I have now had my tinnitus for the best part of 7 months (right ear only). No hearing loss or diagnosis unfortunately provided by anyone.
If I look back 7 months, it used to regularly start and stop but now it is a permanent albeit very quiet noise I only tend to hear in silent rooms. Central heating masks it coupled with certain TV volumes, I also no longer hear it outside now which is progress to an extent dependant on wind speed and surrounding environments.
However, what bothers me and gets me down the most is even though it's very quiet noise it has a pulsing quality to it and I'm trying to be brave and go into silent rooms which I've now started doing but I don't just want to sit there and listen to it as it still makes me super anxious and if I'm tired I will sleep but it takes up so much of my mind.
I don't know how to get out of this routine of checking it all the time I'm somewhere quiet. Since Christmas I haven't had to work too hard to find it's always there. The point is it still bothers me whenever I go to a quiet room and I know people mention time is a great healer but my brain doesn't seem to be getting used to it at all, it feels like a constant circle
Majority of the day I don't hear it with central heating and I play my radio or if I go running or tennis (lockdown now in Britain sadly).
I just feel like I'm caught between what best approach is, I feel like my brain just can't put it to background in a quiet room so is there anything I can do to help tell my brain it's not an important sound and please put it in background. More and more things seem to help mask it now but I'm hyper aware of what those natural maskers are. Nothing seems to help in total silence but I can't completely avoid this full stop.
I just feel in complete limbo everyday and wondered if there are any tips or why it seems to be taking me so long to find any moments of progress now? I feel I've come some way slowly but now feel it won't get to improve to any further level and I literally want a 10-20% further improvement to be happy again once and for all and stop even thinking or talking about this stupid sound. Recently i really felt it was improving then this morning i woke up and it really troubles me first thing. Im able to sleep with the smaller noise then when i wake up regularly from 5am onwards i can never return to sleep and get into a real stew over it so i dont know how to overcome this. It did appear to be going down in silent rooms until today when i heard it the volume of it was much worse than it has been. Virtually all low frequency noises seem to mask my kind which isnt very loud but really troubles me. I dont know if i can expect any further improvements here on but it doesnt feel like it.
Kind regards,
Written by
Fedal_84
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Sorry to hear about your experience. Have you tried relaxation exercises like deep breathing or visualisation. If you can remove the anxiety and fear of tinnitus then it just becomes a neutral sound and brain will tune out more quickly. Conversely obsessing over it can make it worse so that it becomes more intrusive. CBT has helped me a great deal.
Hello _Barnabas. Thanks very much for your response. I have tried relaxing into the noise in total silence and deep breathing helps when I'm trying to get to sleep. I have found lately that the fear and anxiety went down a considerable notch. But just recently i feel worse again about it just when i thought that by myself i had done really well. I dont know if its the fear or just that i focused on the sound a little too much in silence. Im not going out of my way to avoid it but still i find myself testing the noise volume lots and cannot get myself from this cycle. Im someone naturally who prefers to be busy but you cannot always be busy if this makes sense in the life. CBT i think is what i need to continue to improve my reactions to it when it does bother me but i have no idea where to start with this and feel i would be better seeing someone face to face as Covid has really restricted this. If i would improve by just 10-20% more i think everything would be so much less intrusive. My goal really in the absence of it going away 100% is to react the same way when i hear it as when i dont, i believe thats my best bet. Im not one for white noise and as i have daughter 10 months old i dont want to mess about with her sleep patterns, plus playing sounds irritates me to sleep with and those around i consider them over myself, but i love my radio in the day
The BTA website is a good place to find info on CBT for Tinnitus. It was using their help line that put me onto it back in January. I had habituated to the noise quite well but then got a spike. I think it’s par for the course - you learn to live with then forget it is there but at some point the noise catches your attention you start to think about it and then it feels like you are back to square one. Lots of others have described this as their experience. Just keep going and it will get better.
Hello Fedal. Tinnitus can be very troubling and we all experience it in different ways, whether it’s a noise or a screech, one sided or double, changing or unchanging .... trouble sleeping or going back to sleep is fairly normal the older you get (how old are you?) so don’t let that aspect get on your way, just accept that sleep can be more difficult to achieve the older you are. Wakeful periods are absolutely normal, indeed in the days when people went to bed and rose with the sun they used to appreciate a wakeful time during the winter.
if I understand you correctly, you need help because you concentrate on the T when there’s silence around you. Have you thought about CBT? This can change the way you think and behave.
You say you haven’t had a diagnosis. Have you talked to a medical practitioner about your T? If not, please look up National Institue of clinical Excellence [NICE) website and find their recommendation to GPs about tinnitus. Armed with this information, get an appointment with your GP.
