Is It a Mind Trick for Me?

[john mccluskey]

Hi everyone I haven't posted here for two years . A little background. I had mild tinnitus in my right ear for years no big problem. In January 2015 that all changed . Woke up on the 20th January with the most almighty sound in both ears 10/10 total freak out . Lost my mind for a month waiting on my ent appointment. . The only thing I could think off was on New Year's Day I went to a loud party .

So in freak mode decided that what it was I've ruined my ears . Started looking up tinnitus and what could be done . (Nothing) I joined tinnitus talk and told my story.

And only recently went back and looked at my old posts . Sorry forget to say that I'm going through another massive spike . One of the replys said " you damaged yours ears on jan 1st but never got major intrusive tinnitus until 3weeks later ? Sounds weird.

Anyway went to my ent and done a hearing test. Matched exactly the same as when I had mild tinnitus. I have lived with this 10/10 noise since . I used to suffer from bad migraines for 3years usually one a month . Had MRI scans had every scan possible to find out what was wrong and they couldn't find anything. So now as I'm going through another spike you look out for support again and I stumbled over a YouTube post from Julian Cowan hill about how tinnitus is more of a neurological problem than a ear problem and remember my hearing is fine .

The question that I'm pondering now is if after 3 hearing tests one only yesterday showing there's no difference in my hearing why I'm still at 10/10 noise?

Maybe just maybe my body deals with stress or anxiety through a weakness like tinnitus. Oh and I have not a migraine for two years or since I have tinnitus.

Sorry this post is so long . Thoughts ?

 

[fhs]

If the noise is just as loud as it was a month ago then it's probably here to stay. How much hearing loss did the audiogram show? Was there a change in tone? Assuming that there was no medication, infections, head trauma, acoustic trauma, blood clots, TMJD, etc, my best guess is that you had much louder tinnitus to begin with but the thalamic reticular nucleus before Jan 20th was filtering most of it so you only heard a mild sound and one day it just decided to stop filtering it.

 

[john mccluskey]

Hi good people of tinnitus talk. My tinnitus is getting worse . Usually on a train or subway I can take out my white noise maskers and have a few hours of outside noise masking giving me a break but no more it's now unmaskable . Don't think I can do this much longer it's. been 3 years of trying to habituate but it's getting so loud and harsh that I'm just mentally and physically drained.

There's one question I would like to have some advice on if you guys can help ?

Over the last year I've been to my gp getting meds for anxiety when my t spikes they take my blood pressure and say it's quite high but that's to be expected as your freaking out with your tinnitus spike .

Does anyone think it's the other way around like my tinnitus spikes when my blood pressure is high ? I don't seem to have pulsative tinnitus just constant high pitch ringing with morse code mixed in . But I now seem to have blurred vision quite a lot .

God knows what's going on but I'm almost ready to give up .

Sorry for the rant but I'm at my lowest point and no matter how many times I try and stay positive I'm just surviving day to day at the moment

 

[glynis]

Welcome to Tinnitus Talk.
You might need a up to date hearing test to see if you would benefit from duel purpose hearing aids.(amplification and white noise).
Also Cinnarazine 15mg can reduce tinnitus for some people and can help menieres.

I know how you feel I really do as my tinnitus is Bilateral and high pitch that blasts with a deep drone at the same time due to Menieres and really tough going at the minute .
High BP can cause tinnitus and when having it tested by your doctor etc your BP can go up just by going to see them.
Easy fix buy a blood pressure monitor and measure it in the morning and night and note down the readings,some record it for 60 days and display the readings.

Love glynis

 

[john mccluskey]

Thanks Glynis will look in to that blood pressure testing thanks for your support

 

[Bill Bauer]

Does anyone think it's the other way around like my tinnitus spikes when my blood pressure is high ?

It should be easy to get your doctor to prescribe medication to lower blood pressure (ensure that it is not ototoxic http://hlaa-sbc.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Ototoxic_Brochure.pdf ), and see whether that helps...

 

[Michael Leigh]

HI @john mccluskey,
When using your white noise generators try to keep their volume below your tinnitus. The white noise shouldn't completely mask your tinitus otherwise habituation will be difficult and you could make the tinnitus worse. Do you use headphones or work in a noisy enviroment? I think you should go back to ENT for test and then a referral to a Hearing Therapist for tinnitus managment.
Michael

 

[linearb]

you might want to just try to really limit your noise exposure for a while. When I lived in DC, subway noise could be well over 85db...no bueno.