The n-th Newbie — Fell Asleep Listening to Headphones (White Noise), Woke Up with Tinnitus

[buttercake]

Wishing you all the best, writing a dissertation is already difficult on its own, especially in STEM.

What hearing loss do you have exactly? High frequency, I assume? Some of my tinnitus sounds are similar to yours and I have high frequency synaptopathy (my pure tone audiograms are fine). I too got injured when in principle I should have been fine. Do you get anything like beeps or hums over external sounds?

Yes, I have a bit of high frequency hearing loss (something like -30 dB @ 6-8 kHz, I do not have my last audiogram here). No hums nor beeps, my tinnitus is actually pretty damn constant, it just increases throughout the day as for many other people. I had some intermittent random chirps in one ear only for a couple of months, but those seem to be gone.

Take care.

 

[star-affinity]

Hey @buttercake.

Was wondering if you'd be interested in participating in a study at Karolinska Institutet that's supposed to start some time next year? If you're still in Sweden.

In a MEG based study they are "trying to objectively diagnose tinnitus and see how changes in different parts of the brain can be a cause of the perceived sound".

I've already flagged my interest in participating. If you're interested too, contact Niklas Edvall here: https://staff.ki.se/people/niklas-edvall

It seems to me we have a relatively similar kind of tinnitus and mine was also (like we have talked about previously in other threads) triggered by a relatively low volume of sound (albeit long lasting and in conjunction with other things that together makes me understand that I likely overloaded my ears – not with loud sounds, but too long lasting sound).

Heck, we even seem to have a similar level of hearing loss and at about the same frequency!

Anyway, let's hope for the future…

 

[buttercake]

@star-affinity, yes, that would be cool to participate to. I'll stick around for a couple of years more if I manage to find a job after my defense Is the experiment advertised somewhere? Have you got any response from Niklas yet?

Karolinska is actually doing quite some serious research on tinnitus.

Christopher Cederroth is also there (and he has severe tinnitus, too).

 

[star-affinity]

@buttercake, yes, I did get a response from Niklas. I emailed him (and Christopher that you mentioned) asking if their previous project STOP (Swedish Tinnitus Outreach Project) was still on. He said no, but told me about the upcoming MEG based study and asked if I wanted to be on their list – I said yes.

Good luck on your studies and defense! Don't let the tinnitus affect you!
(easier said than done, I know)

 

[buttercake]

11th month for me. Nothing new to report back. I am mostly busy with my thesis and the job hunting, but the tinnitus is still there, annoying as usual. Nowadays I just log in to look at the research section. I hope you are all good.

 

[buttercake]

The 26th of November 2020 I woke up with ringing ears. The tinnitus was triggered by my habit of falling asleep with headphones reproducing white noise; there is no tinnitus nor hearing loss history in my family, nor I have noise exposure history. Thus I am prone to believe that the culprit was (of course) the noise, but together with the fact that I was asleep. Noise insults while sleeping seem to be more pronounced and irreversible: there are evidences in mice and in humans.

December 2020 and January 2021 were the worst period of my entire life. I (literally) spent the Christmas break staring at the wall with earmuffs on, waiting for the night. I enjoyed nothing. When I think back to those months I still get goosebumps. Tinnitus changed my personality; in some sense, it made me a better person. Don't get me wrong: I am not good, not even after one year, nor I like this screaming monstrosity. I am ok, though; I have some plans for the future, I have few important things to do and I will not tolerate any tinnitus interference. I am however constantly aware of the fact that life could change again in a blink of an eye, but what can I do? For now I'll try to keep a "positive" outlook; Cela est bien dit, répondit Candide, mais il faut cultiver notre jardin, wrote Voltaire.

I was supposed to post this "update" later this month, but today I felt particularly emotional and thus I decided to anticipate.

 

[Stacken77]

I think you're handling this great, @buttercake.

When I think back to those months I still get goosebumps. Tinnitus changed my personality; in some sense, it made me a better person. Don't get me wrong: I am not good, not even after one year, nor I like this screaming monstrosity.

Couldn't have said it better myself. Tinnitus does something, unlike a lot of other ailments (in my opinion); it has a tendency to break life into a before, and after - two fundamental chapters of life. It is when we accept, try to reconcile that fact, we are able to move forward.

Keep looking ahead, and try to fulfill your plans. We have to try and power through, despite this shit.

Wishing you success in every way,
Stacken

 

[buttercake]

Keep looking ahead, and try to fulfill your plans. We have to try and power through, despite this shit.

Amen to that! Changing David Hilbert's famous quote: we must succeed, we will succeed.

All the best to you Stacken, I am sure that your turning point is just behind the corner.

 

[ZFire]

The 26th of November 2020 I woke up with ringing ears. The tinnitus was triggered by my habit of falling asleep with headphones reproducing white noise; there is no tinnitus nor hearing loss history in my family, nor I have noise exposure history. Thus I am prone to believe that the culprit was (of course) the noise, but together with the fact that I was asleep. Noise insults while sleeping seem to be more pronounced and irreversible: there are evidences in mice and in humans.

December 2020 and January 2021 were the worst period of my entire life. I (literally) spent the Christmas break staring at the wall with earmuffs on, waiting for the night. I enjoyed nothing. When I think back to those months I still get goosebumps. Tinnitus changed my personality; in some sense, it made me a better person. Don't get me wrong: I am not good, not even after one year, nor I like this screaming monstrosity. I am ok, though; I have some plans for the future, I have few important things to do and I will not tolerate any tinnitus interference. I am however constantly aware of the fact that life could change again in a blink of an eye, but what can I do? For now I'll try to keep a "positive" outlook; Cela est bien dit, répondit Candide, mais il faut cultiver notre jardin, wrote Voltaire.

I was supposed to post this "update" later this month, but today I felt particularly emotional and thus I decided to anticipate.

I like your mindset and how you won't let tinnitus dictate your life. I'm trying to adopt the same, it's currently difficult but I'm hopeful I'll get there.

 

[buttercake]

My 14th month mark just passed. I have to report that the one-month-long Christmas break I took has been the best period so far (tinnitus-wise). I averaged 10-12 hours of uninterrupted sleep every night and at some point, after 2-3 weeks, I even started to believe that my nasty unwanted companion was leaving me for good. Obviously it did not, but even after I started working again I noticed I did not feel the urge of masking it that much, thus it either went down a tad or else I began habituating. I'll see how it goes. My PhD defense is scheduled for April; so better for the tinnitus to behave, else I am going to strangle it with bare hands.

 

[8958464854]

My 14th month mark just passed. I have to report that the one-month-long Christmas break I took has been the best period so far (tinnitus-wise). I averaged 10-12 hours of uninterrupted sleep every night and at some point, after 2-3 weeks, I even started to believe that my nasty unwanted companion was leaving me for good. Obviously it did not, but even after I started working again I noticed I did not feel the urge of masking it that much, thus it either went down a tad or else I began habituating. I'll see how it goes. My PhD defense is scheduled for April; so better for the tinnitus to behave, else I am going to strangle it with bare hands.

Nice to hear it got better!

 

[IntotheBlue03]

So it has taken 14 months for you to begin habituating? Happy to hear that but boy is that a long time. Is yours still somewhat reactive?

 

[Sevv]

Can't help myself but to comment on your Uzumaki avatar That one definitely stuck with me after reading it. I wonder how the anime is going to be that is supposed to be released this year (without further delays).

Tinnitus wise, billie48's tip on using deep belly breathing helps me a lot, since it activates the parasympathicus.