I’ve had tinnitus for one month. I spent two weeks in bed, listening to the tinnitus and now know the pattern which is bad news because I know what’s coming next. I’ve managed to fight it and get out of bed but I feel bereaved for what was. It gets low but sometimes turns into a buzzing sound which I find worse. Mostly, it’s white noise. My friends say hearing aids help. The house is a mess because I can’t bring myself to do anything apart from watch a bit of tv. I go to bed at 7pm after dinner to get away from the noise. Ive given away all my theatre tickets because I don’t want to go out. I keep looking for some kind of miracle cure. Why is it that even the RNID bluntly say there is no cure. Why don’t they say we are working towards a cure. At least that would give us some hope.
I don’t want to live like this.
Why don’t we all rise up and demand a cure.
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They were quick enough to develop a vaccine for Covid, why can’t everyone get together for tinnitus and release us
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Judeat43
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I understand. I felt similar when I first got it in April this year. I felt scared and wanted to run away from myself but that added to my fears as obviously an impossibility.
Hearing aids have made a difference for me. I have learnt that it is best to live your life, do everything to help yourself like masking and refocusing.
Getting busy helps and focusing on other things will in time help you to notice it less.
Get busy and buy some more theatre tickets as I promise you will not look back and remember the noise only the good times! This community has suggestions on ear plugs or hearing aids worth a try, just ask!
I'm 5 weeks to the day into my tinnitus journey and I won't deny for a second that it hasn't been rough. It seemed to start with me soon after feeling rough and testing positive for Covid. Covid appears to have cleared up but I still have a bit of a cough and sound "nasally" apparently. However the tinnitus is still very much with me.
I remain hopeful it'll clear up, though I admit hope is fading over time. My dad once had tinnitus for over 2 months and that cleared up, and I read chronic tinnitus is deemed chronic after 3 months. I cling on to these statements.
In my first week, given it seemed to relate to Covid I was ok, I ignored it and found it mildly bothersome, it would clear up soon I'd think and all was well.
2-3 weeks in the anxiety was starting to hit. Last Thursday it really, really hit me. I was sat at my desk WFH as I do, crying about the situation, writing a letter to my partner about how sorry I am and how I wish things would end. I was at my lowest ever point in my life.
Whilst going through that I found this group and posted a message here, it was just a rant of hopelessness and despair. I was anxious, depressed and had by then had my second full panic attack of that week.
As I write now I'm still on the very edge of anxiety, if I sleep at night I'm doing well, but it's 50/50 if that happens.
At other times I just try and "get on with it". I work, I attend sporting events, I look after my child, all of this while hearing this horrible thing in my head. I've found just living my life as normal as I can is the only coping mechanism. The lack of sleep remains the big, big problem.
I hope you feel better soon, as others have said don't stop living your life!
Professionals will tell you there is no cure because that's the easy way for them. It saves them talking about research, and they just don't know where the research is at. Few outside of the pharmaceutical companies do. With the condition so widespread, which company gets there first is going to make hundreds of millions so they are understandably keeping tight lipped.
Medical science has come on leaps and bounds this century and there is no reason to believe tinnitus will be left out.
Somebody posted a link to research on this site a couple of weeks back. Looks to be post graduates wishing to bring forward their research to trial. If I remember correctly, they were looking for 50 million US dollars backing.
I got tinnitus at 17, and felt singled out and cursed by the universe, also sorry for myself, for quite a long time. Its not a threat to life, its not contagious, and its not fixable, its nerve damage, usually. These are tiny but important nerves somewhere in your brain, no way to safely surgically repair them, no medication to single out and treat only the damaged nerves instead of all your sensory nerves. Since you are the only one who can hear it, it is an ongoing test of your character and an invitation to strengthen yourself. I wish you the best in accepting or even welcoming the ear sounds and finding a way back to living.
there lots of things that cause it hearing loss /medication / stress etc , but even people with no hearing loss develop tinnitus, and completely deaf people have no tinnitus, so a cure is a long way off , unfortunately.
Unfortunately there is no cure and we need to work towards accepting we have a long term condition (like arthritis, diabetes etc). I have found that I manage my condition better if I use mindful meditation and pacing myself. I can now go to the theatre without becoming overwhelmed and while I am not perfect it has got easier as time has gone on. I find that wearing hearing aids helps even if I'd prefer not to and want to be "normal" like everyone else !
People keep saying that nothing is being done, that there is no cure, no research, no money being spent. It is true that there is no cure, but it is not true that no research is being done. It is definitely not a priority, because tinnitus is not a death sentence, it's not glamorous and any possible relief, let alone cure is not in sight. It is not Covid, going to kill thousands in a day. So it is important that you do the work to habituate. This is is no way admonitory, it's just the truth. So first explore hearing aids. Even if you don't get ones that mask your tinnitus, if you have any hearing loss and use aids, the fact that you have more useful sound coming in is going to replace or cover up some of that tinnitus. You may need an anti-depressant to start with; I suggest you go and see your doctor, talk about your struggles and see what he or she suggests. You don't indicate that sleeping is a problem, but if it is you can get something to help you sleep. Being tired and dealing with tinnitus is worse than either one of those on their own. And do things. I read. It's a silent activity but I get involved in the story and I don't notice the tinnitus nearly so much. I also sew and while I'm sewing and concentrating, the same thing happens. Go to the theatre, go out and do what you would normally do. It will only improve by not giving in to it. I have had tinnitus now for decades, along with Ménière's disease. I now have a Cochlear Implant in one ear, and again, all the wonderful sound I'm getting through that stops me focussing on tinnitus. Good luck.
Lots of really good comments here and yes, we are in the teeth of a cunundrum; Tinnitus can be caused by any number of conditions from hearing loss to physical trauma from accidents, stress, life-events and any combination of the above to varying degrees - that is the problem. There is no single cause - therefore, there is no single cure - no magic silver bullet.
I liken it to having a cough - that can be a hair caught in your throat or it can be cancer - or any of the myriad things in between those two extremes.
My Tinniuts is not your Tinnitus - all we have in common is the shared experience of the pain and struggle that it brings to our lives. Hence we post our coping methods, tips and tricks here.
Our journey is a shared journey - we compare outcomes; hearing aids, mindfulness, breathing, medications (perscription, OTC, and illicit), we tell our strories and we read each others. We try things we haven't before, we make notes to refer back to, we stop doing things that don't work. Our entire existense is a moving flux of self-experimentation and discovery - of what works FOR US and what does not.
I know it's incredibly difficult at times to accept there is no cure - but, the good news is there is coping. If you get what works for you solidly in to place and keep it there then you can move on with your life successfully. That's the general opinion around here.
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