Can You "Feel" Your Tinnitus?

[RaZaH]

For me that is the worst , I can actually feel my T, sometimes I even dont really hear it but can still feel it.
I wonder if that is "normal" ?

 

[attheedgeofscience]

I think it is normal. Or at least not uncommon...

 

[JAKUB]

Fullness in the ears/head?

 

[RaZaH]

No, more like an electric feeling in my brain. That is the one that drives me nuts.
I did have the fullness thing but only for the first few months .
I am two years in now ..not doing much better to be honest .

 

[Grace]

My first two days of T before it dropped down to what it is now, i had a middle tone ring that litterly felt the vibration coming through my ear, that was the worst.

 

[attheedgeofscience]

I think the perception of tinnitus possibly can also depend on the original cause eg. noise induced, ototoxicity induced (which can affect both the cochlea and the auditory nerve), head trauma, etc.

 

[washashore]

Yeah, I sometimes feel a slight vibration from the higher pitch tone that I have. Not overwhelming, but noticeable. Hang in there dude.

 

[RaZaH]

For me , that is the overwhelming part, I wake up everyday like I slept inside a Skrillex soundsystem while someone bashed my head in with a baseball bat. My head is coming apart. Awful way to start the day .
Mostly that is felt rather then heard . My head literally buzzes .

 

[washashore]

I'm sorry to hear that you're struggling @RaZaH. Perhaps one of the doctors on this site has some insight into habituating to this type of T? From what I've read, it seems like people with all different variations of noises/vibrations can find a way to habituate.

 

[citigirl13]

Sometimes mine feels like my ears are vibrating with the sound.

 

[Street Spirit]

My left ear is vibrating right now..so odd..I find it happens more after waking which makes me wonder if tiny muscles are involved from clenching...I don't know but it is disturbing. .

 

[RaZaH]

Thing is , I am confident that If I would not "feel" it , I would stop caring.
Right now I am getting a break from feeling it and I am not bothered at all.
Sucks...heheh

 

[Karen]

I agree with you on that, RaZaH! I'm sure it must be easier to habituate if you can't feel the tinnitus, but only hear it.

Mine vibrates, too. The best time of the day for me is in the morning (the opposite from you), when it seems so much calmer. Then, it builds up through the day, and is at its worst in the late afternoon (right now where I'm at). I have both pulsating and hissing/ringing in that ear, and I can actually feel the vibration.

I hope yours calms down for you. That electronic buzzing sounds like it would be very difficult to deal with!

 

[mmacabre]

I "feel it". Very much so.

 

[RaZaH]

Sometimes I am not even sure it comes from my ears , just feels like my brain is buzzing.
No way to mask that crap, its so annoying that I feel serious relief when it stops and I get "regular "T.
I guess that is the flipside , get this crap under control and "normal" T will not bother me .

That might even be "progress" and I am just not seeing it ? It sure as hell did not behave like that for the first year or so. It has changed a lot , I just feel that this buzz is more annoying then the " Wheeeee" sound.
So its inverse progress !

 

[Karen]

Well, let's hope for progress, in any form!! Regular T will seem like a piece of cake after what you've been experiencing, I'm sure.

Take care, and stay strong!!

 

[john2012]

my partner hears succession of random high pitch notes which he says
can feel like electrical cables flashing around in water, sharp spiky type things,
says his loud background sound can drive into him but in a different way.
if only there was a way to desensitize from this, maybe there is.
there have been some occasions when he can hear but not fully feel these
sounds so that tells us there is hope.

i wish you all calm brains, really i do. god bless.


hazar, just noticed you said hardly hear but feel it, yes that's exactly right
my guess is that this is more common than people realize. my hope is that
my partner and you and others can somehow defocus from it.

 

[Hattukoira]

I can feel my T. It feels like low voltage current going through my head + weird pressure/tension(inside my head).

 

[washashore]

I can feel it this afternoon. Sucks big time. Going for a run to see if that takes mind off it.

 

[Marlene]

My tinnitus has gotten worse over the years,the way in which it behaves,when High or Low it goes inwards only way I can describe it,never a good day,and my tinnitus I have a balance problem with,been this way for 3 yrs came on,but not at the start of tinnitus.Just got to hang on in there all you can do.lots have different tinnitus behaviours.totally mystifying.

 

[Mark McDill]

@RaZaH
Some days my T seems like a distant ring in my head (vice the 'normal' T in my ear). I had one really bad spike about a year ago where it was extremely loud (in my head) -- that one scared me; but it subsided after a day.

Now, when it's in my head (vs. ear) it's very distant and I find it easy to ignore; however, I notice my 'head T' really shoots up when I'm stressed (way more than the normal T in my ear).

 

[citigirl13]

I agree with you on that, RaZaH! I'm sure it must be easier to habituate if you can't feel the tinnitus, but only hear it.

Mine vibrates, too. The best time of the day for me is in the morning (the opposite from you), when it seems so much calmer. Then, it builds up through the day, and is at its worst in the late afternoon (right now where I'm at). I have both pulsating and hissing/ringing in that ear, and I can actually feel the vibration.

