Does Fleeting Tinnitus Scare You?

[Hariz Nonis]

Does it? I rarely experience it, but when it happens, my heart beats quite fast and I start to feel uncomfortable. Guess I'm just looking for people who feel the same way.

 

[Markku]

Does it? I rarely experience it, but when it happens, my heart beats quite fast and I start to feel uncomfortable. Guess I'm just looking for people who feel the same way.

It does scare me. Especially in the recent times, when I've started experiencing a completely new kind of semi-fleeting tinnitus. Previously, I would get fleeting tinnitus in both ears that would last less than a minute, usually less than 30 seconds. Very high-frequency bursts with muffled hearing. Now, I get - while still high frequency, noticeably less so - semi-fleeting tinnitus episodes only in my right ear. What's scary is that they have lasted up to a few hours! Most of the time less than 5 minutes though. And they have this different kind of feeling, I can't explain it well, but it's just so apparent it's different. And with tinnitus, different is scary.

Still - they've lasted way longer on average than the episodes that occurred for years before.

I try not to over-analyze it, but of course I'm afraid one of these days it will stick forever, like my new tone that started abruptly before Christmas.

 

[Dave AUS]

I just freeze up waiting for the new louder tone to disappear. I am so pleased that with time I've experienced way less occurrences of this as it scares the heck out of me.

I have had these fleeting tones for many hours but more often they last less than a few minutes and yes like markku it makes my ear feel fuzzy or very fast minute vibrations. When they are over I try hard to forget and try to relax my heightened state of anxiety

 

[Andersson]

A little, but then I think that everyone gets these, T or no T. And it always goes away in few seconds.
I guess people with T react a bit more to them then people without T though.

I get it maybe 2-4 times a months at most.

 

[Reinier]

Yes it puts up my anxiety. Always scared it won''t go away.
The last 7 months I experienced this three times including more loss of hearing and distortion in the effected ear.
Perhaps I should tell myself it is part of a healing process.

 

[RaZaH]

Quite the opposite , I get a huge break from my brain T when I get fleeting T , I have learned to appreciate it .

 

[glynis]

I have come to terms with my tinnitus sound that never goes and severe but The low drone that comes along does scare me and hope not going to stay...
Lots of love glynis

 

[Danny Boy]

Does it? I rarely experience it, but when it happens, my heart beats quite fast and I start to feel uncomfortable. Guess I'm just looking for people who feel the same way.

I got it before tinnitus. It's terribly scary, but there's sadly not much you can do. Mine lasted for 30 seconds and it goes away...I do hope it doesn't mean I'm losing some frequencies in my hearing, as well my hearing is all I have left to enable me to mask my tinnitus. But really take, N-Acetyl-L-Cysteine and Acetyl-L-Carnitine to protect those precious hair cells. Don't panic too much, as stress will make tinnitus worse.

 

[PatrickG]

I had fleeting tinnitus, about 30 seconds each, like every other day for years until I got my current horrible fluctuating one. But those were always tonal. Now I have fluctuating noises of all kinds.

The other day, I got fleeting solid tonal tinnitus i my affected ear and all other sounds disappeared. Then the tone faded away after about a minute and all other sounds came back again. Only happened once. But got me a bit scared, yes.

 

[Telis]

No, I have so many loud noises that I don't even give a shit anymore, just another one on the pile of madness if it stayed, whatever, no big deal now. After enough beat downs and worsenings I've lost hope, and along with that, I've lost the fear as well.

 

[Sound Wave]

Yes, they do scare me. I try to swallow like in the airplane, move my head etc to make it go away. And luckily they have gone away so far... fingers crossed!

 

[Reinier]

Quite the opposite , I get a huge break from my brain T when I get fleeting T , I have learned to appreciate it .

I suppose the T in your ear(s) drown the T in your brain. Although it is said that al T is generated in the brain.

 

[RaZaH]

Actually it completely removes any brain t for the duration and moves to an auditory perception.
Rare and awesome 30 sec

 

[Reinier]

Actually it completely removes any brain t for the duration and moves to an auditory perception.
Rare and awesome 30 sec

I like to say. If it wasn't permanent I too could be fascinated with the process of T (less so with H) and hearing damage. That is the kind of person I am.
But at this moment in time consensus is it is here to stay. That is why at the moment I am less amused with the whole affair.
Keep hoping that hair cell regeneration will be science in 10-15 years and not science fiction.

 

[linearb]

I used to get an immediate anxiety response that happened so perfectly in sync with the sound burst, that I assumed what was happening was that I was getting an incorrect release of cortisol, causing both the anxiety and the ringing.

However. While I still get tone bursts, they are generally completely free of any emotional content, and cause me to do little more than pause for a second before I refocus my attention on whatever I was doing. When I was packing some stuff up a few nights ago I got one of the loudest, most piercing blasts I've had in months, and my reaction was to say "well that's fucking annoying" to myself under my breath and then resume packing. At the time, I noticed that I felt oddly detached from the sensory experience; it was strong, and yet completely emotionally neutral. So I suppose that's progress of a sort?

I do feel that I am prone to getting these tone bursts more frequently if I have been using a cellphone and holding it next to my ear. That might be my completely incorrect assumption based on being a poor witness of my own experience, but as a result I seldom use a cellphone in that way anymore.

It's also noteworthy that I know a large number of people who get these tone bursts who do not have chronic tinnitus.

