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3 years into tinnitus, and it's been a rollercoaster, but now I'm in a strange place where the intensity of my tinnitus seems to be on a very specific schedule. Right now, I'd say my baseline is at a 3 or 4 out of 10, to which I've habituated, but now, every 5th day upon waking it's up to 8 to...

The reason why your tinnitus seems louder when you cover your ears is because there's no outside noise to mask it at all, and the ringing is more noticeably trapped in your head.

So, I went to New York City this past Saturday for the first time in 2 years, and here's a rundown of how it went. I took the Metro-North train from Connecticut, which was a 110-minute ride, without hearing protection. Upon arriving, I left Grand Central Terminal, and proceeded to walk for...

Fingers in the ears is the most effective, but least sanitary. I go with the tragus.

I'm just here to give an update on my situation, 15 months after my original post. Ever since I stopped protecting my ears, my life has continued to get better. No earplugs and no earmuffs in over a year. I'll still push on my tragi to cover my ear canal every so often when I encounter a...

Like I said, other medications can potentially affect tinnitus, but ARE NOT ototoxic. I see a lot of medication paranoia on the board, and I like to chime in every so often with some facts, since the doom and gloom on here can be counterproductive. Anxiety over taking/not taking a certain...

People on here have different definitions of "ototoxic," but the list of truly ototoxic medications is short. Many medications have the potential to temporarily negatively impact tinnitus, but do not damage the cochlea or auditory nerve. By definition, ototoxic drugs include: Salicylates –...

An addendum to my vaccine experience: The day after I received my second Pfizer dose three weeks ago, my tinnitus was very bad, so I started to think about the correlation between inflammation and tinnitus levels. As a result, I've been focusing on trying to control inflammation naturally since...

I received my first Pfizer dose on 3/26. No side effects other than a sore arm for a day, and no change to my tinnitus. This past Friday, 4/16, I received my second dose. On Saturday, I was very tired all day, and just felt out of sorts. No fever, but my temperature was about 1/2 degree higher...

FYI, the CDC just updated their guidelines, showing that face masks CAN also protect the wearer from COVID-19 infection: "Studies demonstrate that cloth mask materials can also reduce wearers’ exposure to infectious droplets through filtration, including filtration of fine droplets and...

I'm glad you experienced some relief, but the point I was trying to make is that, once someone starts taking prednisone and it appears to help, the more likely they'll be to seek it out in the future, whether or not it's actually needed. I did 3 rounds of steroids (dexsamethasone, prednisone...

I'm only speculating about why they might not want to publish, not about the focus of the study: "It involved as many as 6,000 Danes, half of whom had to wear face masks in public over a long period of time. The other half was selected as the control group. A large proportion of the test...

Isn't that study referring to whether or not masks prevent someone from getting COVID-19? That question was answered a long time ago. They don't, really. However, it doesn't appear to address how they prevent an infected person from spreading it, which is the main reason the public is advised to...

You have no idea what my situation is. My words are based on research and personal experience, and I stand by my post. Also, for the record, the OP said nothing about hyperacusis, and, on another thread, he said that he was only exposed to one pulse of the alarm before covering his ears.

In my opinion, the chances of hearing damage from momentary exposure to an ambulance while wearing earplugs are slim to none. If you're having a spike, I think it could be from anxiety over the event, rather than from the sound itself.

The average smoke alarm is 85 decibels, which, realistically, isn't loud enough to damage one's ears. Will it cause a spike? Perhaps, but this knee-jerk reaction on here to run to the ER for prednisone after being exposed to only moderately loud noises is a very slippery slope. I'm firmly...

So, I say this as someone who used to wear hearing protection whenever I drove, then stopped driving because I was afraid of the sound of the door shutting: in my opinion, wearing earplugs and/or earmuffs while driving is a bad idea. Today, because of this thread, I turned my decibel meter on...

There's also this study on Zoloft, which shows the possible benefit of treatment: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16415703/

Honestly, I have no idea what, if any, direct effect Zoloft had on the level of my tinnitus. As most of us know, it's very difficult to figure out what exactly makes our tinnitus worse from day to day. Is it the sounds themselves, is it some medication we're taking or something we're eating, is...

This is just my opinion, of course, but I really don't think you should be using hearing protection for the scenario you described, and there's absolutely no way that it could have resulted in an acoustic trauma. If you continue to wear earplugs for everyday noise, your ears will continue to be...

He's the doctor I saw in January. At that point, I had noise-induced tinnitus for 6 months, and had started Zoloft 2 months before the appointment. Due to overprotection, my sensitivity to sound had gotten really bad, and he advised weaning myself off earplugs and earmuffs, which I eventually...

