I have had tinnitus for 3 years. It started of with one ringing tone and I habituated straight away. It started to get louder with a white noise, some[point over the years, 2 weeks later I got use to it again.
But I had a ear infection, covid and (last few weeks) and since then have several tones (one is musical in nature) and they get louder every day. I now feel the washing machine has moved to the same room. My tinnites also gets louder with any external sound. All this never happened before. Since catching covid 2/3 weeks ago I am still not 100 better, I have a sore throat and cough a lot. Can the coughing make my tinnitues loud. I can hear my tinnites above a shower, outside, anywhere nothing drowns it out.
GP just referred me to ent. Spec savers said they cant do a hearing test since ive been referred. How can I get use to this if its constantly changing. Please someone give me hope. Im 40 and have a 5 year. I need to be able to deal with this somehow. Every morning i wake upsaying I will not give it any attention but because its getting louder, never goes down, im scared for my life. Any hope please . I rang the helpline Friday, they just said its my emotions but its getting louder what do i do?
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Covid can take a while to get over and if you have a sore throat you might have a middle ear infection and mucous in your eustation tubes.Specsavers will check your hearing and if your hearing has been effected they could provide you with hearing aids and ask for a masker setting to be added like the sound of the sea.
Tinnitus can change in sound and strength and spike so try keep calm as much as you can as stress will spike it too.
It's hard when our silence has been invaded with tinnitus.
Try keep sound on around you and try not give your tinnitus any attention and at night play natural sounds on your phone and connect it to pillow speakers if you don't sleep alone.
Thank you so much for this advise. my issue is my tinnitus increases with external sound, i.e shower, car so should i still tune it out with a little radio, im worried that other noises may make it worse, if i dont sit in silent.
This may sound a little harsh, but is sitting in silence going to help you in the long term or is it going to create a situation where you are more aware of your perceived changes in tinnitus and increasingly worried about they represent?
The world is rarely, if ever, completely silent and we have to come to some kind of acceptance of that. You're worried that other sounds or noises might make your tinnitus worse - it's important to emphasize your use of the word 'might' in this sentence, I think.
A lot of the fear and anxiety which people have around tinnitus or sound sensitivity is based in 'what if's', not in what has actually occured. This is not meant to be in anyway judgemental, but I think it's critical to look at how we think about a situation is often not borne out by the reality of that situation.
We anticipate a negative result so we stop doing anything which might bring about that anticipated, unwanted and feared outcome and stay in a state of inertia in the hope that doing nothing will somehow make the situation better.
We all do this, it's human nature, but even using your radio, on a low volume setting, is doing something proactive to tackle your tinnitus distress.
I would be hopeful that once your Covid infection and ear infection have resolved that your tinnitus will not be as actively worrying for you as it is now. Let's park any worries about your tinnitus having changed or being reactive until you've fully recovered from the illnesses you've described in your post.
Firstly, and I know this is daft to say, and harder to do but try to stay calm. When our T gets louder - look straight towards the flip side of that; it can and does also get quieter. This is what it does - generally speaking.
I have days when it is barely audible and then I have days, like today for example, when it's an absolute bloody racket. I've got white noise like a river in full flood, crickets doing their "cricket" thing as if their little lives depended on it and I've got random buzzes and bleeps all over the place. It's what I'd class as a "bad day". That's why one of my coping strategies is to hang out here; reading/ talking with others who I know know how I feel. I know how you feel. I've been there, am there, will be there again.
When I first got T I was in despair, I worried for my sanity, I simply could not imagine how I could live with this condition and stay sane. I phoned the Sammaritans, crying and wretched. I talked and answered this guy's questions and told him that I couldn't cope with it. He listened and then he put something to me I hadn't thought about - so distracted had I been by my condition - and that was; that what I hadn't realised was that I had already started to create some coping strategies - without even realising it.
When I read what you have written above it seems on the surface that you are in full panic - but, reading between the lines I can see that you already have some coping strategies in place; You say when your T started - it was quieter, and that you habituated to it fast- well, if the T is louder now - you can know that you will eventually habituate to it now as well - it might take longer, but you will. We all manage to - and you will too.
You also say that when you wake up in the morning you tell it that you will not give it any attention. Fantastic. That's the spirit. Treat it with the contempt it deserves. It's an unwanted guest in your mind's home. If you can think that - you can strengthen that line of thinking into more of a resolve; assisting that habituation going forward.
You also say you rang the Helpline and although the Helpline is really excellent you don't feel it helped you on that occassion - but what you DID do was look and ask for help - and you wrote this post too.
