Has Anyone Had Distortion/Reactive Tinnitus Go Completely Away?

[weab00]

Just wanted to say my distortion has faded a ton - air conditioning and fans used to produce a squeaky noise I couldn't stand, but that is now largely gone. Similarly, I used to hear a whirly tube sound over many external sounds. It might still be there sometimes if I look for it, but it went from being in the foreground to the background.

For me the primary issue is now just loud tinnitus, and reactivity, which unfortunately is still quite debilitating.

My distortions wax and wane. When the hyperacusis is worse due to a setback, distortions and reactivity are through the roof. When it's better it's tolerable. Hopefully this means I'm on the right path for the distortions eventually stopping, it's only been 3 months.

 

[GBB]

My distortions wax and wane. When the hyperacusis is worse due to a setback, distortions and reactivity are through the roof. When it's better it's tolerable. Hopefully this means I'm on the right path for the distortions eventually stopping, it's only been 3 months.

That's a short amount of time - what was the cause of your most recent episode of tinnitus/hyperacusis?

 

[weab00]

That's a short amount of time - what was the cause of your most recent episode of tinnitus/hyperacusis?

I had tinnitus for 1.5 years from loud headphones. Unfortunately I continued using headphones and mowing lawns without earplugs and it all came to a head in August 2020 when I woke up with loudness hyperacusis after a 6 hour plane ride. It evolved into pain after a month. The whole shabang with trigeminal sensitization, TTTS, etc. I'm hoping for natural recovery.

I saw that you're on benzos once a week--I take 3000 mg Phenibut every Wednesday to relieve anxiety. I bought some Etizolam, which I'll be replacing the Phenibut with.

 

[GBB]

I had tinnitus for 1.5 years from loud headphones. Unfortunately I continued using headphones and mowing lawns without earplugs and it all came to a head in August 2020 when I woke up with loudness hyperacusis after a 6 hour plane ride. It evolved into pain after a month. The whole shabang with trigeminal sensitization, TTTS, etc. I'm hoping for natural recovery.

I saw that you're on benzos once a week--I take 3000 mg Phenibut every Wednesday to relieve anxiety. I bought some Etizolam, which I'll be replacing the Phenibut with.

Gotcha - it sounds like your hyperacusis is a bigger problem than tinnitus, if I'm not mischaracterizing you? I would at least take heart in that hyperacusis more reliably improves, but I appreciate both suck, and both are a big quality of life hit.

I am sort of the opposite, hyperacusis is pretty mild but tinnitus is generally severe - I have Peltor earmuffs on right now and my entire auditory field is filled with a haze of metallic clashing and random arcade noises - it sorta actually sounds like if you were playing Mario, the coin pickup noise pulsing, and the background is a bunch of people shaking metal shopping carts. My problem is this is actually comparatively tolerable and often it is absolute hell, which is keeping me from working and enjoying life generally...

Please let me know how the Etizolam works for you, I am curious.

 

[Marin]

I bought some Etizolam, which I'll be replacing the Phenibut with.

Me too, I'd love to hear how the Etizolam works out. I seriously need to get off of Klonopin which has been the only thing that works for my severe ear pain.

 

[Matchbox]

Gotcha - it sounds like your hyperacusis is a bigger problem than tinnitus, if I'm not mischaracterizing you? I would at least take heart in that hyperacusis more reliably improves, but I appreciate both suck, and both are a big quality of life hit.

I am sort of the opposite, hyperacusis is pretty mild but tinnitus is generally severe - I have Peltor earmuffs on right now and my entire auditory field is filled with a haze of metallic clashing and random arcade noises - it sorta actually sounds like if you were playing Mario, the coin pickup noise pulsing, and the background is a bunch of people shaking metal shopping carts. My problem is this is actually comparatively tolerable and often it is absolute hell, which is keeping me from working and enjoying life generally...

Please let me know how the Etizolam works for you, I am curious.

How did you get your distortion? I have it too now and my experience is wild.

Cliff's Notes: Road noise with earplugs in followed by HBOT. Literally heard it as it was happening. Terrifying experience.

 

[GBB]

How did you get your distortion? I have it too now and my experience is wild.

Cliff's Notes: Road noise with earplugs in followed by HBOT. Literally heard it as it was happening. Terrifying experience.

Acoustic trauma. I still have it to a small degree but by far my bigger issue is tinnitus increasing in volume due to daily sound exposure. I will literally end the day at 2-3x what I began the day at, which is really disheartening to me. I'm considering trying Keppra to see if it helps with this at all.