Hi Happyrosie, thanks very much for your time and responding to me I'm 36 and with regards Tinnitus i was always very light sleeper anyway and one of those people who can get by on very little sleep ( i now have 10 month old daughter so forget about ay kind of sleep patterns here) If i achieve some sleep i accept its great, what bothers me in my current noise level phase is once im awake and its only me im totally focused on the head noise if i can even call it tinnitus? It bothers me as there's no distractions. I have thought about CBT to help send me in the continued right path. I feel like I've done so well by myself and perceived volume has really gone down but i still get days where it really upsets me and bothers me in the silent rooms.
This moment in time i guess the moments of silence are so infrequent that for natural habituation and the brain learning to ignore it vary' s as it doesn't get enough time to hear it then put it in the background like at the beginning of all this it was super loud and could here throughout the day. This is what frustrates me is its not getting used to it, but i don't wish to purposefully sit in silence as that makes my mind dwell on it too much also. For example im better if i hear it but have a task to be getting on with. Varies as generally its only a being inside a house noise for me now and sleep time. I still find these moments very hard though despite improvements albeit very slowly 7 months in.
With regards diagnosis i have never been seen by a consultant ENT, i had hearing tests done and MRI and since both came back fine and i also had micro suction on my ears at the very beginning. I haven't been spoken to by any ENT with regards best approaches for me, only the audiologist who ran the hearing tests and cleaned the wax on my ear drum. GP's i found locally were not helpful at all and just said in most cases it goes away and i was sent lots of literature to read. Thank you for your suggestion regarding NICE though i will check this out
Hello again Steve - and congrats on the baby. You NEED quiet time when you can get it! It sounds like your GP did a diagnosis, that this diagnosis was indeed T and, as well, it’s possible it might go away. And it might not. You sound like someone who can research things and you’ve probably had a read of the T Association website which is full of useful stuff. Worth reading again.
If the NICE guidance wasn’t followed in your case (and it might have been) that’s because it came out at the same time Covid did, so might have been missed.
Some GPs are dismissive as they know there’s no cure. But there are ways to help yourself and CBT might be the pathway useful to you.
I think the other writers have covered everything, however just to add that you can self-refer for CBT without seeing a GP. I am starting CBT very soon & that was arranged via ‘Health in Mind’ which is an NHS free service. Although, it’s relative to my health anxiety rather than specific to tinnitus - I am pretty hopeful techniques that will be taught or discussed will help with dealing with the T & the anxiety it creates.
Sounds like you have progressed significantly already on your own, which shows strength & resilience. Especially as you have a 10 month old! I really struggled with my fear/anxiety in January when my T started, and having a 2 year old to care for was extremely hard in the state of mind I was in. But even in 3 months I notice improvement. Keep going.
Hi Fedal, your symptoms sound very like mine were except I never had the problem during the day. At night it suddenly returned. It started following a virus in the right ear in July 2018. The noise went away in the September for a month. I had all the scans and audio tests and nothing was found. I used an ear plug over the ear at night and pushed into the pillow. It was a vey difficult time. Eventually I saw a wonderful consultant who noticed my jaw was out of alignment. He described me as wonky and suggested the dentist. I had a chronic abcess and following the removal of a large tooth, the noise suddenly stopped. I still feel fullness in the ear and steam helps with congestion. One size does not fit all. Sometimes exploring other possibilities is helpful. I wish you well.
I can get to sleep with it after 1-hour it's absolutely screaming at me and I mean screaming almost to the point of I thought my ears were going to bust I've had it for 20 years but since the lockdown I think it could be down to one thing like a certain vitamins that's why I've ordered vitamin b12 leading a healthy lifestyle meditation I cannot even watch the television anymore list of the stress that comes from that's why I avoid anything to do with stress that's a must and I have just come out of a mental hospital because of mitton a Titus what what's happened now as now have come out and Mike out my tinnitus is now got even worse then when I finished up in the mental hospital all the bloody tablets to give you I may have to try CBD oil or vitamin b12 which is really good or serotonin tablets we need to crack this naturally not relying on prescribed drugs they don't tell you the real side effects what works for one person will not work for everybody yes I lack of sleep is the hard part
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I'm 36 and with regards Tinnitus i was always very light sleeper anyway and one of those people who can get by on very little sleep ( i now have 10 month old daughter so forget about ay kind of sleep patterns here) If i achieve some sleep i accept its great, what bothers me in my current noise level phase is once im awake and its only me im totally focused on the head noise if i can even call it tinnitus? It bothers me as there's no distractions. I have thought about CBT to help send me in the continued right path. I feel like I've done so well by myself and perceived volume has really gone down but i still get days where it really upsets me and bothers me in the silent rooms. 
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