Quote Originally Posted by Ratchet_V2 View Post
Hey man, I've been there too. I have freaked my parents out, multiple times. Go hug your mom. You will get better, it does have an end.

I experience insane pulsatile tinnitus in both my ears at random, where all of a sudden I'm temporarily deaf, and then a really loud ringing begins. Sometimes it lasts for 30 seconds, sometimes it lasts for 3 hours. It almost always marks the beginning of a downswing. I'm fortunate in this regard, as it's never stuck around any longer than that. The length of time between these episodes continually increases, and the downswings that follow are shorter and less intense. I'm sure you've tried everything, but I have always found that belly breathing and pushing it out of my mind significantly reduces the tinnitus and shortens it's duration. Keep that up. I don't want to come across condescending, but how many times a day do you plug a finger in your ear to check how the ringing is going? If you do, don't. It will only reinforce your condition and the aspect of stress that is contributing to it. I've come to truly appreciate the power of background stress, the kind that tricks you into thinking you have a handle on it, when in reality, the very act of giving it any consideration at all is the only thing that it needs to hinder your progress. I learned this with my HRV and resting HR. After fin, my HRV tanked to almost zero and stayed there for a long time. My resting HR jumped from 40 to 65 (these aren't exact, I'd have to go look at my log) and stayed there. I bought a whoop and an aura ring and tracked it every day. It only continued to get worse, and it was demoralizing, depressing, and it was always there. Eventually I said fuck it, its fucked and I'm done. I threw the whoop and aura in the trash and moved on to something else. Within two weeks, both returned to normal. My resting HR is back in the 40s, and I don't know what my HRV is but I don't care to check and I know it's probably back to what it was before fin. I can feel it in the mornings when I wake up. My heart isn't a fast and steady coke heart anymore; it's a variable, heavy horse heart. I wasn't doing anything differently except for not tracking it.

Anyways, this isn't my arena. It's not something I have to deal with everyday, so "pushing it out of your mind" is not an easy task, I know. If I can give you anything, its support and the reassurance that you will overcome this. All the best.
Thanks Ratchet, I really really appreciate that you took the time to respond like that.

I don't plug a finger to verify the noise. In fact, if I do, I don't hear tinnitus (but rather just the typical conshell noise). This leads me to believe that I may not have tinnitus itself, but rather impareid hearing, perhaps from eustachian tube dysfunction or hyperacusis. I definitely used to have tinnitus (high pitch ringing). Now I simply have a big low sound in my left ear, with a slight high pitch ringing.

Perhaps its a positive sign that the noise and volume has changed since May. I really cross my fingers.

I don't know why I keep focusing on the tinnitus. I think it's because normal tinnitus is considered "permanent", so I tell myself it won't go away, even if mine is medication induced and can go away.