I Keep Habituating and Then "Falling off the Wagon"

[DogWhistle]

I got tinnitus about 4 months ago. I've been lurking your site since then, but this is my first post.

What happened: I was on a 3 hour flight while I had a bad cold. The ascent was fine; my ears depressurized to cruising altitude. But when the plane descended, my Eustachian tubes never opened once, and my head was in excruciating pain - I was terrified my eardrums would rupture, but they didn't. An hour after landing, I blew my nose and my left ear opened up. (That ear is asymptomatic.) But my right ear never opened until 48 hours after the flight.

Since then, my right ear has tinnitus at an ultra-high frequency. It sounds like an old CRT television. I've never been able to figure out what its frequency is, but it's somewhere between 11,000 and 14,000 hz.

Otherwise, I have bat-like hearing. I'm 32 but I can clearly hear those devices they install in public areas to keep teens from loitering. I'm also irritated by devices used to keep roaches or mice away.

My problem is: I would have been able to habituate a long time ago if its volume and behavior were constant, but the volume shifts wildly between 2 extremes randomly. Just when I think I'm habituated and "wow, it's effectively out of my life now!", the volume will spike by orders of magnitude, sometimes spread to the other ear, and last who knows how long? An hour? A day? A week? When I wake up tomorrow, will it be gone? One time, the "loud mode" lasted a whole week, and mysteriously went back to normal after getting drunk at a bar!

It kills me that there's no rhyme or reason why the volume changes. I endlessly analyze - ooh! I had a ham sandwich an hour earlier! It must be ham that does it!

So my question is: How do I habituate if my tinnitus is so variable?

Miscellaneous info: You know the drill - lifelong depression/anxiety; INTP; high neuroticism / low agreeableness; extremely analytical; perfectionist; I'm sure I've got one foot on "the spectrum".

 

[gary]

My problem is: I would have been able to habituate a long time ago if its volume and behavior were constant, but the volume shifts wildly between 2 extremes randomly. Just when I think I'm habituated and "wow, it's effectively out of my life now!", the volume will spike by orders of magnitude, sometimes spread to the other ear, and last who knows how long? An hour? A day? A week? When I wake up tomorrow, will it be gone? One time, the "loud mode" lasted a whole week, and mysteriously went back to normal after getting drunk at a bar!

Hey Dog, you're symptoms sound just like mine. No rhyme or reason. Very loud, very low some days. It does seem to take longer to habituate with the volume varying so much.

all I can tell you is over time it gets better. You can look into a masker, I use one when it is very loud.

 

[Sound Wave]

Same here - the sound varies and I suspect that habituation is harder compared to a constant one frequency sound. My T bothers me less nowadays so habituation is still possible. I remember reading an advice that one could approach varying T with positive curiosity, i.e. 'How interesting, now the sound is like this. I wonder what it will be next?...'

 

[DogWhistle]

I remember reading an advice that one could approach varying T with positive curiosity, i.e. 'How interesting, now the sound is like this. I wonder what it will be next?...'

Ha ha, I do often wonder what my tinnitus will sound like next. Or a better word than "wonder" would be "dread." I can't imagine holding a positive attitude in any respect towards what I perceive as the evidence of a structural and systemic failure of my body.

 

[uae96]

Equalizing the ear can be little bit stressful and painfull if done little late , I am studying to become a pilot and learner a lot about these , you shouldn't have flown with a cold it's really bad for the ear when pressure is rising , but don't worry go to a ent and take some steriod pills and vitamins it will really help and if you can afford to put you're self in an hyperbaric oxygen therapy DO THAT ASAP!!!! Good luck

 

[DogWhistle]

you shouldn't have flown with a cold it's really bad for the ear when pressure is rising

Water under the bridge, as they say. If I could go back in time I would have happily rented a car and done the 1,200 mile trip. But I had flown a few times in the past with sinus infections, without any apparent side effects. I had taken Alleve with pseudoephedrine the morning of the flight. I also tried to chew lots of gum as the plane was ascending, which did nothing. (Sometimes I suspect the 20 minutes of intense gum chewing exacerbated the barotraumatic damage.)

go to a ent and take some steriod pills and vitamins it will really help and if you can afford to put you're self in an hyperbaric oxygen therapy DO THAT ASAP!!!! Good luck

I went to an ENT about a week after the flight. She prescribed me a course of Prednisone, which I did don't think helped very much. All of my other symptoms were completely gone within a few weeks, but the tinnitus has stayed with me. It's been 4 months since then.

 

[uae96]

That's sad to hear :/ , hope you are coping well with it , it's just how you as a person view tinnitus it's not really a major issue but I'm sure you're type will be less intense in time

 

[Gosia]

I feel for you. Same age, same T age, same moody T. Changing up to 5 times per day. I'm analizing as much as you. I DREAD all the time. Especially after some loud noise exposure which theoretically shouldn't be harmful but I worry anyway. I confort myself saying that as long as it changes, it may as well disappear one day. 4 months is still young. I believe there's still hope for us to get completely free. We will not figure out what makes it change the pitch. I didn't manage to. All this standard texts saying ' don't drink coffee..' so I didn't for first few weeks. Then I started and guess what, it doesn't influence T at all. I also happen to have a silent time when I am dead tired and loud T after 10 h long sleep. There's absolutely no logic in all this. And yeah..pointless to write 'you shouldn't have' - how is it helpful @uae96 ?

 

[Mike82]

Miscellaneous info: You know the drill - lifelong depression/anxiety; INTP; high neuroticism / low agreeableness; extremely analytical; perfectionist; I'm sure I've got one foot on "the spectrum".

Tick, tick, tick, tick. At least we know we're not the only ones!

My hearing is actually rubbish (a lifetime of obliterating it listening to punk music through headphones) but I can sure hear that insanely high-pitched dog whistle! Oddly enough, I'm slightly relieved to hear you say that you don't think Prednisone did much for you... since my doctor refused to prescribe it.

I know exactly what you mean when you say, "I can't imagine holding a positive attitude in any respect towards what I perceive as the evidence of a structural and systemic failure of my body".

When I met my girlfriend, I was going through a bitter divorce. I was feeling very sorry for myself, until one day my girlfriend turned to me and said "I found out today that my Mum has cancer." Six months later, to the day, her mother passed away.

I don't know how I'm going to cope with this dog whistle in my head for the rest of my life either. But I do know this. I'd rather be alive with imperfect hearing than a good-looking corpse with no history of health problems.

Hang in there, mate. You'll get through this.