and induce a stroke.

 

[glynis]

These are the plugs I use @Telis and will have them in later going the Cinima

 

[glynis]

@Nucleo,
I think its both as my tinnitus is severe in both ears but do have ear damadge too.
I get by ok and adapted well to tinnitus with duel purpose hearing aids but will have noise reduction plugs in tonight at the Cinema watching James Bond .... lots of love glynis

 

[uae96]

I have ear pain, pressure, distorted hearing and really bad H. It has nothing to do with my personality, it has to do with the damage done to my ears. i don't think I had/have enough anxiety/fear regarding my ears. I keep making them worse becasue I can not stand wearing ear plugs and in my mind I don't think they can get worse. So when a therapist convinces me not to have bad thoughts/fear and to go out and enjoy myself, it's not a tough sell for me, but is that the right advise? Or is she setting me up to blow my brains out further down the line when my ears get so bad that I can't take it anymore , all becasue I ignored those anxious thoughts. Sometimes fear and anxiety is a good thing. It's our system alarm telling us there is danger. Maybe we should listen to our bodies more instead of some talking head that has no clue about what is happening with our ears.

You have a point , in you're case of t and h I don't think it s any use to u , cbt helps a lot of people with a lot of other conditions , but with t and SPECIALLY H it's difficult , anyway man stay strong , and good luck with everything And ur dog in you're dp is so cute

 

[Telis]

Well, there's definitely such a thing as getting bad advice, and that might be worse than no advice, unfortunately.

There are, apparently, a lot of people who have some form of tinnitus where the feedback loop between perception -> conscious thought -> fear response -> perception, is a big part of what's driving the condition. So, for people like that, "get back out in the world" is probably good advice, provided "out in the world" doesn't involve firearms use, toxic drugs, etc. But, that doesn't mean that it's a good idea for anyone with "ear symptoms", because completely different underlaying etiologies with different progressions, can cause similar symptoms. So, it's hard to say what any one person should do, and professionals are inherently biased by whatever experience they have.

That said -- if we look at what you're describing more in terms of being a chronic and painful condition which is eroding your peace of mind and quality of life, there is a pretty good wealth of data at this point indicating that people who live in chronic pain who adhere to certain cognitive and social programs, have better outcomes across the board than matched controls who don't do those things. Again, this isn't me telling you personally "you do have a degree of control in this and you can improve your quality of life through meditation / yoga / etc" - I don't know you, and science doesn't work like that, you can't take an abstract generalization based on a wide data set and then apply it down to a specific case with any degree of certainty. All I'm saying is that in general, people who live with debilitating pain of one kind or another who do those things on a regular basis over a period of years, have better outcomes than people who don't. On the flip side, you have shit like an anecdote in Oliver Sachs Musicophilia about someone who struggled with tinnitus long term, only to have it go away completely after having a stroke. That's pretty fascinating, but probably not a good reason to go try and induce a stroke.

In my experience with talk therapy, we had nothing to discuss. I mean, I could sit there and bs with her for 180 per hour but that's pretty expensive company. The message from the start was the same, get out, get going, don't feel sorry for yourself, watch your distorted thoughts, and live your life. Yeah I can get that message in the first 5 minutes.

As soon as I wanted to talk about my hyperacusis or tinnitus, she seemed annoyed. If I had reasons like my ears were still in pain from the shopping carts at the grocery store holding me back, she looked at me like I was full of shit. She kept telling me that this was just a noise, she didn't want to hear the rest. This was a very highly recommended tinnitus specialist but she didn't seem to know the technicals about tinnitus.

She also stated that people like me, people that have done well in life, people that have seen success through lifes adversities would make a full recovery very quickly and that people without a history of anxiety, depression, or whatever other mental condition will not suffer from tinnitus. She told me that if I had struggled in the past with life in general, she could see this bothering me, she told me that my personality type does not warrent tinnitus effecting me. She garanteed me that it was just a passing faZe, one of my bad days, and that I was making a big deal out of nothing.

To kind of sum things up, in her opinion, it is just the weak minded anxiety drive personality that suffer from T and H (the people that can't handle life in general to start).

I was kind of expecting some understanding and empathy, instead I always left her office riled up and totally insulted. This was before I had ever discussed my ear condition with anyone besides my doctors, not even here at TT. She was my first Line of contact really. I would have been WAY better off coming here and talking to people that were working around problems like H and that actually understood. I had no clue, the therapist didn't seem to either, the blind leading the blind, it was bloody aweful.

Hours and hours trying to explain my ear condition while she sat there with a puzzled look charging me 180/per hr was pretty frustrating to say the least.

