So I haven't posted or visited this forum for several months as part of an attempt to simply 'not think' about tinnitus. Whilst I can say I have thought about tinnitus at least momentarily every day, and i'm not here to post a miraculous recovery story whereby one day I woke up and heard complete silence, I do have some good news to share.
My T started out of the blue in October of last year and for the first few months it was hell, I couldn't stop thinking about it and at times thought my life was genuinely over. However, in the time since then, my mindset has changed completely. I don't know if it is because I am paying less attention to my T or if there has been a genuine improvement for some reason, but the sounds I hear are almost always indistinguishable from the environment until I pay close attention to them. Before it was a constant ringing that I found impossible to ignore.
I have had some problems with regards to encountering new sounds that can become intrusive, but thankfully they appear to be temporary so far. When I do experience these sounds, or when I find myself in a loud environment, I do panic and it can be difficult to deal with at the time, but eventually I can go back to baseline which is pretty much the same as how I felt before having T. Another thing I struggle with is when I hear sounds in the environment that sound like they could be new T sounds, but I usually just get myself out of that environment and allow myself to realise that they aren't.
My biggest problems at the moment are the underlying worry that I am going to suddenly make my T noticeable again and feeling isolated from social activities (not going to loud clubs, festivals etc.). However, I reassure myself of the first worry by carrying ear plugs at all times and have countered the second problem by still making the effort to go out but still be sensible. I have been to the cinema, to bars and clubs and even to a concert, since getting T, none of these things thus far have made my T worse (in fact it seems to have got better), but in all cases I have worn ear plugs (they really aren't a big deal).
So to conclude what has become a bit of a rambly post, I just want to say thank you to this forum for the support when I was struggling with my T over the first few months, I felt it was necessary to inform anyone who may be in the position I was that it really does get easier to deal with 99% of the time. I know a lot of people use this forum when they are struggling and then when they feel better never return, which paints a false picture of how bleak our future is. So for anyone newly dealing with T, I really do think in a few months you will feel radically different, and my advise is to try live life as normally as possible and eventually you will feel normal again (fake it till you make it!!), take reasonable precautions, but most importantly BE OPTIMISTIC!
Oh and one last thing, my dad has suffered extreme tinnitus for 3 years and over the past few weeks has also noticed a significant improvement (he's trying to get to the bottom of what caused it, will update if we discover the cause). So whether you've been a T sufferer for months or years, there's still hope!!
My T started out of the blue in October of last year and for the first few months it was hell, I couldn't stop thinking about it and at times thought my life was genuinely over. However, in the time since then, my mindset has changed completely. I don't know if it is because I am paying less attention to my T or if there has been a genuine improvement for some reason, but the sounds I hear are almost always indistinguishable from the environment until I pay close attention to them. Before it was a constant ringing that I found impossible to ignore.
I have had some problems with regards to encountering new sounds that can become intrusive, but thankfully they appear to be temporary so far. When I do experience these sounds, or when I find myself in a loud environment, I do panic and it can be difficult to deal with at the time, but eventually I can go back to baseline which is pretty much the same as how I felt before having T. Another thing I struggle with is when I hear sounds in the environment that sound like they could be new T sounds, but I usually just get myself out of that environment and allow myself to realise that they aren't.
My biggest problems at the moment are the underlying worry that I am going to suddenly make my T noticeable again and feeling isolated from social activities (not going to loud clubs, festivals etc.). However, I reassure myself of the first worry by carrying ear plugs at all times and have countered the second problem by still making the effort to go out but still be sensible. I have been to the cinema, to bars and clubs and even to a concert, since getting T, none of these things thus far have made my T worse (in fact it seems to have got better), but in all cases I have worn ear plugs (they really aren't a big deal).
So to conclude what has become a bit of a rambly post, I just want to say thank you to this forum for the support when I was struggling with my T over the first few months, I felt it was necessary to inform anyone who may be in the position I was that it really does get easier to deal with 99% of the time. I know a lot of people use this forum when they are struggling and then when they feel better never return, which paints a false picture of how bleak our future is. So for anyone newly dealing with T, I really do think in a few months you will feel radically different, and my advise is to try live life as normally as possible and eventually you will feel normal again (fake it till you make it!!), take reasonable precautions, but most importantly BE OPTIMISTIC!
Oh and one last thing, my dad has suffered extreme tinnitus for 3 years and over the past few weeks has also noticed a significant improvement (he's trying to get to the bottom of what caused it, will update if we discover the cause). So whether you've been a T sufferer for months or years, there's still hope!!
