I don't know how this works but my theory is that tinnitus is somewhat related to the brain ...I started to use a fidget spinner and I don't know if it's a placebo effect but I have low to zero ringing! Perhaps my mind is subconsciously distracted I don't know...but it's working for me perhaps it will work for you as well!

I have no idea how unlucky someone can get in the tinnitus lottery, but somehow, I seem to have gotten incredibly unlucky.

At the beginning of January, I suffered sudden hearing loss and then developed a low-pitched humming tinnitus. Thankfully, that sound has become much quieter over time, so I was starting to feel like I was finally well past the worst of it. My hearing loss recovered as well; my hearing curves are back to where they were before the sudden hearing loss.

However, about two and a half months ago, additional sounds appeared after I started trying to live my life again. My ENT doctor had assured me that I should be able to do so by then. I started exercising again, taking the train, going out, and even heading into town occasionally. I also started using headphones again - only on two or three days over the course of two weeks, at a low volume, and never for more than one or two hours at a time.

I don't know whether the headphones caused the new sounds or not. But three to four days after I last used them, the new tinnitus sounds appeared. Strangely, they started in both ears and in the center of my head. So now I have an entire tinnitus orchestra :')

The sounds haven't really gotten quieter since then. At most, they may seem very slightly less shrill to me, but otherwise everything is still the same. They are extremely high-pitched sounds: One in my left ear, one in my right ear, and in the center of my head there is the same frequency, but it feels like tiny flashes of electricity shooting through my head.

I honestly have no idea how much longer I can endure this.

I still want to experience so many things. I have goals and things I want to do, like playing certain games or watching certain shows and movies. But living like this? This is no longer really living. It's just survival.

I can't even work because my ability to concentrate is completely gone. If the tinnitus were quieter, I could probably manage somehow, but it's simply too loud. And I can't even put on headphones and drown it out with music. Watching TV alone isn't enough either - the tinnitus is louder than the TV.

Some people say that their tinnitus became quieter over time. Right now, that is my only hope.

This “condition” affects relatively few people, but for those of us who do suffer from it, it can truly feel like going through hell. And the worst part is that there isn't even a real way to make it stop or better.

I have a variety of tinnitus sounds and piercing frequencies / static but there is a specific type of eeeee which i hear from the CENTER OF MY BRAIN and it covers all my head and brain like i have surround speakers... but i feel it like it begins from the very center of my brain anyone else?? pls im so scared

Fairly minor as far as “success stories” go, but I thought I’d share a positive note for once.

I have the sort of tinnitus that’s a high-pitch ring/hiss, and it sort of irregularly waxes and wanes with no easily-identifiable trigger. Also no hearing loss. I was having a really bad episode the other day that nearly had me in tears. I finally just stepped outside, and I swear the sense of peace and calm and relief that immediately washed over me was downright euphoric.

I guess I’m just really lucky to live where I do because there are always birds and crickets and the sound of wind moving through the trees, some running water in the distance too, and sometimes frogs as well. And it just perfectly masks the sort of tinnitus I have. In a quiet room it’s super irritating and invasive, or even while driving sometimes, but outside it’s entirely indistinguishable from the forest sounds. Nothing else compares, not even my fancy sound machine. It’s truly like the tinnitus isn’t even there, like my head is just singing along with the crickets 🥲 I was actually sad to have to go back inside eventually. And I should add I’ve been able to fully reproduce those results, thank god it wasn’t just a fluke.

It’s honestly got me thinking different about my tinnitus. It’s not that I’m totally at peace with it now all of a sudden, but I guess I’m starting to think of it less like an alien invader now and more like a part of nature, the choral song of my over-active nervous system. And it gets me to thinking how a forest is never silent, life itself is “noisy,” a sea of sound. I used to think of silence as peace and clarity, and really mourn its loss. Now I’m starting to realize that in the world, silence is actually the sound of death and non-being. In our human lives, silence is a largely artificial state that we impose with textiles, polymers, particle boards, acoustic engineering, noise cancellation, and so on. Some of that is actually necessary for safety, but a lot of it boils down to perceived comfort and general negative reactions to noise. But the symphony of natural sounds is never oppressive the way that noise from droning machinery or drunk party-goers can be. It’s life itself. Peace, clarity, life, it is not silent.

