Life Gets Amazing — Tinnitus Doesn't Matter

[Joe J]

What's up all! Joe here with a little story.

I got tinnitus 4 years ago.

I became completely detached from reality. Lost my mind. No joke. I was in a dark place. Let the ringing destroy my life. I lost my job and girlfriend. Had to move in with my parents.

Fast forward...

I literally don't give a shit about it now. I make $200k a year. Have a super hot girlfriend, a bad ass house, a brand new Cadillac.

Tinnitus doesn't matter. It's wanting it to go away that matters. Move on with your life. It will be awesome. I hear the eeeee right now. But I literally don't think about it 99.9999% of the time which means I don't even notice it.

Ya it's annoying that you basically have to suck it up buttercup, but sooner you accept that, sooner you become unstoppable.

 

[Matchbox]

I make $200k a year.

Well someone's flexing.

What do you do anyways that tinnitus won't bother you lest it gets worse?

 

[ZFire]

Look out @Foamearplugssuck.

We got another Chad here!

Anyways, glad to see you are in a much better place than even before your tinnitus onset.

All the best to you and thanks for stopping by here and updating us after all this time.

Gives many us here hope.

 

[Wrfortiscue]

Congratulations!

@Joe J how was your tinnitus like?

 

[T Toledo OH]

How long did it take before your tinnitus was no longer a problem?

 

[Joe J]

@Matchbox, good call out. Really more saying hey, I was in the depth of despair. Literally wanted to kill myself.

Now I have an awesome successful life.

Part of not giving a shit about tinnitus is not even worrying about it. It doesn't go anywhere. I wear headphones at the gym. I play loud music in my car.

I'm not sitting front row at concerts, but that's just dumb regardless.

Life can be dope with it. There are tons of people who have garbage lives who have nothing wrong with them.

 

[Joe J]

@Wrfortiscue, hey dude. The tinnitus is a loud eeeeeeeee 24/7.

 

[Joe J]

@T Toledo OH, that's the part that sort of sucks. The sooner you accept that you're not getting rid of it, the sooner you stop giving a shit.

It's the wanting silence that causes the despair. Tinnitus is a sound. It's nothing.

 

[Joe J]

@ZFire, hahaha total Chad post. Good call out. Just wanted to say hello and spread the good word.

If I could flip a switch and be rid of it. Of course. But since I ultimately don't care anymore, I've been able to have a really awesome life.

Silver lining too. When you go through what a lot of us go through when it first sets in, it really eliminates all the dumb shit you used to stress about.

 

[Johan001]

Thank you for your story, it's inspiring.

How long did it take for you to habituate and did you apply any specific techniques to achieve it?

 

[Joe J]

@Johan001, it is an ebb and flow process. My biggest tip is to go on some antidepressants right away to take the edge off.

Then re-immerse yourself in life and you'll slowly stop giving a shit and can stop the antidepressant.

People worry so much about it getting worse. Just use common sense. Don't play music on full blast in your ear or mow your lawn without earplugs.

Other than that, some 1% outlier situation that seems prevalent because of all the posts on Tinnitus Talk isn't realistically going to happen.

Short story long, it probably took a good year and a half to not give a shit at all but I was super messed up mentally when I got it.

 

[Johan001]

Thank you @Joe J. I was on Mirtazapine for the first 15 months. I am glad I am off it now, although I am still struggling after 1.5 years. Well done on the time frame.

 

[DaveFromChicago]

To Joe J:

My only reservation regarding your commentary is that you felt it necessary to regale us with all of that insufferably ballyhooing, adolescent braggadocio.

 

[Joe J]

@DaveFromChicago, great vocab man. You're free to interpret it however you like.

Hopefully my message resonates with someone who may not use a thesaurus to write forum comments.

 

[Johan001]

I find this story helpful. It shows that when a person is habituated, they can achieve stuff, which in turn shows that they are living the life. I believe the reason @Joe J said all that, is to illustrate his success. Kind of giving a proof to the statement "I feel fine".

 

[Wrfortiscue]

I would just say be careful with loud noise overall... I had the regular loud static ringing before, in which it was easy peasy. After more noise damage I now have an angle grinder that pierces my skull and wakes me up. Enjoy life like you are, just be cautious a bit lol.

 

[Joe J]

@Johan001, thanks man. I took a note from the feedback Dave gave. Want to make sure my message is more universal.

Also wanted to add, I was completely against the concept of habituation. It was no tinnitus or nothing.

This really made it take so much longer to get my life together and stay stuck in the misery phase.

 

[Johan001]

@Joe J, yeah, I have bitterly accepted that the ringing is there to stay. So, habituation is my holy grail now. There's no other choice for us at the moment anyway.

 

[DaveFromChicago]

To Joe J:

I was an English Major. I have never used and do not own a Thesaurus.

It is very disappointing that the caliber of new posters this year has declined so precipitously.

 

[Joe J]

@DaveFromChicago, ah yep that makes sense. A thinker, not a doer. I'm sure you'll be posting on this site for years to come with your glorious manufactured sentences.

For everyone else, I seriously wish you all happiness. Going through tinnitus was literally the darkest and most profound thing that ever happened to me and it gets better like it never happened.

 

[makeyourownluck]

Think you should give the guy a break. It's great that he's came back with a success story. It gives others hope.

It is very disappointing that the caliber of new posters this year has declined so precipitously.

