Please Help. Exposure to an Alarm, Panic, Suicidal Thoughts

[dan]

It is not really an island. I just use it as a metaphor. It is my own island ... a nature haven, in Italy, a secluded medieval tower .... The sea is not far. Neither are the islands.

Does the tower have wifi?

 

[Street Spirit]

Reactive tinnitus=keppra...That's how I treated mine. I no longer suffer from hyperacuis or reactive tinnitus. I suggest getting some and I know, it's hell. Also get some NAC, it helps protect your hearing. Good luck.

Danny boy may I ask..what makes you think that Keppra and Trobalt worked for you? You had an ear infection. It probably just got better as fluid dried up.

I say this because I had water trapped in my ears pre t and h..it caused insane screeching T, H and reactive T. I wanted to kill myself and ended up in ER. Once water was flushed out it all went away. .

So I am.just curious.

 

[Street Spirit]

Yes, I am in the midst of hysteria.

An alarm just went off next to me.

And I panicked.

My tinnitus hit the roof as a consequence of the noise exposure.

I have a severely reactive tinnitus that goes up with noise exposure.

The alarm was on Samsung 5830, a loud shrill ringing noise that is so loud, I would not be surprised if it was for hearing impaired folk.

At the moment, the sounds in my head are unbearable ... and from experience, even if improvement comes, it may take days, weeks, even months to do so.

I fear that it may not come ... the sound was really loud.

I am seriously considering ending my life.

I understand. I hope you find peace. ..here on earth. ..

 

[Street Spirit]

also @Katarina I've been exposed to a carbon monoxide alarm, I was maybe 4 ft away.. and very loud sounds from cell..always recovered.

 

[quietatnight]

@Katarina

I was standing next to a friends boat when he was working on it when his alarm went off and it was REALLY REALLY loud I was like a foot away, almost knocked me to the ground. BUT my spike went away after a week or so. You will to. You will return back to your base line give it some time. It's not like you were at a rock concert for 6 hours.


You take care and try not and worry about it, that only delays the recovery.


Louie
Quietatnight

 

[Katarina]

@quietatnight and @Street Spirit

thank you so much for your encouraging stories. I managed to sleep for 5 hours .. badly but still. My tinnitus is dreadful however. I cannot even go to the toilet without carrying my sound machine with me, with the soothing sound of the sea ...

It is very scary and does not get less scary with the number of times I go through these setbacks. I wrote "scared" under my Vincent van Gogh avatar ages ago and have not changed it once. Every time I come to this forum, this is what I am .... scared stiff .... like I sad, this condition is totally maddening and when it hits hard, I often feel that jumping out of the window in desperation is less scary than staying alive, with the sounds in my head raging ...

@dan

yes, the tower does have wifi. Internet has unfortunately become my no 1 way of communication. I am becoming Howard Hughes ....

 

[dan]

@quietatnight and @Street Spirit

thank you so much for your encouraging stories. I managed to sleep for 5 hours .. badly but still. My tinnitus is dreadful however. I cannot even go to the toilet without carrying my sound machine with me, with the soothing sound of the sea ...

It is very scary and does not get less scary with the number of times I go through these setbacks. I wrote "scared" under my Vincent van Gogh avatar ages ago and have not changed it once. Every time I come to this forum, this is what I am .... scared stiff .... like I sad, this condition is totally maddening and when it hits hard, I often feel that jumping out of the window in desperation is less scary than staying alive, with the sounds in my head raging ...

@dan

yes, the tower does have wifi. Internet has unfortunately become my no 1 way of communication. I am becoming Howard Hughes ....

Me and @Danny Boy would like to keep you company in the tower.

 

[Katarina]

we can talk more about it. Perhaps my medieval tower could one day become a commune for "sound-challenged" people like us!

 

[Street Spirit]

@quietatnight and @Street Spirit

thank you so much for your encouraging stories. I managed to sleep for 5 hours .. badly but still. My tinnitus is dreadful however. I cannot even go to the toilet without carrying my sound machine with me, with the soothing sound of the sea ...

It is very scary and does not get less scary with the number of times I go through these setbacks. I wrote "scared" under my Vincent van Gogh avatar ages ago and

we can talk more about it. Perhaps my medieval tower could one day become a commune for "sound-challenged" people like us!