 

[Telis]

You have a point , in you're case of t and h I don't think it s any use to u , cbt helps a lot of people with a lot of other conditions , but with t and SPECIALLY H it's difficult , anyway man stay strong , and good luck with everything And ur dog in you're dp is so cute

Thanks man, she's the best, 7 year old Boston terroir, I've had her since she was a pup. Love her so much.

 

[Carlos1]

@Telis Hey Telis my theripist actually told me that I needed to spend time in quite areas and sit there imagining that I was at a beach and for me sense my surroundings and to let it take over me......Mean while as I'm sitting there listening to her my T is screaming and I was getting more and more pissed I ended canceling the rest of my appointments and realized that if you don't have T you'll never understand what we go through.
Telis my biggest challenge other then the obvious screaming T is staying positive trying to tell myself to enjoy life it's internal mental warfare.....I get exhausted and get sometimes defeated then I have to kick my self in the ass to just go on.
Hang in there man I wouldn't wish this crap on my worst enemy


Carlos

 

[John Meyers]

View attachment 8472 These are the plugs I use @Telis and will have them in later going the Cinima

Thanks Glynis. -- I just purchased washable earplugs like these on Amazon.

 

[linearb]

Hours and hours trying to explain my ear condition while she sat there with a puzzled look charging me 180/per hr was pretty frustrating to say the least.

Well, sounds like her experience was not useful for your situation, and that makes for a bad match for a therapist. I've seen a lot more unhelpful mental health people than helpful ones, for sure.

And, maybe you and I are just in fundamentally different situations -- I do have longstanding issues with anxiety, depression and OCD thinking tied to physiological problems, so for me, all that historical stuff does dogpile on top of the T/pain/etc and make it worse, and to the extent I can get a better grip on all that stuff, it's been very helpful to helping me cope with T/pain. So, I just can't see this condition at all from the perspective of someone who had never struggled with all of that, because it's alien to my own experience.

 

[SoulStation]

Thanks Glynis. -- I just purchased washable earplugs like these on Amazon.

Take in mind the NNR is really low on flight plugs....

 

[Telis]

@Telis Hey Telis my theripist actually told me that I needed to spend time in quite areas and sit there imagining that I was at a beach and for me sense my surroundings and to let it take over me......Mean while as I'm sitting there listening to her my T is screaming and I was getting more and more pissed I ended canceling the rest of my appointments and realized that if you don't have T you'll never understand what we go through.
Telis my biggest challenge other then the obvious screaming T is staying positive trying to tell myself to enjoy life it's internal mental warfare.....I get exhausted and get sometimes defeated then I have to kick my self in the ass to just go on.
Hang in there man I wouldn't wish this crap on my worst enemy


Carlos

Hey Carlos. Thanks man.

Your therapist seems about as genius as mine. Haha the shit we pay for, man we are easy targets.

 

[Telis]

Well, sounds like her experience was not useful for your situation, and that makes for a bad match for a therapist. I've seen a lot more unhelpful mental health people than helpful ones, for sure.

And, maybe you and I are just in fundamentally different situations -- I do have longstanding issues with anxiety, depression and OCD thinking tied to physiological problems, so for me, all that historical stuff does dogpile on top of the T/pain/etc and make it worse, and to the extent I can get a better grip on all that stuff, it's been very helpful to helping me cope with T/pain. So, I just can't see this condition at all from the perspective of someone who had never struggled with all of that, because it's alien to my own experience.

I would never know this from most of your posts, you seem so level headed, cool and well adjusted to life.

 

[linearb]

I would never know this from most of your posts, you seem so level headed, cool and well adjusted to life.

I'm really good at putting words together, and thinking about things as words. Emotions are a lot harder, and also don't tend to come across as well in text.

A lot of the time I feel like I just have to hold my own hand and tell myself that everything is okay, and get through days a minute at a time like that -- but, I guess that is something that I can sort of do now, at least for the moment... and I didn't have a clue how to do that when I was 20, I was a drug addled mess. I'd say that a couple specific things I garnered in therapy have a lot to do with that transformation, but, it didn't come easily, and I saw a lot of unhelpful people before I clicked with anyone.

 

[LadyDi]

Hey @Telis, I have to tell you that cognitive behavioral therapy helped me tremendously with my T. I agree with @linearb. Sounds like your therapist was a bad fit. If you leave a therapist's office more upset than when you went in, she/he is not doing their job.

I was really lucky, I guess, mine was great. I had known her for some time, though, so I knew I could trust her. But I wouldn't give up on therapy completely. I do appreciate that you really suffer in ways I can't imagine, though. I have garden variety tinnitus. Moderate loudness but no H and no ear pain. Hugs for you.


PS: I think your dog is cute, too.