5 Months of Tinnitus and Now I'm Here for Help

[Flyingsheep]

Hello, this is my first post here after reading many threads on and off for the past couple of months. I knew I'd find myself posting here eventually, and here I am on my 30th birthday, being desperate.

Since early September 2018, I started experiencing tinnitus for the first time ever. I don't fully understand what the cause was but I'm guessing it was alcohol at high elevation that triggered something. It was my first time in Colorado and drank too much with some friends. Got home in the middle of the night with that muffled sound in my ears (which I've experienced before from drinking too much, and normally it goes away the next morning). The next morning I was vomiting and the most sick I've ever been from alcohol, and was literally in bed for two days straight. That muffled sound in my ears still didn't go away either. A few days later it improved but I always noticed some white noise when I went to sleep. At the time I was incredibly busy at work and honestly didn't think much about my hearing for nearly a month. I stopped drinking for 3 months too, but my ears still never fully recovered. Then it started to get to me more as I noticed some weird electrical buzzing in my right ear in quiet rooms or at night in bed, and it fluctuated, kind of like that electrical buzzing sound you might hear from some wall or light switch in a building.

Around November I started having "bad" days with some constant ringing in one or both ears. One day in particular, I was just sitting at a desk and suddenly my right ear started ringing so bad and kind of felt pain, and it stayed there for a good couple of hours. I nearly lost it. But later on it faded away. Of course, it seemed the more I focused on my hearing the more I noticed all these things. My mood got so much worse after doing all of this research and finding that there is absolutely nothing I can do.

Then I had something strange happen. I flew to Ohio to visit family for new years and one night when I went to bed, I suddenly realized that I heard true silence. I honestly wanted to cry, it was amazing. There was no sensation of anything. It lasted like this for two days, and then the white noise/ringing came back. A month later I flew to Seattle and I experienced this phenomenon again. I started to wonder if it meant my tinnitus was getting better. It still came back and like the worst I've had, and really high pitched (15khz-17khz), very much like that sound you hear from old televisions. It made me incredibly depressed. I still pushed on though and it faded back to white noise again.

Since then I haven't really experienced silence (it's been about a month), but I noticed that occasionally if I drink red wine the tinnitus can fade to near silence. Sometimes only for an hour, sometimes for the rest of the night. It just seems random, and beer is more likely to make it worse. Lately I'm having sensitivity (hyperacusis?) to loud sounds too, so in a way I feel like it's getting worse. Also the white noise changes quite a lot throughout the day, sometimes it changes in minutes, sometimes it's gradual. Certain sounds trigger it into ringing, in both ears, such as running water, taking a shower, a blender, hair dryer, etc. Everyday is slightly different. And it varies from unstructured noise that's hard to explain, to hissing, to high pitch white, to straight up ringing (around 15khz). On some days it's not really white noise, it's just this electrical buzzing that fluctuates. Usually my right ear is worse but the past week my left ear has consistently been the worse one. Strangely, if I plug my left ear and push my finger in, I start to hear ringing which immediately goes away when I let go. My right ear doesn't do this. My hearing is very good and I've protected my ears throughout my whole life, wearing earplugs at nearly every concert I've been to or in other loud environments. I just don't understand how this could happen when I've been really good about this. Both of my parents never protected their ears and went to tons of loud concerts, bars, clubs, etc for all of their 20s. My dad still to this day doesn't protect his ears, even when he fires guns. Both of my parents don't have tinnitus. My mom did get it at one point for two years and it went away.

It seems like alcohol caused my tinnitus and damaged some nerves? But I did a lot of reading here/google and I can't find any reports of people saying they got tinnitus from alcohol. I do have TMJ and quite a nasty stiff neck, and when I met with an audiologist once she said that mine could be coming from TMJ and possibly wasn't noise-induced. I've read that usually if it's caused by your neck or TMJ you can change the frequency and loudness by moving your neck or jaw. I don't really experience that, EXCEPT that if I tense up my jaw a certain way it will change the white noise to high-pitched ringing until I let go.

I know this is a really long post, but I just wanted to be detailed in case there is anybody who can help me find the direction I need to go to hopefully get better, or adjust. It's REALLY hard to adjust to tinnitus when it's changing every day and throughout the day, sometimes in a matter of minutes. If it were one constant tone I can see how it's easier to tune it out. I'm also worried my ears are damaged and it will only get worse from here. I REALLY TRULY hope that it will resolve itself, and that it may be because of my neck and TMJ and getting the right help to address those things will help my tinnitus. I just don't know where to start or get the right help. If anybody can help guide me I would truly appreciate it. And if you've read this far, thank you for taking the time to understand/help.

