Hacker News

I got tinnitus just over a year ago and wow did it about ruin me. When it hit I stopped sleeping through the night, I lost a lot of weight, and my days were filled with dread from the ringing and fear of the oncoming night. This went on for about three weeks and I was thinking I couldn't live life like this much longer.

Luckily, I mentioned what was happening to me to a colleague during work hours (I still had to make money during all this.) This individual mentioned they also had tinnitus from seeing military action (IED and firing weapons with no ear protection.) They mentioned their tinnitus was so bad they could barely hear their partner talking to them from a few feet away. The big reveal for me - my colleague just learned to ignore the ringing. They mentioned how they never hear it anymore unless talking about it. This was a major revelation for me.

Mine was very loud, in both ears, but theirs seemed worse and yet they could sleep and live their life normally. After trying a lot of different things I eventually settled into my new state of life after about a month. I'm doing perfectly fine now.

What I learned for myself was the real problem was my anxiety. I was so anxious and depressed over this chronic issue that was never going away and had no cure. Tinnitus wasn't waking me up in the middle of the night like I had believed; it was the anxiety around tinnitus. Once I made this connection and started a few different tricks to alleviate tinnitus I began to sleep through the night. Now a year later I forget I have tinnitus.

I also developed vertigo, from BPPV, a few months after the start of my tinnitus. When it rains it pours I guess haha. But I used the same tools I had on me to overcome the anxiety related to tinnitus to eventually deal with BPPV and now I'm doing great.

If you're struggling with tinnitus just know it is very possible to learn to live with it and eventually forget you have it. Now, I won't make promises for everyone's case but my anxiety filled existence is an example of "recovering" from tinnitus.