Head Sound

[Nordland90]

Hello, I'm 26 years old. I'm from Norway.

I first heard my tinnitus on 1 or 2 March. I've had problems with earwax buildups during the last couple of years (probably because I sleep with earbuds 4 to 5 nights a week). The couple of weeks before I got my tinnitus, I felt that my ears were a bit full, and lately, my right ear has started making louder-than-normal sounds when I swallow.

I thought this was another earwax problem, so I went about with it like I'd done the last times by applying Revaxør. It's some oil you drop into your ear to loosen the wax up overnight, and then you use some balloon-looking device to pump water into the ear afterward. I got some out, but I thought there were more in the ear, so I probably kept spraying water too much and perhaps too hard into my ear.

I can't really say I heard many sounds right after, but on Friday night (1 day later), I had problems sleeping, which ain't uncommon since I struggle with insomnia. It was then I first heard what sounded like a very high-pitched noise that just got louder and louder the more I tried to sleep. I gave up and went online to Google. This was probably the worst I could have done since I had read so many horror stories about tinnitus that it sounded ten times worse within an hour than it did first.

I thought I'd go to the doctor to check what could cause this, but it was a weekend, so I had to wait until Monday. I got an appointment on Wednesday (luckily, since waiting times are usually pretty long). The time between Friday and Wednesday was very hard, and I only slept 2-3 hours a day due to stress about this sound and the prospect of having it for the rest of my life (the result of my nightly Google adventure).

I didn't get to see my regular doctor, whom I know pretty well, since it was a short-notice visit, so I got a woman I'd never seen. This was a significant problem for me since I only managed to partly get the ear problem explained and nothing about the stress and panic.

This is because I struggle with social anxiety and have problems talking with people I don't know (I'm working on this and am in much better shape than I was a year ago, when I had been pretty much isolating myself for a good 2-3 years). She didn't have the foggiest idea of what could cause this noise and checked my ears (but she did this pretty fast, so I don't know how much she actually looked). She gave me some pills named Rinexin in case my sinus was the problem causing this.

My mental state was none the better and the lack of sleep was starting to catch up with me so I was not functional in my daily life, feeling so sleepy and constantly listening to this noise, wondering why I had to be tortured like this and why there was no easy way to fix it. Some days later, I got to visit my regular doctor and explained my problems, but it didn't seem like he knew much about tinnitus either, and he gave me some Benzos for my sleep. I kept using these pills each night, and it calmed me down enough to start sleeping usually again. The days were still pretty bad since the pills only had a 10-hour half-life, but I managed to get somewhat back to my daily life again but still had waves of panic and despair rolling onto me when I started to overthink about my current state of intruding noises.

As the days and weeks went on and my mental state improved with time, I also noticed that the sound got much louder when my nose got blocked. The only way to fix this was either to use nasal spray or, strangely enough, to squeeze my ear so it sounded like air was escaping it (????).

This got me thinking something was wrong with my eardrum, but it can't be ruptured since my hearing is like it always has been. Since then, I have been using nasal sprays like a madman, and I already had an unhealthy relationship with these sprays. I also read somewhere online that you should not lie flat when sleeping if you have problems with your Eustachian tube, so I have been sleeping more or less sitting since then, which seems to work at least together with keeping my nose open.

Today, I have not had any panic problems about the sound, and it sounds less loud to me, so I could sit in my living room with just normal sounds without getting stressed out for a while.

Sorry for the long text and bad grammar since this is not my native language.

So I'm wondering, could I have some pressure problem in my ear that causes this sound? I know the panic and anxiety made it much worse than it actually was for the first couple of weeks, so with that problem starting to go away, it's more livable slowly, but I still hear the sound when it's quiet or when I think enough about it.

I don't even know what caused this problem. It could be ear cleaning, sleeping for years with earplugs, or loud music. I don't believe much in the latter since I've not been to concerts or listened to that loud music on my MP3 player.

 

[Samantha R]

Welcome to Tinnitus Talk! I'm so very sorry to hear about your struggles.

Many people are unsure why they have tinnitus, but noise exposure is cumulative, and listening to loud music via headphones could be partly to blame.

It can take a while to habituate to tinnitus. I'm eight months in and still having those moments of despair and hopelessness, but when I look back seven months, I am much better than I was when I first got it.

Recently, I, too, noticed a pressure feeling in my ears/head. I could hear a roaring sound when standing up and in a quiet room. It would completely overpower my regular tinnitus. So, I used a nasal spray for a couple of weeks, and now the roaring and the pressure are gone. So yes, pressure and fluid issues can cause some kinds of tinnitus.

How is your sleep going now? Are you still using benzodiazepines?

