Hissing Reactive Tinnitus

Hello everyone,

Has anyone experienced a hissing noise which increases in volume in response to fans, AC, crowds...? This is my latest devil (following a spike due to recent noise exposure). It turns down when it's quiet. A Morse code beeping noise seems to also accompany it (which is also responsive to fans, AC, water, kettle)... And again disappears when quiet...

 

I also have these symptoms. The morse code beeping too.

 

The hissing which responses in volume with fan/AC is exactly my problem. (Only left ear).

Can you influence your tinnitus somatically?

 

Yes, for three years. It's annoying and hard to explain because everyone just thinks it's regular tinnitus and that using relaxation techniques will calm it down. I can be perfectly relaxed, but if an AC switches on so does the tinnitus. The other theory is that it's a symptom of hyperacusis, in which case the treatment is sound therapy --- listening to low level sounds for 4 hours a day and gradually increasing. I'm hoping there's something to this, but skeptical since so far sounds just make the tinnitus worse.

 

Thanks for all the responses! I believe this is hyperacusis as this has also ramped up since the onset of these symptoms. Specific noises hurt!

On a positive note I have had this before (identical symptoms) which did reduce when my sound sensitivity faded. This did take appropriately three months so I hope it will fade again! *Cross fingers (and toes)*

 

Yes, I have the reactive hissing too. I don't have the beeping though.

 

This is exactly how mine is. Reactive hissing, morse code beep, hyperacusis.

 

My tinnitus started with a slight sssss in my right ear last June 2019. Nothing in left ear. REALLY not that bad. I suffer from generalized anxiety disorder and depression. I became obsessed!! I could not let it go, like all things that get my attention. Then constant ear fullness, having to equalize the pressure by doing the valsalva maneuver started. Then sound sensitivity. I have questioned all along if my neurosis brought all this on...

I have had some amount of reactivity for 4-5 months now. Started out occasional. Almost always in my right ear which has worse hearing loss. Some days only one or the other ear reacts. Bad day when they both do. It is physiological torture. Hard to get used to something that changes every day or during the day. More story I will leave out.

I was going to get set up with hearing aids to do sound therapy for hyperacusis with hearing aid turned off due to hyperacusis.

There is some thought that reactive tinnitus is a symptom of hyperacusis. Treat hyperacusis, then tinnitus, which I think if hyperacusis was gone tinnitus would be tolerable or gone.

That has been indefinitely postponed due to pandemic. Can't fit hearing aids from 6" away.

I started doing sound therapy with smart phone a couple of days ago kinda under the direction of my audiologist.

I attached a document that talks about the risks of using white noise. Very interesting.

 

How is it now?

 

No improvement for me.

 

I have this same type of reactive tinnitus and was wondering all the same things. If this is a byproduct of hyperacusis, would the noise generator therapies for hyperacusis then fix the tinnitus?

I just saw this video of someone talking briefly about this. He said that the white noise generators helped the hyperacusis but made the tinnitus worse:

Tinnitus - Hyperacusis help.

This needs to be addressed because you get the impression from reading these boards that hyperacusis has this "cure" (the white nose generators) but there needs to be more clarity about what happens to tinnitus in relation to this process.

 

Thanks so much for this thread. I too have this debilitating hiss. Gets louder with furnace, road noise in car, hum of fluorescent lights, TV on some days. Mine started 2 weeks ago. It was loud and persistent 1st week, and went through fear, anxiety, depression. Better at sleep in quiet room. I started drinking chamomile tea, green tea, taking soothing teas at night and was able to get it to become intermittent the following week.

I had my first silent day yesterday, but it came back today.

 

Yes, this is exactly what I have. I have pain hyperacusis (feel burning hours or days after exposure to sounds like shower water hitting the floor) and the hissing reactive tinnitus reacts to everything, in both ears/head. It reacts loudly and starts pulsing or oscillating to my fan or any other noises. When it's calm (only when I'm in complete silence and no sounds outside either), it's either less pulsatile or not pulsatile at all, just like low level static or a faint hiss and sometimes even a faint ringing in my right ear only.

Last week I had a few days where both my hyperacusis pain and the pulsatile hissing sound weren't as bad and I started getting hopeful I may just be stuck with a mild case of tinnitus. I went out with earplugs for many hours (the only time in 7 weeks I've been out for anything other than food, this was a hospital visit for an unrelated problem with my arms) and the reactivity came back and now seems higher or shrillier and more irritating to my brain like as if the hiss just got one frequency higher. I'm convinced this is intertwined with the hyperacusis.

 

This is what I have too... It has been 8 weeks now and so frustrating and will destroying! Oh to have peace inside our heads once more!

 

So sorry to hear you have it too. Did something happen 8 weeks ago or did it just change out of nowhere for you?

 

Thank you @RonnieThailand, my husband whistled loudly right next to me, accidentally - the one where you put your fingers in your mouth! I couldn’t believe he did that as I know my ears are so unforgiving! Reactive tinnitus is so frustrating, I’ve never experienced it before and definitely turns your tinnitus up a level!

What about you? Has yours settled any?

 

Unbelievable. Yeah, reactive tinnitus is the most frustrating, agreed. I had a mishap a few hours ago where I dropped a mug on the ground and now I have a new tone. The really high shrills did start settling down after last spike but now this new tone, which is lower, is a different type of annoying. My reactivity has been the same since it started, though other than the shrill, hasn't gotten more or less reactive to sounds other than maybe a few days a week ago where it was much less reactive for unknown reasons.

 

Oh no! Really? It’s unbelievable how fragile our ears are and really takes nothing to set them off! Hopefully it’ll be nothing to worry about!

How long have you had your reactive tinnitus?