 

[HanaK]

Since this coincides with you flying, have you tried getting ETD as a cause ruled out?

 

[Flyingsheep]

Since this coincides with you flying, have you tried getting ETD as a cause ruled out?

Not yet, how do I have that checked? I've already gone to the doctor and he completely ignored me when I talked about tinnitus. That was a waste of my time...

 

[HanaK]

Not yet, how do I have that checked? I've already gone to the doctor and he completely ignored me when I talked about tinnitus. That was a waste of my time...

Ask an audiologist to have it checked if you think it may be ETD. Seeing how you have good hearing it may not be ETD, but you flew so there's a possibility your eustachian tube just didn't equalize pressure well on the flight. One of my ears was more muffled than the other, and that's how I discovered the muffled ear had ETD. There was also a lot of pressure felt in that ear.

Ugh same here. Doctors always say that they don't know what causes tinnitus since there's so many things that could cause it lol.

 

[Contrast]

How did you outrule hearing loss being an issue, what if an infection damaged hearing instead of noise?

 

[Flyingsheep]

How did you outrule hearing loss being an issue, what if an infection damaged hearing instead of noise?

I can't say I completely out-ruled hearing loss as being the issue, as I still have yet to see an ENT. I'm trying to make that a priority, but I seriously work the most nomadic career that it's been hard to get that set up. It's getting to the point though that I'm gonna need to squeeze it in and compromise if I have to, because my ears have been so reactive lately to loud noise it's really making me concerned (like if I drop a plate in the sink by accident, it hurts my ears and they ring). I highly doubt infection, and I did have my ears checked by an audiologist and she said everything looked perfect.

Is any steroid treatment too late at this point (5 months in)? I just don't know why my ears are getting worse. Again my hearing is totally fine, it's just the ringing/white noise and pain I feel from loud noise. Even if I'm around friends and there's loud laughing it hurts my ears. And this wasn't a problem the first 3-4 months I experienced tinnitus. It's extremely disconcerting.

 

[Contrast]

nd I did have my ears checked by an audiologist and she said everything looked perfect.

Recent research indicates that hearing test used at most audiology clinics and ENTs are inaccurate, they only test for hearing loss within the human voice range, learn more here about hidden hearing loss and how hearing speech in noise and music processing is not tested on standard hearing test.

http://hyperacusisfocus.org/innerear/

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378595516302507

 

[Flyingsheep]

Yeah, but it just doesn't add up how I could have noise-induced tinnitus and nerve damage when I've protected my ears from dangerously loud environments my whole entire life, while at the same time everyone in my family, including siblings, have been exposed to mega loud environments way more than I have without any hearing protection and don't suffer from tinnitus or hearing loss. Unless I got some randomly bad gene and my inner ears are just dying for no reason. I can still hear frequencies much higher than most people.

To me it seems like there's damage caused by something else like my audiologist suggested. I just want to find the right help to figure out what and how I can address it if possible.

 

[Contrast]

Yeah, but it just doesn't add up how I could have noise-induced tinnitus and nerve damage when I've protected my ears from dangerously loud environments my whole entire life, while at the same time everyone in my family, including siblings, have been exposed to mega loud environments way more than I have without any hearing protection and don't suffer from tinnitus or hearing loss. Unless I got some randomly bad gene and my inner ears are just dying for no reason. I can still hear frequencies much higher than most people.

To me it seems like there's damage caused by something else like my audiologist suggested. I just want to find the right help to figure out what and how I can address it if possible.

Didn't you say you had "noise induced pain" hyperacusis?

 

[Contrast]

Other things then noise trauma can cause hearing loss, but that's just the most common, it could even be genetic or another disease. We don't know.

and pain I feel from loud noise. Even if I'm around friends and there's loud laughing it hurts my ears

Do you experience burning, shooting, sharp aches, do some noises sound abnormally to extremely louder then they should?

 

[Flyingsheep]

Yes, it started within the last month, and I don't know why. Since tinnitus started I haven't been anywhere loud. I don't know if it's hyperacusis, I cannot say unless it's been diagnosed. But I just noticed that some louder sudden noises in the high frequency range kind of hurt, and induces temporary ringing.

Other things then noise trauma can cause hearing loss, but that's just the most common, it could even be genetic or another disease. We don't know.


Do you experience burning, shooting, sharp aches, do some noises sound abnormally to extremely louder then they should?

Nope, haven't experienced any of this. Everything does sound fine...

Throughout my whole life, sudden loud sounds kind of hurt. It just seems a lot more noticeable now.

