Managing Anxiety About the Future — How Will Tinnitus, Hyperacusis and TTTS Affect My Life?

[Forever hopeful]

I had a similar experience recently, though not a concert. I went on a pontoon boat. The decibel level was 78-80 dB. I wore foam 32 NRR earplugs. I still got a nasty spike immediately afterwards and my tinnitus has just felt overall worse since.

On paper, 80 dB - 32 dB = 48 dB seems like it would be no issue, but we have to learn our tolerances the hard way.

I'm so frustrated. I just want to cry. I'm always so careful. I never have a problem as long as I wear my earplugs. And I wouldn't have gone to the concert if I didn't feel like it had a really good plan for ear protection. And I had my decibel meter with me and maybe a couple of times it got up to 100 dB but it really hovered in the 80s and at times low 90s and often hitting the 70s. With ear protection that should not be an issue. I had a friend that also attended the concert and she was telling me that there were points where she had actually taken her earplugs out because she didn't think it was that loud. And she actually has hearing loss. She doesn't have any tinnitus though.

I'm not sure that mine is louder. I think mine is a little higher pitched now so it's more noticeable. If I plug my ears it's not very loud at all. The problem is it's such a high frequency that you hear it over everything. Now I could always hear mine over everything. But for some reason this has more irritating component to it. And it's also horrifically reactive. My husband had the air conditioner on downstairs and just revved up and I had to come upstairs to work. It calmed down once I did.

How long did your spike last?

 

[Greg Sacramento]

@Ava Lugo, @Uklawyer:

Reactive Tinnitus:

A way to help with over reactive tinnitus - try to stop listening for how it reacts to sound. Let it react. There's several types of Magnesium that will help with reactive tinnitus, pain and anxiety. Get a pill cutter and cut a tablet into four pieces and use pieces throughout the day. You may later want to increase to six pieces a day. Magnesium will help your ears heal.

Anxiety:

Give up the fight. Surrender. Anxiety wants you to fight back! This is a process. Don't answer your bad thoughts. Don't engage with bad thoughts. This is what anxiety wants. Don't attempt to find reasoning of days past.

 

[Lane]

Magnesium will help your ears heal.

Agree.

DMSO & Magnesium Oil for Tonic Tensor Tympani Syndrome (TTTS)

 

[kingsfan]

I'm so frustrated. I just want to cry. I'm always so careful. I never have a problem as long as I wear my earplugs. And I wouldn't have gone to the concert if I didn't feel like it had a really good plan for ear protection. And I had my decibel meter with me and maybe a couple of times it got up to 100 dB but it really hovered in the 80s and at times low 90s and often hitting the 70s. With ear protection that should not be an issue. I had a friend that also attended the concert and she was telling me that there were points where she had actually taken her earplugs out because she didn't think it was that loud. And she actually has hearing loss. She doesn't have any tinnitus though.

I'm not sure that mine is louder. I think mine is a little higher pitched now so it's more noticeable. If I plug my ears it's not very loud at all. The problem is it's such a high frequency that you hear it over everything. Now I could always hear mine over everything. But for some reason this has more irritating component to it. And it's also horrifically reactive. My husband had the air conditioner on downstairs and just revved up and I had to come upstairs to work. It calmed down once I did.

How long did your spike last?

The spike has been constantly fluctuating now. A couple good days where it's only slightly worse than my baseline, and then several days or a week where it's terrible. I think it will just eventually be the terrible every day. Keep in mind, my baseline had already been increased from COVID-19 back at Christmas and an event with some ambulances which I was already struggling with.

Taking Gabapentin off an on seems to help as long as I don't take it every day. Maybe it's keeping my brain guessing.

 

[Daniel Lion]

@Ava Lugo, @Uklawyer:

Reactive Tinnitus:

A way to help with over reactive tinnitus - try to stop listening for how it reacts to sound. Let it react. There's several types of Magnesium that will help with reactive tinnitus, pain and anxiety. Get a pill cutter and cut a tablet into four pieces and use pieces throughout the day. You may later want to increase to six pieces a day. Magnesium will help your ears heal.

Anxiety:

Give up the fight. Surrender. Anxiety wants you to fight back! This is a process. Don't answer your bad thoughts. Don't engage with bad thoughts. This is what anxiety wants. Don't attempt to find reasoning of days past.

These words about anxiety help me @Greg Sacramento.

I was in the ER 5 days ago and nearly died. I took some local herbal medicine that caused tachycardia. I could barely hear or see but rapidly got better on a drip. Post this experience I am just gaining my mental bearings again. I thought I should get steroids etc., but decided against giving my system anymore stress and opted for Magnesium and multivitamins. I am exercising again.
My hearing feels worse, but my tinnitus feels the same. Hard to tell with my hearing, stressful experience and my audiogram being as bad as it is.