 

[Jack_Ch]

Did any of you ever get ear wax removal? Basically I started getting constant high pitch ringing almost three weeks ago, which not long after became a... sensitivity to sound, basically ANY sound has a hiss attached to it, which increases with the volume of the sound, when I'm in a supermarket it can feel like I'm hearing electricity.

After multiple doctors visits with no luck, I was sat on my sofa wondering how I was going to live, when I rubbed behind my ear and I felt something detach itself from inside my ear, and I got INSTANT relief, the harshness of sounds came down and I'm pretty sure most of the ringing has gone, I can now sleep without external sounds, in fact, silent rooms are my best friend now because it's when the hiss is at its lowest, there's even times when I can't hear it... but with any sound, the hiss is still very noticeable, and annoying... I have an appointment with a audiologist on Monday to see if there is any wax up there that needs to be removed, and if I am being honest, I used qtips a day or two before the ringing started because my ears felt full and waxxy, so think I could have pushed some to far back in... but that relief I felt when whatever in my ear came loose, has given me small hope.

 

[GBB]

Did any of you ever get ear wax removal? Basically I started getting constant high pitch ringing almost three weeks ago, which not long after became a... sensitivity to sound, basically ANY sound has a hiss attached to it, which increases with the volume of the sound, when I'm in a supermarket it can feel like I'm hearing electricity.

After multiple doctors visits with no luck, I was sat on my sofa wondering how I was going to live, when I rubbed behind my ear and I felt something detach itself from inside my ear, and I got INSTANT relief, the harshness of sounds came down and I'm pretty sure most of the ringing has gone, I can now sleep without external sounds, in fact, silent rooms are my best friend now because it's when the hiss is at its lowest, there's even times when I can't hear it... but with any sound, the hiss is still very noticeable, and annoying... I have an appointment with a audiologist on Monday to see if there is any wax up there that needs to be removed, and if I am being honest, I used qtips a day or two before the ringing started because my ears felt full and waxxy, so think I could have pushed some to far back in... but that relief I felt when whatever in my ear came loose, has given me small hope.

Interesting... thanks for the heads up. I will report back.

 

[Jack_Ch]

Interesting... thanks for the heads up. I will report back.

Cool! My appointment is tomorrow so I will report back also, I'm really praying it is the culprit.

 

[weab00]

I think that distortions are achieved after a certain level of hearing damage. Your brain loses the ability to interpret certain frequencies because it lacks the respective hair cells/synaptic connections, so the brain reads it as this weird tinnitus beeping sound instead. It would explain why it's frequency-specific. But it also seems inflammation plays a role, since there's a direct correlation between distortion and hyperacusis severity.

It would be interesting to see researchers look further into dysacusis and diplacusis.

 

[GBB]

I think that distortions are achieved after a certain level of hearing damage. Your brain loses the ability to interpret certain frequencies because it lacks the respective hair cells/synaptic connections, so the brain reads it as this weird tinnitus beeping sound instead. It would explain why it's frequency-specific. But it also seems inflammation plays a role, since there's a direct correlation between distortion and hyperacusis severity.

It would be interesting to see researchers look further into dysacusis and diplacusis.

Either that or damaged hair cells which have not been destroyed entirely, but I don't even wanna contemplate that...

 

[GBB]

I had tinnitus for 1.5 years from loud headphones. Unfortunately I continued using headphones and mowing lawns without earplugs and it all came to a head in August 2020 when I woke up with loudness hyperacusis after a 6 hour plane ride. It evolved into pain after a month. The whole shabang with trigeminal sensitization, TTTS, etc. I'm hoping for natural recovery.

I saw that you're on benzos once a week--I take 3000 mg Phenibut every Wednesday to relieve anxiety. I bought some Etizolam, which I'll be replacing the Phenibut with.

Btw did the Etizolam help you at all?

 

[Keith Handy]

I think that distortions are achieved after a certain level of hearing damage. Your brain loses the ability to interpret certain frequencies because it lacks the respective hair cells/synaptic connections, so the brain reads it as this weird tinnitus beeping sound instead. It would explain why it's frequency-specific.

I was just pondering last night about hair cells not necessarily representing specific frequencies (as in, this hair cell = exactly 1253.7 Hz), but working together with other hair cells to triangulate, the same way the red- and green-sensitive cones in your eyes work in tandem to interpret yellow.