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I'm firmly of the belief that once tinnitus sets in there are any number of things - things we may have taken absolutely no note of in the past - that can aggravate it greatly, which plays into the whole mystery of the situation. I know there are those who believe tinnitus will do as tinnitus will do, that any improvement or worsening would have happened no matter if you used that vaporizer or didn't turn that volume up a bit too much, and to a degree that's absolutely correct - but I also firmly believe there are many things external to 'the T' itself that can set it off, and maybe a few things from person to person that can help calm it down.

This is also one reason so many studies/abstracts I read regarding tinnitus treatments drive me crazy, as the majority seem to make no real distinction between tinnitus patients. What sort of tinnitus do these people have? High or low pitched? Do they appear to have hearing loss as a factor? Is it Meniere's? Is it bilateral or unilateral? How long have they had their T? We know that apparently on average the longer someone has T the less it may bother them, which could play into the subjective analysis of any treatment vs a relatively new sufferer who may grade a small improvement as dramatic, or a large improvement as virtually worthless.

For my own part, I know there are some things that will most times make my tinnitus more intrusive:

- masking noise, even at low volumes. In my first year masking was a god-send and gave residual inhibition. Sometime around the 18 month point, masking became largely ineffective and made things worse. I believe this was a form of 'habituation' to the masking, and perhaps combined with distress over the situation has made masking a frequent no-no for me.
- driving, regardless of the volume of the radio or tire noise or use of earplugs.
- in fact, almost any use of earplugs will result in a rise in volume that persists after the removal of the plugs. The rise in volume will usually persist for the remainder of the day.


Things that can make it better:
- really spicy-hot foods if they trigger a really watery-eyes/runny nose reaction (but not if they don't), this can lower my volume dramatically. It could be endorphines or other chemical release triggered by the foods, or it could be the clearing of the sinuses, though I never have a feeling that my sinuses are clogged.
- crying. I've had six episodes of a real breakdown during a multi-week endless tinnitus spike. In one I had a break in volume that lasted about an hour before it came back, in the other five I had a break of about a day in volume intensity minimum, often longer. In the one where I had only a one-hour break in volume, I had another cry about 12 hours later. It's not exactly manly, but again lots of blowing my nose and sinus clearing went on.

Both of these (spicy foods and crying) release endorphines, but on the other hand exercise and sex - no matter how great - don't convey these benefits in the slightest, in fact I don't lose the volume of tinnitus even during sex - I just don't pay any attention to it whatsoever. Whereas spicy foods/crying literally (when the sinuses clear at the same time) result in a drop to almost imperceptible levels in at least one ear and nearly so in the other. (Which ear is which varies.)