Morse Code Tinnitus + Whooshing Sound + Hyperacusis/Dysacusis

[Tau]

Hi!

I'm a 32/M. I first got tinnitus in 2019 after a loud concert. It was very quiet and only in my right ear, so I never did anything about it.

Fast forward to this year and I got new headphones, I was listening to music and playing games at a volume that's probably too loud. I started noticing the morse code a bit more in like a month and it started reacting to the fridge, the tap, etc (I hear the morse when the tap is running).

Now comes the stupid part: because of my anxiety, I thought this might be from the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine. I was also experiencing ear fullness and pressure, so I thought my ICP was too high. ENT said I was fine, hearing was fine. However, I took Acetazolamide twice (125 mg, low dose) thinking it would relieve the pressure. I may have noticed a small decrease in my tinnitus, but I discontinued the drug as it can be ototoxic.

An even stupider part: I then did a frequency sweep test at home to see my range of hearing. When I could not hear anything at 16 kHz (before this I could, I had done it a month ago or so), I panicked and upped the volume. Still nothing. But that must have damaged my ears. In a day I got a new whooshing sound that's more in my left ear, but also seems like it's coming from my brain, if that makes sense. It's a high freq sound, something like 14 kHz, comes in waves. What's worse is that most music sounds super distorted now. The drums are muddled, and so are the guitars at high frequencies. After this I got Prednisolone from my ENT and took a 3 day 50 mg/day course. It didn't help, so she told me to discontinue.

Anyone else with similar symptoms? Does this dysacusis get better? I don't have ear fullness anymore. Ironically, I could have happily lived with the more intense morse code tinnitus (still very low in volume, could only hear it in quiet rooms), but this sound distortion is making me feel suicidal. I'm also more sensitive to S sounds. Thankfully, no pain hyperacusis... Has anyone got their distorted hearing fix itself after some time? This might be high freq cells dying and the frequencies getting muddled... It's been a week and a half of literal hell - I can only sleep when my wife is holding my hand like I'm some kind of a baby.

Thanks for reading!

P.S. I'm a competitive gamer/private tutor (with a PhD, like that matters anymore) and I cannot do either of those activities right now. Thankfully I can afford to not work at the moment, but it's no way to live.

 

[Matchbox]

I don't know as I have distortions too but I've taken way more diuretics than that and noticed very little adverse effects.

I don't think you permanently hurt your ears doing it once, or with a low dose.

 

[Tau]

Hi, thanks for the comment. I believe I severely hurt my ears when I tested the frequency range at too high a volume. Before that music sounded fine and I could function.

 

[Matchbox]

Hi, thanks for the comment. I believe I severely hurt my ears when I tested the frequency range at too high a volume. Before that music sounded fine and I could function.

The same has happened to me with Acoustic Reflex testing.

The good news is when I first got distortions they more or less decreased a fair bit. And some went away.

Just take supplements and give it time for now. Expect it to take months.

 

[Exit]

Give it time, protect ears and see what happens in half a year.

Tinnitus can morph on its own like a degenerative disease, so this could have happened to you regardless of the at-home audiological test.

 

[Tau]

I only increased the volume when I could not hear the frequency. I still could not hear it, but it probably damaged a fair bit of my hair cells...

 

[Tau]

An update: I seem to be getting a new tone in my right ear over the original tinnitus.

I was sleeping with Bromazepam for 7 days, now at 0.75 mg instead of 3 mg.

S sounds seems to be more irritating, too, and my high frequency tinnitus has also increased.

I am at a loss and don't know what to do. My wife is scared I will kill myself. I am scared I will have to live like this.

My ENT says this can pass. I did some digging and I may have exposed myself to a 15 kHz tone at 90 dB for a few seconds (when I did the frequency sweep and upped the volume). I hope this wasn't enough to cripple me permanently.

I am just ranting but it's really scary and I have no respite at night (multiple tone tinnitus) and no respite during the day (distortions).

 

[Tau]

An update:

I had an extended audiogram done, I can hear everything up to and including 16 kHz, and hear it really well, at 0-10 dB. So I guess I didn't hurt myself with the sweep?

Music is still distorted and I have 4 different tinnitus sounds. The additional 3 started in the last 2 weeks, one by one. I had stopped taking Prednisolone (3 days 50 mg, no taper) and started taking Bromazepam (3 mg/d, now down to 0 now). Maybe it's actually the drugs that have caused these new sounds? Or anxiety?

