4 months into tinnitus hell

[qualityOV3Rquantity]

On February 7 of this year, I woke up with a ringing sound in my ear. It's still there 4 months later, I can't tell if it's gotten worse but I know it hasn't gotten better. I already live with a chronic digestive illness, I just can't wrap my fucking head around how I'm expected to live with a smoke alarm noise in my ear, when my own auditory system has me trapped in a torture chambe fucking nightmare. I still listen to music but I barely enjoy it anymore because I can hear the incessant high-pitched whine over the music. I even hear it while driving in my car. It's such a sick fucking joke that I went to the doctor and she just said "oh, distract yourself with white noise or ocean wave sounds on your phone lol", like what, for the rest of my fucking life? Just accept that I'll never have peace and silence again, just be okay with the fact that there's a screeching sound in my ear, but it's okay, it's not a big deal, certainly having a tone that sounds like a frayed wire plugged into an outlet about to start on fire permanently in your head couldn't possibly have any long term mental and physical health risks, surely it won't slowly chip away at your sanity which is already weakened by a fucking decade of depression, yes of course you can still manage to be perfectly happy even with permanent tinnitus and chronic stomach pain even though you were suicidally depressed for 7 years before that, just use white noise lol

Fuck this, I hate that I'm still not depressed enough to die. I wish I could just end this already, while am I still functional? I wish I wasn't, I wish I could just go to the hardware store and buy a rope and hang myself in the garage, it would literally be over in less than an hour, I choose to endure this absolutely nightmare, I ask for it to continue every minute I stay alive.

 

[darksouls]

On February 7 of this year, I woke up with a ringing sound in my ear. It's still there 4 months later, I can't tell if it's gotten worse but I know it hasn't gotten better. I already live with a chronic digestive illness, I just can't wrap my fucking head around how I'm expected to live with a smoke alarm noise in my ear, when my own auditory system has me trapped in a torture chambe fucking nightmare. I still listen to music but I barely enjoy it anymore because I can hear the incessant high-pitched whine over the music. I even hear it while driving in my car. It's such a sick fucking joke that I went to the doctor and she just said "oh, distract yourself with white noise or ocean wave sounds on your phone lol", like what, for the rest of my fucking life? Just accept that I'll never have peace and silence again, just be okay with the fact that there's a screeching sound in my ear, but it's okay, it's not a big deal, certainly having a tone that sounds like a frayed wire plugged into an outlet about to start on fire permanently in your head couldn't possibly have any long term mental and physical health risks, surely it won't slowly chip away at your sanity which is already weakened by a fucking decade of depression, yes of course you can still manage to be perfectly happy even with permanent tinnitus and chronic stomach pain even though you were suicidally depressed for 7 years before that, just use white noise lol

Fuck this, I hate that I'm still not depressed enough to die. I wish I could just end this already, while am I still functional? I wish I wasn't, I wish I could just go to the hardware store and buy a rope and hang myself in the garage, it would literally be over in less than an hour, I choose to endure this absolutely nightmare, I ask for it to continue every minute I stay alive.

I am so sorry that you have to go through all this

send you love

 

[whaleandwasp]

Hey, I'm really sorry you're going through this right now. I just want to tell you I have two chronic issues with my vision that drove me insane for the longest and greatly reduced my quality of life. One was diplopia (double vision) caused by a stroke in my early 20s as well as black spots in my vision. It took over a year, but my brain finally learned to "ignore" the double image and I see normally now even though I still am actually seeing double. Maybe the same thing could happen with your hearing. I kept seeing the black spots though I thought I would never get use to the new "normal" I would see the black spots everywhere I went and they were so distracting. The good news is those too, faded in time. They're still there, because I can still see them when I look for them and in fact I sometimes still see a slight double images at night when looking at bright lights, but for the most part, my brain filters all of these things out now so I don't see them. During periods of high stress, they've become more noticeable and then I began to obsess and worry about them being there forever and ruining my life, and that would cause them to stay for months at a time, but eventually, my body would adjust again and I have years of good vision. The brain can be terrible thing for some of us but it can also do some amazing things. Tinnitus is one of those things that can come and go chronically and also be treatable. I would suggest you find an online tinnitus support group if you haven't already, sometimes Facebook groups is a good place to start and connect with other people going through what you're going through, they may have some helpful advice for how to treat your symptoms or learn to cope with them.

