Any Advice on This? Can Tinnitus Be Caused Simply by Thinking About It?

[MattFlannigan]

Hey guys,

I had mild tinnitus during July which didnt phase me too much thankfully, and after a couple of weeks it went away.

However, on 1st August 2015, I was reading online and came across an article on tinnitus and that instantly got me thinking of my tinnitus and since then I have had the same ringing tone in my left ear. This time its more bothersome and I need blue noise to help me sleep.

I am confused here: can tinnitus be caused simply by thinking about it? After my experience in July I was keen to lower the volume on everything so I would be amazed if it was caused again by noise.

Side note: my teeth have moved slightly (I stopped wearing my retainers after braces) and my jaw and ears have been killing me just lately. I noticed that these are symptoms of both tinnitus and TMJ?

Just at a loss here. I'm a bit embarassed about returning to a doctor as last time I got the whole 'nothing wrong, your ears and hearing are fine' talk and it felt like I was wasting their time.

If anyone could shed any light on this or offer their thoughts I would be most grateful.

Matt

 

[ring a ding]

Don't think so. Tinnitus is the damage of nerves in your ear which continue to fire false electrical impulses to the brain. Your brain translates these electrical impulses as noise. Even for people who don't suffer from tinnitus there is no such thing as perfect total silence. Our brains always produces a low intensity audio background noise at such a low level that we don't really notice it. However it seems to me that if a person is very anxious about their tinnitus it can seem louder, and under certain conditions hear noises when there actually not there.


Example. Years ago I lived in an apartment where the new next door neighbor owned two small dogs that barked continuously with a high pitch yelp. They barked 24 hours off and on. After two weeks of this nonsense without normal sleep I was actually hearing these dogs bark when they weren't barking. I thought I was going nuts but other neighbors complained of the same condition. What caused this----------anxiety. Lack of sleep, and being pissed off that
a person could be this inconsiderate of others.

 

[Mad maggot]

Don't think so. Tinnitus is the damage of nerves in your ear which continue to fire false electrical impulses to the brain. Your brain translates these electrical impulses as noise. Even for people who don't suffer from tinnitus there is no such thing as perfect total silence. Our brains always produces a low intensity audio background noise at such a low level that we don't really notice it. However it seems to me that if a person is very anxious about their tinnitus it can seem louder, and under certain conditions hear noises when there actually not there.


Example. Years ago I lived in an apartment where the new next door neighbor owned two small dogs that barked continuously with a high pitch yelp. They barked 24 hours off and on. After two weeks of this nonsense without normal sleep I was actually hearing these dogs bark when they weren't barking. I thought I was going nuts but other neighbors complained of the same condition. What caused this----------anxiety. Lack of sleep, and being pissed off that
a person could be this inconsiderate of others.

Sorry. I don't want to cause conflict but ring a ding is wrong. T can be caused by ear damage however plenty of people with no damage to the ears have T.
There are many causes not just one. It can come from the brain or nerve connections between the ear and brain. I myself have no damage to my ears or any hearing loss but experience loud noise in my left ear that sounds like a Geiger counter going off!