 

[Contrast]

including siblings, have been exposed to mega loud environments way more than I have without any hearing protection and don't suffer from tinnitus or hearing loss.

People who expose themselves to "mega loud environments" as recreational hobbies may not have tinnitus, but they certainly have some hearing deficit (even if unnoticeable)

The point I was making is that audiograms are wrong.

 

[Flyingsheep]

weird, do you have irritation from high pitch noises?

Irritation as like a feeling sensation in my ears? It's hard to explain, but it depends on my mood and if I'm thinking about it. So I wonder if the sensitivity is just me being hyper aware, or if it's a real thing. High pitch sounds are fine, it's just when it's something loud and rather high pitched, like a blender. Running water used to irritate my hearing but not anymore. So that's just odd and I wonder if it's mental.

 

[Contrast]

I don't know if it's hyperacusis, I cannot say unless it's been diagnosed.

Here's the controversy, in many of our opinions hyperacusis and tinnitus are not managed properly audiologist and ENT's, they don't keep up to date with any research on these topics.

Some ENT's don't even know what hyperacusis is! and if they do they will pretty much just mindlessly advocate a form of extremely expensive sound therapy called "TRT' (Tinnitus Retraining Therapy) which is only showing effect against one subtype of hyperacusis, while other variation of hyperacusis it fails.

You can read many post on this forum and elsewhere about people who got screwed over with TRT, and bad ENT's.

The best doctors you can see about hyperacusis is an "Otologist or neuro-otologist" not a ENT/Audiologist , however even they won't be able to do much help, but atleast they'll be familar with research and understanding of how the condition can have set backs to put you on a treatment plan that might have some success.

 

[Flyingsheep]

Here's the controversy, in many of our opinions hyperacusis and tinnitus are not managed properly audiologist and ENT's, they don't keep up to date with any research on these topics.

Some ENT's don't even know what hyperacusis is! and if they do they will pretty much just mindlessly advocate a form of extremely expensive sound therapy called "TRT' (Tinnitus Retraining Therapy) which is only showing effect against one subtype of hyperacusis, while other variation of hyperacusis it fails.

You can read many post on this forum and elsewhere about people who got screwed over with TRT, and bad ENT's.

The best doctors you can see about hyperacusis is an "Otologist or neuro-otologist" not a ENT/Audiologist , however even they won't be able to do much help, but atleast they'll be familar with research and understanding of how the condition can have set backs to put you on a treatment plan that might have some success.

I appreciate your info here. Yeah it's extremely exhausting to figure out what the best course of action is here. My audiologist wanted to do TRT but I wasn't in the area long enough to try it out. It's good to know about seeing an Otologist/neuro-otologist. Should I see an ENT first? I'm not one of those people who can just throw money around for my health like crazy. I have to have a strategy and it's expensive to do this stuff. And who knows, the hyperacusis thing could totally be a mentality I developed after getting too obsessed with my hearing, since it changes all the time.

 

[Flyingsheep]

Speaking of changing all the time, tinnitus has been the worst for the past week with constant louder white noise that turns into ringing throughout the day. It was so bad tonight too while hanging out with family that I could hear it over the talking. Now that I'm home, it's nearly dead silence, the best it's been in a couple weeks. Like I can only hear a little murmur of white noise if I turn off music or whatever. It's so hard to understand.

 

[Contrast]

the hyperacusis thing could totally be a mentality

I don't believe it's psychological, good luck I cannot offer you anymore advice

I hope you recover.

 

[Bill Bauer]

Have you tried protecting your ears from moderate noises like that of a blender?

Have you seen
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/thread...eone-else-who-has-tinnitus.26850/#post-307822

 

[Flyingsheep]

Have you tried protecting your ears from moderate noises like that of a blender?

Have you seen
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/thread...eone-else-who-has-tinnitus.26850/#post-307822

I recently got an earplugs case that attaches to my key ring so I always have them now. I've been using them in restaurants and bars lately and in other moderately loud situations. Thanks for the link, it helps me feel a little more encouraged. I do get spikes it seems like, but they're never permanent. Today I accidentally dropped a bowl in a sink while washing it and broke it, and my right ear was not happy. It was ringing for half a minute, and continued to have a high-pitched loudish white noise that was borderline ringing up until now, and now it's gone.

So, for now nothing has been permanent, but it just seems like 5 months into this issue is a really long time and I start to think it's never going to get better. Do I protect myself forever from these daily household or public sounds? Or only until I feel like I'm doing a lot better?

 

[Bill Bauer]

I've been using them in restaurants and bars lately and in other moderately loud situations.

