worsening tinnitus

[Liamovy]

3 years in to my tinnitus journey and although it still drives me crazy every single day I feel I am on my way to some kind of habituation as my emotional response is no longer the same. I still hate it but feel I no longer cry about my tinnitus and I no longer worry that this is the end of my life. That said in the 3 years my tinnitus has gradually worsened to the point that is is significantly worse than when it first started. I am trying not to let this worrying trend affect my habituation as I feel every time it gets worse I eventually deal with it but worry about how far I can go before it eventually breaks me. I was wondering what everyone’s experience with tinnitus is? Does yours tend to remain the same or worsen over time?

[ks1966]

Hello. I’m sorry that you’re struggling with Tinnitus. Mine gets worse with stress and anxiety. I follow a YouTube channel called Treble Health. It’s a treasure box for people with Tinnitus. I hope you’ll find some useful information there. Best of luck

[Liamovy in reply to ks1966]

Thank you for your reply. Yes I’ve heard of treble health I will have a proper look. Good luck in your journey too xx

[golfeur in reply to ks1966]

Thank you so much for this I will direct my wife to this site. She has pulsative tinnitus for over 20 years. It came after a humongous migraine attack, refuse to go to ER because felt too sick. The migraine head pain dissapeare almost for good but she was left with constant tinnitus that go alone with her heart beat. It does keep her awayke many times and at times she gets so frustate. We saw many docrors to no avail and she was dx with fibromyalgia the same year, a lot to live with, she had to look after me for 2 years after my health took a bad turn .

[Jimbob7]

Hi Lia,

So my Tinnitus is all over the place - some days it's a bloody racket - other days it's all but gone, most days it's some sort of average between those two extremes. It can be very trying.

My T was as a result of an accident which damaged my cervical web and C5, C6 vertabrae - they crashed my auditory system and vandalised it leaving me with the severe Tinnitus and a bunch of other lower level problems such as vertigo, nausea, dizzyness, etc.

I would say the long-term trend - if I'm 100% honest - is that it hasn't changed that much since the day I woke up with it in hospital. Loud days, quiet days, silent days and shrieking bloody bat-shit crazy days.

What's changed is me - as you point out about yourself. It's our attitude that has changed towards it.

Now and again, if we take a look at the long-term trend we might think it's getting worse and indeed, it might be - mine has definitely changed in it's pitch, frequency, etc. My neurologist likened the changes to my brain being a telephone exchange operator - plugging this connection in, taking that connection out - as our brains experiement with re-wiring us to heal ourselves and improve the situation. Whether that's true or not I couldn't say - I'm not a neurologist, but as an old Engineer I can identify with it as an idea of what's going on and why my Tinnitus changes frequently. It helps me ride out those storms to think this is me trying to get better - it just made a wrong connection - it will get that in a while and reverse it.

I also have a policy of not trying to project too far in to the future. I need to be dealing with my T today, not tomorrow - besides, who knows - tomorrow might be a quiet day. They say Tinnitus is a life-changing condition for many people - I'm one of them. I have taken a long time to accept that but I do finally now and life-changing MEANS life changing. It has certainly changed my life.

I live simply now, my goals are simple and not overly-ambitious. Whether my Tinnitus is growing worse or better is a moot point now as habituation is where it's at for me- not the T itself.

It's easy for us to forget that but easier to remind ourselves with just some simple meditation focusing in around that concept; we are not our Tinnitus. It cannot define us. The Tinnitus is over there. We are over here, etc.

[Liamovy in reply to Jimbob7]

Thank you so much for your reply. It’s great to see you so positive after what you have been through. I see your replies to a lot of posts and it really does help to have this positivity when you’re feeling at a low. You are exactly right in everything you say and I know that the only way forward is to not let this tinnitus beat me and to keep a positive mindset. Had a better few days since I last posted so just need to remember to not let the bad days get me down. Maybe I neeed to not look so far forward and like you love each day as it comes. Thank you for all the good advice you give on this forum I am sure you help a lot of people xx