Hi all,
I've been meaning to write here for a while.
I want to preface this by saying that my message is in no way meant to belittle the experiences of many for whom tinnitus is incredibly hard. That's not my intention. I've been there. It sucks.
Nor do I mean to ignore the fact that people have different degrees of tinnitus. I know people have it worse than me. I'm sorry. I hope you find something that works for you.
Even so, I just want to thank this community. While this is my first post here, I've been a member since May 2018, a few months after my tinnitus began.
I spent many hours here the first few months.
And those first months were hell. I felt like I could never escape. I just wanted a pause button, even just for a minute.
I'd go to bed mentally exhausted, not just because of the sounds themselves, but the mental anguish that accompanied them - hour upon hour trying to figure out why and how, blaming myself, etc.
I thought people who wrote here of living happy, fulfilled lives while having tinnitus were delusional. They must be.
I was wrong. Or if I was right, I'm currently delusional.
The sounds are still there. In fact, they're louder than they first were.
But the mental anguish is mostly gone. I can go a week without noticing it.
Time helped. But this forum did, too.
At first, I'd follow advice I found here to write down every time I noticed the sounds. It dramatically reduced my psychological aversion to them.
I started meditating.
I turned off the noise machine I'd kept going at night to mask the sounds. Keeping it on had fed into the psychological aversion; turning it off felt like a victory.
I consciously decided to pursue new hobbies to get my mind away from tinnitus thoughts 24/7 and onto other things.
The sounds stopped engendering the mental anguish they'd previously set in motion.
It was a process. But slowly, they faded into the background.
Sure, some days are still hard. If I'm particularly stressed, or especially tired after a long day, I might lie down and hear the sounds with full force.
Yet even then, they don't bother me much.
And the vast majority of the time, my tinnitus doesn't interfere with my life.
I live a happy, fulfilled life now. I feel free. With tinnitus.
And to a large degree, I've got this forum to thank for that.
The vast majority of my friends and family couldn't understand what I was going through.
You provided something to hang onto.
Thank you.
I hope my message provides some measure of hope to people at the beginning of their journeys.
When I read similar posts here at the beginning of my journey, I couldn't imagine how it might be possible to live well with this.
But it is.
I've been meaning to write here for a while.
I want to preface this by saying that my message is in no way meant to belittle the experiences of many for whom tinnitus is incredibly hard. That's not my intention. I've been there. It sucks.
Nor do I mean to ignore the fact that people have different degrees of tinnitus. I know people have it worse than me. I'm sorry. I hope you find something that works for you.
Even so, I just want to thank this community. While this is my first post here, I've been a member since May 2018, a few months after my tinnitus began.
I spent many hours here the first few months.
And those first months were hell. I felt like I could never escape. I just wanted a pause button, even just for a minute.
I'd go to bed mentally exhausted, not just because of the sounds themselves, but the mental anguish that accompanied them - hour upon hour trying to figure out why and how, blaming myself, etc.
I thought people who wrote here of living happy, fulfilled lives while having tinnitus were delusional. They must be.
I was wrong. Or if I was right, I'm currently delusional.
The sounds are still there. In fact, they're louder than they first were.
But the mental anguish is mostly gone. I can go a week without noticing it.
Time helped. But this forum did, too.
At first, I'd follow advice I found here to write down every time I noticed the sounds. It dramatically reduced my psychological aversion to them.
I started meditating.
I turned off the noise machine I'd kept going at night to mask the sounds. Keeping it on had fed into the psychological aversion; turning it off felt like a victory.
I consciously decided to pursue new hobbies to get my mind away from tinnitus thoughts 24/7 and onto other things.
The sounds stopped engendering the mental anguish they'd previously set in motion.
It was a process. But slowly, they faded into the background.
Sure, some days are still hard. If I'm particularly stressed, or especially tired after a long day, I might lie down and hear the sounds with full force.
Yet even then, they don't bother me much.
And the vast majority of the time, my tinnitus doesn't interfere with my life.
I live a happy, fulfilled life now. I feel free. With tinnitus.
And to a large degree, I've got this forum to thank for that.
The vast majority of my friends and family couldn't understand what I was going through.
You provided something to hang onto.
Thank you.
I hope my message provides some measure of hope to people at the beginning of their journeys.
When I read similar posts here at the beginning of my journey, I couldn't imagine how it might be possible to live well with this.
But it is.
Member
