- May 27, 2018
- 55
- Tinnitus Since
- July 2016
- Cause of Tinnitus
- Loud jam session on top of years of music performance/mixing
Hello, I'm new here! 27 year old saxophonist, vocalist, and composer with chronic tinnitus. Here's some quick background, but feel free to skip this paragraph to get to the specifics 
. I did lurk here a bit for some information at the initial onset of my tinnitus and have been lurking a bit more recently as I noticed in early March that my condition has become clearly worse following a month full of lengthy recording sessions and extended saxophone practice sessions in a reverberant room without hearing protection. The horn can exceed 90 db quite easily, and often hits peaks past 100. OOPS! Clearly I got way too comfortable after having habituated once. Haha, I was even giving people advice on how to overcome their noise-induced tinnitus. Now these past three months I've pretty much been trying to rehabituate, and I'm finding that this is taking way longer than last time. While I'm not wrapped in despair to the point of complete immobility as I was the first few days in March, I still feel like after every couple of good days I get knocked back into a pattern of anxiety, the "what-if"s and "why-me"s. I know it's not a good habit, I'm workin on it. By the way otoacoustic emmisions and standard hearing tests came back at average levels, but most of my tinnitus problems are in higher frequencies at which the tests did not measure. Anyway, while the constant tinnitus (mostly high frequencies past 15khz, but some subtly distinguishable tones between there and around 1000hz that I can identify by pitch class) is bothersome for sure and I'm not always able to brush off the spikes as easily as I could when I was habituated, the tinnitus isn't the main source of my current anxiety.
I'm not sure how to classify this, but I've been noticing for a little over a week now that my voice and some other voices sound slightly distorted in my right ear when spoken at around the average conversation volume or higher. It's mostly noticeable with earplugs in, as the occlusion effect makes me sound louder even if I'm speaking quietly, but it's definitely noticeable without plugs at a conversational volume a fair amount of the time. To describe it: imagine a tinnitus tone occurring within a very specific narrow frequency range (in my case around 4000hz) that is heard JUST during certain peaks of your voice, but between each word it isn't heard at all(or if it is, it's so quiet that it's being masked by the rest of my tinnitus tones lol). I can also describe the sound as a sort of a very slight rattling, if you can picture that? I can try to describe it better if y'all want, but I hope this gives you an idea.
Perhaps it's important to note that leading up to this, I have spent the past three months perhaps going a little overboard with protecting my hearing, as I've been either using plugs for or actively avoiding exposure to most sounds that average anywhere above just 70db, aside from maybe using the shower or sink. I keep my music down, and use earplugs at work, mostly to protect against sudden loud noises(I work in a kitchen, and while it isn't as loud as a busy restaurant kitchen would be, there is still potential for things to clang around. Probably not at gunshot volume though). I have played a few notes on sax here and there in an effort to start putting that part of my life back together, but the few times I tried I didn't play for long, just to play it safe. I check SPL with a phone app whenever I enter a somewhat noisy environment. I've never lived a quieter few months, and with all my worry about making my T worse I've ended up super sensitive to sounds- not that they have been literally painful in any event, but they make me anxious for sure.
Now part of me suspects that the psychological basis of that sensitivity is beginning to manifest physically. Last week one of my coworkers slammed an office window pretty close to me, and while I found relief in testing that the peak of his hardest window slam is only slightly past 100db, the event had me go to the bathroom where it's quiet to check if my T was worse. Of course I'm not sure if the T got any worse (y'all know it gets hard to tell after it's already bad enough lol), but that day is around the time when I started to notice that the distortion of voices in my right ear was becoming a pattern. I wonder if it's because my phonophobia is turning into some sort of hyperacusis or heightened TTTS. Since almost two years ago I noticed that the inside of especially my right ear would twitch when I would clink dishes in my cabinets, drop the end of my macbook charger onto my desk, finishing sentences, etc (all of these in the absence of much background noise). But the sensation seems to be triggered far more easily now, or at least it has in the past few days- yesterday I noticed a clear twitch response inside my right ear when gently placing a pen on my desk, and it was more pronounced than usual for the whole day.
Last things to note that might be related
1- I suppose have some varying ETD? I usually hear some clicking in my ears when I swallow- it was really pronounced a few days ago, when a sip of water would cause my right ear to click 4 times! My sinuses tend to be pretty bad too, nose is always clogged. Been doing saline spray but I think I might try out the neti pot soon. I know it's all connected in here, so maybe addressing one thing can help another
2- I've not been diagnosed but I have a bit of TMJ as well. Bad habit of grinding my teeth and popping my jaw around since I was young. MOSTLY kicked the habit but I can still feel and HEAR my jaw popping around when I open my mouth, sometimes even with a slight jaw opening.
Anyway, my coping strategy for the constant tinnitus is mainly about addressing my emotional response and enjoying my life despite it, which worked well for my previous habituation and still does continue to give me SOME genuinely good days. But my fear of sounds really does put me at risk for feeling down about my condition and this new symptom doesn't help. I'm realizing now that I need to address the anxiety more than ever, especially in regards to my fear of sound, but not limited to it. I'm hoping that is all I need to eliminate the distorted sensation, but wether or not that is the case I know that reducing anxiety is going to be absolutely crucial to my well being going forward, so in the coming weeks I will be seeking professional help at the very least for mental and general health concerns. I promise to periodically post my general progress in this thread, but for now I just wanted to ask if anyone else has experienced this type of distortion, and if they have been able to get it under control. Much thanks in advance to anyone adding to this discussion, and for many of the posts on this forum that helped me in the past. I hope I will be able to do the same for someone else eventually.