No clue as to what is happening, but I am glad I was able to get like 5-6 specialist appointments for free (EU woo), at least I know my hearing is not that damaged.

@Matchbox, I believe you had some bad experience with steroids? How is it now?

 

[Matchbox]

@Matchbox, I believe you had some bad experience with steroids? How is it now?

Sorry, I just saw this. I have been under a lot of work stress due to hearing fucking distortions all day long limiting my ability to concentrate.

I'm bad. I occasionally go to sleep with no masking in order to see how bad my morning distortions are.

Well they are bad. Really bad. Sounds like audio clipping and wavering (impossible to describe, hence why I "attempt" to make audio files on here).

I can say for me, the steroids never made me worse ON them, my tinnitus would definitely subside while on them, but coming OFF them, if it was done too fast, would ALWAYS make my morning wavering PERMANENTLY worse.

It has not improved. At all, since I got way worse in November from a 5 day steroid course (so 6 months now).

It could be the steroids caused rebound inflammation that was going to happen in time, just much accelerated, or triggered hydrops.

Those are my only guesses.

I can say that benzos tend to quiet and limit distortions, but that's not viable long term at my age. If I were 75+, I wouldn't care. They also spike me once I'm off them with low distortions for about a week, but it seems temporary each time.

I have found that vitamins, coffee, regularly walking around (ear pressure increases for me while sitting) and lots of water / less salt "seems" to help some distortions. They aren't cured. The wavering in the morning eventually goes away after coffee.

I believe the morning wavering might be hydrops and worsened by the cortisone spike on waking. I rarely have it at 12-4 am, but guaranteed to have it by 6 am. Cortisone does act on mineral receptors similar to Aldosterone. I think the steroids on withdrawal "triggered" hydrops.

So far diuretics have had severe tinnitus side effects and sometimes change things.
If I eventually get rid of the morning wavers and distortions I'll let everyone know how.

I'm trying a mushroom powder right now, as well as Betahistine, Lasix, and then Bromelain w/ Quercetin, one at a time to see how they work.

Then it'll be LDN or Keppra. I was thinking about Baclofen... but considering it's an NSAID and there's people on here posting about it being the devil for tinnitus, I'm hesitant.

Baclofen is a strange anti-inflammatory with some limited K channel properties. One person who took it with another drug had tinnitus relief.

I'd rather gamble on LDN or Keppra. Lasix makes me feel like shit but I "think" it does something, but also gives me low fucking devil hums, need to correlate and can't say for certain yet.

Hoping @__nico__ has an update.

 

[Tau]

Hey, thank you for the update and I hope the distortions do subside! It is so strange that Prednisone can actually make things worse. I am on Prednisone again, it has diminished my high-pitch squeal, but it also seems to have increased my beeping in one ear. I am doing 50 mg - 40 mg - 40 mg - 30 mg - 30 mg - 20 mg - 20 mg - 10 mg - 10 mg - 5 mg. Valerian root tea helps me sleep. I have come off Bromazepam, I don't like it how it makes me feel and I don't want to get addicted. My old morse code tinnitus (the one that got me worried, etc) would subside after drinking coffee in the morning. Yet I was so anxious, I was trying a lot of things to get rid of it.

I think my distortion situation is different because some frequencies in music are always distorted in the same way: missing frequencies get mapped to something else, it's mostly a flat hiss for s/f/th sounds. It's probably hidden hearing loss and I cannot come to terms with it. I damaged my ears myself. It's so surreal because I didn't hear any sound at 16 kHz+ and yet I kept increasing the volume. No sound. At all. But my ears got damaged, possibly permanently. Yes, it was extremely stupid, but I got scared I couldn't hear the sound at 16 kHz as I could definitely hear it before. Well, it turns out, sound that you cannot hear can still fuck up your synapses (weird, right? If the synapses were not firing - no sound - why would they get damaged?).

I'm attaching my HF audiogram. As you can see, nothing out of the ordinary. Same for my regular audiogram. But I cannot listen to music/watch films/play games. So it's probably synapses.

I am close to being suicidal, but I cannot do this to my wife. I'll give it time and see what happens. Not really expecting anything to get better, especially if it's synapses. Usually things only get worse in this case.

 

[Wrfortiscue]

I think I got an extra beep coming off Prednisone lol.

