New to Forum, New to Tinnitus

[Mark_S]

Hi everyone,
My name is Mark and I have been dealing with tinnitus for about a month.
Like many others here, this has been a terrible, life changing experience. My tinnitus is a constant high-pitched whistle. Much worse when I lay down, no matter what time of day/night.
I now have chronic insomnia. I cannot fall asleep for more than a few minutes at a time unless I take a sleeping pill (3.5 mg zopiclone) before I go to bed. I have had massive anxiety attacks that have settled down a bit, but not before sending me to emergency with heart palpitations 10 days ago.

I feel depressed and even ashamed of myself. The tinnitus started after an afternoon at the gym when I cranked up a favourite song on my iPhone. I listened to music a lot with headphones over the years, so it's probably the accumulation, not one event. So stupid. I'm in my late 50's, so I'm not some dumb kid. I should have known better.

I have had the odd good day, but very few, if any good nights.

I hate taking the zopiclone, but I can't sleep without it right now and no sleep causes everything, tinnitus stress, other health issues to get worse.

I live in Vancouver Canada. There are so few resources here, unless you can afford to pay thousands for private retraining therapies (they are not covered under our public health system). And from what I've read, the effectiveness of those therapies is debatable.

So, I, like so many here am just hoping my mind and body can habituate to this.

 

[Contrast]

okay you seem to know common themes about hearing loss induced tinnitus, sorry about your situation.

Hopefully in the near future a device by the University of Michigan may help tinnitus as well as 5-7 years hearing restoration may very well be a real possibility via Frequency Therapeutics clinical trial.

 

[Lane]

I cannot fall asleep for more than a few minutes at a time

Hi @Mark_S,

Welcome to the forum, but sorry to hear how difficult tinnitus and sleep is for you at this time. Your situation sounds similar to when my tinnitus and extreme sleep difficulties started back in Feb, 2018 (going on 9 months now). I also couldn't sleep more than a few minutes at a time in the beginning, and the tinnitus felt like it was continually rattling my brain and neurological system. The best thing I've done for sleep improvement and neurological resiliency is mHBOT.

With daily (home) mHBOT use, I'm now currently sleeping better than I have in 20-30 years, and am able to completely relax. My tinnitus volume is only decreased by about 10-20%, but its impact on my brain and nervous system is reduced by probably 75% or more. In just the past week, I've been able to discontinue using white noise at night as well. I've mentioned some of my experiences in a number of posts, so if you're interested, you can search mHBOT and my username, and find more about my experiences. -- All the Best!

@Pianist_Will

 

[Jane M]

Hey Mark,

You should try CBD oil. It will help your T and your anxiety.

Good luck and take one day at a time. It gets easier I promise

 

[PDodge]

Hi, and welcome (Bleh.) Give your ears LOTS of time to heal and it could go away.

 

[Mark_S]

Thanks for your comments, everyone.

 

[Chris T.]

Hi there. I as well Just got Tinnitus and have to agree with you its completely awful and I feel the same it has basically destroyed what I felt was my life before this happened to me. It definitely seems like some before/after situation very hard to deal with mentally. I feel for you.