 

[suicideprepper]

I had tinnitus for 8 months and it stopped suddenly. Sometimes I get tinnitus again, but it's for a couple days or weeks, then it stops. This is because of my jaw being deformed. See about it with a better doctor and I think they'd be able to tell you what to do. Best choices are orthodontist, otolaryngologist or even audiologist. Give priority to the last two.
I'm saving money for my jaw surgery, which will hopefully correct the problem once and for all. Peace.

 

[Alexandra0]

First of all I want to say that I feel very sorry for you. I am 30 years old and I have been suffering from a pulsating noise mainly in my right ear since I was 17, that is, almost half of my fucking life. 5 years ago the noise became simply catastrophic, it made me disabled at 25 and since then I have not been able to work. Perhaps then I had coronavirus and there was a deterioration. In any case, I cannot be cured or even somehow alleviate my unbearable existence. I have tried many things over the years, but all in vain. I just lie and cover my damn ears with my fingers. I just can not live in this Hell and dream of dying as soon as possible. Plus I have other diseases but they are nothing compared to this noise. I also have problems with the gastrointestinal tract. I do not know why all this ...

 

[cait_sith]

It's really horrible how this life beats down on people who already suffering to begin with, while others go through lives without them ever having something bad happen to them.

 

[FuneralCry]

It really sounds like you've suffered a lot, it's just so cruel and horrible to me how there's all this suffering in existing with no limit as to how much agony one can feel, I wish you the best.

 

[idiotmother]

Tinnitus is terrible, and the fact that yours is so loud is atrocious. Are you on any meds that could cause it?

 

[Nanami]

Would really recommend going to an ear specialist if you haven't already. There are many things that can cause tinnitus that isn't related to ear damage and can be fixed or at least massively mitigated in some way. Wax, jaw, teeth, muscle weakness, posture, stress and quite a few more.
See a specialist, not a gp.

 

[calebzz1]

Hey, I'm really sorry you're going through this right now. I just want to tell you I have two chronic issues with my vision that drove me insane for the longest and greatly reduced my quality of life. One was diplopia (double vision) caused by a stroke in my early 20s as well as black spots in my vision. It took over a year, but my brain finally learned to "ignore" the double image and I see normally now even though I still am actually seeing double. Maybe the same thing could happen with your hearing. I kept seeing the black spots though I thought I would never get use to the new "normal" I would see the black spots everywhere I went and they were so distracting. The good news is those too, faded in time. They're still there, because I can still see them when I look for them and in fact I sometimes still see a slight double images at night when looking at bright lights, but for the most part, my brain filters all of these things out now so I don't see them. During periods of high stress, they've become more noticeable and then I began to obsess and worry about them being there forever and ruining my life, and that would cause them to stay for months at a time, but eventually, my body would adjust again and I have years of good vision. The brain can be terrible thing for some of us but it can also do some amazing things. Tinnitus is one of those things that can come and go chronically and also be treatable. I would suggest you find an online tinnitus support group if you haven't already, sometimes Facebook groups is a good place to start and connect with other people going through what you're going through, they may have some helpful advice for how to treat your symptoms or learn to cope with them.

I really appreciate this considering I have severe, intermittent diplopia roughly ever two to three seconds that only goes away if I close an eye or wear a patch.

My condition is temporary but will take a year to clear according to most of the providers I have seen.

It's been difficult and I'm facing disability as a young man due to the situation.

I'm sorry to hear of your chronic issues, that sounds awful.

Thank you for making this comment even though it's not my post, gives me a lot of motivation.

 

[Linda]

On February 7 of this year, I woke up with a ringing sound in my ear. It's still there 4 months later, I can't tell if it's gotten worse but I know it hasn't gotten better. I already live with a chronic digestive illness, I just can't wrap my fucking head around how I'm expected to live with a smoke alarm noise in my ear, when my own auditory system has me trapped in a torture chambe fucking nightmare. I still listen to music but I barely enjoy it anymore because I can hear the incessant high-pitched whine over the music. I even hear it while driving in my car. It's such a sick fucking joke that I went to the doctor and she just said "oh, distract yourself with white noise or ocean wave sounds on your phone lol", like what, for the rest of my fucking life? Just accept that I'll never have peace and silence again, just be okay with the fact that there's a screeching sound in my ear, but it's okay, it's not a big deal, certainly having a tone that sounds like a frayed wire plugged into an outlet about to start on fire permanently in your head couldn't possibly have any long term mental and physical health risks, surely it won't slowly chip away at your sanity which is already weakened by a fucking decade of depression, yes of course you can still manage to be perfectly happy even with permanent tinnitus and chronic stomach pain even though you were suicidally depressed for 7 years before that, just use white noise lol

Fuck this, I hate that I'm still not depressed enough to die. I wish I could just end this already, while am I still functional? I wish I wasn't, I wish I could just go to the hardware store and buy a rope and hang myself in the garage, it would literally be over in less than an hour, I choose to endure this absolutely nightmare, I ask for it to continue every minute I stay alive.

