Tinnitus

Has anyoneā€™s tinnitus ever got better? With medication or without?

Imho it will be one of the last symptoms to go.

Unfortunately, I suspect, most people who get better generally, especially balance wise, may not stick around on the forum. Same goes for doctors experience: patience who are almost completely better probably never go back to their doctor so doctors rarely hear about the 100% ones.

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Itā€™s strange because as my ears are less full the tinnitus has got worse. Itā€™s never been this bad eitherā€¦ donā€™t know wether itā€™s medication or itā€™s just something Iā€™ll have to deal with ( hard to deal with though)

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annoying inner ear hypothesis alert! :wink: :

I can hypothesise why ā€¦ less full may mean less fluid in eustachian tube, means less leaking, means more pressure inside the inner ear, so instead of fluctuating tinnitus, you get more constant tinnitus. When the pressure is released, tinnitus decreases. I suspect you have to wait for the inner ear to balance and the pressure will lower. This is where I believe we need more research.

Iā€™m guessing less ā€˜fullā€™ means your ear is getting better. But it doesnā€™t get better in a straight line.

(btw, my doctor told me the tinnitus is inner ear pressure ā€¦ i wonder if the pressure decreases the HF response and your ear/brain goes hunting for missing volume and turns up the gain ā€¦ resulting in ā€˜noiseā€™)

btw, I believe it to get less annoying over time. The nausea and the imbalance are the most horrible symptoms (so long as you are not suffering brain fog or flat out with a full on attack or migraine ugh).

The best thing to do with tinnitus is go find something really interesting to do (if symptoms permit).

I am following this thread because for me the tinnitus is disabling. I am sorry to hear you are dealing with it as well. I have always had a ring in my left ear but its soft and I can deal with that. My right ear has never had a ring and out of the blue 2 months ago it started full blast ringing and was super sensative to noise. Luckily it would do that for 3 days on 3 days off kind of thing. However, the last five days it has been on full blast and everytime I wonder will it go away and how will I cope if it doesnā€™t. I am a teacher and a mother of two small children and I just canā€™t hear and noise drives me insane it is very hard. I too wonder is it the nortriptoline I just started taking but I donā€™t want to psych myself out and stop taking something that may actually help the ringing in the long run.

That sounds horrid Sarah.

Yes be careful of confirmation bias. You definitely donā€™t want to jump to conclusions too soon and discount a helpful med.

I have two small children and mine use to be really soft and would only bother me now and again, but the last 3 days it keeps waking me up from my sleep and just wonā€™t settle itā€™s awful. When I yawn I always have a really loud ringing in my ear to, does anyone else experience this?

My tinnitus probably will never go away. It has gotten considerably worse since i started Gabapentin.

Always believe it will go one day :slight_smile:

I have had it for 20 years.

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Thereā€™s always next year :wink: (Iā€™m incorrigible)

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Well, you must be a really nice person with lots of friends and acquaintances, you know. The Aborigines believe tinnitus means people everywhere are saying nice things about you! Interestingly medical research shows, because they donā€™t have negative feelings (quite the reverse in fact) about it, it doesnā€™t appear to bother them like it does Western peoples. Just goes to show the power of the mind. I know it is irritating (I have it myself in one ear). I often wonder what causes it. Seems a strange symptom as part of a migraine/headache but I never had it before chronic MAV set in. Now Iā€™ve been on preventatives 18 months mineā€™s no longer constant. It only appears sometimes when I am challenging my balance more than usual. Be very interested to know why. Maybe one day research will be carried out into it. Letā€™s hope so. Helen

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This is such a lovely belief

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Well you both are very kind. I have made friends with my tinnitus. I just changed the dynamic. I expect to hear it and if i donā€™t i freak out! LOL. That only happened once 10 years ago at work for about 15 minutes and it started again. Oh well. Thanks for the feedback.

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Thatā€™s absolutely the right approach :+1:t2:

Iā€™m lucky that my SSHL (left ear) tinnitus isnā€™t high pitched. It took about a year to get used to my tinnitus. Very distracting at first but I really didnā€™t notice it after a year or so, part of it was just acceptance I think. The hearing loss was harder to get used to, still canā€™t carry much of a conversation out of that ear.

Yes, I do experience that when I yawn! SOmetimes when I am washing my face at night, it will get worse, and sometimes when I move my head in certain directions it gets worse.

:weary: Is it really loud? Does it bother you considerably? What are your strategies for living with it?

It can be loud. It fluctuates. My strategy is what i have done. Make peace with it. It is my new norm. One time, I visited a friend of mine who lived by the subway. I was in his apartment when the subway came in. It was so loud. I said to him, ā€œHow the hell to live with that?ā€. He said ā€œWith what?ā€ He had become so accustomed to the noise, he didnā€™t hear it. Amazing. I guess you can say the same with me. Sometimes, especially lately it has been extra loud, but i just let it go. Like living by the airport.

I was told if i got a hearing aid it would diminish the tinnitus. I was told my ear is creating sounds to fill in for what i cannot hear. Weā€™ll see.

interestingā€¦ i sometimes do the same with my rocking, and i can go hours without feeling it in the forefront. I actually did hypnotherapy to move it as a sensation in the background. Sometimes I succeed, others it drives me nuts :woman_shrugging:t4:

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