Clogged Ears, Muffled Hearing, Static Noise

Hman

Member
Author
Feb 11, 2025
3
Tinnitus Since
16/12/24
Cause of Tinnitus
Unknown
Hello,

I have had Eustachian tube dysfunction in my left ear for some years.

Over the past couple of months, I have been under a lot of stress and have experienced panic attacks.

They prescribed Duloxetine, but after a week, I stopped taking it because I needed to go to work and could not function on it.

I stayed off medication for a couple of weeks, but then I developed bad headaches and brain fog, which really scared me.

They then put me on Sertraline. Two weeks in, I woke up in the night with my ears feeling clogged and experienced intense sweating.

During the day, I felt my right ear pop and ring, but the ringing went away. I also noticed that I was becoming sensitive to loud sounds.

Two days later, when I went to bed, my right ear felt extremely sensitive. The next morning, I woke up with ringing in both ears.

A day or two later, I started hearing strange beeping sounds in my ear. My hearing became very muddled, and I was told I have conductive hearing loss in my right ear.

Since then, I have had a ringing in my right ear that fades in and out, along with a whirring sound in my left ear. At its worst, I can hear it in a silent room, but sometimes the sound in my left ear is nonexistent.

However, this is also accompanied by a strange static-like noise that I can only describe as being in my head. Sometimes, it is very loud, though it seems to be getting less frequent. At its worst, I can hear it over the television.

I do feel like there has been some improvement. My ears are no longer muffled, though they still feel slightly clogged. The ringing seems quieter.

I am new to all of this, and it has really frightened me. I love music, and I have to wear hearing protection at work, so I am not sure what the future holds.

Regards
 

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10 weeks in:

My left ear is barely noticeable—only sometimes when I focus on it.

The right ear is noticeable in silent rooms. It sounds more like a hiss and sometimes like a dying radio.

The brain buzzing is still there, but I attribute that to stress.

Although it fluctuates, I take the fading as progress. Hopefully, I can get back to cardio exercise, as it seemed to cause flare-ups in the past, but exercise has always been important for my mental health.
 

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