I hope yours calms down for you. That electronic buzzing sounds like it would be very difficult to deal with!

I just wanted to say thank you Karen, for all the advice you give people and all the help you give when, by most people's standards, your T is quite bad. I can't imagine having both regular T and PT - I think I would be a wreck. But you cope with it and manage to help out people who are having a bad day. Thank you so much and well done!

 

[Valentin]

sometime i have a sound that actually feels like two hair cells touching each others, producing a sound of electric short circuit and that's heard and 'felt'

 

[Grace]

You know how there investigating mdma for a potential "cure" or treatment, well some have said after taking it that the noise was still there but felt real distant.. I feel like if they could even come up with something that makes the T actually feel like a backround noise and not so much in our ears/brains that some may find relief from that. Idk theres so much research and possiblities that they will come up in the future that its actually exciting.

 

[Denny]

Tinnitus is similar to autoimmune diseases in the sense the body literally
turns on itself. But it is not the immune system involved but the brain,ears
and limbic system.

 

[john2012]

may i elaborate on the question about 'feeling' your tinnitus
clearly a lot of you 'feel' it just as my partner does.
but how many of you find the feeling has a particularly distressing quality.
my partner feels it 'sharply' to the point where it 'hurts' he says
(for some maybe the feeling is not unpleasant, i don't know)
i'm hoping to get him to reframe it in his mind somehow,
hopefully the brain can then change what he 'feels'

we really need to find out how many here have this sort
of problem so techniques can be shared, developed, etc.

 

[Karen]

@citigirl13

Thank you for your kind comments. I'd like to know that something good has come from this life-changing condition we all share, and if I've been able to help or support anyone else, then that makes me happy, too!

 

[Karen]

@john2012,

I think your idea to share our experiences with "feeling" tinnitus is a good one. Speaking for myself, being able to both hear and feel one's tinnitus is doubly distressing. Even though we may know that our condition is not dangerous, it still is very upsetting and stressful to have a vibration or sensation in your head that you cannot control. Mine has often felt like my whole head was vibrating. It is also much harder to sleep with this type of tinnitus.

I'd like to hear what others with similar conditions have to say.

 

[Mr. Cartman]

@john2012,

I think your idea to share our experiences with "feeling" tinnitus is a good one. Speaking for myself, being able to both hear and feel one's tinnitus is doubly distressing. Even though we may know that our condition is not dangerous, it still is very upsetting and stressful to have a vibration or sensation in your head that you cannot control. Mine has often felt like my whole head was vibrating. It is also much harder to sleep with this type of tinnitus.

I'd like to hear what others with similar conditions have to say.

Hi Karen

Just wanted to share what Im experiencing.

I too kinda feel my tinnitus. It could even be very painful, sometimes a vibrating sensation like some of you describe. Electrical buzzes and so forth. First I though it was the sound that actually kept alive all those sensations,
but for me it seems like there are nerves misfiring and creating the T together with this sensation.

I had very bad headaches that came and went regulary. I then found a position in bed where I lay down on my stomach, I put two pillows under each my shoulders so they would be placed in a higher position than my spine, I have my head facing down and slightly opening my jaw who is then resting at the mattress.

This is the exact opposite position than I had before regarding bad posture.

I clenched teeth, now Im using the muscles in the opposite direction than chewing.
My shoulders were bent down and forward, now they are bent backwards above my spine.
My lumbar was in a very bad position, but now it is strightened out.
My head was in a forward position, now it is in a more correct position to the spine.

When I held this position I realized that my jaw losened up, so did the headaches and everything else. Muscles started to spasm but it didnt hurt and I could no longer "feel" my tinnitus. Even though, the tinnitus was still there but now fluctuating a bit more.

I did this about 3 times yesterday, 30 minutes each time. And every time I do it, my head sensations seems to normalize pretty much instantly.

For me, it seems like there are nerves (I would guess in my neck for the most part due to a stuck cervical vertebrae I had) that are misfiring and creating these very weird sensations.

I have to add that the third time I was lying down in this position, it felt like someone slapped my right ear, the sensation of fullness went away and the tinnitus kinda went out of my hearing range by travelling upwards in frequncy (this is how my temporarily T's have resolved in the past). It was a very weird sensation. Something did happen at that time, but I dont know for sure why and how.

So my guess is that if nerves are misfiring or has an information flaw due to compression in the neck, back or wherever, they will not only affect muscles and pain signals sent to the brain, creating this "weird" sensation, but also affect the information sent to the the auditory part as well. For example the dorsal cochlear nucleus and creating the noise we percieve as T.

Its just a wild guess based on my own experiences, and I hope it can be helpful to someone else.

Thanks for being such a supporatative resource Karen!

@RaZaH

 

[Laura89]

Hey hazar, I don't have t, but I have vascular t, and I can feel the pulsing of my blood flow on that side of my head. I agree with u that perhaps if I didn't feel it would be easier to habituate. It is very bizarre.