The Positivity Thread

[Brian Reade]

I like to take time to do special little things for myself. Having a cup of herbal tea. Taking a refreshing shower or bath. Sitting outside and watching the squirrels in the trees.
I like to put forth a little effort to do things to brighten other people's day. Give a sincere compliment to a coworker, for example, or to someone who works at a business that I frequent. For example, I frequently stop at this one particular convenience store, where I buy gas and often go inside to grab coffee or other items. I always see the same employees there every time. One day I realized that this store is always nice and clean. So I told them that I appreciate how they keep the store so clean, it makes coming there a pleasant experience. Little comments like that can really lift their spirits.
When possible I try to do something for myself and someone else at the same.time. I was out running errands one Saturday afternoon and decided to go to a restaurant and treat myself to a cup of coffee and a dessert. Left the server a generous tip.
Little things like this help me feel good about myself, and they offset the negative things. It takes the focus off life's problems.

 

[Naddesh]

Nadine,
Sorry you have had an increase in your T. I confess that is one of my fears. I am sending you warm, positive thoughts that your T simmers down soon. And I think we should all have days like @linearb. Chinese food and a sauna. Awesome.

Danielle

no honey, it was a decrease cant almost hear it. It is literally a 0,5/10 in loudness.

 

[uae96]

I'm right now typing this from the double deck a380 aircraft with on board wifi how amazing , going to Spain , Portugal then hamburg for a holiday it's been a rough tinnitus week and hyperacusis they might slow me down but I can assure you they will never stop me I hope everyone has a wonderful week ! who ever is around these countries message me we could meet up

 

[Forever hopeful]

Nadine,

Thrilled for you. Totally misread it.

D.

 

[billie48]

Just got back from vacationing in eastern Canada. Visited Toronto, and got on a group trip to visit Ottawa, Montreal and Quebec City. My wife and me enjoyed this trip very much even though T tried to do its thing. Today as usual woke up with Mr. T blasting loud. Screw it, Mr. T. I am going to enjoy another day. Spent 3 hours walking up and down the streets to do volunteer work of delivering food drive flyers for our local food bank. I will collect any donated food on Saturday morning. Then at noon a buddy will pick me up to go fishing for mighty king salmon. Today I spent great time with my daughter's family visiting, and I got to cook a nice meal for her family to enjoy with fresh salmon and organic garden produce that I grow. While delivering the flyers I got to meet anther fishermen on the same street and we connect for a fishing trip tomorrow. So much to do and enjoy in life regardless of T high or low.

 

[Forever hopeful]

@billie48 ,

Awesome post. Like you, I try to focus on living my life.
It sounds like your vacation was great. I want to get to Toronto and take my kids to the hockey hall of fame( they are hockey players) as well as travel to Niagara Falls. Will have to put that on the list.

 

[billie48]

@Forever hopeful

I missed that. But I get to visit the War Museum and got to see the history of Canada via all the war displays. It was a moment of awe I felt when I saw all the 3 major battle tanks of WWII parked side by side, the Allied's Sherman tank, the Russian's T34 and German's Panther tank. Oh, I also realize for the first time after eating hundreds of servings of the Thousand Islands salad dressing where it came from. I first tasted in in Hawaii, thinking that that recipe must be from the south Pacific with its thousands of islands. Noop, it is from Canada/USA - named after a place called 1000 Island along the border of Canada & USA. We took a memorable river cruise there to see the myriads of cute little islands and saw a nice castle.

 

[Brian Reade]

I never knew that, about the 1,000 island dressing. Thanks for telling us that.

 

[Naddesh]

Hey. Today I seriously feel careless about my T. Im laying here in silence/darkness and dont care i feel happy about life. No longer think about the precious T when Im going to sleep. I think about my tomorrow. Finding peace. Silence doesnt mean peace. Silence does only mean silence (and yeah annoyance when you already have hard time to sleep but everything can bother you that time). You decide what your peace is. You probably wont understand now, but soon you will. Hugs.

