MemberHi everyone,
Tinnitus hit me in December 2018 and I have been following Tinnitus Talk since. The experiences and info you shared were of great support in very dark times of my life, and especially this thread kept a tiny bit of hope alive in me even in moments of total desperation. I never thought I would be writing in this thread one day, however here I am finally sharing my success story and hoping to inspire other tinnitus victims the same hope that kept me going.
My tinnitus was caused by an acoustic trauma in my left ear; all of a sudden my peace of mind was replaced by a fluctuating electric buzz that would reach unbelievably loud volumes during the night and in quiet environments. My whole existence got kicked aside by this tinnitus monster and I found myself switching from living a happy life to barely surviving. I went through anxiety, depression, nervous breakdowns, suicidal thoughts and all those dark places that most of us are unfortunately familiar with. I have seen many doctors and tried lots of meds and treatments, but as we all know contemporary medicine is a big let down when it comes to tinnitus. Nothing I did seemed to give me some relief and at the same time I knew habituation was not an option for me as my tinnitus was not a steady tone but very fluctuating and super loud. I thought I had a future of suffering ahead and I was praying for a premature death. Then at around 1.5 year mark something changed: from a day to another tinnitus got quieter for no apparent reason. To my surprise, I was able to sleep again with no masking. Man, what a feeling! Since then, almost 3 months ago, it has stayed very quiet, except for a couple of days spike. When I go to bed sometimes I hear complete silence, sometimes tinnitus is there but its volume is so low that is barley noticeable. I don't think it has anything to do with habituation, rather the volume objectively went down.
So, what has worked for me? Nothing really, only time. However there are a few things that helped in some way.
What helped:
- ADs and sleeping pills. I am not a fan of those and appreciate the risk of serious side effects; however they kept me sane enough not to jump out of the window
- White noise earbuds. Literally a life saviour at night
What didn't help:
- Therapy. I tried mindfulness, hypnosis and CBT. After I tried these approaches I felt insulted as a tinnitus sufferer by how these treatments are often sold as a solution
- Lenire. I wrote a review post some time ago on my experience and I have to rise a red flag here. I approached Neuromod to treat my unilateral tinnitus and ended up developing new tones in both ears while using the device (one of them hasn't completely faded yet). My reasonable doubt is: since both ears get stimulus through the headset, how can you make sure that it only targets the malfunctioning part? How can you make sure that the other functioning side doesn't get stimulated and possibly messed up? I think that was the case with me, maybe got stimulus where not needed and so new tones came up, although I guess I will never know for sure.
So here's where I am at now, still with tinnitus at times but at a very low volume. I hope it continues improving over the next months, but if it doesn't I am totally fine with it as well.
Life challenged me with some tough events, but tinnitus was a whole new level of torture. I pray for all of you to find relief and for a cure to come out soon.
Tinnitus hit me in December 2018 and I have been following Tinnitus Talk since. The experiences and info you shared were of great support in very dark times of my life, and especially this thread kept a tiny bit of hope alive in me even in moments of total desperation. I never thought I would be writing in this thread one day, however here I am finally sharing my success story and hoping to inspire other tinnitus victims the same hope that kept me going.
My tinnitus was caused by an acoustic trauma in my left ear; all of a sudden my peace of mind was replaced by a fluctuating electric buzz that would reach unbelievably loud volumes during the night and in quiet environments. My whole existence got kicked aside by this tinnitus monster and I found myself switching from living a happy life to barely surviving. I went through anxiety, depression, nervous breakdowns, suicidal thoughts and all those dark places that most of us are unfortunately familiar with. I have seen many doctors and tried lots of meds and treatments, but as we all know contemporary medicine is a big let down when it comes to tinnitus. Nothing I did seemed to give me some relief and at the same time I knew habituation was not an option for me as my tinnitus was not a steady tone but very fluctuating and super loud. I thought I had a future of suffering ahead and I was praying for a premature death. Then at around 1.5 year mark something changed: from a day to another tinnitus got quieter for no apparent reason. To my surprise, I was able to sleep again with no masking. Man, what a feeling! Since then, almost 3 months ago, it has stayed very quiet, except for a couple of days spike. When I go to bed sometimes I hear complete silence, sometimes tinnitus is there but its volume is so low that is barley noticeable. I don't think it has anything to do with habituation, rather the volume objectively went down.
So, what has worked for me? Nothing really, only time. However there are a few things that helped in some way.
What helped:
- ADs and sleeping pills. I am not a fan of those and appreciate the risk of serious side effects; however they kept me sane enough not to jump out of the window
- White noise earbuds. Literally a life saviour at night
What didn't help:
- Therapy. I tried mindfulness, hypnosis and CBT. After I tried these approaches I felt insulted as a tinnitus sufferer by how these treatments are often sold as a solution
- Lenire. I wrote a review post some time ago on my experience and I have to rise a red flag here. I approached Neuromod to treat my unilateral tinnitus and ended up developing new tones in both ears while using the device (one of them hasn't completely faded yet). My reasonable doubt is: since both ears get stimulus through the headset, how can you make sure that it only targets the malfunctioning part? How can you make sure that the other functioning side doesn't get stimulated and possibly messed up? I think that was the case with me, maybe got stimulus where not needed and so new tones came up, although I guess I will never know for sure.
So here's where I am at now, still with tinnitus at times but at a very low volume. I hope it continues improving over the next months, but if it doesn't I am totally fine with it as well.
Life challenged me with some tough events, but tinnitus was a whole new level of torture. I pray for all of you to find relief and for a cure to come out soon.
