Hello everyone,
Back in October I posted this.
This is my story as I have been reading a lot of success stories months ago when I was completely stuck in the fight-or-flight/panic mode, and they helped me a lot.
To start, I've always been super aware of the condition and I've been wearing earplugs to every loud event - otherwise I'd end up with (temporary) tinnitus when I go to sleep. Even with earplugs I sometimes experienced it in the past. I have some friends who have never used earplugs, stand next to the speaker when they go out and they have never experienced tinnitus in their lives. Crazy.
Anyway, back in July last year I woke up with bothersome tinnitus and I immediately felt something was wrong. I still don't know what caused it.
A couple days later I got the worst panic attack of my life. I went to numerous doctors who did a complete check-up of my hearing and everything was fine. They decided to put me on Prednisolone for a week but it didn't do much.
I can modulate the sound with my jaw/neck/pressing skull etc. so the doctors referred me to a clinical trial where I had to do several exercises with a physiotherapist (as per my previous post on Tinnitus Talk). After a couple of weeks I ended it because I didn't feel like it was helping me at all. It got too much for me mentally. I couldn't concentrate, watch TV, or work, because I was so distracted by the tinnitus. Wearing headphones was too uncomfortable as I couldn't stand the noise. Sleep was almost impossible as I was in panic mode every day. At my lowest point I had suicidal thoughts and at that point I got myself admitted to a psych ward for a couple of weeks. During that time I went to an audiologist who gave me a hearing aid with a masking sound which helped me A LOT. It was so much easier getting the focus off of it, as the sound was way more soothing than my tinnitus sound.
After around 5-6 months, I noticed improvement. Suddenly I noticed that even when I try to, I couldn't hear my tinnitus over the TV anymore which was very easy before. I couldn't hear it over conversations during dinner (only when no one's talking). I could lower the volume of the white noise that I use for sleep a bit. I was using the hearing aid less and less. It felt like I was getting my life back.
My tinnitus is still there and it will probably continue to be. Maybe it will keep going down, time will tell. The most important thing is that it doesn't control my life anymore, and I'm living my life 99% as before. I would have never believed it months ago! I'm even typing this in my silent desk, hearing it clearly, but it doesn't bother me anymore.
Wishing good luck to everyone! If you have any questions, feel free to ask.
Back in October I posted this.
This is my story as I have been reading a lot of success stories months ago when I was completely stuck in the fight-or-flight/panic mode, and they helped me a lot.
To start, I've always been super aware of the condition and I've been wearing earplugs to every loud event - otherwise I'd end up with (temporary) tinnitus when I go to sleep. Even with earplugs I sometimes experienced it in the past. I have some friends who have never used earplugs, stand next to the speaker when they go out and they have never experienced tinnitus in their lives. Crazy.
Anyway, back in July last year I woke up with bothersome tinnitus and I immediately felt something was wrong. I still don't know what caused it.
A couple days later I got the worst panic attack of my life. I went to numerous doctors who did a complete check-up of my hearing and everything was fine. They decided to put me on Prednisolone for a week but it didn't do much.
I can modulate the sound with my jaw/neck/pressing skull etc. so the doctors referred me to a clinical trial where I had to do several exercises with a physiotherapist (as per my previous post on Tinnitus Talk). After a couple of weeks I ended it because I didn't feel like it was helping me at all. It got too much for me mentally. I couldn't concentrate, watch TV, or work, because I was so distracted by the tinnitus. Wearing headphones was too uncomfortable as I couldn't stand the noise. Sleep was almost impossible as I was in panic mode every day. At my lowest point I had suicidal thoughts and at that point I got myself admitted to a psych ward for a couple of weeks. During that time I went to an audiologist who gave me a hearing aid with a masking sound which helped me A LOT. It was so much easier getting the focus off of it, as the sound was way more soothing than my tinnitus sound.
After around 5-6 months, I noticed improvement. Suddenly I noticed that even when I try to, I couldn't hear my tinnitus over the TV anymore which was very easy before. I couldn't hear it over conversations during dinner (only when no one's talking). I could lower the volume of the white noise that I use for sleep a bit. I was using the hearing aid less and less. It felt like I was getting my life back.
My tinnitus is still there and it will probably continue to be. Maybe it will keep going down, time will tell. The most important thing is that it doesn't control my life anymore, and I'm living my life 99% as before. I would have never believed it months ago! I'm even typing this in my silent desk, hearing it clearly, but it doesn't bother me anymore.
Wishing good luck to everyone! If you have any questions, feel free to ask.
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