I'm writing this because not enough people seem to write about their positive stories on this forum. When you first get here it seems like most people have bad experiences. Here is my experience with tinnitus. (Spoiler alert - despite my original anxiety/fear/confusion it all turned out OK once I started taking the right steps).
In September last year, I went to an extremely loud concert - around my 60th of the year. Two days later, I noticed my ears were still ringing loudly, even as I stood on a noisy main street in central London. As a musician, I was aware of tinnitus and how it can become permanent, so I started to get worried. I've played the drums and guitar in rock bands for years, and I've never worn any kind of ear protection.
The noise was very loud and wouldn't stop. I read posts on this forum and how many people struggle their whole lives to deal with this. I got scared that I would have to live with this anxiety forever, never experience the joy of silence ever again, and that I would have to give up music forever. I wore earplugs one night in an attempt to get to sleep, and I ended up giving myself an ear infection that went on for 5 weeks (only use CLEAN earplugs) and made my tinnitus worse.
Then, I learned through my research at sites like http://tinnitus.org/ that there were some 'treatments' that can help - the different methods of retraining therapy. I learned that these noises are natural and that it was possible to live with them. I started the process of training myself to accept the ringing in my head, to accept that this noise doesn't have any impact on my life other than what I make of it. I also started using sound enrichment for sleep and work (check out the website I mentioned for info on all those things).
It took a while, but I taught myself to accept the noise as a part of my life. I no longer care about the ringing. It's a strange feeling. In my first month, I couldn't imagine living with this. I felt like I HAD to get rid of this somehow, looking into treatments and refusing to accept it. Now, after actively teaching myself that it is Ok, I can hear the noise but it doesn't affect me. I'm back to my old self again, only with a slightly different soundtrack now.
One of the strangest experiences I had was after a party a few days ago. It was quite loud, I even played live music and danced all night with no ear protection. I got the expected much louder ringing that night, but it didn't bother me. The craziest thing was the next night. For whatever reason, I had a night of almost ZERO ringing. I couldn't believe it.
As I sat there in silence for the first time in 4 months, I realized something. The silence wasn't how I remembered it. I thought I would feel a huge rush of relief the moment I got my beloved silence back, but I didn't. Instead, I found myself feeling just as I did with the ringing, maybe even a little less comfortable. I looked back, and when I really thought about it, I never used to sit down and think to myself "Wow, I love how silent it is right now" - I would probably have just been worrying about something else. The silence was overrated, and I knew I could live without it.
The day after that, the ringing came back. But I wasn't disappointed or annoyed at all (it was almost a relief to be back to 'normal', I must have trained myself well!). I've learned through this experience that something like a sound in my head doesn't control my thoughts. I do. It wasn't the sound that was causing me pain, it was my reaction to it. I'm taking this as a lesson for other areas of my life now, too. I'm going to protect my ears much more carefully from now on, but I'm not going to change my love of live music. I know that means I'll be dealing with tinnitus my whole life, but that thought doesn't bother me anymore. That's what this post is about.
If you're still struggling with the anxiety and stress of tinnitus, you can learn to accept it, but you need to be smart and proactive about it. Browsing horror stories in these forums and constantly monitoring changes in your tinnitus won't help you much. I followed the advice on http://tinnitus.org/trt-excercises/ and it worked for me by myself, but I was ready to get professional help if that didn't work.
Once I stopped the cycle of anxiety and worrying over my tinnitus, and started the cycle of acceptance, my life took a change. I can tell you sitting here with a high pitch ringing in my ear that you can learn to deal with it. Good luck!
In September last year, I went to an extremely loud concert - around my 60th of the year. Two days later, I noticed my ears were still ringing loudly, even as I stood on a noisy main street in central London. As a musician, I was aware of tinnitus and how it can become permanent, so I started to get worried. I've played the drums and guitar in rock bands for years, and I've never worn any kind of ear protection.
The noise was very loud and wouldn't stop. I read posts on this forum and how many people struggle their whole lives to deal with this. I got scared that I would have to live with this anxiety forever, never experience the joy of silence ever again, and that I would have to give up music forever. I wore earplugs one night in an attempt to get to sleep, and I ended up giving myself an ear infection that went on for 5 weeks (only use CLEAN earplugs) and made my tinnitus worse.
Then, I learned through my research at sites like http://tinnitus.org/ that there were some 'treatments' that can help - the different methods of retraining therapy. I learned that these noises are natural and that it was possible to live with them. I started the process of training myself to accept the ringing in my head, to accept that this noise doesn't have any impact on my life other than what I make of it. I also started using sound enrichment for sleep and work (check out the website I mentioned for info on all those things).
It took a while, but I taught myself to accept the noise as a part of my life. I no longer care about the ringing. It's a strange feeling. In my first month, I couldn't imagine living with this. I felt like I HAD to get rid of this somehow, looking into treatments and refusing to accept it. Now, after actively teaching myself that it is Ok, I can hear the noise but it doesn't affect me. I'm back to my old self again, only with a slightly different soundtrack now.
One of the strangest experiences I had was after a party a few days ago. It was quite loud, I even played live music and danced all night with no ear protection. I got the expected much louder ringing that night, but it didn't bother me. The craziest thing was the next night. For whatever reason, I had a night of almost ZERO ringing. I couldn't believe it.
As I sat there in silence for the first time in 4 months, I realized something. The silence wasn't how I remembered it. I thought I would feel a huge rush of relief the moment I got my beloved silence back, but I didn't. Instead, I found myself feeling just as I did with the ringing, maybe even a little less comfortable. I looked back, and when I really thought about it, I never used to sit down and think to myself "Wow, I love how silent it is right now" - I would probably have just been worrying about something else. The silence was overrated, and I knew I could live without it.
The day after that, the ringing came back. But I wasn't disappointed or annoyed at all (it was almost a relief to be back to 'normal', I must have trained myself well!). I've learned through this experience that something like a sound in my head doesn't control my thoughts. I do. It wasn't the sound that was causing me pain, it was my reaction to it. I'm taking this as a lesson for other areas of my life now, too. I'm going to protect my ears much more carefully from now on, but I'm not going to change my love of live music. I know that means I'll be dealing with tinnitus my whole life, but that thought doesn't bother me anymore. That's what this post is about.
If you're still struggling with the anxiety and stress of tinnitus, you can learn to accept it, but you need to be smart and proactive about it. Browsing horror stories in these forums and constantly monitoring changes in your tinnitus won't help you much. I followed the advice on http://tinnitus.org/trt-excercises/ and it worked for me by myself, but I was ready to get professional help if that didn't work.
Once I stopped the cycle of anxiety and worrying over my tinnitus, and started the cycle of acceptance, my life took a change. I can tell you sitting here with a high pitch ringing in my ear that you can learn to deal with it. Good luck!
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