Noise Induced Tinnitus with a Flavor of Reactive Tinnitus

[Christal]

I am having a serious issue with noise exposure causing tinnitus. Everyone on the face of this earth HAS been exposed to loud sounds. Here I am 42 years old. I've been to 5 concerts in my lifetime. Most of the time I was in the upper balcony, well away from speakers. I'm not much into the bar scene either. Ear buds.... I've NEVER liked the way they felt in my ears, so never really used them. Actual headphones... yes! On RARE occasions. Mainly to listen to YouTube videos about normal everyday stuff while sitting in the living room while others watched TV... Radio turned up in my car moderately... that I'm completely guilty of.

I have very mild high frequency hearing loss. Yet here I am!

ENT doesn't think it's hearing related. I'm bouncing back and forth from Dr to Dr. I've become a human pin cushion. CTs, MRIs, neurologist, orthoneuros, cardio, gastro. Best yet, my ENT is so stumped because of my audiogram he's sending me to a specialist for a second opinion. A 3 hour drive from my place.

I'm tired, angry and feeling completely hopeless. When it first started I had the infamous deaf tone. As loud as it can get eeeeeeeee. Then it started changing sounds. I thought YES! It's getting better.

While the sound is lower and easier to tolerate, I'll be damned, it reacts to sounds. It climbs over top of every day sounds and makes doing anything hard. When it first started it wasn't like that.

Now I can't even explain what I'm hearing. A really low wobbly hiss sound maybe or air running through my head. I am the worse trying to explain it. I'm about 10 weeks in and scared to death this is what the rest of my life will be.

They won't send me to audiology until I'm medically cleared. I 100% understand if it's not hearing loss caused, hearing aids and maskers won't work but it's my money being wasted if they don't work! It's not like I won't continue trying to find a cause. But what I'm seeing though, even if we find a cause it doesn't mean it's going to go away.

I'm at my wits' end. I just want life to go back to normal. What I mean by normal is quiet nights with my kids. Shopping at Walmart. Dinner out with my kids. Hanging with friends at their house. I just want quiet nights. Sleep without medication. Work days without extreme anxiety. I just want normal back! At the very least for this stuff to stop affecting my hearing the way it is. When it clears out of my head and gets really low I have no issues what so ever. No reaction to sounds. No reaction to conversations with my kids. No reaction to my won voice. I'm grateful for those moments. They just don't happen often enough. It seems I'm a medical mystery as mine has so many changes in sound. Reacts one minute, doesn't the next. I even thought I had hyperacusis at one point but sounds don't hurt. Tinnitus just reacts. Then other times tinnitus doesn't react at all.

Go figure. All my doctors are stumped and I just want to scream!

 

[Davey]

Give it time, it's already changing for you. It can still heal after 6 months, maybe even after a year. I got tinnitus for over 19+ years and it still changes for me. After 10 years it even went away for a month or two, and after 15+ years it was reduced for 80% for a day. Doctors don't understand it, because it's too complicated and we need more research about it.

The best thing you can do is calm yourself about it, the more you fight it, the more you acknowledge it as a threat.

How to do this: go in the most silent room you got, first try 1 minute and build it up to 10+ minutes. It will become better.

 

[Michael Leigh]

HI @Christal

The title of your post is Noise Induced Tinnitus. Yes, I am stating the obvious because there are specific reasons for this. If exposure to loud noise is the cause of your tinnitus and it is the most common, there is no point going from Dr to Dr for tests, for as you quite rightly say you're wasting money. You need to stop this and fast!

The best treatment for noise induced tinnitus in the early stages, which you are in is to do nothing. I understand your distress, what you are going through and that you want your life back and to be rid of the noise. However, going from pillar to post will not achieve what you desire and will likely make you more stressed the longer you continue this crusade to find relief. I have been there as many others have in this forum. Try to relax and this will help to lower your stress levels and it will have a beneficial affect on the tinnitus.

As I have said the most common cause of tinnitus is exposure to loud noise. Typically, it is listening to music or other types of audio through headphones. People often think they are listening at low volumes but do not realize this is not usually the case. Since you have said you use headphones, I am fairly certain this is what has caused the tinnitus even though you may not think so.

Hearing aids and maskers are not the answer for you at the moment and if anyone advises you to purchase them, I suggest you don't. Leave your ears and auditory system alone and stop going to Doctors for the moment. You have had a hearing test. I don't know your specific circumstances and I am not a doctor. However, you may have some hearing loss but not significantly to cause or worsen your tinnitus. I know some Doctors and Audiologists are quick to advise tinnitus patients to buy these expensive devices when they really don't need them. I think this practice is outrageous so please be careful. I know this goes on because I correspond with people abroad and this is what I have been told. This does not happen in the UK as our health system is different.

Tinnitus often causes stress so the only thing I advise is light medication help you to relax, so talk to your family doctor. I also advise you to start using "sound enrichment" during the day and especially at night. I explain more about this in the links below. Please click on them and read my articles thoroughly and try not to skim through them. Tinnitus usually improves over time. I advise you not to use headphones even at low volume.

All the best
Michael

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/new-to-tinnitus-what-to-do.12558/
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/tinnitus-a-personal-view.18668/
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/hyperacusis-as-i-see-it.19174/
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/acquiring-a-positive-mindset.23969/
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/tinnitus-and-the-negative-mindset.23705/
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/the-habituation-process.20767/
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/is-positivity-important.23150/

 

[CAgirl]

@Christal Hi Christal. Has the reactivity of your tinnitus subsided at all?