Sometimes (and for some people) earplugs can provide a false sense of security. It is possible that your spikes are due to those noise exposures.
Check out

Relative newbies to tinnitus are likely to find all the information/opinions above quite confusing. So here are a few common-sense rules to follow:

1. The best protection of all is avoidance. Even the best earplugs can't guarantee complete hearing protection so those relatively new to tinnitus are best advised to avoid prolonged loud noise exposure - especially amplified sound at for example live concerts and sports events. This may involve lifestyle changes.

2. When in doubt, use hearing protection. In the many tasks we all do through the week, some will inevitably involve exposure to noise - which may be at higher levels than we at first realise - so using hearing protection for many of these is only sensible.

3. Build quiet into your day. It's not a good idea to be wearing hearing protection all the time - so you need to give your ears a break by ensuring that there will be quieter times during your day when hearing protection isn't necessary.This may involve changing your routine. Use soft masking noise and light music (not using headphones) to avoid "silence" where tinnitus is most noticeable.

4. Don't stress about stress. Tinnitus newbies are forever being told that the thing which makes tinnitus worse is stress. But while it's true that how you are feeling at a particular moment can make tinnitus temporarily louder, it won't have a lasting effect. But prolonged loud noise exposure can make tinnitus permanently louder. So don't stress about stress - but do be concerned about noise.

I didn't read all the above comments, but did peruse a fair amount of it, and ran across many good points on both sides of the argument. What strikes me is there seems to be an underlying assumption (of course I may be wrong on this) that all brains and neurological systems are created equal. The way I see it, that's simply not the case, so everybody's way of dealing with tinnitus and/or hyperacusis is going to have to be highly individualized.

I read a book many years ago called "Adrenal Syndrome". A lot of the book touched on the residual resiliency of people's adrenal glands as they respond to life's stresses. Very low resiliency often resulted in months/years of chronic debilitating exhaustion following a stressful event(s) in their lives. Very high resiliency indicated essentially the opposite. The author broke this down into some rough numbers:

25% of people have low resiliency, meaning normal life stressors will often send them into some degree of a tailspin.
25% of people have high resiliency, meaning that no matter how severe a stressor comes into their lives, they will be able to cope without becoming debilitated to any degree.
50% of people fall somewhere inbetween.

I believe there are some kind of corresponding numbers for a person's brain and neurological resiliency as well, which can greatly affect the ability to cope with tinnitus. (I believe adrenal resiliency also plays a major role in our ability to cope). -- Based on these assumptions, it's pretty easy for me to conclude that what may be overprotection for one person will be underprotection for another, and vice versa.

I think the main point to understand for someone new to tinnitus is that their path forward is going to be a lot of "testing the waters". Generally, IMHO, it's going to take a few weeks or months to get important insights that will help us achieve a healthy balance. In all likelihood, most people are going to learn from experience when their over-protecting or under-protecting.

I've come to believe however, that in those early months, if one is going to err in either direction, it should be toward overprotection. It just seems to me the consequences of underprotection (which could result in permanent injury) in those early times are much more dire than the consequences of overprotection--which as I understand, generally results in temporary setbacks.

Doing a number of things to better support the brain and neurological system and the body's stress response (adrenal glands) is quite high on my list of recommendations I would make to anybody with tinnitus. Doing so might even prevent phonophobia or OCD, etc., as we go through our learning curves -- Just my 2 cents worth.

Do I protect myself forever from these daily household or public sounds?

It is the case for many people that their T stops being as reactive and H stops after about 1-2 years. The first year is definitely a year when many of us feel like we are more vulnerable. You might consider avoiding moderate noises for a month or two or three, and see whether this makes any difference. If it does, then you might want to keep pushing the boundaries to determine what sounds are ok and what sounds are not. Whenever a sound is not ok, keep in mind that it might become ok after something like 6 months.

Or only until I feel like I'm doing a lot better?

Sounds about right.

Do I protect myself forever from these daily household or public sounds?

Make sure to not go overboard with this. You don't want to be wearing earplugs 24/7. You want to minimize your use of hearing protection, while also minimizing the number of times you get exposed to the noise that might carry a risk of giving you a spike.

 

[Flyingsheep]

It is the case for many people that their T stops being as reactive and H stops after about 1-2 years. The first year is definitely a year when many of us feel like we are more vulnerable. You might consider avoiding moderate noises for a month or two or three, and see whether this makes any difference. If it does, then you might want to keep pushing the boundaries to determine what sounds are ok and what sounds are not. Whenever a sound is not ok, keep in mind that it might become ok after something like 6 months.

Is it common or normal that for the first 3 months I didn't experience tinnitus being reactive?

