I Need Help, Tinnitus Making Me Go Crazy

[avalos316]

Hello,

I started to feel ear pain on my right ear 8 weeks ago after listening to music for 4 hours wearing headphones(music was at low/median volume). After I started to feel pain on right earn and feeling of fullness, I stopped listening to music. I went to the doctor a few days after and he mentioned it was an ear infection. I was given ear drops. That did not stop the pain, second doctor said my ear tubes were blocked and provided with a nasal spray.

Visit to ENT and hearing test and MRI done, doctor could not find anything wrong. Two weeks ago I started to have this buzzing sound on my right ear. Before I would just hear pulsatile tinnitus when laying on my stomach, but not problems if i was not on that position. Now I hear a buzzing sound(not pulsatile), and it is constant. This is making me crazy. I went to a primary doctor since my ENT did not seem too concerned about it. Primary doctor still things is the ear tubes(ENT does not believe this to be the case). I am going to another ENT for a second opinion, but so far tinnitus is making me go crazy. It is a low pitch sound, and I wish it would stop.

Would this be normal. 6 weeks with just ear pain, and after that tinnitus? I did take MOBIC for two weeks due to another condition I have, but I stopped taking it 2 days before tinnitus started. I am afraid this might be permanent, and I have no idea how I can live with it. I have Pudendal Nerve Damage which was making my life miserable already, and now I have the ear pain with tinnitus which is making me crazy. I read that there is not cure for it, and I am really concerned about it. I can't imaging living life this for the rest of my life(I am 30).

 

[Dana]

T can go away on its own (without you doing anythig) after several months. Do not panic and do not jump to conclusions that it will be permanent. You will only do yourself harm if you stay in this "fight or flight" mode. The odds of tinnitus to go away will increase if you calm down your limbic system.

My advice to you is to do something to distract yourself from thinking about tinnitus. Keep yourself busy and do not give tinnitus a minute of thinking. If it doesn't go away in 18 months, yes, you have reasons to believe that it will stay with you for a long time, but even then your brain can get habituated with this sound and because of that it will start to filter it out, to not pay attention to it anymore, moment from which you will not hear it unless you consciously look for it.

I also became obsessed with T after its onset and I started to read about it and focus on it and ignore everything else in life, until my life shrunk to one issue: my tinnitus.

Do not make the same mistake I did. Focus on other things and ignore the sound.

Even if it becomes permanent a day will come when you will realise that you dedicated your life to tinnitus, that tinnitus sucked the life out of you, and you are fed up living around your tinnitus. You will have only two choises then: to end it all, or to pick yourself up, reclaim your life and move on.

I suggest you move on now. Whether it will go away after months or never, you must move on.
I do not recommend you stopping and looking for the cause and seeking treatments, except sound therapy to mask it. In my opinion I think it was caused by the 4 hours of headphones. No ear infection, no blocked ear tubes.

Mask your tinnitus avoiding silence, calm you nervous system with natural sedatives, and resume your life as if nothing happened.

 

[avalos316]

T can go away on its own (without you doing anythig) after several months. Do not panic and do not jump to conclusions that it will be permanent. You will only do yourself harm if you stay in this "fight or flight" mode. The odds of tinnitus to go away will increase if you calm down your limbic system.

My advice to you is to do something to distract yourself from thinking about tinnitus. Keep yourself busy and do not give tinnitus a minute of thinking. If it doesn't go away in 18 months, yes, you have reasons to believe that it will stay with you for a long time, but even then your brain can get habituated with this sound and because of that it will start to filter it out, to not pay attention to it anymore, moment from which you will not hear it unless you consciously look for it.

I also became obsessed with T after its onset and I started to read about it and focus on it and ignore everything else in life, until my life shrunk to one issue: my tinnitus.

Do not make the same mistake I did. Focus on other things and ignore the sound.

Even if it becomes permanent a day will come when you will realise that you dedicated your life to tinnitus, that tinnitus sucked the life out of you, and you are fed up living around your tinnitus. You will have only two choises then: to end it all, or to pick yourself up, reclaim your life and move on.

I suggest you move on now. Whether it will go away after months or never, you must move on.
I do not recommend you stopping and looking for the cause and seeking treatments, except sound therapy to mask it. In my opinion I think it was caused by the 4 hours of headphones. No ear infection, no blocked ear tubes.

Mask your tinnitus avoiding silence, calm you nervous system with natural sedatives, and resume your life as if nothing happened.

