Some Tinnitus Success Stories from People Around Me

[Samy]

Hi! I'm new to tinnitus and trying to survive these firsts horrible months (I'm 2 months in). I started talking to some friends about it and found out that some of them have had this same problem! So here are a few «success stories» from people I know:

• A friend had tinnitus when she was 20 years old, after a loud concert close to the speakers. One year after the tinnitus vanished, but she continues using earplugs when in loud places.

• Other friend had a horrible otitis and ruptured eardrum, that gave her tinnitus. She took a lot of medications and antibiotics, and after 7 months her tinnitus was gone. Now she has 40% of hearing loss in one ear, but no more tinnitus.

• My cousin had tinnitus for years, until she went to a very good doctor and discovered that it was caused by TMJ. She is doing some treatments (I don't know which, my aunt didn't told me) and now the tinnitus is much less bothersome.

• My husband's friend worked for a lot of years in buildings construction. He had some hearing loss and tinnitus. The tinnitus was gone after some years and he doesn't care anymore about his hearing loss.

I hope someday we'll all be healed or have a treatment.

 

[Alex1986]

Thank you for this blessing. Where did your tinnitus come from?

 

[Samy]

@Alex1986, mine is from an acoustic trauma (too close to the speakers in a nightclub). It came with hyperacusis too :/

 

[Jonnie]

Thank you for sharing these stories @Samy!

I hope you become a success story as well, alongside myself and others on this forum

 

[forum_user]

Hello,

I hope it is OK that I tag along here. Here are some stories I've found on the internet, for example on a German forum about tinnitus, but not only. I just summarized some basics.

Story 1:
Cause: Noise induced, acute trauma (fireworks).
Duration: 15 years.
Time without tinnitus after recovery: 10 years.

Story 2:
Cause: Noise induced, concert + probably long term exposure (passionate music lover) + TMJ/posture component + stress.
Duration: about 1 year, at the beginning severe/moderate (?).
Time without tinnitus after recovery: 20 years.
(Some more success cases were mentioned by the person: a relative who had tinnitus after a tooth operation - the tinnitus went away; someone who had it after a trigeminal nerve inflammation - went away; and someone who hears it now only for a few minutes when he smokes a cigarette).

Story 3:
Cause: Repeated hearing loss.
Duration: 3 years, with 1.5 years severe (loud chain saw), then gradually less until silence - it comes back few (2-3) times in a year for a few days but disappears again.
Time without tinnitus after recovery: 9 years.

Story 4:
Cause: Noise induced, acoustic trauma from a very loud siren.
Duration: 2 years and 2 months, severe for a longer time.
Time without tinnitus after recovery: 2.5 years, it comes back for 3-4 days about 5-6 times in a year, otherwise silence.

Story 5:
Cause: Noise induced, many loud parties.
Duration: 1 year and 1-2 months.
Time without tinnitus after recovery: ?

Story 6:
Cause: Hearing loss (repeated: 3x times in 14 years), stress, burn out syndrome.
Duration: Summer 2010 - September 2011; 11 months "constant" - it changed the volume and pitch all the time - so far that the poster was suicidal, then gradually less until silence. Not even a bit with earplugs in silence.
Time without tinnitus after recovery: About 2 months (November 2011).

Story 7:
Cause: Tinnitus out of nowhere + vertigo.
Duration: 9 months, the loudness changed between loud and quiet, vertigo stayed.
Time without tinnitus after recovery: 6 days (so far I did not find any post claiming it came back).

Story 8:
Cause: 2x tinnitus, noise (?), second time accompanied by hyperacusis.
Duration: each time 11 - 12 months. It came suddenly and went the same way. It was reactive and got louder and higher when other noises present and got quieter with silence and earplugs. It went both times completely away.
Time without tinnitus after recovery: 1st time: at least 10 years, 2nd time: ?

I will post in the next days/weeks more, as I've found more. Hope you will find them calming!

 

[Kittywus]

I love this thread!

 

[HighDesertDave]

This is such a helpful thread. I am about two or three months into tinnitus now, mostly caused by loud guitar amplifiers. I probably can never play in a band again with a drummer unless he uses brushes. I keep hearing protection all around the house, even when I use my coffee grinder or my Ninja mixer.

Guitar amps are very quiet now.

 

[Jammer]

Guitar amps are very quiet now.

Do you still use them at low volume, or you don't use them any longer?

 

[HighDesertDave]

Do you still use them at low volume, or you don't use them any longer?

I still have to test them, because I build them for a living. But unless I'm wearing hearing protection, full earmuffs, they are turned way down, and I stand to the side of the speakers. I never stand in front of the speakers anymore, no matter what. If, for some reason, I need to play one extremely loud, I put it in an isolation room with microphones.

It almost seems like my tinnitus is starting to dissipate slightly, but I'm not 100% sure. It might be that I'm getting used to it. From reading other stories, mine sounds like it's definitely on the quieter side. It's a general higher-frequency hiss.

 

[Note]

• Other friend had a horrible otitis and ruptured eardrum, that gave her tinnitus. She took a lot of medications and antibiotics, and after 7 months her tinnitus was gone. Now she has 40% of hearing loss in one ear, but no more tinnitus.

• My husband's friend worked for a lot of years in buildings construction. He had some hearing loss and tinnitus. The tinnitus was gone after some years and he doesn't care anymore about his hearing loss.

It's quite rare, that tinnitus disappears when someone has hearing loss. But it is good to know that it is possible.

 

[Thomas_83]

My father-in-law has hearing loss and can't hear anything above 7000 Hz. I asked him about tinnitus, and he said, "No, never heard of it." Meanwhile, I have no hearing loss and still have tinnitus. It's weird.

Great post by the author—it keeps me going as I navigate my second onset.

 

[Fazdoll]

It's quite rare, that tinnitus disappears when someone has hearing loss. But it is good to know that it is possible.

Where are you getting this statistic? I have firearm-related acoustic trauma with mild hearing loss, but it's at low frequencies, which is unusual. What if that hearing loss improves over time? Your claim also doesn't seem to align with the success stories shared by other posters, where the "vast majority" of people report recovering. I really don't want to end up as a long-hauler.