So that's three BIG coping strategies you've demonstrated there that you've already developed for yourself and employ on a regualr basis. That's not the actions of someone in despair, who is beyond help and cannot get the "other side" of the T. That's someone who is dealing with it in a practical and forthright manner. As you go forward these will strengthen and in time you will be okay with this new T. It's all too easy for us to forget how far we've come sometimes - especially if our T changes and does something new - like get louder - we forget that we've been here befre and forget how strong we were before - just have a think about the things you thought and did the first time the T came along. Have a go at them again. Don't let the panic win. Be calm and detached and remember - you're cleverer than the T. You can easily outwit it. It relies on your unease/ panic/ anxiety - don't feed it. Don't give it the time of day.
As your T has changed you should still inform doctor/ consultant/ of the change. In the mean time develop further coping strategies in addition to those you have already developed and honed to further inhance your recovery. Good Luck. You can do it - because you've already done it once.
What a beautiful post and the time you have taken over it. Thank you. It resonates with me so much.
Ive just had to arrange for someone else to take my daughter to her school fete, but after reading your post, feeling hopeful that when this all settles I can do things like that again with her.
By any chance are you a writer? Just beautiful writing.
Thank you. That's very kind of you. Hey, you should go along with your daughter and the person who is helping out by taking her. The fact that your daughter already has somene there who can deal with things means you can bail if you have to but it's worth going along. What's the worst that can happen? Your daughter will, no doubt be delighted that mum is there and of course will understand if mum's "headache" means she has to go early but you'll have been there for some of it - if not all.
And yes, as Glynis says - absolutely fine to fly - have a great time!
I'm not a writer but I've always written. Thank you for your kind words.
External sounds ,unless they are extremely loud you will be fine like every day sound your ears have heard before. Hyperacusious is sensitive to sound .
Don't be afraid of sound you normally hear as over protecting them will make them more sensitive if use ear protection or avoid it.
Blood pressure can spike tinnitus and stress too.
Tinnitus will change as its the nature of it but usually settles to your normal sound you hear unless you have been to a loud disco or rave or around roadworks using drills.
At the moment the house next door is being gutted right back to brick and chimney removed and lots of drilling that reduced me to tears and its been weeks.
The owner came round and brought me some ear defenders as it was causing me so much stress as just the other side of my wall.
They have agreed to only drill the connecting wall when I'm at work in the evenings.
We can not predict what loud sound we come across but we can protect them when know we are around it.
Try not to worry when out and about or your tinnitus changes as that's the nature of the beast but just be aware that extra loud sounds like a loud speaker or drill etc you are best to avoid it or pop in ear plugs .
You can get ear plugs that come in a small keyring to keep on your keys so gives you a bit of reassurance when out and about.
My son got married in Barbados and it was the first time I had been on a plane as its been a life long phobia for me so my first time was a 8 hour flight.
I put noise reduction ear plugs in taking off and landing and it was fine .
I hope so.Barbados was the first holiday since my divorce so my brother came with me and we flew over with my X his girlfriend and his mum /my mother in law as we all get on ok and our oldest son,wife and grandchildren came on the same flight and our son who was getting married was there already with their son.
You will have a lovely time I'm sure so don't worry about your ears .
Looks like you have reactive tinnitus like me it sucks so much. I also dont know how to deal with it. I'm also very sure normal/moderate sounds make it permanently worse.
I would like to add, just as an alternative, that it is possible to have a friendlier attitude toward your tinnitus. When you feel you hate it, you can just listen to it a while, not as something intrusive, certainly not pleasant, just as a kind of damage that doesn't require your attention, like a kind of ugly scar that is private, and doesn't hurt. You don't have to hate or fear it or pay attention to it, just accept that it is a challenging part of your life, but at least you can still hear the world and you can feel good that you have learned not to let your T bother you. I'm sitting in a quiet room now, listening to the old familiar sound of T and also hearing birds out the window. Thank goodness there are still birds in this world.
That's a really good outlook Iris. Good show! On days when the T is less bothersome I can get on with stuff. T is no match for my lathe and power tools.
Please read my own T post where I describe that I needed benzos to get to sleep for many years.
All because of the very high rating I gave the T. That is, I was thinking (totally self absorbed) only about my T, nothing else.
Then, realising this was not good long term, I helicoptered up, and saw that others have (far worse) problems and, slowly, the rating I gave T dropped to Zero and, no benzos for 5 years now.
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