Thanks for the reply. Do you find masking that helpful? I downloaded and app on my phone and play raining sounds while working, but I just found it to make my ear more irritated. Sometimes the volume of my tinnitus goes up or down(I don't know why). I have a visit to an ENT today, but I was planning on maybe going to a hearing clinic as well. I understand your point to try to don't think to much about it, but I just can't focus on anything else besides that annoying sound on my right ear. I also think it was me listening to music with my headphones that caused this since the pain started at that moment on the right ear. I don't understand why doctor ignores this as a cause when I tell them about it.

Have you ever tried acupuncture for it? I spoke to an acupuncture clinic, told me that might help since I have not have the tinnitus for too long yet.

 

[Dana]

Have you ever tried acupuncture for it? I spoke to an acupuncture clinic, told me that might help since I have not have the tinnitus for too long yet.

I did try acupuncture. I tried everything. I know a person who got rid of T emerged after acoustic trauma in military training through acupuncture. The person is serious he's not lying. Acupuncture makes sense, in a way, T is an energetic imbalance that theoretically could be corrected by acupuncture.
I may resume acupuncture in spring (I was told that it's better to start acupuncture in spring, to be in sync with the whole nature which wakes up to life, but in your case the principle "start as soon as possible after problem started" may be correct too).
I personally gave up on trying to get cured of T, but I may go for some acupuncture sessions for general health.

I also think it was me listening to music with my headphones that caused this since the pain started at that moment on the right ear.

Of course. The volume may have been low/medium, but 4 hours of headphones are a lot, your ear absorbed too much acoustic energy, more than it could handle, and the pain you felt I think it was from inner year, not middle ear, cause after noise expose some phenomenum happens in the inner ear, and the pressure inside it changes. The ear drops your were given were not good, IMO, because they sealed the ear canal when you put them, clogged the ear for a little while, isolating the ears from the outside noises. I do not believe an outer ear infection could have started from some germs from the headphones and caused an inflammation that increased so much to cause pain. Whatever, what is done is done, chin up and go forward.

I downloaded and app on my phone and play raining sounds while working, but I just found it to make my ear more irritated.

Just another proof that your inner ear is suffering.

Do you find masking that helpful?

Tinnitus does get worse in silence, so in order to prevent that in some cases it may be better to have some noise/music at very low volume, because in this effort to hear the noise, the brain may muzzle the frequencies of the T that are preventing it to hear the noise. Brain does that, filters out some noises in order to hear and understand a cetrain noise it is interested in, and we can use this fact in our advantage. But if the rain sounds irritate you, turn the volume down or chose something else. My personal conviction is that music via digital technology is harmful, and music listened to a clasic radio is much better, but this is just my opinion. In my case, for example, white noise raises the T to unbearable levels, and it happened to me many times to feel better while masking with rain sounds, but to pay for this temporary relief with much higher T right afterwards. You will discover in time what is best for you. Some people reported that they got cured of T after 2-3 years of using earplugs at all times, so they went the opposite way and they won.

I just can't focus on anything else besides that annoying sound on my right ear.

The begging is the hardest. The tendency to focus on T is very understandable and we all went through that phase. To move your attention away from the T is just the theory, how much it can be put into practice is a totally different story.
A good tip resumed recently by a member on the forum is to try to control your emotions, the stress, the anxiety, as they increase T and wreak a life.
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/control-the-controllables.20153/

 

[avalos316]

I did try acupuncture. I tried everything. I know a person who got rid of T emerged after acoustic trauma in military training through acupuncture. The person is serious he's not lying. Acupuncture makes sense, in a way, T is an energetic imbalance that theoretically could be corrected by acupuncture.
I may resume acupuncture in spring (I was told that it's better to start acupuncture in spring, to be in sync with the whole nature which wakes up to life, but in your case the principle "start as soon as possible after problem started" may be correct too).
I personally gave up on trying to get cured of T, but I may go for some acupuncture sessions for general health.


Of course. The volume may have been low/medium, but 4 hours of headphones are a lot, your ear absorbed too much acoustic energy, more than it could handle, and the pain you felt I think it was from inner year, not middle ear, cause after noise expose some phenomenum happens in the inner ear, and the pressure inside it changes. The ear drops your were given were not good, IMO, because they sealed the ear canal when you put them, clogged the ear for a little while, isolating the ears from the outside noises. I do not believe an outer ear infection could have started from some germs from the headphones and caused an inflammation that increased so much to cause pain. Whatever, what is done is done, chin up and go forward.

Just another proof that your inner ear is suffering.

