r/tinnitus • success story

Accidentally learned how to live normally with my long term tinnitus success story

I had pretty bad tinnitus for years. I’m 55, ex-military and worked construction my whole life. I was around guns, machines, trucks… and I always thought ear protection was for “soft” people. A few years ago a high-pitched tone showed up and never left. It got to the point where it felt like a TV stuck on static inside my head 24/7.

Mornings started with me staring at the ceiling at 5:30 AM thinking: “Is it worse today? Is this the day it finally breaks me?”. I still went to work, kept the radio on in the car, pretended everything was normal, but inside I was panicking. I even caught myself thinking that if everything just went dark and silent one day… it might be a relief. That scared the hell out of me.

One night, unable to sleep, I was scrolling YouTube and found a video from Dr. Andrew talking about tinnitus, the brain and habituation. For the first time someone explained that the real problem wasn’t just the sound, but how my nervous system was stuck in “danger mode” around it – and that the brain can learn to treat the sound as unimportant background noise.

I started applying what he talks about: sound enrichment instead of total silence, breathing and relaxation when spikes hit, paying attention to my stress levels and, most importantly, working on the fear and guilt instead of chasing a magic cure. It didn’t change overnight, but over the next months something big happened: the tinnitus was still there… yet it stopped running my life.

Today I work, go out, watch movies, enjoy time with my family. Some days the ringing is louder, some days it’s softer, but it’s no longer the main character in my story. If you’re in that dark place right now, this is the exact video that started the change for me:

👉 Dr. Andrew’s tinnitus video that helped me finally live normally again

edit: still doing well months later. Tinnitus is there, but my brain mostly ignores it. If you’re reading this at 3 AM freaking out, please don’t give up.

Accidentally learned how to live normally with my long term tinnitus success story

Long story short: I’ve had pretty bad T for years, ex-military + construction noise, the whole cliché. It used to run my life. A few months ago I stumbled on a YouTube video from Dr. Andrew about tinnitus and habituation and it completely changed how I deal with it. T is still there, but my brain mostly doesn’t care anymore.

This is the video in case it helps someone else: Dr. Andrew’s tinnitus video

u/hopeful_ears 176 points • 8 months ago

Bless you for posting this. I watched the same Dr. Andrew video about 3 weeks ago and it honestly flipped a switch for me too. My T didn’t magically disappear, but the fear around it dropped a LOT once I understood what my brain was doing.

For anyone curious, here’s the link I used: this tinnitus video/resource .

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u/skeptical_tinnitus 92 points • 8 months ago

Not trying to be rude, but does this actually work or is it just a placebo / “think happy thoughts” kind of thing? I’ve had T for 6 years and I’m tired of people selling hope.

u/mark_works_hard OP • 134 points • 8 months ago

Totally fair question. For me it wasn’t “think happy thoughts”. The video helped me understand why my nervous system was constantly on edge. I started using sound enrichment, breathing, and stopped checking my T every 5 seconds. Took a few months, but my bad days went from daily to maybe once every couple of weeks. Ringing is still there, but my reaction to it is night and day.

u/cbt_convert 57 points • 8 months ago

I was skeptical too but it lines up a lot with CBT stuff my audiologist gave me. The video isn’t magic, but it gave me a framework to actually practice it. After ~4 months my T is the same volume, yet it feels “quieter” because I’m not freaking out about it 24/7.

u/jawclicks 68 points • 8 months ago

I have T + TMJ issues (jaw clicks/pops when I open wide). The video didn’t fix my jaw obviously, but it really helped with the panic. Funny thing: once I stopped clenching all day from stress, my jaw and my T both calmed down a bit.

u/3am_spinner 51 points • 8 months ago

Does it help with sleep at all? My worst time is 3 AM doom scrolling, wondering if I’ll ever have a normal night again.

u/soft_noise_machine 39 points • 8 months ago

100% helped my sleep. The video made me stop treating bedtime like a battle. I set up a simple noise machine + fan, did the breathing exercise he mentions, and focused on relaxing my body instead of “testing” how loud my T was. Took a few weeks but now I actually fall asleep again.

I used this link: tinnitus resource that includes his approach .

u/mark_works_hard OP • 27 points • 8 months ago

Same here. I still use a bit of background sound at night, but after watching and re-watching that video, I stopped checking my T every time I woke up. Sleep isn’t perfect, but it’s no longer a nightmare.

u/reactiveT_here 34 points • 8 months ago

I have reactive T (spikes with external sounds). Wanted to chime in that the video didn’t “cure” the reactivity, but it did help me stop living in constant terror of every noise. I still protect my ears, but I’m not hiding from life 24/7 anymore.

u/pulsatile_david 29 points • 8 months ago

For anyone with pulsatile T: I still needed to get checked by a doctor first to make sure nothing serious was going on. But after that, the same principles from the video helped me a lot with the anxiety. I can hear my heartbeat in my ear, but it doesn’t feel like a countdown anymore.