I had tinnitus for several years, as a result of a tumor on the acoustic nerve on one side. I trained myself to ignore it. The tumor is still there, but the tinnitus has gone. What I think happened is that my brain eventually came to realize that the tinnitus was just useless noise, so it started to filter it out. My guess is that the tumor is still producing the tinnitus, but my brain refuses to hear it.
Everyone is different, but I suggest you try to ignore it and hope that eventually your brain stops hearing it. Try not to let it bother you.
And you must go see a specialist ear doctor. You need to find out what is causing this.

 

[CatLvr]

Another tinnitus sufferer here though mine is not nearly as unrelenting as yours sounds. Mine started when I was shooting competitively and was working at a gun range (so I spent a LOT of time at the range).

I found that listening to music with headphones on helped a lot. Be careful though because if you turn the volume up too much (to try and drown out the tinnitus noise or because me, you were a headbanger before headbanging was cool ) you will just make things worse in the long run. Couple of things, listen to music you are unfamiliar with -- you like Country, listen to Rock. RockNRoller?? Listen to Classical. You rock to Bach?? Listen to Rap.

I not only found I could sleep better and I stopped having that almost uncontrollable urge to poke a No. 2 pencil in my years.

It's been a long time now since I stopped shooting regularly and thankfully my tinnitus isn't anything like it was when it was at it's worst. I hope you can get some relief from SOMETHING in this thread.

 

[CloudChaser]

I have it too. Very high pitched tones. More than 1, i think 3 or 4. Have it for 20 years or so. Trust me, your brain is going to filter it. The noise is always there, day and night, but most time i don't realize it until i listen for it. Your brain needs time to adapt. My main high tone is at 8600 Hz. Try szynalski tone-generator. Good luck.

 

[bastardofwinterhill]

I've been living with tinnitus for 8 years now, as well as hypercausis. It was a hellish nightmare at the beginning, but I have gotten used to it and don't even notice it a large majority of the time. I'm so sorry you're dealing with it as well and hope you can reach the same state of mind some day.

 

[no-hope-no-future]

It's truly horrible, have you considered that maybe you have a serious ear wax problem? Mine gets really bad when my ears become completely blocked and I have to resort to micro suction to clear my ear wax out. I don't recommend using the old fashion way of using water as it can blow your ear drums out.

 

[alexit]

On February 7 of this year, I woke up with a ringing sound in my ear. It's still there 4 months later, I can't tell if it's gotten worse but I know it hasn't gotten better. I already live with a chronic digestive illness, I just can't wrap my fucking head around how I'm expected to live with a smoke alarm noise in my ear, when my own auditory system has me trapped in a torture chambe fucking nightmare. I still listen to music but I barely enjoy it anymore because I can hear the incessant high-pitched whine over the music. I even hear it while driving in my car. It's such a sick fucking joke that I went to the doctor and she just said "oh, distract yourself with white noise or ocean wave sounds on your phone lol", like what, for the rest of my fucking life? Just accept that I'll never have peace and silence again, just be okay with the fact that there's a screeching sound in my ear, but it's okay, it's not a big deal, certainly having a tone that sounds like a frayed wire plugged into an outlet about to start on fire permanently in your head couldn't possibly have any long term mental and physical health risks, surely it won't slowly chip away at your sanity which is already weakened by a fucking decade of depression, yes of course you can still manage to be perfectly happy even with permanent tinnitus and chronic stomach pain even though you were suicidally depressed for 7 years before that, just use white noise lol

Fuck this, I hate that I'm still not depressed enough to die. I wish I could just end this already, while am I still functional? I wish I wasn't, I wish I could just go to the hardware store and buy a rope and hang myself in the garage, it would literally be over in less than an hour, I choose to endure this absolutely nightmare, I ask for it to continue every minute I stay alive.

It's very important you get good medical attention from an audiologist to train your brain to ignore the ringing. Attention is what keeps it going. I know it's hard,that's why it's important you find a good provider. Join ATA right away and speak with their in-take personnel.

