Share your tinnitus story here…

7 Comments

1. 
   s. said: On September 17, 2009

   here it is in a nutshell. about 20 years ago the T began. up until then i had led a stress-filled life, and was lacking effective coping mechanisms. so there i was, numb to the world , shell-shocked. the plug was pulled, the wind was taken out of my sails, i was truly on empty.
   at the time i had no idea what was happening, the T escalated from there. i did know inately that the symptoms were not related to a brain tumor or another such physical malady. the doctors ran a battery of test, a so called clean bill of health. in the early stages it felt like my head weighed a hundred pounds, i was paralyzed with angst for some time. my life as i knew it was over, which was not the worst thing. it was a dark time, but i stuck around which wasn’t easy at times. i truly believe that if i took my own life i would have to come back and face the hell i wanted to end.
   after doing hard time on the floor, i gradually built myself up…work, travel, education, new friends . . . i put T on a back burner somewhere. because i wasn’t aware of any treatment i stopped talking about it and lived with. no more winging and wining. i though it might or would fade in time. which it did compared to the early years. in order to live this life i required 12 hours of sleep every night, and was tired alot during the day. after about16 years into this i came accross an ad in the a local directory about TRT. i though about it for a year, not wanting to get my hopes up, and besides i was fairly occupied with daily life and recouperation. my first meeting with the audiologist was inspiring and she had so much faith in me and TRT, she had seen patients recover. for some unknown reason to me it took a year for it to sink in…i did have some breakthrough momments, a day here, half a day there. i understood the TRT theory, but on some level i “couldn’t get it” but it gave my window of hope and evidence that it T could be treated. sadly, during this time my mum was diagangosed with terminal cancer and i became her primary caregiver. the TRT was on hold, after 2 years my beloved mum passed away peacefully at home.
   i am far enough along now in the grieving process to focus on my own well-being and re-write another chapter in life.
   i discovered curetinnius.org in a fit of desperation. in the spring of 2009 i saw dainis on youtube (i clicked by thinking he was some “crazy guy with T”- sorry dainis,this isdefinitely not the case!) i then saw julian. i remebered a CST session many years ago with astounding and positive effects. i had a couple of sessions with the similar results. i then downloaded an autohypnosis cd to my ipod.the cd was filled with relevent, calming, and believable stuff. i still listen to it regularly even though they say i’m not a good subject for hypnosis, it’s a useful tool!
   at the end of all this, i do believe there is no need to be stuck in T mode for so many years.
   curetinnitus.org resonates well with me.
   bless you all.

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2. 
   Sam said: On October 25, 2009

   Currently studying to become a hypnotherapist, I have learned that there are no “poor subjects” for hypnotherapy. You just have to find a really good practitioner. I have seen it work miracles- really.

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3. 
   Sam said: On October 25, 2009

   Here’s my “T’story in a nutshell. I woke up with a humming tinnitus in my right ear last March 2009. It got worse and changed sounds from whistling to car horns within the next week. I found out I had lost most of my low-tone hearing in that ear. I was told it was auto-immune inner ear disorder and prescribed Prednisone which brought the hearing back. Finishing the 2 weeks of prednisone the hearing went out again and was told to go back on prednisone for another 3 weeks. This time on the prednisone I developed what I call”brain tinnitus”- in that the hogh pitched ringing wasn’t really in my ear but in my head. When I weaned down to a lower dose of prednisone, the brain tinnitus went away and the ear tinnitus came back because the hearing went out again. Back on prednisone again, the hearing came back in but this time the “brain tinnitus” was ferocious. I weaned off very slowly and sought help from other specialists who diagnosed me with “Meniere’s”. Long story shortened, after much research, I found that people were having success using anti-virals to treat Menieres. Meanwhile at 7 mg of prednisone, my hearing had started going back out again. I eventually tried Famvir(anti-viral) and immediately noticed improvement in my ear tinnitus. I eventually got off the prednisone completely and continued taking the Famvir. After 7 weeks on Famvir, my hearing came all the way back in. The awful ear tinnitus is gone (Thank you GOD!) but the brain tinnitus has remained, either from the drugs (anti-virals and prednisone now) or from the stress of the whole ordeal. I am still taking anti-virals because it is a long term therapy. Honestly I’m not too freaked out about the high pitched brain tinnitus because it is so much easier to deal with than the terrible ear tinnitus. I definitely feel “revved up” in hyper-mode most of the time. I’m sure I will eventually overcome the brain tinnitus through deep relaxation, self -care etc. Unbelievable that 8 months ago, I had no experience with any kind of tinnitus and now I have experienced a full repertoire of all kinds of types and sounds.
   I wish everyone here total healing. And if you ever know anyone diagnosed with Meniere’s please tell them to try anti-virals. They could get their life back : )

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4. 
   s. said: On October 27, 2009

   Sam,
   Thank you for the helpful information regarding hypnosis. I won’t be clucking like a chicken any time soon-but can explore hypnosis further.
   S

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5. 
   mv said: On December 4, 2009