I’m still going to run myself ragged seeking some sort of cure or treatment that physically lessens the ring, but I guess all I’m saying is, this has got me feeling a lot less morbid about my future than I have been feeling lately. I’ll take that W

Hello, new here, had it for a week now, only 20. Started completely randomly tho. Took my headphones of after gaming one night and boom, it was there. Only in the left ear tho. Went to get it cleaned and now its in my head. Weird how sometimes I barely notice it, sometimes its piercing my skull.

Went to the doctor, did the hearing test, they all said everything is completely fine with me, to get used to it, maybe it goes away, maybe it doesnt.

Looking for any advice really. Is it really over? Really feel like my whole life just collapsed.

I’ve had tinnitus off and on for a few years, but it’s very much worse now. I’m late 60s, and I commuted on motorcycles for 13 years and rode outside of work too. I always wore earplugs and a good helmet but I guess it wasn’t enough.
I don’t listen to loud music or go to concerts. I’ve started looking for an audiologist or a doctor and but I don’t know what to look for.

Hi everyone,

I wanted to share my experience because I haven't seen many people talking about this treatment approach.

My tinnitus started in 2021, about a week after I received a COVID vaccine. Around that time, I developed unilateral tinnitus in my right ear. One of my doctors thought the vaccine could have been a possible trigger and said they would report it, but I never heard anything else after that. Of course, I can't prove that it was the cause—I'm only describing the timeline.

My audiograms have consistently shown high-frequency hearing loss. My hearing begins to drop around 4 kHz and falls off steeply toward 8 kHz.

My results are roughly:

• 4 kHz: Left 24 dB HL, Right 40 dB HL
• 8 kHz: Left 50 dB HL, Right 45 dB HL

After living with the hearing loss and my constant right-sided "cicada-like" tinnitus for almost five years, something changed on June 24 of this year.

My tinnitus suddenly became much louder. I also noticed that if I yelled or raised my voice, the tinnitus became louder at the same time.

My doctor prescribed steroids and mecobalamin (methylcobalamin). Fortunately, by the next day, the loudness had returned to my previous baseline. However, I still feel that the pitch is higher than it used to be.

After struggling with this for several days, I decided to try a treatment protocol that isn't very common overall, but is discussed quite a bit in my local tinnitus community:

• Effexor XR (venlafaxine XR)
• Clonazepam
• Quetiapine

I discussed this idea with my neurologist, and she was willing to let me try it.

I didn't go through psychiatry because I'm currently undergoing a review related to my bipolar disorder, and I need to avoid new psychiatric treatment records for administrative reasons.

I started this combination on July 8.

My current doses are:

• Effexor XR 150 mg/day
• Clonazepam 1 mg in the morning + 1 mg at night
• Quetiapine 50 mg at bedtime

Unfortunately, I haven't been one of the lucky ones.

My tinnitus hasn't become any quieter.

What has changed is that my brain seems to have started accepting it again. I'm coping much better mentally and spending less time focusing on the sound, even though it's still there.

What makes this frustrating is that many people in my community report that this exact combination reduced their tinnitus to a 1–2/10 within just three days. Seeing those success stories while not experiencing the same improvement has honestly been discouraging.

So I'm wondering:

Has anyone here been treated with this combination of venlafaxine, clonazepam, and quetiapine for tinnitus? If so, how did it work for you?

One more thing my doctor mentioned: apparently some patients have experienced complete resolution of their tinnitus with rimegepant.

The protocol I was told about was taking it daily for the first box, then every other day, for a total of about three months.

The problem is the cost. It's extremely expensive where I live, and it's not covered by my health insurance, so I decided not to try it.

Has anyone here actually tried rimegepant for tinnitus? Did it help?

Thanks to everyone who took the time to read this rather anxious post.

I genuinely hope that one day all of our tinnitus disappears.

As a small side note, my MRI and MRA were completely normal, so fortunately there was no evidence of any structural brain problems. I thought I'd share my Circle of Willis here because my doctor said it looked textbook-perfect. It's probably the most "normal" thing in my entire tinnitus journey. 😄