It was the evening of April 19, 2005 when I first contracted tinnitus.
I was sitting on the couch watching television, when something
"popped" in my head, like when your ears pop after an altitude
drop, but different somehow. Then my ears started ringing. I knew
instinctually that something profound had just happened. When a couple
of hours had gone by and my ears were still ringing at a duration and
intensity I'd never experienced before, I said to myself "oh no,
I've got that ear ringing thing I saw Tony Randall talking about
having on the Tonight Show once.

Looking up "Tony Randall ear ringing" on the internet the next day,
I learned the word "tinnitus" and what it meant. I also discovered
the website of a certain doc who's initials are SN and about
"Tinnitus Retraining Therapy" (TRT). I also discovered this
newsgroup and learned about all those suggested alleviators;
acupuncture, chiropractic, masking, xanax, ginko, zinc and many other
drugs and supplements.

My tinnitus no longer bothers me, and I rarely even notice it's there
anymore. I'm taking notice of it right now of course while I'm
writing this article, and it's pretty close to full scream today (but
not bothering me in the least). But after I post this, I'll go on to
something else and I'll forget about my T again.

How do I do it? Here come those dreaded words... I learned to live with
it.
There's a fancier term for that called "habituation". When you
learn to live with something, you become comfortable with it. When
you're comfortable with something you don't spend a lot of wasted
time, effort and money into seeking treatments of one sort or another.
As a matter of fact in my opinion, seeking ways to alleviate it one way
or another probably only makes it worse because you're drilling
"this is a problem" into your subconscious.

They say it takes 12 to 18 months to habituate i.e. learn to live with
it e.g. to be virtually oblivious to it. At 12 months now I'd say
I'm easily 90% of the way there.

I did go to and Ear Nose & Throat (ENT) doctor right away to be fully
evaluated, which is a MUST. But unless the ENT finds something
specially wrong like an ear infection or something, there's nothing
for him to cure. The majority of tinnitus cases are not caused by any
sort of curable malady. So, the ENT's only option is to treat the
reaction his patient is having to the tinnitus i.e being distressed or
just plain freaking out (I freaked out at first), by giving him Xanax,
and if that doesn't work, anti depressants, and if that doesn't
work, anti seizure drugs etc. For myself, the idea of that potential
drug regimen freaked me out worse than having tinnitus (as did the cost
of Tinnitus Retraining Therapy).

I now look back fondly at all the effort I first put forth to treat my
tinnitus. It's just as bad now as it was then, but it just doesn't
bother me anymore. I've become comfortable with it, and rarely notice
it anymore. Eleven months ago, I wouldn't have believed that
possible.