I've Had Some Amazing Improvement in the Last Year

[Lurius]

Hello, folks. I don't know who is still here among those I know well. I don't come here much anymore, and if I'm going to be perfectly honest, I never thought I'd post in this part of the forum.

This is sort of my signing off permanently post, as I doubt I will post much after this. Initially, I wanted to hold a post in this section until I was 100% cured, but what the hell... I'm feeling generous and like sharing.

In the last year, I've spent a great deal of time doing physical therapies in the form of building my body, losing weight, and such in the gym. I've also spent a great deal of time doing stretching exercises. I cannot overstate how much this has transformed my tinnitus. Turns out I was about as stiff as a plank, and almost every part of my body needed a long stretch for about 50,000 years. I've come to believe that at least 40-50% of my tinnitus is muscular. I still can't manipulate it by touching my face, but OH BOI, can I manipulate it by working out and stretching my legs/neck, etc?

Since I'm nearly six years into tinnitus, I've also acquired a great deal of knowledge and wisdom about how to work around my tinnitus, what to avoid, when to protect, how much, etc. This keeps me from falling into the worst traps, and I feel like I'm a bit of a pro with this now. I'm a tinnitus veteran talking here.

The most important is to acknowledge the marriage of the physical with the psychological and restore a balance to your brain and soul. For people who have had tinnitus for more than three months, I've come to believe it's something more than a hearing issue. If you gain 40-50 kg over ten years and one day you look in the mirror and feel shocked, this weight will not come off in a year. You did a lot of stuff to get to that place. It's sort of the same with tinnitus; it's probably been a process and many of you people have been in a bad place for a long time before tinnitus struck (not all, of course). The point is that you have to adjust your expectations in terms of the timeline and start doing the stuff required to unwind all that stress, muscular knots, and what have you that's been building for a decade. I agree that sometimes, it's actually a serious hearing issue or something inside your cochlea; at least, that cannot simply be fixed by doing Yoga. That is absolutely true, but I also believe most people will benefit from Occam's razor if you catch my drift.

I wanted to say that today, my tinnitus was at a 0.5 on the scale. Probably even lower. The annoying *tone* that goes on and on was all but gone, and I could hear nothing but a faint crackling. It was almost inaudible. It's the lowest tinnitus I've ever had. While I would jump up and down, laugh, and cry, I'm not doing that. Instead, I'm smiling on the inside and taking it as proof that what I'm doing is working, and I *CAN GET RID OF THIS*. Besides, a 0.5... I could read a book with this. I could immerse myself in any activity of my choosing and not feel too bothered by tinnitus at this level. It's possible, guys. You all know me; you know how this has been for me. You remember my agony. And now I'm here. I put in a lot of work. I found a lot of things that worked for me. And I'm going to continue doing this.

I was going to make a sort of "guide" to new people on what to do and not do, but I'm a little busy right now (I'm packing because I'm moving to a new place in two days, surrounded by banana boxes here), so it will have to be later. If anyone wants something like that, I'm willing to give back to the community that way before I probably take off for good.

If anyone has any questions, I'll stick around for a bit to answer them. I hope you're all doing better. I will probably check the forums every three months or so for treatments in the Research News sections, but I'm confident now that it's possible to love yourself back to life and fight this effing sound. The hardest part was getting to a place where I could even fight.

 

[Toenyshaful]

Thank you for this. I have been on Tinnitus Talk for the past month just reading everything I can. I actually read a lot of your posts and interactions with other people, so to see your success post is really reassuring for me. Thank you, you gave me so much hope.

 

[MiaVIL]

Congratulations on your success. Was the improvement linear? Are most days a 0.5? What are your days like?

 

[sspencermo]

First, congrats on the work you've done to get to this page—we all know it's no easy task. I'd love to see your guide.

I hope I'll be able to post in the Success Stories one day myself.

 

[Sherif]

Thanks for coming back and posting this! Don't forget to change your mood!

 

[RunningMan]

0.5 for tinnitus volume sounds like tinnitus you would only hear in a very quiet room. I haven't had it that low in well over 20 years.

I know @Lurius used Lenire. I wonder if that was a factor in habituating?

 

[Muggumbo]

Congratulations! I hope you enjoy the rest of your life. I hope it goes away completely, but even if it doesn't, it sounds like you're doing great.