 

[Nordland90]

Thanks for your words, @Samantha R. I have been trying to avoid reading too much about tinnitus online since this is how my slight sound got into a horrible one. I stopped taking benzodiazepines three days after I made this first post, and it went pretty okay. I'm still using some other pills for anxiety (Atarax, some old-school antihistamine medicine that has some sedative qualities). I can't say they are working all that great, but they calm you down somewhat. The benefit about them is that you can't get hooked on them like on benzodiazepine pills.

I returned to the doctor last week, and he gave me ears a proper check (unlike the first doctor). He looked into them while I was doing vassals, and he could see that my left eardrum was not popping out at all; in fact, it was retracted. He thinks that I might have ETD, so I got some nasal spray (Nasonex) that I'm going to use for some weeks; he also ordered an ENT appointment for me. But that could take a while because. The Norwegian health system is in shambles...

So now I'm using this corticosteroid nasal spray twice a day (After some internet research, I found out that it's essential to apply it the right way... bending over the sink and using the spray to hit the entrance for the Eustachian tubes. I'm also doing the Valsalva manouver after using the spray in hopes that some gets into it.

Overall, I'm in much better shape now than the first couple of weeks when I felt that this was an unliveable condition. I get to sleep by turning a fan on that blocks the sounds, and it doesn't bother me much (maybe 3/10 now; start was 6-7/10) during the day. I'm just trying to stay away from total silence and using the spray in hopes that this will be sorted out in some months). So the average day is much easier, but as soon as I start overthinking about it, it's weird because then the sound gets louder) so I'm trying to stay busy and avoid too much googling.

 

[Nordland90]

Hello. I've now had tinnitus in my left ear for three years and counting. In the beginning, I hoped it would be gone each time I woke up, only to be greeted by the sound. I spent more time than was good for me on Google trying to find a cure or find out what was wrong with me, only increasing my panic and depression. I couldn't sleep, rolling around in bed until I finally caught some hours in the morning.

I went to my doctor who was about as useless as tits on a nun. He gave me the everyday speech that there's nothing to do, saying it would be alright since he had tinnitus. I got sent to an ear specialist, who gave me a hearing test (I'm missing some hearing in the higher frequencies) and told me the same thing my doctor told me. The only positive thing that came out of the doctor visits was that I was put on Seroquel (Quetiapine) for sleep. That stuff has been doing miracles for me; I pop 50-75 mg, and within a maximum of two hours, I'm gone. I spent some time before that playing around with regular sleeping pills and benzodiazepines, but as you all know, they lose their effect after some weeks, and you'll have to start upping the dose. And frankly, I enjoyed them a bit too much, so I cut it short.

As I wrote earlier, the first months were brutal, from March to early June. But then I finally got my sleep back and got sponsored a sound machine by the state, so now I sleep to rain sounds. Since then, there have been ups and downs; at around the 1.5-year mark, I was entering panic mode again since I thought the sound was getting worse for a couple of weeks, but it went down to normal levels again. I have perhaps 2-3 bad days a month where it is hard not to think about it, but my tinnitus no longer occupies my mind 24/7. However, it will probably sound worse than normal tonight since writing about it also makes me focus on it. Is the sound there still? Oh yes, if I listen to it, it'll return to 2017 levels without a problem. But unlike back then, it will go 'down in volume' after a while instead of being a problem for days on day.

So, if you recently got tinnitus, hopefully, it will 'stop' being a problem after a while. The only tip I can give is to not fuel the flames by trying to make a diagnosis of yourself through intensive Googling and, in general, try to focus your attention on other things. Of course, some have it worse than others and can't stop focusing because of the sheer intrusiveness of it. Best of luck to you all, and hopefully, they'll find a cure in the future that can give us peace in the ears.

 

[Nordland90]

Hello. It's been a while since I've been on Tinnitus Talk; much like my return, my tinnitus has also increased alarmingly. I basically got tinnitus back in 2017 and had significant problems with it the first three months, only for it to get slowly better over the next 3-4'ish years. I had some setbacks and spikes here and there, but I'd say after some two years it was not a big problem anymore, and after four years I almost (but not really) forgot I had it apart from at night time in very silent rooms. If I read about tinnitus on the internet, I started hearing it louder, but it went back in volume again within an hour or so.

This was until April of this year when it came back with vengeance; I'd say it's even worse now than in 2017, at least some days. What made it return? I haven't a clue! I started feeling a bit weird in one ear in early April, like I couldn't hear 100% out of it. But nothing major, just some higher frequencies missing slightly. I didn't think much of this until probably 4-5 days later when my old friend's tinnitus returned. The first couple of days, I thought I'd soldier through this since I've done it once already. But it seems to be more reactive in kind this time around. I have been sleeping with a fan at night for the last seven years, which has worked very well for me. When I turn the fan on, my hissing increases, so I hear it over the fan. I dug out my old sound machine that I got in 2017; playing rain sounds on it worked back in the day. Same story as the fan; I can hear it over it.

