Ask HN: Has anyone gotten complete, permanent relief from tinnitus?

I’ve had tinnitus for about one year now. There is no permanent relief or treatment. Lots of snake oil.

My hearing was tested by an Audiologist and my hearing was normal.

The “sound” I observe is high pitched. Using a tone generator I matched it to around 16,500 Hz. Interestingly, if I play that tone I get temporary relief on the order of 2-10 minutes.

As far as I understand my tinnitus is the result of something going wonky with the signal processing in the brain.

If you’re suffering from tinnitus for the first time it’s important to remain calm. There is defiantly an amplifying effect from the psychological aspect of tinnitus. Eventually the body will “habituate” if it does not go away. It took me around 3-6 months to be able to ignore it. During the day I rarely hear it. At night a little more. Playing sounds at a low volume on a Bluetooth speaker helps. For example on Spotify an artist called “TMSOFT” has good stuff. In the day I’ll listen to jazz or lofi.

It’s important to protect your ears. iPhone has a hearing protection feature for headphones and I have it on the lowest setting. I would avoid in-ear headphones. Use hearing protection at concerts.

I developed T after a series of encounters with benzodiazepines to lessen my nerves when I was coping with burnout. I didn't know I had burnout, I didn't know what was happening to me, I just wanted it to stop. My tinnitus became unbearable in the weeks after a psychiatrist took me of an benzo and put me on an atypical antipsychotic medication. I always blamed the new medication as the cause of my symptoms (of which T was one) when in reality it was the cessation of the benzo.

After 5 years of Tinnitus-hell I was put on yet another benzo and my symptoms were _gone_. It lasted only a number of months, though and when I stopped taking the new benzo ... it all came back.

I came to the diagnosis of benzo-dependency myself and found a psychiatrist who agreed to assist in a 6-month withdrawal with a gradual taper. After each step my tinnitus came back a bit for a few days and then dropped again. After a number of iterations it became what is known as "baseline", i.e. a background tinnitus I can live with.

In recent months I started taking Magnesium supplements in the form of citrates and Taurine. I then found this on reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/tinnitus/comments/znyuyj/partial_su... The top comment by kenzocarj is my current working model for dealing with Tinnitus. I'd like to try L-Theanine but it's illegal in my country - you can buy it in a form that has added glutamine which worsens my T. I'm now drinking matcha tea as a source of L-Theanine.

Hope this helps.

Still have it. However:

I worried about my tinnitus for so long. It drove me nuts at the beginning. Then one day I stopped worrying. I can't even tell you why, or when exactly that happened, just that it happened.

I remember reading all the comments saying "you'll get used to it", and then lying awake at night and thinking "I'll NEVER get used to it". It felt like I would have to accept a huge handicap. I really didn't understand how people could just say it doesn't bother them anymore. Really, that loud sound doesn't bother you?

And here I am today. I don't even think about it on most days. And most importantly, it does not feel like a handicap at all. It's mostly just gone. Still there and clearly audible when I think about it, but otherwise gone. Zero impact on my regular life, on my music listening or music making behaviour.

I also have a pretty strong hayfever allergy. Many people told me I'd get used to that, too, and I have to disagree: no, I don't get used to it, I'm 35 years old and it drives me nuts every single year. But the tinnitus is different. I have it for over 15 years now, and it just became irrelevant.

As someone having both tinnitus and eye floaters, this rings (pun intended) so true.

What affect did magnesium have on your tinnitus? What about the L-Theanine?