 

[Anomalous]

Gratulerer!

What kind of stretching exercises did you do, and how often? How long did it take for you to see improvement?

 

[weehiru]

Congratulations! Super stoked for you

 

[Orba]

Did the tinnitus volume really go down or are you able to handle it better due to improved physical and mental health?

 

[MiaVIL]

Did the tinnitus volume really go down or are you able to handle it better due to improved physical and mental health?

@Lurius stated his tinnitus is almost inaudible.

 

[Lurius]

Hey again, guys. Sorry for the late reply, but I've been completely unable to respond until now due to moving to a new apartment. It's been non-stop packing, throwing stuff out for a month, and then the fateful moving day. By the end of that day, my feet felt like mush and rock simultaneously. My feet were so broken that I couldn't walk; I think I had my shoes on for about 18 hours straight. Unpleasant. But now I'm settled in a new place and even online—the wonders of pragmatism.

I'll try to answer some questions here first, and then I want to expand a little bit on my transformation. Not too much, because there is so much to say, and I tend to get lost in the never-ending story once I get going if you catch my drift.

Was the improvement linear? Are most days a 0.5? What are your days like?

@MiaVIL, the gradual improvement mostly came in fits and starts. Improvement could turn to merciless worsening, then a week of peace, then a month of torture—it was a lot of back and forth. The key was to get to a place mentally where I could endure it when it was bad, focus elsewhere, and find more interesting things than the tinnitus. At the same time, I don't want to present myself as some superhuman being who now has a nervous system of pure adamantium. Most days are definitely not a 0.5; I mentioned that because it was a "new record" for me. While I am definitely in a much better place, I would say most days are 1-5 on the scale. Sometimes, I have the odd "terror episode" like all of you guys, but that has become rare.

I know @Lurius used Lenire. I wonder if that was a factor in habituating?

@RunningMan, I do indeed use Lenire, and I still use it. I've talked about Lenire before, and I'm not going to reiterate my full stance on it again here, but to be relatively brief on the subject, I think the key to success with Lenire is to experiment and find your sweet spot. Usage has to match your brain, and I believe what Neuromod is suggesting (1 hour daily) is completely insane. I use it every other day for 20 minutes, so on a week where I would start on a Monday, it goes Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday, and then the next week is Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, etc. It has hurt me many times, but in the long term, it has helped me more than it has hurt me. It has enabled me to handle and tolerate the sound, allowing me to find ways to expand my repertoire and toolbox. I guess I am very motivated to figure this crap out.

What kind of stretching exercises did you do, and how often? How long did it take for you to see improvement?

@Anomalous, every time I see your name, I think about the Cookie Monster because of A nom nom nom alus xD

The stretching wasn't advanced in any way, but I've done quite a lot of it, and I cannot stress how stiff I was. Sometimes, when I hit a specific position, I feel a sort of tingling sensation throughout my entire body, and I get a mix of pain and relief at the same time. That feeling is better than sex, I kid you not. I often hold that position for a good 2 minutes before I switch and try to push it as much as possible, even if it's painful. Something else I did was exercise a great deal of "sleep hygiene" by throwing out all my other pillows and buying a very, very expensive "super pillow"—this has completely removed the neck pain that was giving me a significant issue for a long time. That was actually where I got the idea of stretching, to begin with. I realized how much impact it has on me.

Did the tinnitus volume really go down or are you able to handle it better due to improved physical and mental health?

@Orba, both, I would say. These go hand in hand. There is not one without the other.

About a year ago, I got the unfortunate message that I would not get an extension on my housing contract and would have to move after 12 months. Although I had prepared for this, I was caught by surprise. I was also getting quite overweight, and my self-confidence was in the toilet. I felt deeply unattractive to the opposite sex and mentally isolated, and I now had the enormous job of finding a new place to live and moving there ahead of me. I felt like committing suicide at first, but at the same time, I had already lived with tinnitus for over four years and had some fighting spirit. I decided to pull myself together because I had already come this far. Because of the events that led up to my getting this condition in the first place, I've been focusing on self-development for over a decade. A few years ago, I started to get somewhere and discovered the Stoics, the magic of pragmatism, a pragmatic mindset, and my spiritual side. Most importantly, I've learned how to communicate truly—I cannot overstate how much this has transformed my life. These days, when I talk to people, I use something I call "authentic communication," which to me is about communicating "what's on your heart" instead of "what's on your mind." It's about having the vocabulary and the wisdom to say the things you want to say and speak from a place of authenticity. To tell your truth from your position. Throughout my life, I've struggled enormously with saying the things that have occupied my body. When you deeply care about something, sometimes it can feel like this feeling of passion (which can turn to fear or anger if that passion is threatened) is in your entire body, so much that it almost hampers your ability to talk about it in a way that makes sense to others. I've also been "blessed" with a lot of family members who are quite narcissistic and toxic, so I've grown accustomed to having a sixth sense tingle on those kinds of people. But I never had the words, confidence, or even the knowledge to talk about my feelings on these subjects intelligently or at all.