PS. This is seriously my last post now. Had to come to give some positivity. I like TT but it reminds me often about a hard time in my life which I want to forget from now on. Byeeeeee

 

[meeruf]

Just came back from Thailand! Had no problem with my tinnitus whatsoever. Could do anything as I could before my hearing damage! The only thing I did different is that I was smart enough to use earplugs at loud places. I even shot with guns!!

Just want to quote my first post here:

Well, today it's almost two weeks ago. And I have not experienced much relief or improvement. My tinnitus only gets better if I'm in complete silence, (I know, that's weird). If I'm out in traffic or other places with alot of sound going on at once, my tinnitus gets much worse and I get easily disorientated. Since I only get release when its completely silent I have isolated myself very much the last two weeks. I have almost not been outside my house. I also get a feeling of fullness inside the ear when a lot of sound is going on. It' feels like the ear is turning itself of when there is a lot of sound going on. It is a very uncomfortable feeling. Music and masking don't seem to help much either, it only make the tinnitus louder.

I don't know why I'm writing in this forum, I know you can't fix me. Its just that I feel my family don't understand how bad this really is, and I don't know anyone who have experienced anything like this. I have just been reading similar stories at the Web. Most of them not positive.

Yeah...

Some picture for you guys!

Some extra stuff from my phone:

 

[billie48]

Way to go, living a full and fun life, meeruf. I have yet to visit Thailand. It looks like a real fun place. Someday when I retire it will be a destination for sure.

Spent last weekend picking up donated foods for the local food bank. It was pouring rain the whole time, but I like the exercise of almost 2-hour walk around the neighbourhood, rain or shine. It ended up I collected 30 bags of foods weighing a total of 207 lbs. It is heart warming to know I have caring and compassionate neighbours. Then with tired legs and sore arms, I went fishing in the afternoon for the mighty Chinook/king salmon on the wild Fraser River. Heaven blessed me with a yummy king salmon in mere 30 minutes, sparing my legs and arms after the tired morning. Not a bad reward for helping feeding hungry people and getting fed myself in return with that yummy fish. What did T do the whole time? What did you say, Mr. T? Seriously I didn't pay attention to it high or low and I had a blast for the day out. Positivity rules.

 

[billie48]

Hope this post can help lift the spirit of those members who have to deal with the challenges of living with vertigo as part of Meniere's disease.

Jason Day, an Australian ace golfer who has ranked #1 in the world, winning many golf tournaments including the prestigious PGA Championship 2015, has to deal with on-going, tough vertigo even while playing a major championship. He had collapsed to the ground at times, even during golf tournament, when vertigo went nut on him. How does one play golf, a game of accuracy, when things around you are spinning and your head & body are not even balanced???

But he kept a positive spirit and didn't quit. He shows that even with tough vertigo, he can compete at the highest level and win. This is a positive story to help us understand that the human spirit has the power to overcome an obstacle in life even though it may be tough. He could have quitted from pro golf. But he hangs on to play, and winning, even to world # 1 at one time. Here is the story on him and his vertigo reported by CNN:

http://edition.cnn.com/2015/09/29/golf/jason-day-vertigo-golf/index.html?eref=edition

 

[noisebox]

Hope this post can help lift the spirit of those members who have to deal with the challenges of living with vertigo as part of Meniere's disease.

Jason Day, an Australian ace golfer who has ranked #1 in the world, winning many golf tournaments including the prestigious PGA Championship 2015, has to deal with on-going, tough vertigo even while playing a major championship. He had collapsed to the ground at times, even during golf tournament, when vertigo went nut on him. How does one play golf, a game of accuracy, when things around you are spinning and your head & body are not even balanced???

But he kept a positive spirit and didn't quit. He shows that even with tough vertigo, he can compete at the highest level and win. This is a positive story to help us understand that the human spirit has the power to overcome an obstacle in life even though it may be tough. He could have quitted from pro golf. But he hangs on to play, and winning, even to world # 1 at one time. Here is the story on him and his vertigo reported by CNN:

http://edition.cnn.com/2015/09/29/golf/jason-day-vertigo-golf/index.html?eref=edition

It seems I should be ashamed of myself for my lack of positivity.

