22 Years Old... Where Did This Come From?

[North0House]

Hello, I have been lurking this thread for a few weeks and wanted to say that it has been very helpful in this time of my life. I finally decided to make an account and start asking some questions. I turned 22 last month and take good care of my ears.

I'm really perplexed. I developed tinnitus in my right ear around 4 weeks ago. I wasn't doing anything. I was just at work, wiring a hot tub circuit. I got into the truck to take a break and noticed a hiss in my right ear. I had headphones in at the time, but they were hanging out of my ears and at a low volume. I am an electrician, so I do hear things like nail guns sometimes, but they are far away and I take good care of my ears.

I didn't really care or notice for a week or so, until I started dwelling on it. Now, it has grown to be something I hear most of the time. It drives me insane and I can't relax. It has not changed and it remains a singular low hiss, but it still is enough to drive me crazy.

I have tight shoulders, mediocre posture, and my jaw has popped in the right side of the joint as long as I can remember. When I rotate my neck to the left (tensing the right side of my neck muscles), the hiss gets louder. As soon as I relieve pressure, it decreases.
I squat at my job a lot, and I know that I have poor posture. So is there any chance that this situation could be muscular/skeletal? If so, would stretches and muscular therapy make it go away potentially?

I do not take pain killers or any drugs of any kind. I never have smoked and have never drank any alcohol. I've never been to a concert and I never go to bars or clubs. The loudest volume I'm ever exposed to is that of the occasional lawnmower or motor. I highly doubt I have hearing loss...

I'm honestly so unsure as to why this has happened, or where it came from. I was not exposed to any loud noises or acoustic trauma at all when this started. I was just quietly working on a deck alone in the mountains.

Any ideas? Will it go away, maybe?

Thanks.

 

[billie48]

You may want to get a referral to see a TMJ specialist to see if your T is caused by that. Hearing loss can occur for continuous usage of earphones but the best thing is to get this checked out by an audiologist. I have hearing loss in the high frequency, so my T is ultra high pitch dog whistle. If the low hiss is giving you trouble, perhaps try masking it until you get more used to this. The new and alien nature of T can cause the brain to think it is a threat. As such it will zoom in on it causing a magnified effect on the loudness of T. If you want to try masking, here are some suggestions:

At bed time masking can be done by a sound machine, or sound pillow, or a computer with speakers. For masking on the go, try ipad or smart phone. On PC or laptop, here are some good sites:

TT's own excellent masking sounds:
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/audioplayer/

If you need more masking sounds, here is free 'aire freshener':
http://www.peterhirschberg.com/mysoftware.html

Mix your own rain sounds with this rain generator:
http://mynoise.net/NoiseMachines/rainNoiseGenerator.php

Search youtube with 'masking sounds' and you will also get lots of different nature sounds, such as rain, waves, waterfalls, running brooks, insect sounds, even shower & faucet etc.

 

[baz 22]

Im 22 and got it a month ago as well. What a coincidence. I think a lot more people have tinnitus than statistics suggest. Just most people keep to themselves about it.

 

[Jeffrey Rookard]

I wonder if the tinnitus is due to your poor posture and neck issues? Do you have any cervical issues? Bulging disc, degenerative disc? Etc???