I've grown tremendously as a person, so much so that I've begun to consider training to become a coach so I can teach other people about this. Through the Stoics, I've also discovered pragmatism and how wonderful it is to become efficient, effective, and practical—someone who has a tidy, neat life. I'm a master at organizing my life now because I embraced this mindset. This helped me clear my mind and get my head above water.

And then there was the physical aspect: eating better, working out, and stretching. Take care of myself and my body, which is everything, after all. There was an exterior motive here. My father is quite old and sick. He has begun to show signs of dementia, his memory is shot to shit by now, and he cannot really keep track of a conversation anymore. He survived cancer, and then he got rheumatism. He's in a lot of pain and is stuck in a chair. Getting up requires help, and moving around is hard. He never worked out, and he had quite a lot of alcohol, in my opinion. This scared me a great deal. And I decided that I did not want to end up like that. In diapers, stuck in a chair. I want to be able to jog a mile when I'm 75. I want to be able to dance, have good balance, and age gracefully. So, my goal was never to become like Arnold Schwarzenegger, but I wanted to make physical exercise a habit. A lifestyle is something that I do methodically and without connecting emotion to it. Like eating and breathing—everyone has to do that. At first, I had a lot of setbacks because I often got injuries or something happened that kept me from going. It could be many things, like a tummy ache or heavy snowfall, or I bonked my toe in a door. After 8-9 months, I didn't let such things stop me anymore, and I got the sessions in regularly. Then, I started stretching after each workout about five months ago. That was a game changer, and I will pursue yoga now and focus on that over lifting heavy things.

The whole process was primarily to prepare for moving house so I would be physically and mentally fit for such an operation. I didn't want to be depressed anymore; I didn't want to get into a really difficult situation with my landlords or end up on the street with no place to live. I'm a problem-solver, solution-minded, and a survivor. I usually do what I have to do to make things work out when it comes down to it.

I could go on and on. I think the main thing for me was finding things that I know help, as that gives me a sort of soft guarantee that I can do something about this when it gets really bad. Over time, that has developed into the noise gradually going down and staying there, more or less. My average is around a 3, I think. Sometimes it's a 5, sometimes it's a 1. I can focus on the things I want, and although I hear the tinnitus, it's often so low that I immediately move my focus elsewhere.

When I've managed to unpack things, and the apartment is completely "ready," I'll try to make this guide where I could touch on some of these subjects in greater detail. I think accepting tinnitus is a profoundly unnatural thing for humans to do, and getting to a place, mentally, where that becomes possible requires a great deal of shift in perspective and a degree of maturity that is often not found in most people in Western society today. I still hope to get completely rid of it one day, but I've accepted that I have it for an undisclosed amount of time. That doesn't mean I will stop fighting, but fighting doesn't have to be angry. Gandhi beat the Brits with his passive approach, after all.

I wish you all a great week. Remember to love yourself for who you are today.

 

[Cher2]

@Lurius, there was some great information in your post.

Can you provide additional information on the "super pillow" that you use now?

Thanks!

 

[BrOKeN_1]

I think accepting tinnitus is a profoundly unnatural thing for humans to do, and getting to a place, mentally, where that becomes possible requires a great deal of shift in perspective and a degree of maturity that is often not found in most people in Western society today.

Amen to that. Very happy for you. I've somewhat followed your progress for a few years now. Listening to you now is a breath of fresh air. Tinnitus Talk has become depressing in the last six months, and I've had to take time away. I am trying only to pop in once a week. But I'm glad I did. Finding your success story has been a real treat. You've given me a lot to think about. I've let the depression and feeling of defeat live rent-free in my head for way too long. Hearing you talk about doing what I know I need to do and finding relief therein has rekindled some faith. Time for me to get off my ass...