 

[steinamo]

This is so strange. My T had been improving all week as I had been watching my diet. However, at work when I'm in meetings it would always be the worst, because the meeting room is particularly quiet and I couldn't help but notice the computer fan noise in my right ear. Beyond this, over the last week, I've had intermittent periods where my left ear would produce an extremely high frequency noise (somewhere between 11-12kHz). That one was almost impossible to ignore.

Well, yesterday we had a meeting and I was sort of bracing myself to notice the noise. But instead, it wasn't really that bad. I was kind of surprised, and as the afternoon wore on the T got even less and less. Some of the left ear reared it's head as I biked home from work, but nothing terrible. Then, later in the evening, NOTHING. I mean...nothing.

I started getting tired and the left ear came on a bit again, but today I have total silence. This is not the first time this has happened, and I'm tempering my expectations right now. I don't entirely know what I've done to get to this point, but it doesn't seem like habituation. There is literally nothing there. It feels amazing and I'm going to enjoy this feeling as long as I can.

To everyone out there suffering, I hope you find some peace today!

 

[steinamo]

Just like to offer a quick update. There's a general hiss in my head now, but it doesn't seem to be connected to my right ear like it has been for the last 3 months. Very strange indeed.

 

[flkb]

I'm still enjoying the positive messages and wonderful pics some have posted. Thank you all for keeping the positive spirit. I could certainly use some.

 

[Sgguy46]

When to watch a movie ..the martian. Strangely the movie lowered my T.

 

[billie48]

Watching an ET like movie perhaps will bring the force to be with you, lol. It is definitely helpful to reduce T when the brain is distracted from paying attention and getting anxious about T. When we enjoy life, the brain has to focus on something else interesting. By enjoying life and having positive emotions, the brain probably will learn from our positive acts that the doom and gloom of T is a lie and that it doesn't have to treat it as a mortal threat. Then it won't need to zoom in to monitor this threat and the result may be less loud in perception.

 

[Sgguy46]

Agreed.

 

[billie48]

I have posted this thought in another thread, but perhaps an extract of it should be here in the Positivity Thread to cheer up those of us who are reaching out to others in dire need of help while we are still afflicted with T.

As a Christian, I believe Christ atoned for all mankind and His selfless compassionate service to the sick and needy is admirable. While suffering immensely Himself on the cross, he still had the heart & care for others, praying for those who nailed Him to the cross. This is a sublime divine quality that we mortals can only feebly and inadequately emulate at times, such as answering the desperate calls for help from new T sufferers here while we ourselves are still afflicted, and have so many other concerns and personal matters to attend to ourselves.

This, my friends, is personal growth while we are journeying through the 'hell of T'. We are living the highest form of personal fulfillment to make a difference in the life of others in need of help. There is positivity even in this 'T hell' if we have the right attitude to face it and to care for those who have the same affliction. The subtle change in our personal attribute toward one more humanitarian oriented is something we may not be aware of while in suffering, but positively understand that when you reach out to those in despair while you yourself is sick and afflicted, it is the highest form of life's self-fulfillment in the hierarchy of human needs. While the rich give out money and do charity remotely, we are here helping the desperate T sufferers directly with our heart and time. This is a divine attribute and personal growth. We should be proud of ourselves that we turn something so 'ugly & low' as T into something so 'beautiful & high' up there in our self-worth. May God bless you all in this and the life after for your noble selfless service to humanity. Amen.

 

[OneFai]

It is not for everyone but I think I found a potential fix for my tinnitus. I had some baclofen from my last surgery. It was for the hiccups that wouldn't go away after the surgery. I read some article about how baclofen may affect the pathway of sound perception and I took a baclofen. The ringing actually got a bit worse but I was reading a technical article and I tried hard to focus. Then suddenly the tinnitus stop serendipitously. I don't know if it was the baclofen, the concentration I put into reading the technical article or a combination of both. I am going to ask my otolaryngologist.

 

[Beessie]

Despite the devastating news of Aut00063 won't be our relief in the common future. I actually don't care that much about it. I am so used to my T that it only bothers me for around 5% during the day and I live a enjoyable life most of the time.