I am in the process of acceptance again. I don't know what else to do.

Your thoughts (or anybody else's) are welcome.

Thanks,
Daniel

 

[Forever hopeful]

The spike has been constantly fluctuating now. A couple good days where it's only slightly worse than my baseline, and then several days or a week where it's terrible. I think it will just eventually be the terrible every day. Keep in mind, my baseline had already been increased from COVID-19 back at Christmas and an event with some ambulances which I was already struggling with.

Taking Gabapentin off an on seems to help as long as I don't take it every day. Maybe it's keeping my brain guessing.

Thanks. I didn't realize the boat incident was recent. I do know that you've been struggling for a while and remember that you had to make a move recently as a result of your tinnitus. So sorry to hear that.

Interestingly, I had COVID-19 early last month. But I didn't have any changes to my tinnitus. My doctor actually recommended that I go on Paxlovid just to try to minimize any chance that it would do any damage to my hearing. For me, this is a worsening in the last week post the concert.

Those unexpected acoustic assaults are horrible. I've had a couple of them recently where someone dropped dishes at a restaurant, I dropped a ceramic bowl off my bed onto my hardwood floor - big crash, then I was was pulling out a baking pan from a cabinet that's low to the floor so my ear was towards the ground and the baking pan made a lot of noise when it hit the floor. And then there are the ambulances and the motorcycles etc. I guess I can bubble wrap myself and never leave the house.

Interesting that you use Gabapentin. Do you find it takes the edge off? I have some nerve pain in my feet so I was considering it.

 

[Uklawyer]

Anxiety:

Give up the fight. Surrender. Anxiety wants you to fight back! This is a process. Don't answer your bad thoughts. Don't engage with bad thoughts. This is what anxiety wants. Don't attempt to find reasoning of days past.

A worthy aspiration. Unfortunately, mine haunts me. I'd love to surrender it to the depths of times past, but it feels too much a part of me at present. One day, maybe, it will fly away.

 

[Greg Sacramento]

A worthy aspiration. Unfortunately, mine haunts me. I'd love to surrender it to the depths of times past, but it feels too much a part of me at present. One day, maybe, it will fly away.

@Uklawyer, early on after you started posting, I thought you experienced hidden sensitivity anxiety. Many of us with tinnitus understandably experience anxiety. You didn't mention much about your concerns with anxiety, but wrapped up with your compassion towards other members, I noticed real-time sensitivity from maybe fatigue, exertion and energy metabolism. It's obvious you also have exceptionally good reasoning skills.

I then asked if you have seen the movie Cast Away with Tom Hanks?

This is part of what I wrote:

In the end, Chuck faces the road which leads to the woman with angel wings' house, and he smiles. The ending leaves ambiguity about Chuck's fate. Does he follow the woman, or does he choose some other road?

His time on the island has taught him enough to survive the most trying circumstances. He has also learned to follow the signs, all of which have arrived at the most opportune of times and have kept him alive ...

You replied with:

it looks like you are picking me up on my confusion over the act of accepting what is in the present moment. Yes - that's my expression. In fact, that is how I react to most things, as the little cogs in my head start turning and I try to grasp the meaning of life. I find people most confusing of all. Suffering, inequity; that's just part of life. But we might find something to aid us in our experiences and trials in life if we reflect upon them.

I just went to see a healer here in France. She received a message from a friend during our session and she then asked to call her. Turns out the friend is a medium. Whilst driving, many miles away her friend proceeded to tell her and me all about me. She was scarily accurate about a number of things. Her friend suspected I am "HP" (I guess high IQ in English). Apparently there is high intelligence IQ and high emotional IQ and you can test for both. Everyone has told me that I am fine physically, even though I have ME/CFS and the tinnitus on top. I do not know how tinnitus interweaves with that. But apparently these "HPs" suffer because they see the world in a different way. We shall see.

I wasn't surprised with ME/CFS, but because you don't have physical pain, unpressured counseling may help.

Considerations:

Ask your wife, if on occasion, if she could gently massage the bottom of your lower spine for 10-15 minutes after you get in bed. Ask her to warm up (not hot) a little extra virgin olive oil in the microwave. You will lie on the side of the bed and she can sit in a wooden chair on a pillow next to the bed. With two of her fingers, light, small circular motion of two inches.

Try not to remember things that you need to do. Keep a list and only do one or two things on the list daily or when you feel like it.

It's OK to change your mind and follow another road without much thought. Such as, I'll clean the sink tomorrow, or whenever.

