New to Site and Just Developed Tinnitus

[Andrei90]

Hey guys, I'm Andrei (27) from Washington state and I recently developed horrible tinnitus. It's a combination of hiss, static, and electrical zaps which is felt in both ears and head. It's a horrible experience and I don't know what to do. I have been having sleepless nights (can't fall asleep anymore) because it's too loud. Masking it doesn't work because it is reactive or I might have a case of hyperacusis. I do experience some sensitivity to loud noises (vibration in ears) but no pain yet. The muscles in the ear also seem to spasm every once and then. I'm quickly losing my mind because after reading through this forum and all the health sites, I'm starting to realize that I will experience this for the rest of my life with a massive potential for it to get even worse.

I'm pretty sure that I got my symptoms through chronic exposure to loud music. I don't even listen to music that much except for in the car (at very moderate volume) but I will ocassionaly blast a song or two on my phone to full volume. Something I have been doing on and off for a few years. I just bought a decibel reader and was praying for readings under 100. Honestly, it never seemed that loud to me and never experienced discomfort or ringing afterwards. It was reading up to 125. I'm now in deep depression and don't know what to do. I can't cope with this now and I'm facing more serious problems as I continue to age. Apperantly, this kind of damage does accelerate hearing loss in the future. I did go and get an audiogram expecting something horrible. My results were good which many people on this site claim doesn't really matter. I understand the hearing loss can occur at frequencies not tested.

None of the success stories even come close to match the level of abuse my ears have sustained. Is there any hope for me? Has somebody come out of this with a normal life? Anybody? I know I'm beyond stupid and you can go ahead and label me that. I don't really care anymore.

 

[Bill Bauer]

I'm starting to realize that I will experience this for the rest of my life with a massive potential for it to get even worse.

There is still hope. Check out the studies listed on many of the pages of
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/spontaneous-recovery-stats-over-70-recover-3-studies.21441/
Just make sure to protect your ears from even moderate noises like that of a vacuum cleaner.

The abuse that you had described doesn't sound too bad to me. Many people attend concerts regularly (and many don't wear hearing protection), and most don't get tinnitus.

There is a high chance that your T will resolve or at least fade. In fact, hissing and static noises is something many of us got after spending months recovering. Trust me, a high-pitch tone is a Lot harder to ignore than hissing. This tells me that your initial trauma wasn't as severe as trauma of many of the people who ended up getting better.

The only bad news is that this recovery (should it take place in your case) will take 6-24 months. Try to ride it out...

Make sure to get a sense of how loud your T is right now. This way, a month or two from now you will be able to tell whether you had experienced any improvement.

 

[Andrei90]

There is still hope. Check out the studies listed on many of the pages of
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/spontaneous-recovery-stats-over-70-recover-3-studies.21441/
Just make sure to protect your ears from even moderate noises like that of a vacuum cleaner.

The abuse that you had described doesn't sound too bad to me. Many people attend concerts regularly (and many don't wear hearing protection), and most don't get tinnitus.

There is a high chance that your T will resolve or at least fade. In fact, hissing and static noises is something many of us got after spending months recovering. Trust me, a high-pitch tone is a Lot harder to ignore than hissing. This tells me that your initial trauma wasn't as severe as trauma of many of the people who ended up getting better.

The only bad news is that this recovery (should it take place in your case) will take 6-24 months. Try to ride it out...

Make sure to get a sense of how loud your T is right now. This way, a month or two from now you will be able to tell whether you had experienced any improvement.

It developed last weekend and it wasn't out of nowhere. I've always had it to some degree. Going to a silent room, I could hear something if I focused on it really hard. And it was extremely easy to ignore and forget about it. I always assumed it was ambient noise of some sort. I didn't build up till a few months ago, when I noticed a slight hiss in my left ear. It was actually at this moment when I stopped using my earbuds. Hasn't improved obviously and it's been 2-3 months. Got worse a week ago (this is when it got loud) and now is even louder. The recovery stats are hopeful but I don't hink they apply to somebody in my situation. This is a gradual build up to the breaking point. Most people claim they experienced a single event which could cause significant damage beyond a few uses of my phone. But it probably doesn't compare to 3 years of usage. I don't understand how my body did not give me any indication of damage. I would have stopped immediately if my ears hurt or something.

 

[Bill Bauer]

Got worse a week ago (this is when it got loud)

Did it get worse out of the blue, for no reason that you can think of?

 

[Bill Bauer]

Most people claim they experienced a single event which could cause significant damage beyond a few uses of my phone.

Most people attend concerts and listen to loud music at home. So the acoustic trauma causing T is the last straw that triggers T (and it might not have triggered it had they been protecting their ears earlier in their lives).

 

[Andrei90]

Did it get worse out of the blue, for no reason that you can think of?

Not really. Probably just normal exposure to everyday sounds which is causing me sensitivity now. The only time I was somewhat umcomfortable was when I watched Dunkirk in IMAX. Bad move. But this was before the slight hiss came on. This is probably what pushed me over the edge and left me with terrible ears. A few more times with the phone got me here today. I also experience transient spontaneous tinnitus a lot more often now (once a day). I get that high pitch tone you spoke about but only for a few seconds. Does this indicate anything? I do feel relief with it. Kind of.

 

[Bill Bauer]

I also experience transient spontaneous tinnitus a lot more often now (once a day). I get that high pitch tone you spoke about but only for a few seconds. Does this indicate anything?

That's "fleeting tinnitus".
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/search/1933873/?q=fleeting&o=relevance
Whereas spikes might indicate that you might have further damaged your ears, fleeting tinnitus is more mysterious. Healthy people get fleeting tinnitus too, but of course this happens a lot less often compared to how often tinnitus sufferers experience it. I like to believe that fleeting tinnitus is my body trying to heal itself by recalibrating. In any case, fleeting tinnitus seems harmless, except for the panic it might cause when one is worried that it will never go away. Just tell yourself that it is fleeting tinnitus, and that you will worry only if it is still there after three minutes.

 

[Aaron44126]

Mine came on gradually, about three weeks from nothing to insane high-volume high-pitched ringing. From there it took about three months to almost completely resolve (I've been at near-zero tinnitus for about a month now, though it has flared up twice, once when I got a cold and once just today when I spent a couple of hours out in the cold). During the resolution, there was a period of a month or so where I was hearing all sorts of crazy sounds like you describe, hissing and buzzing intermittently and whistling and so forth.

All this to say, it's easy to feel early on like there is no hope, but you can't make that determination early on. You have to wait and see what happens.

It's a mess at the beginning. Obviously, you need to reign in the loud music and avoid loud sounds. You're going to have to ride it out for a few weeks and see if it changes. If it is changing, that is good, but recovery is slow.

For sleeping, experiment with sound enrichment, but do not try to completely mask the tinnitus. Find something that is calming but not loud and can distract you a bit from the tinnitus. I used a sound that was a combination of crickets, rainfall/running water, and pink noise. (The "TMSoft White Noise" app has a selection of sounds and you can mix them.)