I even went out last saturday (for the second time since January), a total of five hours of noise exposure, but with my custom made earplugs I felt safe and I had zero increase after it. It looks like I am getting my life back.

The last thing for me is not to worry about it getting worse. Cause I am sure it will bring my life upside down again (had a nasty spike 3 weeks ago) but I try to life to the following quote (got it from this forum):

Dont worry about the things that may happen in the future, they may never happen.

I wish all of you the best and hope I can write my success story around January.

Bas.

 

[Hinnie8]

My friend sent me this quote and it really resonated with me so I thought I'd share It's just about trying to take a positive approach to struggling with depression and negative emotions... something that a lot of us have faced when dealing will tinnitus. We just need to remember that it is part of who we are and what makes us unique and 'whole' xo

"I actually attack the concept of happiness. The idea that – I don't mind people being happy – but the idea that everything we do is part of the pursuit of happiness seems to me a really dangerous idea and has led to a contemporary disease in Western society, which is fear of sadness. It's a really odd thing that we're now seeing people saying "write down 3 things that made you happy today before you go to sleep", and "cheer up" and "happiness is our birthright" and so on. We're kind of teaching our kids that happiness is the default position – it's rubbish. Wholeness is what we ought to be striving for and part of that is sadness, disappointment, frustration, failure; all of those things which make us who we are. Happiness and victory and fulfillment are nice little things that also happen to us, but they don't teach us much. Everyone says we grow through pain and then as soon as they experience pain they say "Quick! Move on! Cheer up!" I'd like just for a year to have a moratorium on the word "happiness" and to replace it with the word "wholeness". Ask yourself "is this contributing to my wholeness?" and if you're having a bad day, it is." –Hugh Mackay

 

[I who love music]

This morning I took my wife to the doctor, came home, cleaned the house including dusty shelves.. yuck.
Helped my 78 year father do some painting, picked up my son, made supper, played on the computer. Didn't respond to my T once.

 

[Doogle]

Started drinking alkaline water this weekend. I feel like it may be helping. I ride about 15 miles a day on the bike rain or shine. The intensity of T changes from day to day but this weekend with the change of water seems better. God bless you all. Stay strong we can win this battle!

 

[flkb]

Had a fun weekend. We went to a Halloween party and had a great time. We even did some karaoke which worried me a little due that it gets a bit loud, but I had my plugs and even horribly sang a few songs along the way.
It's difficult to deal with this at times, especially when money is really tight at the moment, so I'm always stressing about things. But I do enjoy the support and stories. Thanks to all. Stay positive please.

 

[Doogle]

After seeing Ear Nose and Throat Specialist I was convinced I just had to live with this. His advice, stay calm and just drink water. No alcohol and no caffeine! Good advice I suppose. So hard not to have a glass of wine or beer but it's never just one my bad. Just started drinking alkaline water which seems to lower BP for some reason. The T in my head definetly responds to BP. The higher my BP the louder the ringing. Normal BP the ringing is there but significantly tolerable. Just a thought I wanted to share.

 

[Inge]

I can positively say that my T has virtually dissapeared. I wanted to share this news as I read many comments here on TT by ppl who have a permanent case of T or who fear their T may be permanent. It does not have to be permanent in all cases. In my case T lasted for one year after a stint in rehab. Most likely it was caused by withdrawing from klonopin. What helped me was sound therapy, acupuncture, talk therapy, sleep, and reducing anxiety.

 

[Falconfox]

@Inge Congrats! You should think about posting in the success stories maybe. Either way I'm glad to hear yet another member made it to a good place.

 

[John Meyers]

Feeling better today after a very loud T day yesterday. -- I know it was because I ate high-salt junk food and drank too much coffee.

I've going to improve my health dramatically and become a better person to everyone (especially residents and workers in my mom's nursing home). -- These things help lower my T and make me feel better health-wise too.

Hard for me to part with junk food and overeating but it does me in every time now. -- I'm still hopeful that I will rid of Mr T within 11 months (I'm going on 7 weeks after one loud concert)..

Try to keep smiling and be grateful for other things in your life. -- It does make a difference!