EXHAUSTED

[Parrcj]

My journey began 2 years ago. After many visits to ENT I am seeing them next month for fitting of hearing aids although only a slight loss of hearing in one ear? The screeching is consistent its there as soon as I wake. Some days I am desperate for it to stop. Bedtime is a nightmare and as soon as I wake I have to get out of bed. I long for peace. I can forget it most of the day but have to be active. I am so tired of this, cannot image having it for the rest of my life. I had nerve denervasion on my neck 3 years ago and wonder if this is the cause of my T any medical people out there to advise ?.

Thank you

[Gloomster]

I wonder if the way forward for you is more to do with acceptance than longing for peace ? Feel free to ignore me , I am more or less a professional idiot and in a pretty rotten state myself at the moment . I am probably the last person to be handing out advice but bad though things are right now , I was able to habituate almost completely about 10 years ago , over a 2 year period

Until the recent disaster I had years of peace but although the apparent volume faded this was after I had ( painfully slowly) learned to live with it without setting off fight / flight responses .

Even now my distress is to do with how I react to the noise not so much the noise itself and I have have periods when it is going on and I don't much care .My aim is to make those times longer . Unfortunately I cannot turn off the anxiety like a tap ..oh how I wish I could ..but the noise itself surely cannot be the problem

If it was you couldn't get on a train or in car or n put on a jumper without being horrified at the sensory experience of noise or material

This understanding does not make it much easier ..as I said ,,I am struggling myself , but I hope I think I know it offers a sounder basis for recovery

But its only my experience -

[bantams in reply to Gloomster]

Great reply and advice👍👍

[bournville]

hi good advice from gloomster although easier said than done. Look into MCBT aimed at tinnitus - its a mixture of meditation and CBT. I was offered it on the nhs and initially very sceptical but it was transforming as it sped up habituation. Delivered well with support it should really help you. Here are a couple of links

CBT based help

debbiefeatherstone.com/tinn...

MCBT help

uclh.nhs.uk/our-services/fi...

[Happyrosie]

I’d completely agree with the other two posters. And I’d add, this site isn’t for actual medical advice as we don’t know anything about you so a medical person could be risking professional standards.

[Parrcj]

I totally agree this is not the site for medical advice, I was wondering if anyone had had the same experience as me.Yes I have learnt to live with this I have no choice, T being so painful to the point of visiting A and E.. I feel my head is going to explode at its worst. Waking up every morning and going to bed with this is frightful.

Thank you all for your sound advice, I have tried T masking, relaxation and play sport three times a week.

I guess I have to find my own solution if there is one . I am not normally a negative person, the opposite in fact. Sitting here typing this with a constant ring in my head 🤕 .

Tried two glasses of red wine last night , made it much worse!! Maybe try sleeping tablets ?

Very sad 😔

[doglover1973 in reply to Parrcj]

Hi Parrcj I'm sorry you're suffering. T can push us to our outer limits at times. It sounds as if you've tried all the usual things. Perhaps the HAs will help. You never know. I echo bournville . CBT helped me even though I was sceptical about it too. I paid for private CBT last Autumn as there was no sign of any help from the NHS . It's helped me to manage my T better .

[surreycccfan]

Hi Parrcj, sorry to hear you are suffering. I very much identified with you when you said 'I am not normally a negative person, the opposite in fact', I was the same but when I got T I found it so hard to stay positive and it had a big negative impact on my mental health. I found it a real struggle to not focus on this high pitched screeching in my head, it felt like all I could focus on was the sound of my T and I couldn't get any relief. What changed for me was when I went to a BTA support group and hearing from others who had the condition and were now living well with it (either acceptance, habituation, etc.). At first I felt this was impossible for me but over time I realised that being in this heightened emotional state (fight/flight) I was letting my T control me. At this point I made a conscious effort to put in place some of the evidence based techniques to take back this control from my T. I tried lots of different things (I have posted these before in other posts but am happy to repost if you want) and eventually built up a toolkit that did help me take back control and I now live well with my T. When you say 'cannot image having it for the rest of my life', again I know I felt like this, have you tried CBT at all as for me I found this very useful in helping managing these types of thoughts of feelings and was a cornerstone of me taking back control?

Hope this helps in some small way. Stay safe

[Parrcj in reply to surreycccfan]

Thank you for reply so encouraging to hear you understand what I am saying.I will try BTA support group as you suggested.

I have not tried CBT is this something our Dr could arrange?

I wonder if its normal for the T to wake you, as the moment I open my eyes it's there screeching in my head, which cause pain running upto my temple. I guess these are the questions I could ask at the support group.

Again thank you for your kind response .

[surreycccfan in reply to Parrcj]

Hi, you GP can refer you for CBT. You can also self refer here nhs.uk/mental-health/talkin... . I organised mine through my GP and managed to get face to face CBT and although not specific to T the strategies and tools it taught me helped me reframe how I saw my T and the associated unhelpful thoughts.

In regards to your T waking you, all I can say from my perspective was that it probably didn't wake me but as soon as I stirred because I was in an heightened emotional state my mind went straight to it. Now when I wake, I can hear it but my mind moves onto the more important things of the day.

Wishing you all the best. Stay safe