Best wishes. I pray your improvements only continue indefinitely.

 

[BuzzingBay]

Something else I did was exercise a great deal of "sleep hygiene" by throwing out all my other pillows and buying a very, very expensive "super pillow"—this has completely removed the neck pain that was giving me a significant issue for a long time.

@Lurius, I would love to know which "super pillow" worked for you.

 

[Lurius]

@Lurius, I would love to know which "super pillow" worked for you.

Hey, the pillow is simply called "The Nap," but it's a Danish production so I doubt you will be able to get it in the USA, if that's where you're from.

 

[BuzzingBay]

Hey, the pillow is simply called "The Nap," but it's a Danish production so I doubt you will be able to get it in the USA, if that's where you're from.

Oh well, thanks for replying anyway. I've tried so many pillows, and I can't help but wonder how much my cervical spine issues might be affecting my tinnitus. I'll keep looking. Thanks again, and congratulations on your progress!

 

[Juliane]

How are you today, @Lurius?

 

[Lurius]

How are you today, @Lurius?

Hello @Juliane. I don't come here as often anymore, so sorry for the delay. I could answer your question with a simple "I'm doing fine," but I've decided to be a bit more detailed this time.

I'm both doing quite well and really struggling at the same time. Since August, I've been seeing a new audio therapist (the term is a little lost in translation), who is helping me find new ways to manage and think about my tinnitus, as well as how to approach reducing noise levels. I've seen a lot of audio therapists before, but they eventually made me feel hopeless due to how dispassionate they were about their work and the message they were sending. It didn't feel like healing; it felt like they were just as confused as I was.

This time, it's very different. My current therapist has helped "unwind" a lot of the issues I developed from previous experiences. She's also confident that I can reduce my tinnitus significantly, if not entirely, although I have some additional complications, so it will be a long and challenging journey for me. These complications include:

• My autism, which causes my nervous system to have a much lower threshold for stress.
  
  
• I'm also what's often called a "highly sensitive person" (HSP), but not in a way that means I cry easily. I'm sensitive to things like criticism, sensory input, and the beauty and ugliness of life. I can get lost in art and feel its impact more intensely than non-HSP people. This sensitivity also means that distortions like tinnitus affect me deeply, which is one of the reasons I still struggle with it.
  
  
• I've severely underestimated my misophonia and hyperacusis. They're still very present, and I'm also much more anxious than I realized. This anxiety likely stems from severe mistreatment as a child, which included violence, sexual assault, separation anxiety, and other traumas. Sudden, loud noises easily put me on edge, and we're working on addressing this.

Recently, I went through a dramatic and disastrous episode with a large group of people I played PC games with. I won't go into all the details, but essentially, something happened that triggered my PTSD, causing me to overreact. In response, the group reacted even more intensely, and I was promptly kicked out after receiving a flood of hate and toxicity from about 50 people. This incident gave me massive anxiety for around 48 hours, and my tinnitus spiked significantly.

I've also realized that my autism diagnosis itself has been a huge burden on my mental well-being, much more than I initially thought. I've never felt comfortable with the diagnosis, and adjusting to it felt like I had to become someone I'm not. I've noticed that when people don't know about my autism and treat me like everyone else, I feel more at peace, and my tinnitus almost disappears. This experience has shown me how much the stigma around my diagnosis has weighed on me. Moving forward, I plan to focus less on my autism as a defining part of who I am.

I've also started experimenting with listening to music at a louder volume to get more accustomed to it. My audio therapist has assured me that it's safe and that my hearing isn't in danger. The main issue is my general anxiety about hearing loss and potential setbacks.

Lately, I've been researching the effects of excessive screen time on the brain, and several studies suggest that it weakens neural connections. I've read about people who gave up screens for 12 months and saw massive improvements in brain connectivity. I'm considering reducing or eliminating screen time to see if it helps restore my memory and cognitive abilities.

I've also decided to find a new place to live, as my landlord has become intolerable. Next year, I'll be looking for a new home.

That was quite a lot, but now you have a sense of where I'm at. I hope you're doing well too. Remember to exercise, breathe, and prioritize self-love.