Tinnitus does get worse in silence, so in order to prevent that in some cases it may be better to have some noise/music at very low volume, because in this effort to hear the noise, the brain may muzzle the frequencies of the T that are preventing it to hear the noise. Brain does that, filters out some noises in order to hear and understand a cetrain noise it is interested in, and we can use this fact in our advantage. But if the rain sounds irritate you, turn the volume down or chose something else. My personal conviction is that music via digital technology is harmful, and music listened to a clasic radio is much better, but this is just my opinion. In my case, for example, white noise raises the T to unbearable levels, and it happened to me many times to feel better while masking with rain sounds, but to pay for this temporary relief with much higher T right afterwards. You will discover in time what is best for you. Some people reported that they got cured of T after 2-3 years of using earplugs at all times, so they went the opposite way and they won.

The begging is the hardest. The tendency to focus on T is very understandable and we all went through that phase. To move your attention away from the T is just the theory, how much it can be put into practice is a totally different story.
A good tip resumed recently by a member on the forum is to try to control your emotions, the stress, the anxiety, as they increase T and wreak a life.
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/control-the-controllables.20153/

Hello,

Thank you for the follow up. I went to my second ENT today, and I emphasized the headphone use and pain starting right after headphones were used for several hours. She asked me to open my mouth and told me she can tell signs of grinding of my teeth, and that I probably grind them at night due to stress. She asked me to go to a dentist to get a mouth guard. She said that grinding on the teeth can cause ear pain and tinnitus. I am at the point of not knowing if I should trust the doctors anymore as no-one is paying attention to the fact that my pain started right after the use of headphones for a long time.

 

[Dana]

She asked me to go to a dentist to get a mouth guard

If you indeed grind your teeth because of stress you have to adress the cause (the stress, with psychiatric meds or psychologist), and not the effect (ground teeth)
A mouth guard just protects the teeth.

She said that grinding on the teeth can cause ear pain and tinnitus

Yes, that is true, but that does not mean that this is the cause of your ear pain and tinnitus. If it were, the tipping point when your ear ache started would have been after some more grinding, not after taking off your headphones.

I am at the point of not knowing if I should trust the doctors anymore as no-one is paying attention to the fact that my pain started right after the use of headphones for a long time.

Getting tinnitus is a challenging time. You discover how important silence was to you, while you took it for granted and now you don't want anything but silence, although silence was not your Nr.1 desire before T, and other things, like how indifferent ENTs are, and how quickly they want to get rid of you for the next patient, who may be more profitable. Which ENT is willing to spend time with you, approaching your case from a logical point of view, to see the real cause of your T and see if they can do something really helpful for you? Not many.
In general low laser therapy, acupuncture and benzos are the only things an ENT can recommend you. The benzos like Clonazepam or Diazepam are effective, they help with sleep and reduce the hyperactivity in the auditory system even to the point of having silence again until the drug wears off, but they are addictive, and withdrawing from them in some cases is difficult or even impossible. The are pros and cons with this Clonazepam and other drugs.
T is difficult to fight. You know the saying: "If you can't beat them, join them", which is basically the principle in this conversation :
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/cultivating-attentional-control.5508/

 

[avalos316]

If you indeed grind your teeth because of stress you have to adress the cause (the stress, with psychiatric meds or psychologist), and not the effect (ground teeth)
A mouth guard just protects the teeth.

Yes, that is true, but that does not mean that this is the cause of your ear pain and tinnitus. If it were, the tipping point when your ear ache started would have been after some more grinding, not after taking off your headphones.

Getting tinnitus is a challenging time. You discover how important silence was to you, while you took it for granted and now you don't want anything but silence, although silence was not your Nr.1 desire before T, and other things, like how indifferent ENTs are, and how quickly they want to get rid of you for the next patient, who may be more profitable. Which ENT is willing to spend time with you, approaching your case from a logical point of view, to see the real cause of your T and see if they can do something really helpful for you? Not many.
In general low laser therapy, acupuncture and benzos are the only things an ENT can recommend you. The benzos like Clonazepam or Diazepam are effective, they help with sleep and reduce the hyperactivity in the auditory system even to the point of having silence again until the drug wears off, but they are addictive, and withdrawing from them in some cases is difficult or even impossible. The are pros and cons with this Clonazepam and other drugs.
T is difficult to fight. You know the saying: "If you can't beat them, join them", which is basically the principle in this conversation :
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/cultivating-attentional-control.5508/

Thanks for the response. I am trying to make my mind realize I need to learn to get used to the sound. I will give acupuncture a tried since it might be good for learning to relax and stop anxiety. I was reading about a devise called soundcure serenade that might help, but I am reading that it could be quite expensive.