Im 20 and i just been told im going deaf..

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ZombieBrideXD

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I had tinnitus since i was a little girl but i only ever noticed it in absolute silence like when i was laying in bed and never knew what to make of it. By my early teens it started disrupting my sleep. No i am 20 and need sound constantly or the tinnitus completely envolpes everything and its painful!

Just these past few years its been to the point that i can hear the ringing at any given time. I asked my doctor about possible relief and he said “theres nothing i can do, eventually it will get to the point till thats all you can hear is ringing”

At first i didnt think anything of it, but i was laying in bed just now trying to sleep and just listening to the ringing and realizing now how BAD it is, with a fan going and a youtube video on FULL VOLUME its still extremely loud!

Its scary

Whats going to happen to me once i cant hear anymore...?

I already have ASD...
 
Hi, I could see nobody had replied yet. I'm no expert but I do know that, although our experience of our individual hearing and it's ups and downs are all different, certain things we can relate to. I had tinnitus as long as I can remember. I used to think the sounds I was hearing as a child were from the electricity on the railway line. It worsened over the years. That was about 45 years ago and I've only just started to need a hearing aid in one ear. About 16 years ago, I was very bothered by tinnitus and I wrote to the National Tinnitus Society in England. They immediately sent me a lot of information which I read through ( I didn't have internrt then ). I know it sounds weird, but they suggested I learnt to " turn down the volume " mentally. I was to imagine that the tinnitus was a stereo system and visualise turning the buttons until it reached a volume I could cope with. Unbelievably, after doing it a few times, I was able to really trick my brain into believing the sounds were almost not audible. That might not work for everyone but it worked for me. I'm comfortable with losing my hearing and, even though tinnitus drives me nuts sometimes, I can still turn the volume down if I concentrate hard enough. Of course it's all a brain trick but I think it's a good one to be able to do if noisy ears are getting you down.
 
Eventually and hopefully, you will be able to "tune it out" as I did. For years, I suffered with it and not knowing what it was..even when I would be conversing with someone, it would start and I would lose all my concentration as to what was being said.....then the "musical tinnitus" kicked in, songs that I had heard before becoming totally deaf would seemingly play over and over in my head.
I cut back on my caffeine...and exhausted myself (stayed up until I could no longer keep my eyes open)...before going to bed and trying to sleep. It has worked for me so far!...Guessing I get 4-5 hours sleep a night...and if I need a nap during the day, I try to take it. This might not work for everyone tho'...so just keep trying different ways to see what works for you. Good Luck and know you are not alone...being deaf does not mean a world of silence...
 
My tinnitus is constant. It does not fade in and out its there everyminute of everydayeversince i was young :(
 
ZombieBrideXD said:
My tinnitus is constant. It does not fade in and out its there everyminute of everydayeversince i was young :(
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Yes, tinnitus is constant and it can really get you down. It would be good if you got a list of coping suggestions from different people so that you can find a solution for yourself. As a doctor once told me, it's not going to go away. I appreciated his honesty because I think that for myself, realising that I needed to accept it together with my hearing prognosis has meant the difference between being happy or suffering from depression. That's not to say I don't ever get episodes of sadness or panic but I do bounce back from them. Hopefully others will see this thread and have some more suggestions for you. I think it's very individual and I do think you'll find something which works for you, so don't lose heart.
 
It helps to hear this from other people actually. My dad was blaming it all on me and saying i can reverse it... i dont remember a time when i didnt have this and i dont have any concept of silence. I have never known what silence is. Im just going through a shock that this is real. And its not reversable and it really is getting worse. It will be a while before i really accept this.
 
I mìght be mistaken with this, so don't take this as fact but aren't there HA which produce white noise and help with coping with tinnitus ?? Does anyone else know more about that ? I know a colleague of mine had something similar when she developed over sensitive hearing. It might be woth asking your ENT doctor or audiologist about that. ( I just googled it. They do exist ).

When people don't fully understand something, they can say and believe all sorts of things. I don't know how approachable your Father is but you could give him some information about tinnitus to read up on so that he can support you more easily. Maybe a plan of action would be to look into the HA possibility and get some information for you family to read through from a tinnitus society.
 
Katluc said:
I mìght be mistaken with this, so don't take this as fact but aren't there HA which produce white noise and help with coping with tinnitus ?? Does anyone else know more about that ? I know a colleague of mine had something similar when she developed over sensitive hearing. It might be woth asking your ENT doctor or audiologist about that. ( I just googled it. They do exist).
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Yes! Your right. They do exsist. And i used to use them to sleep but now the tinnitus is starting to Overpower most sounds unless its overtly loud or if i use headphone, which is worrying. Why is my tinnitus getting louder and louder?
 
I don't know the causes of your hearing loss or tinnitus, so I can only relate mine. My tinnitus has got louder over the years, mostly because of the slow degeneration of my middle ear. My most recent hearing loss when my mastoid bones collapsed a bit more resulted in it really roaring. My ENT doctor told me that tinnitus tends to get louder the more deaf we go. I don't know whether that applies to everybody or just some people.
 
my mom has tinnitus (also we found out hearing loss came with it in 2014 with her being moderate to profound)
 
Never actually realised I had constant tinnitus until now. I always thought that silent rooms made my ears ring but thinking about it, I know better now.
 
When and if you can't hear any more you will find ways to deal with it. I do deep breathing and meditation. I also distract myself. The worst thing you can do is focus on it, this will make you crazy. If I focus on my tinnitus, it seems to grow louder and louder by the minute. Also anxiety and stress make it roar. I know if I drink coffee it makes it worse. I try to stay away from caffeine. I know it's hard but you kind of have to make friends with the noises. Know they are there and learn to live with them. They aren't going to hurt you and try to ignore them.
 
Hopefully the doctor you saw was an ENT and not just your GP. Hearing aids might help, when I have my HA's in the tinnitus is gone.
 
I'm 23 and a single mom. I also have it and it really sucks. It hurts really bad but I just sit in the quiet when my daughter at school. If you find anything that works so I won't have to be a shut in, please let me know!
 
I've heard from others that this might be an effective way to deal with the tinnitus. Tinnitus is usually permanent and there is no way to get rid of it. Cognitive Behavior Therapy(CBT) though usually deals with your reaction to it. I don't have tinnitus on a regular basis, but I've had a few really bad ear infections that left me dealing with it for a few months until the fluid and inflammation went away. I know it can be maddening. But the link below gives a little bit of information about CBT. I've heard good things from others. Maybe this can help you as well.

https://www.ata.org/managing-your-tinnitus/treatment-options/behavioral-therapies
 
Lysander said:
I've heard from others that this might be an effective way to deal with the tinnitus. Tinnitus is usually permanent and there is no way to get rid of it. Cognitive Behavior Therapy(CBT) though usually deals with your reaction to it. I don't have tinnitus on a regular basis, but I've had a few really bad ear infections that left me dealing with it for a few months until the fluid and inflammation went away. I know it can be maddening. But the link below gives a little bit of information about CBT. I've heard good things from others. Maybe this can help you as well.

https://www.ata.org/managing-your-tinnitus/treatment-options/behavioral-therapies
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Thank you so much!
 
I have tinitus too. You get used to it in the end. I want through a really bad patch when it was really really loud but now it's quietened down a bit so their is hope. I also have acquired deaf-blindness. Beleive it or not their is light at the end of the tunnel. You would be amazed at what people can live with.

By the way does ASD stand of Asperger syndrome Disorder? I was born with that.
 
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