Danny Boy isn't sound challenged. Trobalt and Keppra cured him.

 

[Katarina]

@Street Spirit

I did look at Danny boy's page but I found a couple of recent posts where he says he still struggles with T https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/do-i-have-middle-ear-tinnitus.8998/

 

[Rhea]

@Katarina
Seriously I am one of the worst for worrying about sound exposures but I have gotten slowly better with time after realizing that the majority of the issues were caused by panic/fear/over thinking things.

I used to freak out at every moderate noise, dropping a fork, a clothes hanger screeching along the rail in the wardrobe, a dog barking 3 gardens away, a bird chirping loud outside an open window...the list goes on

Now I am better at dealing with short moderate noise exposures....I just tell myself that something of that sound level and for that duration of time can not possible cause a permanent t worsening. Yes it may freak me out a little, yes my ears might go all tight and feel weird for a bit, yes I might have a spike (most likely due to the anxiety and tensed up ear muscles) BUT.....a long term permanent spike from a 70db sound??? ......I VERY VERY VERY much doubt it...seriously I would not worry.

Assure yourself your spike is stress/anxiety related and that a short exposure to a 70db sound really could not of made your t perm' worse. I know it's hard but just keep telling yourself that...it wasn't that loud, it wasn't that long, its a stress related spike, it WILL settle xxx

ps .....a toilet flush is around 75db so that is louder than the noise u were exposed to .....and I am pretty sure a toilet flush isn't giving anyone t/t increases.

xxx

 

[Katarina]

Thank you for that, @Rhea. I am not sure if the ringing was 70 db ... it seemed super loud to me .. but it is also the TYPE/FREQUENCY of its sound, which was particularly hurtful. There are a lot of deep sounds (like the bang of a big wooden gate closing shut) that do not bother me, but then there is, say, the sound of violin which hits my ears like a drill! This ringing sound - I think it is called the "classic bell" on the Samsung s5830 Galaxy Ace - is one of those super hurtful frequencies ...

By the way, a toilet flush does hurt my ears when I am experiencing a T and H spike ..

 

[billie48]

You may be having a spike but spikes often die down given some time to settle down. So don't do anything drastic for a temporary condition. My T is ultra high pitch dog whistle which resonate in my whole head. I could hear my T above the sound of the jet noise in the last 2 flights I took, and above the sound of the raging rapis in the salmon river I fish. It is not a T normal people can bear. Sometimes normal rain sound is not enough to mask my T. I have to use squeaky faucet sound plus some blue or violet noise. Then I also have H which made all sounds so hurtful, even the soft voice of my wife hurt. T & H turned me into a mess a few years back. I never thought I could become well again. But you never rule out what time and patience plus some positive attitude can do to heal. Today I live an absolutely enjoyable and productive life. So never believe the lies of the T bully. T is not an end game. If a panic prone person like me can recover after some time, have faith you can too. Try to read up the success stories to give you hope. Take care and hopeful things will improve for you.

 

[Katarina]

Thank you, @billie48. This is most encouraging. I will follow your advice and read up on the success stories too to give me faith ... It's just that I have been dealing with this for 4 years now! .. but yes, I should not be thinking of how hard it is and has been, but at how things can get better ... Thank you for this!

 

[Danny Boy]

Danny boy may I ask..what makes you think that Keppra and Trobalt worked for you? You had an ear infection. It probably just got better as fluid dried up.

I say this because I had water trapped in my ears pre t and h..it caused insane screeching T, H and reactive T. I wanted to kill myself and ended up in ER. Once water was flushed out it all went away. .

So I am.just curious.

I never went on trobalt till like what October? Which means I never went onto trobalt until 4 months in. I had to wait until the water subsided and even then it never went away. So, it did some damage.

 

[Danny Boy]

@Street Spirit

I did look at Danny boy's page but I found a couple of recent posts where he says he still struggles with T https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/do-i-have-middle-ear-tinnitus.8998/

I don't struggle with tinnitus I was just wondering how I have tinnitus as my hearing is fine, so I must have hidden hearing loss.