Make sure to not go overboard with this. You don't want to be wearing earplugs 24/7. You want to minimize your use of hearing protection, while also minimizing the number of times you get exposed to the noise that might carry a risk of giving you a spike.

That's what I was concerned about too. I don't want to go crazy wearing earplugs in every situation. I guess the only time I'm really around louder noise is if I go out with friends somewhere and some places are just loud. It's hit or miss. Those times are when I should be wearing earplugs for sure.

 

[Bill Bauer]

Is it common or normal that for the first 3 months I didn't experience tinnitus being reactive?

My T hasn't been reactive, and I confess to not paying enough attention when reading posts by people with reactive T. Hopefully someone with this type of T will be able to answer your question.

Those times are when I should be wearing earplugs for sure.

You might also consider avoidance.

 

[Flyingsheep]

My T hasn't been reactive, and I confess to not paying enough attention when reading posts by people with reactive T. Hopefully someone with this type of T will be able to answer your question.

Thanks, I appreciate all of the information and links you shared.

 

[Estan]

I don't believe it's psychological, good luck I cannot offer you anymore advice

I hope you recover.

From what I've read, hyperacusis is in fact psychological (though psychological conditions should be considered equally as "real" as physical conditions).

@Flyingsheep, I had some hyperacusis and I was freaking out thinking this was a sign that my tinnitus was worsening. After doing some reading and talking to an audiologist, I think the hyperacusis was actually brought on by me obsessing over the tinnitus. After coming to this conclusion, the hyperacusis improved almost completely.

 

[Contrast]

From what I've read, hyperacusis is in fact psychological (though psychological conditions should be considered equally as "real" as physical conditions).

@Flyingsheep, I had some hyperacusis and I was freaking out thinking this was a sign that my tinnitus was worsening. After doing some reading and talking to an audiologist, I think the hyperacusis was actually brought on by me obsessing over the tinnitus. After coming to this conclusion, the hyperacusis improved almost completely.

Show me what you read!

I'm not going to let you spread fake news on this forum.

Hyperacusis defined as "noise induced pain" is a physical condition linked to cochlear noiception.
A small minority of outer hair cell nerve fibers) are responsible for noise induced pain.
https://www.ata.org/news/news/hyperacusis-related-damage-nerve-cells-inner-ear
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4664349/

 

[Estan]

Also about to turn 30 and got tinnitus around the same time as you.

Good luck and stay positive.

What's really helped me feel better - long-term sufferers of tinnitus almost all seem to have stopped giving a shit at some point, which is effectively like being healed.

 

[Contrast]

Also about to turn 30 and got tinnitus around the same time as you.

Good luck and stay positive.

What's really helped me feel better - long-term sufferers of tinnitus almost all seem to have stopped giving a shit at some point, which is effectively like being healed.

What makes you believe hyperacusis is psychological?

 

[Estan]

Show me what you read!

I'm not going to let you spread fake news on this forum.

Hyperacusis defined as "noise induced pain" is a physical condition linked to cochlear noiception.
A small minority of outer hair cell nerve fibers) are responsible for noise induced pain.
https://www.ata.org/news/news/hyperacusis-related-damage-nerve-cells-inner-ear
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4664349/

Thanks for the links!

Not trying to spread false information.

What I should have written is that there is a psychological component: http://www.canadianaudiologist.ca/the-quick-and-dirty-on-hyperacusis/

 

[Contrast]

Thanks for the links!

Not trying to spread false information.

What I should have written is that there is a psychological component: http://www.canadianaudiologist.ca/the-quick-and-dirty-on-hyperacusis/

Burning ear pain is bound to give someone negative pyscho-mental reactions.

 

[Estan]

Burning ear pain is bound to give someone negative pyscho-mental reactions.

Indeed and I would never try to minimize other people's experiences.

Also as I said, psychological conditions are equally as real as physical conditions.

Severe pain can happen with no discernible physical cause, that makes it no less painful.

There was a case of someone who ended his life through physician-assisted suicide after living with extreme pain for years which doctors had ruled psychological. (EDIT: he was a campaigner for physician-assisted suicide, he ended his life after he couldn't use physician-assisted suicide under current laws that restrict it to physical conditions)

So I am also definitely not suggesting that you can simply 'think away' pain.

My post was only to offer some hope, as I had non-severe but still painful hyperacusis that noticeably improved after I did some reading and learned that there was a psychological component, and that it was likely not a sign that my tinnitus was worsening. I think it helps to stay positive (though I am fully onboard with debunking quack remedies).

Hope this helps clarify my comment!