My Tinnitus Up to Now

[Marty]

Hello everybody! I hope you'll read this, maybe give me some advice, and hopefully share your own stories.I don't think this will be a big wall of text, but just in case, I apologize in advance.

My name is Martin and I'm 18 years old. My tinnitus started around the 13th of February 2012(yes, I remember the exact date!). As many others I used to listen to music via headphones at WAY to loud volume. I then started hearing this high pitched sound. In the beginning I only heard it when I was wearing the headphones without any music playing in them. At first I simply thought it was something wrong with the headphones, but then I heard the sound at one time without wearing the headphones. I then asked some friends to put on the headphones and asked if they could hear anything: Obviously they couldn't.

Now; an old music teacher I had when I was in like the first grade had tinnitus, and he educated and warned all kids about this, so I already knew about the condition, and I realized I had it.

Well after a lot of looking around on the internet, and worrying, and thinking, and talking, and crying I started to calm down about this - a bit. I went to scan my brain(don't know the word for this in English - is it MRI?) and I wore my earplugs very often.

But the scan was okay, nothing wrong there. And I then used the earplugs less and less often, and now I don't think I wear them more then necessary, even though I'm still a bit paranoid about loud sounds/high volumes(plus, I've got a sound level meter which I sometimes use to know if the sound is too loud, and if I need earplugs).

So I'm doing quite OK when it comes to coping with the sound, and I think my overall life quality is good.

That's basically my tinnitus story so far. Please do reply and introduce yourself, I'd love to make some new friends here. I have some questions(and maybe I can help you with some of your questions!), but I'll take that in another thread. Thank you for reading and hope to see you on the forum in the future!

 

[Petloy]

Hi Marty, I think I got my T due to listening to my iPhone (very loud) when I run, and I used to run everyday for 2 years. Welcome to TT!

 

[Markku]

Sounds quite typical as how one may acquire tinnitus.

The good - or actually great - news is that you are coping and think your life quality isn't that much worse even with the T.

Those are two key principles in managing tinnitus. It's important to acknowledge that while tinnitus can be annoying (and sometimes destroying the quality of life for a while), you are still in control of your life.

It's a very small minority of all who experience constant tinnitus who can't cope with it at all a year or two from the onset (in the beginning it is very tough for many, but habituation takes place for most soon thereafter). There are exceptions, and no one can really judge anyone else's tinnitus, some do have it worse than others and then there are also the psychological differences between people.

Anyway, I'm happy you are doing okay. And you are young, so there is plenty of time for working treatments to come available, and still have plenty of life left in you...

Welcome aboard!

 

[Fish]

Hello Marty! Welcome to tinnitustalk. I am never sure whether to be glad we have a new member or not. I'd rather you had no reason to come here if you know what I mean

You seem to have a healthy attitude towards this condition, this is very good. Did it take you a lot of time to learn to tolerate your T? I am 6 months "in" and while I have started habituating, I am not quite yet there.

Good news is, there is many treatments researched as we speak, and we might have a working treatment sooner than we think!

Finally I am not the youngest here anymore (I am 23). This forum is full of old geezers

 

[Marty]

Hi you three!

Petloy - That's pretty much when I used to listen to music as well, when I was out running or biking.

Markku - Yes hopefully a cure will be found sooner rather than later. We're seeing more and more of different ideas how to cure it, so I it should be too far away I hope!

Fish - It depends what you mean with tolerating, I guess. In the beginning I was panicking a lot. It decreased by small steps, the worrying. Then I think it was around mid-June (so about 4 months in) that I felt a big difference. At this point I was done with Upper Secondary School or Senior High School, at which place I had not been happy, at all. So when that pressure was over and I started to feel better about life overall, my tinnitus attitude positively increased A LOT. Then after that it, along with my overall psychological health, just became better and better. Now I'm still worried about jobs and all those things life has to offer, but I'm happy and I think that helps with the tinnitus.

I do still think about it though, and notice the sound once and a while, but I'm not feeling bad about it, I'm mainly accepting it and thinking "that's bad I guess, but nothing I can do about it", and I don't let it bother me. I do still have bad days though with the tinnitus so I'm not a 100% back to normal. Although I do wonder - are you ever? But I hope you're doing good and wish you luck in the habituating process! I do believe you'll only go forward from here.

And ha ha. I'm a bit surprised there aren't more young people here, since you very often see them(well, including me!) stupidly wearing headphones with very high volume. But this community appears to be really nice, I hope my "young blood" doesn't ruin it!

Thanks for replying and nice to meet you. I appreciate the warm welcoming!