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

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

#91
Yeah! But I’m gonna say I’m really odd, it’s a lot of vibes and unless I convince a doctor of a case study, I’d never be believed.

I have/had Tinnitus (it’s nowhere near as bad as it was 7/10 to it’s current 1/10). It’s been gone 7-8 years now.

1. I listen to music much quieter, and let my ears adjust.

2. This is the weird part. I would get itchy all the time, random pin pricks I’d feel often. I read about monks who meditated so long they could turn off their hearts. So I sat in bed for 3 months (before going to sleep) and tried really hard to look at where I felt an itch and see it was my body was wrong. There was no reason to give me a cue to itch. Nothing was happening.

I can easily ‘feel’ the pin pricks if I desire but don’t anymore. It’s like a weird mental trick. I can also feel mosquitos and really anything touch me and no longer get false cues.

Anyhow I suffered from tinnitus and did the normal suggested stuff but it didn’t work. So I remembered the time I got rid of my itching and tried to replicate what I did.

I sat and listened to ‘true noise’ and untrue ‘noise’ and it wasn’t instant relief but over 2-3 weeks it went to level it’s at now. I only notice it if I desire. It’s louder an extremely quiet environment but I swear it’s almost like I can hear my blood pump.

Listen to really low noise. Quieter than whispers. Then up and up. Train your ear to understand sound and not sound. Then go back down again. Sadly the truest quiet will cost you (some place remote with no bugs or wind) but I did it fine at home because I could remember before I had tinnitus. Earplugs I think don’t work because you hear your blood pump.

Anyway I’m sorry you’re suffering and I know what I wrote sounds really dumb/unbelievable but I do pretty good on prediction markets… ;) it might work for you. Very weird - no proof in the literature but it worked me.

-(I did the itch cue training around 12 or 13, tinnitus around 22) -(I didn’t use any drugs)

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

#92

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…

For hayfever, different kinds of solutions exist: "vaccines" can help in severe cases; antihistamine pills are the main solution, but I found that some don't work for me and others do: you should ask a doctor and try another one; cortison-based nasal spray and eyedrops also work very well for me.

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

#95
I’m almost completely deaf in one ear and had problems with tinnitus in the beginning (~7 years ago), especially when trying to sleep. Nowadays, I really only notice it when I focus on it, and it has no impact on my quality of life whatsoever. I think a lot of it is psychological.

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

#96
I have it for 4 years and got almost completely desensitized. It is a relief. It’s still there (and right now it rings). But it doesn’t create colorful reactions anymore. During the day, at night, before sleep, it rarely bothers me. Sometimes I even feel comfy about it.

In my case the secret was a sort of a therapy. At the second year I’ve become quite suicidal about it. There was a point in time after collecting all the information there is, when I absolutely ultimately had to make a decision. As a result of this thought process, “I will die with it” got fully accepted either way. Somehow this deadened my reactions and after a short while it became just a part of my life that I ignore. My brain got so good at masking it that I have to carefully listen sometimes (yeah, it’s there and it’s loud). I also stopped looking for a cure, relief, methods, threads like this. Not like “I shouldn’t”, but like “not interested”.

Pretty sure I must not recommend this way or leave it without a disclaimer: if you feel the same, then get professional help, don’t go through it alone.

My key insight is that you suffer while the hope lives, not that you have to lean over the edge to realize that.

Edit: upvote to https://mynoise.net, it helped to mask it at early stages much better than colored noises or youtube videos. You can tune sound components to your case and there’s a lot of presets now.

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

#97
I got mine under control, though there is still a bit left that probably wont go away, but is totally ok for me. Got rid of my 2 main stress sources, changed to a much more healthy diet, drinking more regularly and if there is a new tinnitus attack (i still do not know the propper english word, in german its hörsturz) i do breathing and ear massaging for half a minute. Not just massaging the outer ear but also gently pumping with air pressure similar to adjusting after a flight. I noticed time is super critical here. Just before the tinnitus starts there is 1 or 2 seconds where you feel the hearing disappears its as if the volume is turned down. If the massaging and deep breathing starts in this moment before the tinnitius beeping and noise sets in, it seems to always go away completely after.

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

#98
In my experience, early intervention can help. I got tinnitus at the age of 30 (from a pressure trauma during scuba diving). I received some kind of dementia medication after 2 weeks, and the tinnitus was gone not long after that (and never reappeared). The doctor funnily said that a side effect is that I'm gonna feel smarter :) I'm not sure if it was the medication, or the tinnitus was just temporary anyway, but it was a really loud and unbearable noise for a couple of weeks.

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

#99

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 goi…

Have you tried playing that tone and shifting it's phase to cancel the imaginary signal?

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

#100
There is an entire system of Yoga called Nada Yoga; that deals with listening to so called internal music, usually described/experienced as high pitched tones/chords.

I have no idea how that relates to tinnitus; I hear high pitched tones/chords outside of meditation occasionally, but it's never bothering/disturbing.

My gut feeling says that sometimes, labeling an experience as a problem is why it becomes a problem.

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