. I did lurk here a bit for some information at the initial onset of my tinnitus and have been lurking a bit more recently as I noticed in early March that my condition has become clearly worse following a month full of lengthy recording sessions and extended saxophone practice sessions in a reverberant room without hearing protection. The horn can exceed 90 db quite easily, and often hits peaks past 100. OOPS! Clearly I got way too comfortable after having habituated once. Haha, I was even giving people advice on how to overcome their noise-induced tinnitus. Now these past three months I've pretty much been trying to rehabituate, and I'm finding that this is taking way longer than last time. While I'm not wrapped in despair to the point of complete immobility as I was the first few days in March, I still feel like after every couple of good days I get knocked back into a pattern of anxiety, the "what-if"s and "why-me"s. I know it's not a good habit, I'm workin on it. By the way otoacoustic emmisions and standard hearing tests came back at average levels, but most of my tinnitus problems are in higher frequencies at which the tests did not measure. Anyway, while the constant tinnitus (mostly high frequencies past 15khz, but some subtly distinguishable tones between there and around 1000hz that I can identify by pitch class) is bothersome for sure and I'm not always able to brush off the spikes as easily as I could when I was habituated, the tinnitus isn't the main source of my current anxiety.I'm not sure how to classify this, but I've been noticing for a little over a week now that my voice and some other voices sound slightly distorted in my right ear when spoken at around the average conversation volume or higher. It's mostly noticeable with earplugs in, as the occlusion effect makes me sound louder even if I'm speaking quietly, but it's definitely noticeable without plugs at a conversational volume a fair amount of the time. To describe it: imagine a tinnitus tone occurring within a very specific narrow frequency range (in my case around 4000hz) that is heard JUST during certain peaks of your voice, but between each word it isn't heard at all(or if it is, it's so quiet that it's being masked by the rest of my tinnitus tones lol). I can also describe the sound as a sort of a very slight rattling, if you can picture that? I can try to describe it better if y'all want, but I hope this gives you an idea.
Perhaps it's important to note that leading up to this, I have spent the past three months perhaps going a little overboard with protecting my hearing, as I've been either using plugs for or actively avoiding exposure to most sounds that average anywhere above just 70db, aside from maybe using the shower or sink. I keep my music down, and use earplugs at work, mostly to protect against sudden loud noises(I work in a kitchen, and while it isn't as loud as a busy restaurant kitchen would be, there is still potential for things to clang around. Probably not at gunshot volume though). I have played a few notes on sax here and there in an effort to start putting that part of my life back together, but the few times I tried I didn't play for long, just to play it safe. I check SPL with a phone app whenever I enter a somewhat noisy environment. I've never lived a quieter few months, and with all my worry about making my T worse I've ended up super sensitive to sounds- not that they have been literally painful in any event, but they make me anxious for sure.
Now part of me suspects that the psychological basis of that sensitivity is beginning to manifest physically. Last week one of my coworkers slammed an office window pretty close to me, and while I found relief in testing that the peak of his hardest window slam is only slightly past 100db, the event had me go to the bathroom where it's quiet to check if my T was worse. Of course I'm not sure if the T got any worse (y'all know it gets hard to tell after it's already bad enough lol), but that day is around the time when I started to notice that the distortion of voices in my right ear was becoming a pattern. I wonder if it's because my phonophobia is turning into some sort of hyperacusis or heightened TTTS. Since almost two years ago I noticed that the inside of especially my right ear would twitch when I would clink dishes in my cabinets, drop the end of my macbook charger onto my desk, finishing sentences, etc (all of these in the absence of much background noise). But the sensation seems to be triggered far more easily now, or at least it has in the past few days- yesterday I noticed a clear twitch response inside my right ear when gently placing a pen on my desk, and it was more pronounced than usual for the whole day.
Last things to note that might be related
1- I suppose have some varying ETD? I usually hear some clicking in my ears when I swallow- it was really pronounced a few days ago, when a sip of water would cause my right ear to click 4 times! My sinuses tend to be pretty bad too, nose is always clogged. Been doing saline spray but I think I might try out the neti pot soon. I know it's all connected in here, so maybe addressing one thing can help another
2- I've not been diagnosed but I have a bit of TMJ as well. Bad habit of grinding my teeth and popping my jaw around since I was young. MOSTLY kicked the habit but I can still feel and HEAR my jaw popping around when I open my mouth, sometimes even with a slight jaw opening.
Anyway, my coping strategy for the constant tinnitus is mainly about addressing my emotional response and enjoying my life despite it, which worked well for my previous habituation and still does continue to give me SOME genuinely good days. But my fear of sounds really does put me at risk for feeling down about my condition and this new symptom doesn't help. I'm realizing now that I need to address the anxiety more than ever, especially in regards to my fear of sound, but not limited to it. I'm hoping that is all I need to eliminate the distorted sensation, but wether or not that is the case I know that reducing anxiety is going to be absolutely crucial to my well being going forward, so in the coming weeks I will be seeking professional help at the very least for mental and general health concerns. I promise to periodically post my general progress in this thread, but for now I just wanted to ask if anyone else has experienced this type of distortion, and if they have been able to get it under control. Much thanks in advance to anyone adding to this discussion, and for many of the posts on this forum that helped me in the past. I hope I will be able to do the same for someone else eventually.
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