What Is Habituation Like with Really Loud Tinnitus?

[Tom Cnyc]

Speaking of my T, it is unmaskable and constant high pitch ringing...have I habituated? Completely...after 20+ years with T it is not an affliction but as much of me as my own thoughts...

It is my friend and my companion...it is a comfort and relaxing state for me...I can not imagine my life without T and it doesn't interest me to "cure" it...

I know I can not speak for others as T is unique to each of us but it is "Me" and and my mind has embraced it as its own...

then why are you on this site seeking "support"

 

[zeroday]

Maybe giving support???

 

[foryourinfo]

Always good to see the average member engaging in a bit of delusional reverse psychology: if I can convince myself (read: fool myself) that I am doing better, then perhaps I can also convince my surroundings of the same. Somehow the following quote comes to mind:

"You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time."
--Abraham Lincoln

 

[Jkph75]

There seems to frequently come up a confusion between physiological tinnitus and pathological tinnitus. I don't know why this still gets a mention.

I've seen this said before, one poster even described hearing it coming from the mouth (mockingly) of an "eminent" medical practitioner lecturing in the UK (who clearly thought little of his patients). The statement reads as though the tinnitus we experience was always there, fully formed, then one day we happened to notice and off we went. I assume you are just posing the idea as others do because it does get floated here and elsewhere from time to time, but it doesn't really fly (float?) in the same sense that everyday aches and pains aren't equal with a broken bone that just needs a little noticing. Were this viewpoint viable then it would follow that psychiatry would be the correct front-line of treatment, not ENT/Audiology.

I think people get for different reasons. Zoloft is the only drug proven to reduce t for a reason. Otherwise, you wouldn't see people on here talking about how they got T from their 5db "loss" as if everyone starts out with hearing at 0. But I won't go off on that. It's so hard to tell what will happen b/c everyone's situation is different. Sounds like for some people it goes down for others it doesn't. Some get used to it some never do. It is also hard to tell how loud someone's T really is since it's so subjective. Even my own is hard to rate. I would like to think that one day it won't scare the crap out of me but I can't imagine that. I know I will never think of it as my friend or be comforted by it, rather it is the complete opposite. I'd like to get inside my head and beat the shit out of it. I would like to think that at some point my brain would filter it out and stop hearing it but idk if that's possible.

 

[PaulBe]

Zoloft is the only drug proven to reduce t for a reason.

I'm sure if you looked around this forum long enough you'd find a few posts about Zoloft apparently causing somebody's tinnitus, such is the variation in our experiences and how we interpret them. That's one of the things that can be so frustrating. Tinnitus is treated as the disease when in fact it's a symptom of a deeper disease process, and thus, yes...different reasons, many unknown it seems.

 

[PaulBe]

I know I will never think of it as my friend or be comforted by it

Yeah, I saw that post further up too, I was a bit WTF....oh well, whatever. If it works for someone it may just work for someone else...not me though.

 

[Rajin]

I had severe T, now it has been reduced to a degree where it doesn't bother me anymore and THAT doesn't mean I habituated to it.

What do you mean ? Getting used to it and not habituated.

 

[IvanRus]

I am

Do you have spikes? How much maximum do they last?

What caused tinnitus, did you pass the audiometry in the extended range?

 

[IvanRus]

It seems to me that everything depends on the loudness and obsession with the tinnitus.

If the tinnitus is weak or even mild, in time you can get used to it and live a full life.

But if it is heavy, is it possible?

Especially frighten spikes. What is this .... Where do they come from.