I Woke Up with Tinnitus

[Brydie]

Hello everyone,

I woke up on Saturday morning with a ringing in my ears, it is now Wednesday and it is still omnipresent. The weird thing is, I have had no excessive noise exposure!

My ears feel sore, "full", itchy and when I move my jaw they pop. I went to my GP who said I didn't have an ear infection and sent me away with a referral to get a hearing test. I cannot afford one right now ($110) and I want to see if it clears up on its own first.

I do go to concerts but nothing crazy and not much over the past 6 weeks, I listen to a lot of jazz, indie and acoustic music, but I wouldn't say I listen to excessively loud music. I am a 3rd year nursing student and have been extremely stressed this semester with clinical prac and assessments.

It is quite distressing and I am not sure what to do, I just want to wake up in the morning and listen to the birds without a constant hum in my head. I woke up this morning so hopeful it was gone and as soon as I knew it was there, I burst into tears.

Please tell me some stories about it going away because the internet says this is here to stay forever.

Thank you

 

[Bill Bauer]

I do go to concerts but nothing crazy and not much over the past 6 weeks, I listen to a lot of jazz, indie and acoustic music, but I wouldn't say I listen to excessively loud music.

The damage is cumulative.

Please tell me some stories about it going away

It is my understanding that it fades for most people. But this could take 3-24 months. Check out the studies on the pages of the thread below.
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/spontaneous-recovery-stats-many-recover-3-studies.21441/

Also check out
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/thread...eone-else-who-has-tinnitus.26850/#post-307822

 

[Lane]

I listen to a lot of jazz, indie and acoustic music, but I wouldn't say I listen to excessively loud music.

Hi @Brydie -- You didn't say whether you use ear buds or headphones while listening to music. If you do, that could be your problem. For now, it's imperative you not use any kind of headphes or earbuds until you tinnitus fades (which it probably will). -- Stress can cause tinnitus as well, so the more you can do to reduce your stress levels, the better it will be. My own take is that it's mostly likely your tinnitus will improve, as long as you avoid loud noises--even moderate noises while your ears heal (which can take a few weeks/months). -- All the Best...

 

[Brydie]

Hi,

Thank you for your reply,
I never use head phones to listen to music and I last used headphones on a flight two months ago.

I am hopeful it will fade! Just need to keep my anxiety levels down.

 

[Strife_84]

If you have sinus etc. Issues, pseudoephedrine will blast those open.

Also if you can, try some prednisolon etc. It reduced my symptoms a bit.

If you are having any sensisitivity to certain sounds, I suggest you go to doctor again.

There are many reasons that can cause tinnitus, exposing yourself to loud sounds is only one of them.

But now, rest your ears. No headphones! No concerts etc. No noisy places.

 

[attheedgeofscience]

I do go to concerts but nothing crazy and not much over the past 6 weeks

Even one concert can cause tinnitus, hyperacusis, and hearing loss. Permanently.

The weird thing is, I have had no excessive noise exposure!

If you go to concerts (regularly) and listen to all genres of music, you have noise exposure that easily could be damaging over time. A go-with-the-flow attitude means that lots of folks end up being part of the statistic: in fact, a paper on tinnitus (based on the Canadian population) was recently published and reported by a few news outlets such as this one:

https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/ear-r...4-in-10-canadians-last-year-statcan-1.4344045

The youngest age group in the demographic (19-29 y/o) now has the highest prevalence of tinnitus (and this correlates well with their listening habits the report suggests...). The full report can be found here.

I cannot afford one right now ($110) and I want to see if it clears up on its own first.

Probably won't make much difference. Rest your ears, avoid noise exposure, and hope for the best.

 

[Michael Leigh]

Hi,

Thank you for your reply,
I never use head phones to listen to music and I last used headphones on a flight two months ago.

I am hopeful it will fade! Just need to keep my anxiety levels down.

HI @Brydie

It is good that you do not use headphones and I advise you to never use them, as they are one of the main causes of "noise induced tinnitus". This is due to people listening to music at too high a volume. Exposure to loud noise is the most common cause of tinnitus. Typically it is headphones or attending places where loud music is played. If you frequently go to clubs or concerts where loud music is played, even using earplugs will not stop you developing tinnitus if the sound is too loud.

If you do not go to clubs or concerts and don't work in a noisy environment, then it's probably safe to say your tinnitus is not "noise induced". However, listening to a lot of jazz, indi and acoustic music shouldn't be a problem, it only becomes one if the method of delivery is too loud. You may not think that you have been exposed to loud music but might be surprised, that this has been the case over a long period of time. Hopefully not.

Please click on the links below and read my posts that I think you will find helpful. It is important that you are seen at ENT to check that your auditory system is functioning properly, since your ears feel full, sore and itchy.

I wish you well.
Michael

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/new-to-tinnitus-what-to-do.12558/

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/tinnitus-a-personal-view.18668/

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/hyperacusis-as-i-see-it.19174/

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/is-positivity-important.23150/

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/tinnitus-and-the-negative-mindset.23705/

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/acquiring-a-positive-mindset.23969/

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/the-ent-doctor-and-hearing-therapist.24047/

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/inspiration.22894/

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/can-tinnitus-counselling-help.22366/

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/the-habituation-process.20767/

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/a-change-of-lifestyle.20643/

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/tinnitus-and-negative-counselling.26669/

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/the-complexities-of-tinnitus-and-hyperacusis.25733/

 

[winstona]

Hang in there Brydie. I too has gotten tinnitus 1.5 years ago and it is slowly getting better for me. I wouldn't say it it completely gone but it is not as difficult to deal with than when I first got it.

 

[PortalNaut]

@Brydie yes what a shock to get T. I know it well. But also at a year plus, T is reduced from what it was, quite a bit.

So I believe an important aspect is to give your ears, nerves, brain etc time.

Hopefully you can get to a better place.

On thing I did was to take a generic of Flonase and that helped the T level go down, but in my case I did have some acoustic trauma. If your is from entirely different causes it make not do much for you. Read up on it before taking it. (You might take some and see what happens, cost is like $10).

Good luck!

 

[Greg Sacramento]

My ears feel sore, "full", itchy and when I move my jaw they pop.

When physical tinnitus starts it's often associated to two things happening and it said that there's no hearing loss on onset, but can develop later.
One cause is hyper extension of neck with twisting where blood flow of a major vein or artery in the neck slows for a second. A second cause is twisting of the jaw. With either there's other things going on and the list includes 622 possibilities with hundreds of sub groups. It could be from birth where an artery is too short, neck muscle spasms or TMJ. Stress is also part of the equation. I would get your jaw looked at and keep stress under control and hopefully things will improve.