Hey,
@Ava Lugo, unless you noticed significant changes once you were off the benzos, I wouldn't be too concerned about it. It could have something to do with your hearing loss, but then again I also share very similar symptoms like you and my hearing is supposedly perfect, so it may not even be that. How bad was that cold? Viruses are known to cause ear related problems. Not sure how long it will take for your ears to fully stabilize, but I think 2 years is still a relatively small time frame.
Anyways, I think I can relate with some of your issues. Your reactive tinnitus sounds very similar to mine in the sense that it competes in volume with external sounds. For instance, one of my tinnitus noise (indescribable) will increase in volume the moment I'm exposed to something like an air conditioner. The more louder the AC gets, so will the tinnitus. Like you said, it competes in volume. The moment I turn off that AC and there is silence, the tinnitus noise will immediately go back down to a familiar baseline. It's something I can always hear even in silence although it's much lower (still very audible). It sometimes occurs in music too, and makes it hard to listen to as the tinnitus cuts through everything you're hearing. Its in your face type loud.
So I totally understand how distressing it can be, there are times where I prefer to stay somewhere that's silent, so I don't have to hear a more louder + distracting tinnitus. But in the end, you're still trap having to hear your tinnitus at all times. I'm starting to not mind my tinnitus (in silence) despite it being very noticeable, but I still have ways to go.
I'm a little intrigued on why you classify your reactive tinnitus as distortions. Distortions is more in relation with the way sounds are being heard. Hearing quality, sound perception, and strange sound effects are all involved here. It's kind of tricky, but basically sounds are not being perceived as they normally would be is what I classify as distortions. So like in my case, a person's voice literally sounded like the robots from the Pixar film, Wall-E if you seen it. I also couldn't even hear music properly because it was distorted as a broken speaker. The way things are sounding come across as very strange and unusual.
The way I see it, reactive tinnitus has at least
2 known variations. This is based on my observation of other people's experience along with my own personal experience.
Variation #1 - Your tinnitus will spike immediately after noise exposure. The spike will linger for hours, days, maybe weeks until it subsides. Spikes can include, an increased volume in baseline tinnitus, new tones emerging. I think this variation is a lot more common here on Tinnitus Talk and the one most people here will associate with when they hear the word, "reactive tinnitus".
Variation # 2 - Your tinnitus tone(s) or noise will increase in volume immediately when exposed to certain types of noise. Tinnitus will match the volume of the sound source that's triggering the reactivity. Once the source of sound is removed, the tinnitus that's reacting will immediately go back down to baseline.
I know a few people here that also have/had variation #2. Me,
@Wrfortiscue,
@Guywithapug, and
@MindOverMatter I believe. Its also possible to have both variations at the same time. I myself had both, but variation #1 has lessen up quite a bit on my end, that's partly because of my hyperacusis improving I believe. Still have the annoying variation #2 though.
I tend to see people confuse variation #2 of reactive tinnitus with distortions which is understandable because some distortions can sound similar to tinnitus noise.
But I think the key way to tell the difference between the two is whether or not you can still hear it when you are in silence. If you still hear it when in silence, then it's reactive tinnitus variation #2, if not, then it's likely distortions.