Any young people on here with tinnitus?

[Soffee]

Hey, I’m 23 years old and I got tinnitus in Jan after a period of stress during uni exams, but I think its been brought on by exposure to loud music as well. I was wondering are there many young people out there with T and how do u cope because I feel like I have so much of my life ahead of me. I’m planning on doing a PhD and stuff but I know that will be stressful and will make my T spike! There’s so many things I want to do with my life and don’t want to stop doing them because of T. Is anyone else feeling the same thing?

[TinnitusUKPat Partner]

Hi Soffee - nice to hear from you and thank you for joining the BTA forum. The relationship between tinnitus and stress is a tough one to manage at times - we can't get rid of stress entirely, but learning how to cope with stress in a positive way has a good impact on our wellbeing. Some stress, for example, can be motivational and even helpful.

Hope that younger members of the forum can give you input on how they manage their tinnitus.

Best wishes

[Annie07]

Hi Soffee,

I’m 27 but I got tinnitus around your age (I was 22). I too feel like I got tinnitus as a result of stress/ anxiety that I was going through at the time but there’s no knowing for sure as I also had a viral infection at the time tbh. When I first got it, I did not cope well at all. I got anxiety attacks, I had trouble sleeping. I was even kind of developing agoraphobia and really struggled going into work. I was eventually referred to a tinnitus therapist who I must say, helped greatly. She did CBT with me and give lots of great tips and advice to get through it. Over the course of two years I eventually developed habituation so that I almost forgot I even had tinnitus. Last week (after 3 years) I’m not going to lie, I did have a relapse (maybe because of lockdown). The first week was rough but now I’m slowly working through it and hope to achieve habituation to it again. Over the three years that I achieved habituation, there were times that I had stress/ anxiety to other issues but I can’t say that it spiked my tinnitus or made me aware of it. What’s getting me through it now is not seeing the tinnitus as a threat or allowing myself to get worked up about it. I’m accepting it and trying to ignore it. It’s really helped speaking to my family and friends and even people on here especially because they know exactly what I’m talking about. What I would say is that don’t let tinnitus stop you from progressing. When I first got it, I did feel like that. I felt like giving up and not doing anything. But over the course of time and through managing tinnitus better, I realised that I’m not gonna be prisoner to it. I’ve learnt to accept it and I’m not gonna waste my life fixating on it. Learning to cope with stress by being patient and gentle with yourself, using techniques that you find beneficial and relaxing, and by not viewing tinnitus as a threat can really help. For me, the major major game changer is how I view tinnitus. If I view it negatively than I will react negatively. I don’t know if that really helps, but wishing you all the best!

[TinnitusUKPat Partner in reply to Annie07]

Annie - fantastic post. So helpful and supportive. Hope that you notice an improvement in your tinnitus soon.

[Annie07 in reply to TinnitusUKPat]

Hi, thank you for your kind words Pat!

[JanAtherton in reply to Annie07]

I agree with Annie, I'm in my 40's now, but I have had tinnitus since I was 7 1/2 after chickenpox. I often use music when I'm studying and when I was in high school in Scotland I was able to get permission to have a walkman to play music on when I was doing my exams, I had my own invigilator in a side room near the library and the tapes I used were vetted in advance, so they knew what was on them and they had to be kept in the room! Not sure how that would work in the era of streaming, though!

I then went to Art College after that, so it was more continual assessment than formal exams, but there may be options there too, maybe you could talk to your PhD supervisor to see if there is anything that will help. I'm sure if they know about your tinnitus, that will help them understand it better. You will always have a certain amount of stress and that may make your tinnitus spike, but music, or audio books, or the radio in the background, or a white noise maker can all help distract you from it enough that you can work. I hope this helps a bit.

[borahae]

I'm 21 years old and I've have chronic tinnitus since birth, I also have mild hearing loss as well. I've also experience pulsating reactive tinnitus when my surroundings. However recently, I developed low frequency tinnitus which is much harder to cope than with my usual high pitched tinnitus. I've also been under huge stress lately with finals. I'm currently trying to work on an essay right now but the tinnitus is driving me insane and I can't focus at all.