 

[Tau]

I think I got an extra beep coming off Prednisone lol.

I think I developed a faint chirp after discontinuing my 3 day course with no taper... Now I will taper slowly.

Did you taper?

Edit: I did a (quiet) frequency sweep and determined that at about 7.3-7.5 kHz I have a small dip in volume. Obviously not caught by the official audiogram because the steps were at 6 kHz and 8 kHz. Moreover, at that frequency, the tone sounds distorted - it hisses and crackles a bit. Pretty positive it's hearing loss, but I am puzzled as to why it happened at 7.5 kHz when I traumatised myself with 16 kHz.

 

[Wrfortiscue]

I think I developed a faint chirp after discontinuing my 3 day course with no taper... Now I will taper slowly.

Did you taper?

Edit: I did a (quiet) frequency sweep and determined that at about 7.3-7.5 kHz I have a small dip in volume. Obviously not caught by the official audiogram because the steps were at 6 kHz and 8 kHz. Moreover, at that frequency, the tone sounds distorted - it hisses and crackles a bit. Pretty positive it's hearing loss, but I am puzzled as to why it happened at 7.5 kHz when I traumatised myself with 16 kHz.

Yeah I did 60 mg, 60 mg, 60 mg, 50 mg, 50 mg, 40 mg, 30 mg, 20 mg, 10 mg, 5 mg.

 

[Matchbox]

I did 50 mg, 50 mg, 50 mg, 50 mg, 50 mg, 25 mg, 0 mg.

Don't do what I did.

 

[SD7]

I think I developed a faint chirp after discontinuing my 3 day course with no taper... Now I will taper slowly.

Did you taper?

Edit: I did a (quiet) frequency sweep and determined that at about 7.3-7.5 kHz I have a small dip in volume. Obviously not caught by the official audiogram because the steps were at 6 kHz and 8 kHz. Moreover, at that frequency, the tone sounds distorted - it hisses and crackles a bit. Pretty positive it's hearing loss, but I am puzzled as to why it happened at 7.5 kHz when I traumatised myself with 16 kHz.

Hi Tau,

I'm in kind of similar situation. I was trying to mask my tinnitus by YouTube video and it made my situation worse even though it was a couple of seconds. You have to stop listening to those frequency videos on YouTube and testing yourself.

Hoping we both recover.

 

[Wrfortiscue]

I did 50 mg, 50 mg, 50 mg, 50 mg, 50 mg, 25 mg, 0 mg.

Don't do what I did.

Seems mine got worse anyways.

 

[Tau]

Seems mine got worse anyways.

This is scary. Will update on what happens to mine. So far the high pitch squeal is the only one that's been lessened, the other sounds are the same. Honestly, I could live with them, the hearing loss is much much worse.

 

[Tau]

Hi Tau,

I'm in kind of similar situation. I was trying to mask my tinnitus by YouTube video and it made my situation worse even though it was a couple of seconds. You have to stop listening to those frequency videos on YouTube and testing yourself.

Hoping we both recover.

I did it with a tone generator. It was set to 16.something, I could not hear it and I increased the volume for a few seconds. My headphone + amp combo can output 111-112 dB (I originally thought it was lower, later did some calculations). So it was probably that at 16 kHz. I could NOT hear it. The day after my distortions started.

I know this is insanely stupid of me, especially considering I have a physics PhD, lmao.

 

[Tau]

A quick update: I have ended my steroids course; while taking the 50 mg - 40 mg doses my high pitch tinnitus was gone. It slowly came back during the taper. Thankfully, I did not get any new sounds. Hyperacusis is still present - all electronic/higher frequency sounds are slightly amplified. Hearing loss still the same - music sounds distorted.

Tomorrow I will try Astaxanthin, seeing as it may have helped a few people with hearing loss. Not really hopeful. Reality is setting in, I used to have extremely good hearing (I would literally hear a bug on the floor, I could easily pick out all the sounds in music, etc.), now it's complete garbage.

Eee eee eeee eee.

 

[SD7]

It just doesn't make sense. Even if it was 110 dB it shouldn't have done so much damage. Same in my case, I wasn't even wearing headphones and just used my phone.

 

[Bruin_NJ]

Hey @Tau, how are you now? I read your post and I think I have the same problem. Did you distortions disappear or become manageable?

Hi @Matchbox, how are you now? Did your distortions disappear?