 

[locked*n*loaded]

One thing that hasn't been talked about here is diet, especially diet for those with digestive issues. I've had digestive issues for years. I've managed to make substantive changes to my diet. I used to have tinnitus that was pretty darn bad. Now, whenever I eat something, I only get a very "mild" and very temporary "hissing" in my ears that goes away after a couple hours. It's way better than the full-out whine I used to get that never went away. I stopped eating beef and pork, many spicy dishes, soy, fried foods of any sort (that includes potato chips and the like), onion, and even a few certain types of vegetables that don't digest "quite right". It made a huge difference for me. My tinnitus began after I started having GERD attacks at night. I was on all the meds (before they were otc) for about 8 years until I made the changes and got myself off them. I may still indulge once in a while, but it's very infrequently, and, when I do, I know what's coming, including the ear ringing. That's the only thing that ever made a difference for me - eliminating the foods that just don't digest properly. You could try some of that otc Lipo-Flavonoid, too, and see if it, at least, helps reduce it some. There's script things, too, the doctors can try "off label", but for me personally, I've never been a big pill proponent. I hope you find some relief.

 

[Crematoryy]

On February 7 of this year, I woke up with a ringing sound in my ear. It's still there 4 months later, I can't tell if it's gotten worse but I know it hasn't gotten better. I already live with a chronic digestive illness, I just can't wrap my fucking head around how I'm expected to live with a smoke alarm noise in my ear, when my own auditory system has me trapped in a torture chambe fucking nightmare. I still listen to music but I barely enjoy it anymore because I can hear the incessant high-pitched whine over the music. I even hear it while driving in my car. It's such a sick fucking joke that I went to the doctor and she just said "oh, distract yourself with white noise or ocean wave sounds on your phone lol", like what, for the rest of my fucking life? Just accept that I'll never have peace and silence again, just be okay with the fact that there's a screeching sound in my ear, but it's okay, it's not a big deal, certainly having a tone that sounds like a frayed wire plugged into an outlet about to start on fire permanently in your head couldn't possibly have any long term mental and physical health risks, surely it won't slowly chip away at your sanity which is already weakened by a fucking decade of depression, yes of course you can still manage to be perfectly happy even with permanent tinnitus and chronic stomach pain even though you were suicidally depressed for 7 years before that, just use white noise lol

Fuck this, I hate that I'm still not depressed enough to die. I wish I could just end this already, while am I still functional? I wish I wasn't, I wish I could just go to the hardware store and buy a rope and hang myself in the garage, it would literally be over in less than an hour, I choose to endure this absolutely nightmare, I ask for it to continue every minute I stay alive.

I have had tinnitus due to chronic masturbation for several years, and I feel that the hissing is getting worse and worse. I can't explain the correlation between one thing and the other, but it exists, I assure you! The damn tinnitus greatly reduces the quality of life, so much so that I can't even remember the last time I heard silence -- something I no longer remember. Your suffering is justifiable.

 

[Linda]

I have had tinnitus due to chronic masturbation for several years, and I feel that the hissing is getting worse and worse. I can't explain the correlation between one thing and the other, but it exists, I assure you! The damn tinnitus greatly reduces the quality of life, so much so that I can't even remember the last time I heard silence -- something I no longer remember. Your suffering is justifiable.

I have never heard of that before, and I can't see any obvious biologcal reason why it should happen. I suggest you get a thorough medical checkup, just in case there is some underlying medical condition that needs attetion.

 

[Let Me Go]

Hi, so sorry you're dealing with this, it is a torture chamber indeed. I had tinnitus for months and months & distinctly remember thinking the only relief was death. It did get better on its own eventually. I think mine was related to moving to a new environment/new stressors that the brain needed to re-adjust to. I just hope you find relief soon. It is such a hellish experience.

 

[Alexandra0]

I have had tinnitus due to chronic masturbation for several years, and I feel that the hissing is getting worse and worse. I can't explain the correlation between one thing and the other, but it exists, I assure you! The damn tinnitus greatly reduces the quality of life, so much so that I can't even remember the last time I heard silence -- something I no longer remember. Your suffering is justifiable.

Of course there is a connection here. People who have a strong noise in their ears cannot have an orgasm, because of this the noise becomes stronger. Also, they are not contraindicated to alcohol, smoking, many foods and drinks, etc. This is the terrible reality. Again, everything is individual, but I rely on my many years of experience