Keeping Positive:
This isn't a success story
yet. This is mostly things people have said before on this forum.
I need to specify that I've only had ringing for a week and a half, and even though I can hear it over most things if I listen for it; it's not blaringly loud, I don't have hearing loss in the normal range. My heart goes out to all of those less fortunate, whom have it loud, and/or for a long time. This is to all those who have it new, to whom it is unsettling and scary.
Mine was possibly caused by anxiety, though I don't believe I was - perhaps generally stressed for the past months. The first week was hard. No appetite. No sex drive. No motivation. Weak from not eating. Anxious/nervous/slightly depressed but not so much that I was crippled. I could still do things not food or sex related without forcing myself to move. I found myself wanting to go to sleep early, and found that I could fall asleep easily enough - however, I found that if I awoke early it was harder to fall back into it, especially ~the hour before my alarm goes off. I looked for reasons and excuses to leave work to nap in my car. My mood read like a Las Vegas billboard to my wife, whom while concerned for me, had little sympathy for my condition given her almost daily migraines since she was a teenager. GP and ENT basically gave me a clean bill of health, with the standard story of "You'll adjust". It always reminds me of a line from Men in Black:
Jay: Zed, don't you guys ever get any sleep around here?
Zed: The twins keep us on Centaurian time, standard thirty-seven hour day. Give it a few months. You'll get used to it... or you'll have a psychotic episode.
If my first week continued as it had for much longer, I believed my mental health, my work performance, and my marriage were all going to have a hard time. It was imperative that I found a way to cope with this soon. I did the normal routine, scouring the internet for ways to cure it. The back-of-the-head finger knocking, audio therapy, etc. Every dead end upped my anxiety and stress.
The hardest part is accepting you do not have control over the sound, you do have control over your reaction.
The first piece of advice most people get is to relax, as stress exacerbates the sounds. You might find it hard to relax; worry not, this is normal. You might find, as I did, that things that you used to enjoy do not interest you. Don't force yourself to do something that will stress you out, even things you think should be fun. I had to stop playing video games, because while I consider them fun, there is certainly a level of stress involved that I needed to step back from for a while. I found that watching TVs and movies, while a distraction, I still found that I was checking my sound every so often, and the very nature of most tv and film can be stressful. The best way I found to relax early on, even for a moment, was with audio masking.
If you have Amazon Prime, Amazon Music has a Work, Study, Relax station that has a good mix of relaxation, yoga, and nature sounds.
mynoise.net is great for masking, as you can manually adjust the different levels for every piece of audio they have until it masks your sound as you need. It's also free for the great bulk of content they offer. It even has cat purring.
If you can relax, even for a few minutes, it will improve your day. If your day can improve, then...
@I who love music 's
Back to Slience Thread was a huge motivating exercise. Refocusing from the sound itself to your emotions was a good stepping stone for me. I am grateful.
There is one youtube video I found that honestly improved my outlook. It's by Dr. Bruce Hubbard, who I noticed has a spot in the Doctors Corner thread. It deals with CBT, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, for treating not Tinnitus, but the Distress that tinnitus can cause some people. I do not know if the statistics he lists are accurate, but the whole video supplied me with a level of hope and optimism that I can't begin to relate to you.I have had to watch this in its entirety a few times, but it helped. It rationalized the reasons I was feeling the way I was, and helped me realize that I can overcome this, and it provided some basic exercises you can do to retrain the way your mind reacts to the sound.
I came home yesterday and attempted what I
think is Mindful Meditation. I put some masking music on, turned down the lights, sat on the floor in a stereotypical meditation pose, and focused to the best of my ability on my breathing and my breathing alone. I would expand my circle of awareness, tension in my shoulders, pressure on my legs against the floor, the cat knocking a glass off a table like the jerk he is. The sound would come - and I would let it, I would not fight it, but I would refocus on my breathing again from the start. If my mind drifted to thoughts of work, or anything unrelated I would start over again focusing on the sound of my breathing and expand outwards. I made the mistake of trying to set a timer for 10 minutes, but I just kept checking to see how much time I had left. I turned the timer off, and just did this exercise for as long as I wanted. It felt similar to the relaxation exercises at the end of a yoga class. I definitely felt better afterwards. I will try to do this every so often.
I'm not interested in researching supplements, though I started taking a generic multivitamin since my appetite was low, not because I think it will help with the sound.
I'm not 100% yet. My appetite is returning, my libido has improved from zero to low, my energy is returning, and I'm about to go give blood - something I did not think I would be excited or eager to do just a few days ago.
Don't give up. I was a nervous, anxious wreck as little has 3 days ago, and some simple exercises have made the world of difference. If I can improve, I can overcome this. If I can overcome this, YOU can overcome this.
I for one am starting to feel a bit better again. Living with tinnitus is harsh ,but living with T combined with worrying about the future is overwhelming, so take it one day at a time, and make the most of it.
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