 

[Hariz Nonis]

Wow, I did not expect to get this many replies! I hope that all of you are OK, and getting better
For me, the reason I feel afraid when it happens is because my affected ear is the right, but sometimes I get fleeting T in the left ear too. I just hope that it's nothing alarming, because my right ear feels like it's getting better, and I don't want anything to happen to my left ear.

 

[noisebox]

Yes it does because its tens times worse than my normal T and makes me think if it stayed I could never cope.
Before T it never scared me.

 

[Natalie Roberts]

Does it? I rarely experience it, but when it happens, my heart beats quite fast and I start to feel uncomfortable. Guess I'm just looking for people who feel the same way.

It scares the crap out of me. I have my normal electrical buzz and then sometimes get a loud high pitched ring in the other ear or even some temporary heavy muted feeling in one ear which scares me too. It usually happens once a day, sometimes less where I notice changes or something not like my typical sound. Causes a lot of anxiety. But I try to breath through it and usually it goes away pretty quickly.

 

[Natalie Roberts]

Yes it does because its tens times worse than my normal T and makes me think if it stayed I could never cope.
Before T it never scared me.

It never scared me before I had this long lasting case of tinnitus either. But now i find it very distressing.

 

[derpytia]

Ohoooo yes. I usually plug my ears and ride it out or go to a quiet room and wait for it to subside. sometimes that can take over 5 minutes....

 

[steffievdboom]

Al sounds that you hear for the first time Will get you stress iT is a normaal reaction. The Brain wants to know what makes the sound and makes sure you are going to Find out what causes the sound. IT takes time to relax yourself.
My ecperience; the more i think About my t the more pitches i have. When i am relaxed and not thinking About my t the les pitches i get..
Stay calm and try not to worry too much the best thing is to make sure your attention is not focussed on the t.
Things Will get better.

 

[Bill Bauer]

Fleeting spikes absolutely terrify me!

My case is special - only one ear got injured and it happened in a way that I know the other ear is completely healthy. But these fleeting spikes involve BOTH of my ears!

 

[neo1]

For me, i'll usually get focused for a quick second and realize that these sounds that have appeared should not be there and then i start to "massage" my ears and it usually vanish after a few seconds.

To be affected with new impressions for any sense and in this case our ears, you gain experience and that make you more prepared for it when it returns but that doesn't mean i ever will be comfy with any of the sounds my TT serves me. One moment at the time, all that matters.

 

[MidnightOilAudio]

I was actually just thinking about this the other day, seeing as how I have grown very accustomed to my "regular" T, but am still bothered by these fleeting episodes. I do clearly remember getting them ever since I was a kid (36 now) but not with the frequency (no pun intended) that I now experience. It got me thinking, A few people have posited "you just notice it more because you have permanent T now". I think this is incorrect. If I would have had fleeting T every other day for years, I would remember. I would say I used to get it, MAYBE once every 4-6 months at the most?

Anyway, I think fleeting T, in people that have the permanent type and people that only experience the fleeting type alike, is just some sort error-correction device in the brain. Your hearing drops out, loud tone, hearing is restored as T diminishes. Well, most of us with permanent (at least so far) T experience fleeting T much more often. Why? Maybe even though WE have given up hope of T ever leaving, our brain STILL recognizes that it is a problem, and is still trying to error correct. My "regular" T completely disappears for a split-second when the fleeting T happens. As if it's trying to repair itself, but it just cant, the damage is too great.

 

[Bill Bauer]

I think fleeting T, in people that have the permanent type and people that only experience the fleeting type alike, is just some sort error-correction device in the brain. Your hearing drops out, loud tone, hearing is restored as T diminishes. Well, most of us with permanent (at least so far) T experience fleeting T much more often. Why? Maybe even though WE have given up hope of T ever leaving, our brain STILL recognizes that it is a problem, and is still trying to error correct.

I hope you are right. It makes a lot of sense. I will feel better about these spikes now...

 

[Greg Sacramento]

When I developed tinnitus six years ago from noise, I had subjective tinnitus - a loud buzzing and hyperacusis. The hyperacusis was better after 1.5 years and I was able to habituate to the buzzing. Since going to the dentist and grinding my teeth about a month ago, I developed a couple of more forms of tinnitus with hyperacusis. I now have a very high pitch and it's unbearable. If I stop grinding my teeth (have a mouth guard) and can get rid of the hyperacusis, I wonder if the pitch will settle back into a buzz. From want I read, most likely I will always have the high pitch. We need a brain drug that works. I think that hair cell regeneration will be a very long time coming.

 

[Bill Bauer]

Since going to the dentist

Was it the sound of the drill that caused this? Have you had any drilling done during the past six years?

 

[Greg Sacramento]

Even though grinding teeth can cause tinnitus, I think it was the high pitch drill. But even more, I think having my neck bent forward a little did not help. I had dental drilling done in the last six years but at those times I wore ear protection. Thanks for caring.

 

[Bill Bauer]

Thanks for caring.

Everyone eventually has to have dental work. Sharing your experience will help many others. At least there is hope that wearing ear protection might reduce the risk of a spike.

You are not the first person to mention that having your neck bent forward during a dental procedure had something to do with the spike. I am not sure why you and others got this impression. In other words - how do you know?

 

[william adams]

Fleeting T does certainly get your attention for it is much more loud than your base T and your hoping it does not stay...Generally it last for maybe 30 seconds or so but I dont get it often...