 

[Greg Sacramento]

These words about anxiety help me @Greg Sacramento.

I was in the ER 5 days ago and nearly died. I took some local herbal medicine that caused tachycardia. I could barely hear or see but rapidly got better on a drip. Post this experience I am just gaining my mental bearings again. I thought I should get steroids etc., but decided against giving my system anymore stress and opted for Magnesium and multivitamins. I am exercising again.
My hearing feels worse, but my tinnitus feels the same. Hard to tell with my hearing, stressful experience and my audiogram being as bad as it is.

I am in the process of acceptance again. I don't know what else to do.

Your thoughts (or anybody else's) are welcome.

Thanks,
Daniel

@Daniel Lion, I remember many times, when you were amazing with reaching out to other members. You really know how to express love and kindness.

Magnesium should bring your hearing back to where it was before. It is good to exercise. Being mellow is something I know you have done before.

Love.

 

[Daniel Lion]

@Daniel Lion, I remember many times, when you were amazing with reaching out to other members. You really know how to express love and kindness.

Magnesium should bring your hearing back to where it was before. It is good to exercise. Being mellow is something I know you have done before.

Love.

Thank you @Greg Sacramento so much, I needed some reassurance and you came through.

Love and hugs to you too.

Most sincerely,
Daniel

 

[Uklawyer]

I wasn't surprised with ME/CFS, but because you don't have physical pain, unpressured counseling may help.

@Greg Sacramento, may I ask why you were not surprised that I have ME/CFS? A natural consequence of an anxious constitution?

Thank you for you kind words, selfless interest, receptiveness, insight and advice. I will challenge my wife to give me some TLC.

It is funny: with your advice, you touch on aspects not just of me, but of my family life.

It's OK to change your mind and follow another road without much thought.

Succinct, yet very true - and highly relevant. Not having worked for a while now and seeing the joys of what time out does to your stock in the eyes of recruiters, I am sitting here trying to think what course to take. Healers and others seem to consistently evoke the idea of a change. For my part, helping others appears to be to only possible fork to take off this road - but hard to make such a life-changing decision when you are struggling to help yourself (and the change would mean sacrifice, considerable effort and great uncertainty).

I am trying to let it soak in.

I admire you tremendously.

 

[Greg Sacramento]

Healers and others seem to consistently evoke the idea of a change.

For my part, helping others appears to be to only possible fork to take off this road - but hard to make such a life-changing decision when you are struggling to help yourself (and the change would mean sacrifice, considerable effort and great uncertainty).

Over four million Americans and Europeans have ME/CFS and many don't know it. It's not their fault.

Do things when you feel like it. It may be best for you, not to have someone coach you in overcoming limitations or give you ideas to change. Do let family talk and listen. Most professional caregivers that diagnose a condition such as yours, or with the elderly, understand limitations. We both have more going on, besides tinnitus.

Tell others, your family, please love me, accept me, to understand if I could do more, I would. It's their choice, but don't punish yourself if they feel different and want you to be more productive. Don't beg.

Don't pressure yourself or answer your bad thoughts.

We understand each other.

 

[Uklawyer]

Tell others, your family, please love me, accept me, to understand if I could do more, I would. It's their choice, but don't punish yourself if they feel different and want you to be more productive.

It's funny how hard it is for people to get this simple concept. You can kill yourself getting through a degree and Master's and training in your profession and yet people still don't seem to trust you. "Try a little more."

These issues are not easy for anyone - especially those that do want to push and to achieve. Not being able to do so is painful in itself.

 

[Greg Sacramento]

It's funny how hard it is for people to get this simple concept. You can kill yourself getting through a degree and Master's and training in your profession and yet people still don't seem to trust you. "Try a little more."

I often think so. It depends who the audience is. I once posted on a community healthcare site with lots of professional caregivers. Many hearing loss tinnitus sufferers had reasonable results. At least fifty percent with physical tinnitus received results. We never asked them to try a little more, but they did listen and were always appreciative. Most members on Tinnitus Talk are also appreciative when someone tries to help them.

 

[Greg Sacramento]

These issues are not easy for anyone - especially those that do want to push and to achieve. Not being able to do so is painful in itself.

I understand.

ME/CFS needs to be believed and respected. Simple as that!

Came in contact with hundreds of people with ME/CFS during my lifetime.

Some don't realize they have this condition and others may not realize it either.

They can't be pushed or encouraged beyond their limitations. It needs first to be recognized by others.

Often others don't understand and it shouldn't be seen as a personality trait.

Those with ME/CFS don't show self-exhibition/self-display and are not self-absorbed. They often don't ask for love. It's quite the opposite.

Ask your family and friends to make an online visit to the ME Association.