I was at the doctor's for something unrelated, and as a last-ditch, I asked her to check my ears to see if there was any earwax, hoping for a quick cure. And sure enough, my ear was packed full of it. So I applied olive oil and rinsed it after some days, got out big chunks, and I at least felt the intensity of my tinnitus going down. I thought I was back to normal again. The following day, it was hissing away like it had been doing the last two weeks. I was sure I didn't get it all since I felt like water was stuck in my ear after rinsing, maybe behind more earwax. So I went to an audiologist who does ear syringing, and sure enough, I got out more, and for the next 6-7 hours, I could hardly hear my tinnitus.

After approximately seven hours, I experienced one of those fleeting tinnitus sounds I get once in a blue moon, lasting for two hours. I entered panic mode, thinking this was my new regular, having a 2000 Hz sound blaring away at three times the volume of my regular tinnitus. Luckily, this went away, but I was now hyperfocused on my ears; I probably aggravated my ears by the ear syringing.

Obviously, I did what I warned others about earlier in this thread. I went on a Google/research spree, which in turn made me think about it 24/7, something I still do. Whenever I have some spare time, I start researching possible causes for this worsening, which only depresses and makes me think about it all the time.

Things I have tried so far to get back to baseline:

• Earwax removal which strangely worked both times for some hours but then the sound returned.
• Supplements, been taking all sorts of things, unknown if it works yet, but it indeed has given me loose bowels.
• Steroid nasal spray, thinking it could be ETD related, since back in 2017 I had awful clicking whenever I swallowed, something I got now also. I only started a few days ago, so no help yet.
• I've been drinking at least 2.5-3 liters of water daily, reducing soda and caffeine. It feels like my ears are clicking less after staying overhydrated, but there has been no help with my tinnitus yet.

Sorry for the long text; I'm just really anxious and depressed about the state of my left ear. It's the hope that kills me, one day I think it's going down in volume back to pre-April days, but within some hours, it's hissed like never before. The reactivity of the sound is also wrecking me; fan noises and white noise only make it louder. In theory, I know I habituated once, so I should be able to do it again, but every day, I'm just getting more depressed about it.

 

[Nordland90]

I can give a small update: Yesterday was one of the best nights I've had in weeks. I could sleep with my old trusty fan without the tinnitus reacting to it! There was no electrical buzz over it whatsoever. Today, it seems a bit worse again, but hopefully, it's a sign that this cursed reactivity might be going away.

 

[Thizzle]

It's lovely to hear it, man; it sounds like a good sign!

 

[Pinhead]

I can give a small update: Yesterday was one of the best nights I've had in weeks. I could sleep with my old trusty fan without the tinnitus reacting to it! There was no electrical buzz over it whatsoever. Today, it seems a bit worse again, but hopefully, it's a sign that this cursed reactivity might be going away.

Did you do anything differently? I've had electric reactive tinnitus for three years, and it's only gotten worse and worse and worse. I'm almost out of time.

 

[Nordland90]

Did you do anything differently? I've had electric reactive tinnitus for three years, and it's only gotten worse and worse and worse. I'm almost out of time.

I played a very low volume 9000 Hz tone in my right ear, which seems to block out most of my tinnitus. I let my problematic left ear be without the headset (just lifted it over my ear) while I had my fan on all day, thinking I could somehow retrain this side to not react to fans.

While it did work rather perfectly last night, as I could actually fall asleep without my tinnitus reacting to the fan, it seems to be worse today, while doing the same thing. I don't know what to tell you mate, this whole thing sucks. I just wish to get back to normal tinnitus, while it was bothersome this is worse. I think mine might be ETD related though, as my left ear is clicking awfully loud whenever I swallow, which leads me to believe the tubes are full of mucus. I've been using nasal spray and the Valsalva maneuver over the last week, which seems to have made the clicking maybe a tad better, so my hope is when I get this under control perhaps the reactivity also gets under control.

I will give this some days and see if it's a workable strategy. If not, I will do the same thing I did when I first got tinnitus. After some months, I stopped all googling and stopped reading tinnitus-related forums. It's bad enough to already have it; reading about it every day for hours makes you think about it 24/7, thus making the habituation process much longer.

While not 100% comparable, I had a real shock in early February when I finally got the answer to a complaint I've had in with the government for half a year. I got denied something I feel I rightfully should have, which would have made my life much easier regarding economy. I've taken it a further step and it's now in the justice system, but the first month or so I kept googling and reading about it, which made me think about it all the time also, leading to moderate depression leaning on severe, since I felt so unfairly treated. I stopped reading about similar cases like mine, because in all fairness, there's not much I can do about it, and spending hours a day reading won't help me, and only cause depression and anxiety.

It's the same about tinnitus; read stuff that you think might help you, treatments/supplements/medication and try it if it sounds reasonable, but don't spend all days reading about your problem, or you will think about it all day also.