 

[yonkapin]

If you feel that you've experienced significant damage to your hearing, then for sure give oral corticosteroids like prednisone a try to limit any potential further damage to your hearing. Book a visit to a GP and explain quickly that you've experienced a severe acoustic trauma, exaggerate the situation if you need to and ask for a short course of high dose oral corticosteroids. The sooner the better.

Also get your hands on some NAC and a good source of magnesium. Hope things improve.

 

[Danny Boy]

Me and @Danny Boy would like to keep you company in the tower.

We'll bring our drugs with us trobalt and keppra....That's how we'll survive.

 

[Katarina]

If you feel that you've experienced significant damage to your hearing, then for sure give oral corticosteroids like prednisone a try to limit any potential further damage to your hearing.

If I were to run to the doctor every time my ears encounter what I think is a dangerous level of sound, I'd have to take oral corticosteroids every month or two! I mean, it's impossible to avoid unexpected sounds like someone blowing their car horn, or a siren going off nearby, or someone's car radio volume being turned way up at the start ...

Also I am scared to take corticosteroids .. they're not exactly easy on the body ... surely one should not abuse their use so much?

I have taken NAC yesterday and will take it today again. thank you for the magnesium tip too ...

@Danny Boy

How can you have HIDDEN hearing loss? Surely audiometry would reveal hearing loss if there were any!

 

[Street Spirit]

I never went on trobalt till like what October? Which means I never went onto trobalt until 4 months in. I had to wait until the water subsided and even then it never went away. So, it did some damage.

ok jw.

 

[Thongjy]

Reactive tinnitus=keppra...That's how I treated mine. I no longer suffer from hyperacuis or reactive tinnitus. I suggest getting some and I know, it's hell. Also get some NAC, it helps protect your hearing. Good luck.

what is keppra?

 

[Gosia]

@Katarina, how are you today ?

 

[Katarina]

Hello Gosia, I definitely recovered from the alarm but have had many many other "acoustic traumas" since. This just confirms what others have said: that we ALWAYS recover from loud sounds. The challenge is to learn NOT to panic (like I do) and to gradually teach the ears to react less dramatically as well.

 

[Gosia]

Oh, your answer is the balm for my soul I panic at least once a day lately ( car horn, bus horn, metal lid etc). Every day brings some acoustic accident that ruins my day until I'm sure it didn't worsen my condition. The weird thing is even if I know it didn't ( more less ) I still worry. ( Maybe it just hasn't occured yet ? Maybe a spike will come tomorrow ? Maybe OSHA and WHO are very wrong ? etc..) On the other hand, I never panic at 70 db..I believe the things I encounter are much louder. We surely can't avoid all these mishaps, but I'd be grateful for some calmer period like going out and just be lucky and not meeting any jerk who feels like 'horning' me , like today

 

[Katarina]

We really cannot avoid loud sounds ... not even by moving to a sleepy abandoned village like I have! (I suffered a MAJOR acoustic trauma when I entered an empty bar nearby ... the owner, bless her, is half deaf and she had a very loud alarm system set up at the entrance to notify her that someone is in the bar .. it went off like a bomb and blew my ears off!) So unless you want to become a true hermit and live like Baba off air, you MUST work on your emotional response to sounds and you MUST train your ears to bear more and more sound ...ie. make them less sensitive through sound therapy etc. Believe me, I know exactly what you are experiencing and am taking the very steps I am advising you to take. There is no other way I am afraid.

 

[Gosia]

O dear, the alarms are by far my biggest fear. Those alarming about burglary can definitely ruin ears. Was the one at the bar that loud ? As I find it I wouldn't worry if I knew exactly how loud were things I experienced, only it's impossible to measure them. I believe I will calm down in time, with experience. If I have a 100 acoustic accidents ( traumas are another story ) and nothing will happen, I might stop worrying much. However, I already had periods of weeks without experiencing anything that could worry me, just lucky. Even if we stay at home, we're not safe. Most of my acoustic mishaps happened at home. ( an exploding kettle, for instance ) . Also, my T has never been really stable, so I have a lot of ups and downs even without noise.. So when I have an almost silent day and a car horns me for no reason, then I'm mad..