 

This morning the new tone wasn't there, thankfully. I took 5 mg of Prednisone as I only had 15 mg left and knew it wasn't enough to be significant but just gave it a try.

Maybe it just went away on its own.

I now have just my usual hell sounds. I've had reactive tinnitus for about 7 weeks now, which was just a regular ringing in the first 2 days but turned into a pulsatile hissing that reacts to everything after that.

 

What triggered your reactive tinnitus @RonnieThailand?

 

I mean it's really just been reactive since the second week I had tinnitus, so I'd say microsuction/irrigation caused it (what I believe caused my tinnitus in the first place). I do wonder if somehow overprotecting in the beginning made it more sensitive to sounds. I don't know if I believe that but just something that crosses my mind.

How about you? Was yours always reactive and just became shrilly 8 weeks ago, or did it just become reactive 8 weeks ago? If it was always reactive, how do you think it happened?

 

I can contribute with my 2 cents if you don't mind;

I got tinnitus and hyperacusis in October 2020 from an acoustic trauma. Tinnitus was very stable, only road noise spiked it occasionally. Hyperacusis resolved within 2 months. In February, 2 things happened; I took an antihistamine drug, Hydroxyzine, for anxiety and sleep for more consecutive days than before, I also began to sound deprive myself for hours on end because I developed a new tone. Within 2 weeks my hyperacusis was back and my tinnitus became extremely reactive, i.e. almost any noise made it increase in volume temporarily (for maybe 1 hour or so). Since then, I've kept protecting, and my hyperacusis has worsened as I've suffered setbacks, and my spikes have become longer.

My thoughts is that the drug could very well have contributed to the reactiveness, but I firmly believe the sound deprivation and complete over-protection really did it in. I believe hyperacusis is the main culprit for reactive tinnitus. It's no wonder the ears react to noise when complete silence is what it hears the most nowadays. It's a Catch-22 that's almost impossible to break, but I'm trying to continue life, and trying to ease the protection, and I hope and pray that this will slowly but steadily resolve. I have yet to see improvements though.

Take care.

 

I'm so sorry to hear that! Not you too! Another victim to microsuction! I had very mild tinnitus 5 years ago and it worsened significantly after that procedure. My reactive tinnitus started 8 weeks ago after my husband (accidentally) whistled right next to me and a week later I developed it plus a new high pitched whistling and ear fullness in one ear. It’s such a frustrating condition as it’s like 2 steps forward and 10 back!

 

Hi @Stacken77! Happy for you to share your views and sorry that you’re struggling with this too. The good thing is that you’re relatively new to it and hopefully you will see positive improvements soon! Hope the new job is going well!

 

This is what I have been wondering too as I was protecting from the very beginning and I do feel maybe it came about as a result. Not sure if yours is loudness hyperacusis or pain hyperacusis, but mine started out as loudness for the first two weeks and became pain after. Pain lasts for hours or days after some sounds. I'm also trying to use less protection, just simple things like leaving my window open more often when I can to hear birds and ambient noise. Even this causes pain if I do it too long, so just easing my way into it.

I've switched from earmuffs outside, to just earplugs, to now musician's earplugs over the past 7 weeks. I have only gone outside once with the musician's earplugs when I got them the other day and had a lot of pain after, so may have to ease more into those too. It is a Catch 22. I have seen the tiniest of improvements as far as my startle response to some sounds (light switches and cereal bags I can handle now), but not much improvement in the pain caused by the same old sounds (faucet water, moderate sounds, and higher pitched sounds). So it seems the loudness part of my H has improved just slightly since it started 5 weeks ago but not the pain part.

 

Oh god. They need to ban microsuction already. Sorry I made you repeat yourself about the incident with your husband, I wasn't sure if that was the reactivity or the shrill that started then.

Right, I feel like some days I've made little bits of progress where it's less reactive, but next day it's right back.

 

I completely understand what you're going through regarding the reactivity as I believe we have quite similar reactivity threshold, @RonnieThailand. It is a very tough type of tinnitus to bear. I'm basically trying to continue life, having sacrificed most of what I enjoy, and hopefully it will be enough, and we will improve in time. My biggest fear is to worsen the baseline permanently due to the constantly spiked state caused by the reactivity, and it seems to have worsened over the last months. If I plug up and rest for two weeks, my baseline improves a fair bit, but this constant protection worsens my loudness hyperacusis, so it really is a Catch 22.

I have primarily loudness hyperacusis and have never really felt pain. I have really bad TTTS in my right ear which spasms to most noises, including my own voice, this causes some discomfort in the ear.

I wish you the best,
Stacken

 

This is just my speculation though. I also believe that reactive tinnitus, as well as hyperacusis, can develop for different reasons, be it sound deprivation/medication/noise trauma or a combination, hence solving the problem may not be the same for every case.

I think that over-protection really is the culprit for my personal case, but I'm not completely sure yet. So I think that whatever approach we take to handle this, we have to be careful.

All the best.

 

I get the spasms you mentioned as well, but mainly in response to only specific noises. Water from a faucet hitting the sink is a big one that predictably produces these spasms. Sometimes foods I'm chewing will do it if it's something that makes noise while chewing with mouth closed (I eat a lot of salmon and this seems to happen almost every single time I do). Sometimes light switches set it off, but I'm getting less of this now than a few weeks ago.

But I understand what you're saying. It is a very delicate situation and difficult to know what the best course of action is in each case. Thanks for all the info and hoping we see some improvements.

 

Exact same symptoms as everyone here. Running water, driving noises, fans, cause feedback in my ears and instantly ends when the noise stops. Worst of all is how it also reacts to music. It's especially prominent in "noisier" genres like shoegaze, really takes the fun out of life sometimes.