My Tinnitus Sounds Like a Siren

[Chronumbra]

Ever since a long music production session at the end of December which ended with a temporary threshold shift in my hearing, my tinnitus got louder and had been spiking with absolutely all sound. It has become less "reactive" over the past two months, meaning I can enjoy music and everyday sounds without it spiking up as much as it has been.

There is another tone that primarily lives in my left ear, and it sounds a bit like a siren or a radio gone haywire that glides up and down in pitch all day long. Occasionally it will remain on one pitch at either 1 kHz or 3 kHz and echo behind certain sounds - it's very bizarre. Any ideas on the mechanism at play here? I don't see a lot of people talking about having this tone.

The weirdest part is that this tone seems to switch ears - it is usually in my left ear, but sometimes switches over to my right ear. Sometimes it even sounds like it's coming from behind my head! What's happening here?

Overall, I experience fewer days with this tone than I experienced in January, so I guess it's slowly but surely getting better. It's just very unusual.

The higher pitched ringing is getting quieter as well. I have noticed that the more time I spend listening to music, engaging in conversations, or spend time in places with a lot of ambient noise, my tinnitus is quieter after. Not just masked, but actually almost gone for a while before returning.

 

[Nettles]

Hey there, I've just started experiencing this tone, and it's awful. I find it very difficult to stay asleep because the pitch keeps shifting up and down, like a tiny siren or fire alarm. I really hope it settles at one pitch soon, as that would be much easier to tune out. I did experience an acoustic shock in my ear last week, so it might have started after that. I also switched to a neck-support pillow over the weekend, but I'm not sure how I feel about it. My neck feels stiff, so maybe that's contributing to it?

Did yours ever settle or go away?

 

[Miniest]

I suffer from a "fire alarm" type of tinnitus that started in my 20s after a bad flu. When the flu passed, it left me with a persistent up-and-down alarm noise in my right ear. It was horrible at first, but over time it became less noticeable to the point where I could go months without thinking about it because I wasn't hearing it. However, any cold or sinus congestion would bring it back.

Now, I'm experiencing the same noise in my left ear, even though I haven't had a flu, cold, or any loud noise exposure recently. It's frustrating because the noise in my left ear is much louder than in my right ear.