Bit of a generalisation here. You do sound like you've swallowed a thesaurus, but then again, I am just another low caliber newcomer.

 

[Cernuto]

Be careful, it can get louder.

 

[kingsfan]

I'm curious what antidepressant you used, and did it increase your tinnitus at all?

 

[Barry098]

I find habituation stories like this to be inspiring. It would be great if tinnitus just went away but realistically, habituation is the only thing that we can actually work towards so it's always nice to hear about tinnitus sufferers who went through the spiral and came out alright on the other side.

Thanks for sharing Joe J.

 

[Johan001]

@DaveFromChicago, I really understand that you have been suffering and I can totally relate as I've been having a really hard time since this whole thing started. I understand that you wish there was a cure or a treatment to silence it, but there isn't. So, habituation or coping is our only way out (well, I don't mention the "other" way out). I saw that on a few recent success stories you posted that you find the author being patronising or braggadocious. But I strongly disagree. People who post these stories are seriously trying to help, otherwise they wouldn't even bother spending their time writing them for us. So, I don't see why we would need to criticize these guys...

I definitely share the anger towards doctors who really are patronising and are downplaying our struggle, guys like Will.am who is laughing on TV about it, but that has not been the case with the success story guys on this forum. All of these stories start with how debilitating it was in the beginning.

So, as much anger and frustration we have acquired due to this condition, I strongly believe these feelings should not be directed towards fellow sufferers who care to write their stories for us.

 

[Johan001]

Think you should give the guy a break. It's great that he's came back with a success story. It gives others hope.

Bit of a generalisation here. You do sound like you've swallowed a thesaurus, but then again, I am just another low caliber newcomer.

As a non-native speaker I actually had to Google some of those words. However, I speak a few other European languages to counterbalance my caliber

By the way, @Joe J is not even a newcomer, he's been on this forum since January 2017.

 

[GregCA]

I understand that you wish there was a cure or a treatment to silence it, but there isn't. So, habituation or coping is our only way out (well, I don't mention the "other" way out).

I wouldn't call habituation/coping as a way "out". I'm habituated and I cope, but that's not a success story to me, and I'm still very much "in it".

The only difference is I stopped talking about it to anyone and keep everything for myself: the rest of the world is unable to help so it makes asking for help a pointless exercise. It also makes people uncomfortable as they feel powerless to do anything for you. It's now a bit of a lonely experience, which is part of the challenge to any newcomers.

 

[Johan001]

I wouldn't call habituation/coping as a way "out". I'm habituated and I cope, but that's not a success story to me, and I'm still very much "in it".

The only difference is I stopped talking about it to anyone and keep everything for myself: the rest of the world is unable to help so it makes asking for help a pointless exercise. It also makes people uncomfortable as they feel powerless to do anything for you. It's now a bit of a lonely experience, which is part of the challenge to any newcomers.

I am sorry you are still in it.

By "out" I was referring to being out of the constant state of terror and deep depression in the first place. Mind you, I am still at that stage, so I can't talk about habituation from my experience yet.

However, I do see stories where people get back to pretty much normal, even if there's no change to the tinnitus, I think in this case they are definitely "out" of the suffering. I want to get to that stage too.

What choice do we have otherwise?

 

[GregCA]

By "out" I was referring to being out of the constant state of terror and deep depression in the first place.

Yes, that I'm out of indeed, and that's a good milestone.

However, I do see stories where people get back to pretty much normal, even if there's no change to the tinnitus, I think in this case they are definitely "out" of the suffering.

I don't know about being out of suffering. If you asked my family, they'd tell you I'm back to pretty much normal too: I keep working, doing activities with my family, it all looks normal from the outside. I haven't brought tinnitus up with them for years. But I'm definitely not out of suffering. I just don't express it anymore. Looks can be deceiving.

What choice do we have otherwise?

We can choose to avoid putting a positive spin on our situation. I personally think it is doing us a disservice, as it reduces the perceived importance of the suffering and takes away the urgency to act from the medical community, but at the same time, I'm not blaming anyone for using any "think positive" techniques to help them cope. Whatever works for each of us.

 

[OnceUponaTime]

Tinnitus doesn't matter. It's wanting it to go away that matters. Move on with your life. It will be awesome. I hear the eeeee right now. But I literally don't think about it 99.9999% of the time which means I don't even notice it.

So happy for you! And hope your success story can help others here.

Unfortunately, some members on this forum have severe tinnitus with much, much worse sounds than just an "eeeeeee" sound. Some have sound distortions, multiple sounds, brain vibrations, eye floaters, migraines, daily severe headaches, reactive tinnitus, ETD, hearing loss, drone/hum, hyperacusis, ear pain, clogging, vertigo, etc, etc. These other symptoms, unfortunately need to be address differently than with just "ignore it" or "suck it up butter cup." Even when we accept our condition, sadly, some of these symptoms never go away.

I wish not to bring anyone down with my comment but we need to understand that there are levels of tinnitus. While some people have mild tinnitus, others have severe tinnitus. And while someone can tolerate severe tinnitus, another person may have panic attacks and anxiety with mild tinnitus. We are all different, our body chemistry is different.

I wish you continual success but please be careful around loud noises. One mistake and you are back to square one.
Life gave you a second chance that most on this forum would love to have, don't ruin it.

Best of luck!
Once