I'm Scared, New to Tinnitus: Sleep Troubles & Fear of Tinnitus Worsening

[donotringatme]

Hello everyone,

My name is Anthony, I'm 30, 5'11" and live in Greece. I developed tinnitus in the past three weeks, as a mild high-pitch tone, only audible in quiet places mostly at night when going to bed.

My sleep has been the worst but I think it is slowly improving, my nervous system just won't shut down no matter what, plus the fear of tinnitus worsening due to my lack of action is there.

I have no history of hearing loss in the family, I'm actually the only person in my entire genealogical tree to get tinnitus. I am hoping for a full recovery at some point or at least no worsening.

Currently searching for the root cause of my tinnitus in this thread.

My love and wishes to everyone suffering from this.

 

[Elmer B Fuddled]

There are many different ways to be stricken with tinnitus. The most common is noise induced, then ear infections or traumatic. Best advice is to avoid noisy places. If it's infection, get it treated now. Have a read of @Michael Leigh's posts on dealing with tinnitus. It will help.

 

[hans799]

I developed tinnitus in the past three weeks, as a mild high-pitch tone, only audible in quiet places mostly at night when going to bed.

Count yourself extraordinarily lucky. You have mild tinnitus. It is virtually guaranteed that you will get used to it and your quality of life will return to what it was before onset. I know it is very scary right now, but what you have is the tinnitus world's equivalent to the common cold.

My sleep has been the worst but I think it is slowly improving, my nervous system just won't shut down no matter what

That is very common in the early weeks. However, it will improve in time, in a kind of ragged upwards trend. You'll have bad days, and good days, and eventually the good days will outnumber the bad ones and you'll kind of forget about the whole thing.

fear of tinnitus worsening due to my lack of action is there

Tinnitus isn't a random curse from God. It is a sign of ear damage, most often to the cochlea. Such damage is preventable, and there are very concrete steps you can take.

Bill Bauer has written an excellent summary here:
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/thread...eone-else-who-has-tinnitus.26850/#post-307822

I recommend that you read, internalize and act on Bill's list. That will prevent further damage. And continue to live your life knowing that while tinnitus is scary and annoying, you will almost certainly be in the 95% who lives a full happy life with the condition. This is the best you can do. You can try searching for cures and treatments but believe me (who spent ~3000 euros on Lenire and God knows how much more money on ENTs and drugs and whatever) there is nothing that works. Except Father Time, the great healer.

 

[Brians81]

Yea having mild tinnitus is way better. I've had mine about just almost five months now and it can be scary at first.

Hopefully your tinnitus gets better my friend and may God watch over you as you now live with this condition and I pray it never gets worse for you.

 

[Bill Bauer]

only audible in quiet places mostly at night when going to bed.

It ought to fade sometime between one month to two years.

You are lucky - now you know that your ears have been compromised and it will take less to get you the Real/LOUD tinnitus. You will want to make sure you aren't exposed to loud noises and that you don't take any ototoxic medications.

You will want to make sure that you don't hurt your ears during this period of vulnerability as your body is healing. You will want to avoid microsuction or syringing (performed when you need to clean wax out of your ears; a manual tool should be used), and not let your dental hygienist use an ultrasonic scaling tool on you (a manual tool should be used). For more details, see

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

 

[donotringatme]

16. When you get a full ear sensation it is a sign that you hurt your ears. Do not use Valsalva maneuver - it will not improve your full ear sensation, and it can do more damage to your ears (as evidenced by multiple reports on this forum).

Would you please elaborate on that? I avoid the Valsalva but what do you mean exactly when you say that full ear sensation means you hurt your ears?

 

[hans799]

Would you please elaborate on that? I avoid the Valsalva but what do you mean exactly when you say that full ear sensation means you hurt your ears?

Not every instance of "full ear sensation" means that you hurt your ears. If you get out of a pool, or lift off with an airplane, and your ears feel full, it simply means that your ears are full.

What is meant here is full ear sensation after noise exposure. Say you enter a loud club, stay for a while, come out, notice your ears feel clogged and are ringing in a different way than before. That's ear damage. Valsalva will be useless in that situation because there's no actual pressure within the ear, it's basically a pain signal.

 

[donotringatme]

Not every instance of "full ear sensation" means that you hurt your ears. If you get out of a pool, or lift off with an airplane, and your ears feel full, it simply means that your ears are full.

What is meant here is full ear sensation after noise exposure. Say you enter a loud club, stay for a while, come out, notice your ears feel clogged and are ringing in a different way than before. That's ear damage. Valsalva will be useless in that situation because there's no actual pressure within the ear, it's basically a pain signal.

Thank you for the clarification Hans. I begin to wonder whether I had an ear infection actually. Itching frequently, sleeping on the side would make the ear canal sort of moist, wax was not removed for years deep from the ear, there was slight pain inside and under my ear canal, probably half an inch. I slowly begin to realize that finding a root cause for tinnitus is just not possible. You have experience in this area, is there anything you can recommend before my ENT visit at one month mark from getting tinnitus? A test to take or not to take, things to ask etc? Is there a hyperacusis test I can take? Is head MRI worth it to rule out a bunch of possible tinnitus causes and help with TMDJ? I want to be done with tests and "research" now that I'm still alert and early.

 

[Bill Bauer]

Would you please elaborate on that? I avoid the Valsalva but what do you mean exactly when you say that full ear sensation means you hurt your ears?

When the ears are damaged (e.g., ototoxic medication, noise, Q-tips, etc.) often the signals they send isn't pain, but the full ear sensation.