   In a nut shell the following is my case. I ordered the E-book a while ago and I had a lot of AHA moments. Everything was really recognizable. In the first week of July I started to notice a flute tone in my right ear but it was not a straight tone (more like morse code). I have been to several ENT doctors. Near my home town and in Rotterdam. They checked my hearing and the results were what they called as “normal” (some hearing loss but not more than 10 db) They all told me to live with it but the tinnitus got severe and I also created tinnitus in my left ear (the sound was like the buzzing of an old fridge) . So I tried a therapy called infusion therapy with cortisone steroids for 10 days in Krefeld Germany. The experience was enormous. The first three days it went a bit worse but on the fourth day it was complete gone for 12 hours. I only had some whistling in both ears but thought I could manage it if that was the only thing that would stay. But during that night, I couldn’t sleep because I didn’t hear it anymore, it came back. It was the last time it was gone and from that day on it only became severe.
   I still wouldn’t except that I had to live with it and went to an Academic Hospital in Belgium. Again the same hearing test and the ENT doctor said, based on the results, that again there were some minor damages but she had never experienced someone with a normal hearing audiogram that had such a bother of tinnitus. And again the same old phrase I have to live with it and she could offer me psychologist. From that moment a really crashed and didn’t want to go on with live. So I had an appointment with my home doctor for another subscription of Valium to sleep. She was still positive and told me, because of the normal hearing results, there still was a chance it could be psychological (it was also the first reaction of my boss and brother when I told them I heard some noises in my ears). So I went to see a shrink. She didn’t had experience with T-patients but was really willing to help me and I could tell her my whole lifetime story. She was actually shocked of everything what happened the last years (it surprised me because I thought that a shrink would have heard a lot of stories). The only thing she could offer me was to learn to control myself with alcohol and so on. But I stopped drinking because I am exhausted already and don’t go to bars because I am afraid the noise will make it worse. So, and of those sessions.
   About a month ago I took the offer of the Belgium ENT to enter with their Tinnitus clinic. So, I had an appointment with the head of the department and it was a really strange experience. He looked into my medical file and started to laugh. He looked at me and said: My ENT colleague said to you, you have to live with it but everyone who says something like that you shouldn’t believe them. He referred me to an psychologist with whom he had worked for 10 years. So I got a little bit of hope back. A month ago I started the sessions with this guy. He asked me what kind symptoms I had and well I said I have a total orchestra inside my head. I referred to the head of the Tinnitus clinic who said it was all about stress and that he could fix me. At that moment he looked at me and asked my if the head of the department was aware of the complete orchestra inside my head. His response was that in the best case it could go to the background but the chances were little. Well, there I was again without hope. But I didn’t want to give up too soon and went on seeing this guy. He asked me to my background and if there were any reasons of getting T. I told him I lost my job as a real estate broker due to the credit crunch last year, I had troubles with finding a new job, my girlfriend broke up after 4 years at the beginning of this year (and it was already a relationship with a lot of difficulties), I a had a lot of anger afterwards to my ex-girlfriend because she had lied to my about anything. The period prior to the T symptoms a was really partying around. As I already mentioned a lost my job and went on working in the catering industry. I live in a very touristic area at the Dutch shore. During the summer period there are a lot of tourists and all the bars are opened 24 hours a day. Well, I had to work 10 hours a day but I wasn’t tired due to the adrenaline of work so I went on going to the bars almost every night and drank between 10 to 20 bottles of beer a night but still have insomnia. In June I bought a beautiful motorbike but with an exhaust without a sound-silencer. After two weeks of driving on my bike the T was awakened. Well, I told everything to this psychologist and his only reply was hat all the emotions and so on were tough subjects. I have been there five times now and the only thing we discuss is that it again have gotten worse but he is convinced I will find my tricks to cope with it. I would rather have a good discussion about what could have overwhelmed me. Well, on one of the sessions he once said actually something that made sense and that was that probably my ears were hearing to good. That, instead of sitting down and cry, I put myself into a lot of adrenaline and noise and so my ears became hypersensitive. On that very moment I remembered reading the article of Julian Hill and checked out the homepage. I immediately ordered the E-book and read it with a lot of interest.

   Well, it is a very huge nut shell. I took up the advice of taking cranio therapy and it really was a marvelous experience. The therapist discovered, I don’t know if this is usual, but that my hearing was already stressed out long before the short period prior to the upcoming of my T. Once a weak I go to my physiotherapist for getting the tension of my back (I have always had a painful back). But with everything in which I try to in achieve a better form of well-being my T becomes louder. The last month I stopped checking the loudness of my T but it seems that if I do so it has to come back even louder than before to punish my. I am practicing the techniques from the E-book but nevertheless it gets louder. It looks like it is so stubborn (like myself) that every time I try to have a normal life it gets severe.
   I accepted it that it is there at this moment but I do my atmost to get heal myself. I am eating healthy now, stopped drinking, try to get my body back in shape (I tried two soccer practices but on both times it got more severe). Soccer was really my most beloved hobby and I really would cut my arm off to play again. All my other hobbies, playing trombone in a band, driving my motorbike, going to the bar with my friends and have a cool bottle of beer, I had to quit because I am afraid that the noise will make it worse. Everything is gone….. Is there anyone with a good idea?

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6. 
   Jason said: On February 12, 2011

   Write more, thats all I have to say. Literally, it seems as though you relied on the video to make your point. You obviously know what youre talking about, why throw away your intelligence on just posting videos to your blog when you could be giving us something informative to read?

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• 
  dainis said: On February 12, 2011

  if you’d like to transcribe some of our videos, please do so! i’m looking into a software solution, however, transcribing the vids is a pretty big task considering the number of hours of info we have at this site. i do plan to have it all transcribed…but we’d need more financing.