GBB, what doctor are you seeing at Yale? I'm in the New Haven area, and I've seen an audiologist and otologist there.

In my case, overprotection due to phonophobia wrecked my tolerance to sound. For months, I wore Peltor X5A earmuffs every time I was outside the house, which was not often, and, when I was at home, I avoided even harmless sounds like running water (I went 3 months without a bath/shower), and I...

As far as sticking your pinky in your ear is concerned, the suction created can cause a fracture of the malleus, one of the three small bones in the middle ear, which can cause various auditory issues, including tinnitus. Granted, this injury is rare, but, since the eardrum remains intact, it is...

I wasn't able to overcome my moderate hyperacusis until I stopped wearing hearing protection. I haven't worn earplugs or earmuffs in 5 1/2 months, and, in that time, I've also been able to habituate to my baseline tinnitus, which I'd say is a 3 out of 10, and the number of days that I'm at that...

Since antidepressants are known to exacerbate tinnitus, it really is about choosing the lesser of two evils. In my case, anxiety as a result of tinnitus was making my life unlivable, so I had to take care of my mental health first. I've been on Zoloft for 8 months, and my life has greatly...

Reading your story breaks my heart, because I was where you are up until 4 months ago, when I decided I'd had enough and stopped wearing hearing protection. I doubt my hyperacusis was at the same level as yours is, but I could see it going it that direction. I came to the conclusion that I...

A few months ago, I posted about my experience with tinnitus, and my life has only gotten better since then. Even with the Covid-19 situation, I no longer feel like a prisoner in my home, and when I'm out and about living life I can't even hear it. As I mention in the thread, the ringing hasn't...

Some days are better than others, but my ears ring 24/7, so spikes aren't an issue for me. Since I'm now living my life without hearing protection, if I experience an increase in the ringing, I can't attribute it to one event. For instance, my tinnitus is intense today. Yesterday, I went out...

It's definitely a risk-benefit situation. In my case, OCD and anxiety were making it impossible for me to ignore the tinnitus, thus making my life pretty unlivable. Zoloft appears to be what my brain needed to calm down, and to push tinnitus into the background, but I know others' experiences...

I did. For a while, it was noticeably worse in my right ear, but now it's pretty even.

Fear of ototoxicity was definitely a factor in my hesitancy to taking antidepressants, or any new medication, for that matter. One of the symptoms of my OCD was constant researching on the internet, and I irrationally put too much emphasis on ototoxic medications. We all know that the list of...

Let me start by saying that I have what I consider to be severe tinnitus. Intense high-pitched ringing in both ears, sometimes pulsatile in the left, 24/7. When I developed tinnitus last July as a result of a heavy toilet seat falling onto the bowl in a closet-sized bathroom, it wasn't this bad...

So, I started a 4 mg Medrol Dose Pack today, and I took the first 6 tablets first thing in the morning, not noticing that they're supposed to be spread out during the day (the writing on the foil is small, and I guess the lighting in my room isn't great). I checked with my pharmacist, and he...

I wear a fleece cap very often, and, while it makes my tinnitus sound louder, I find it that it takes the bite out of external sounds. In my mind, the fabric has to be absorbing something.

As a fan of STAR WARS since 1977, at the age of 7, it's killing me that I won't be able to see THE RISE OF SKYWALKER in the theater. I felt compelled to buy a ticket for the first IMAX matinee on 12/20, but the chances I'll use it are very slim. Also, considering that I wasn't thrilled with THE...

I'm taking Boswellia serrata, which appears to be the one found in most supplements.

Since it appears that inflammation causes/exacerbates tinnitus for many, I'm surprised that I haven't seen anyone talking about boswellia (Indian frankincense). Over the past couple of months, I've tried the usual supplements (turmeric/curcumin, magnesium, NAC), but I haven't noticed any real...

I developed ETD 18 months ago from holding in a sneeze, which makes my ears pop constantly. Every morning, I wake up with my ears clogged, and I have to wait for them to crackle and drain. Ear tubes have been mentioned to me, but I'm so used to the annoyance that I'd rather just live with it. I...

I just estimate based on what the level seems to me when I'm in complete silence.

Hi everyone! So, 5 weeks ago I was in a friend's cubicle-sized bathroom where the old, heavy toilet seat didn't stay up, and came down crashing, making a bang that I instantly believed did damage. 6 days later, the ringing started in the middle of the night. In the month since then, my tinnitus...