Please Help! Phone Vibrated On/Next to Ear — Now Tinnitus Seems Louder

[MilesD]

I have a terrible night sleeping and unfortunately my phone ended up directly next to/on my ear, either the phone under the pillow with my ear precisely at this spot or even the ear in direct contact to the phone.

I awoke from two short buzz sounds from the phone on vibrate, each buzz one second, like zuum - zuum.

Can this have caused permanent damage? I'm freaking out and beat myself how I ended up in this situation.
Is vibration equivalent to loud sound? What exactly might have caused damage in this scenario?

Happened 10 minutes ago: no pain, no ear fullness, but a weird feeling; tinnitus seems louder

Please please help!

 

[Bill Bauer]

Can this have caused permanent damage?

If you are not experiencing a spike or ear fullness, I wouldn't worry about it. If you are having a spike, it will most likely be temporary. But temporary spikes can last over 3 months. Only worry about this incident if three months from now your spike is as loud as it is today.

I had something similar happen to me, and it ended up being temporary.

 

[Bill Bauer]

By the way, if you get a spike tomorrow (or later today), it might be due to you being under a lot of stress today.

 

[MilesD]

@Bill Bauer

Thank you from the bottom of my heart! I had just edited the thread: no pain or fullness so far, T louder. I am in total shock though.

I found another thread where so. had the same situation but the phone actually rang with the (loudish) ringtone with the phone on his ear.

Is there a difference between sound ringtone and vibrate ringtone in terms of it causing acoustic trauma/damage? In other word: Putting the phone on the ear, the phone rings with ringtone, the phone buzzes from vibrate mode. What is worse?

 

[Elfin]

You'll be fine. This has happened to me several times.

 

[Bill Bauer]

I am in total shock though.

I've had T for close to 19 months now. I have been trying to protect my ears from shocks like that, but sometimes those shocks are inevitable. The resulting spikes are usually temporary. Of course it is natural to be worried. But eventually one learns to wait before getting concerned. Having said this, of course these things seem to interfere with healing and if one keeps doings things that cause these spikes, eventually the spike is bound to be permanent. So do your best to protect your ears, but if it doesn't work out, try to not get too upset. Remember your stress can cause a spike, which will cause more stress and it can become a vicious circle (but it won't be permanent).

Here are some posts that demonstrate that temporary T can last a long time:
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/head-movement-spikes-tinnitus.25179/#post-290614
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/poll-how-long-do-your-tinnitus-spikes-usually-last.23110/

I believe that you might find some of the information on
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/thread...eone-else-who-has-tinnitus.26850/#post-307822
to be useful to you.

 

[JoshuaD2002]

Bill please read:
Last night:
Was holding my phone whilst having index fingers in ears to check tinnitus. Holding phone in right hand and I get a message from someone and it vibrated, sending the vibrating straight through my finger and making a loud sound in my ear (Well not too loud it didn't hurt), but was kinda loud. I removed my finger very quickly so the exposure was short. Had a huge panic attack. 30 minutes later, a new morse code like sound in that ear and it's still there this morning.

Opinion?

 

[Red]

Bill please read:
Last night:
Was holding my phone whilst having index fingers in ears to check tinnitus. Holding phone in right hand and I get a message from someone and it vibrated, sending the vibrating straight through my finger and making a loud sound in my ear (Well not too loud it didn't hurt), but was kinda loud. I removed my finger very quickly so the exposure was short. Had a huge panic attack. 30 minutes later, a new morse code like sound in that ear and it's still there this morning.

Opinion?

If it makes you feel any better, I've had additional tones accompany a spike before and they went away after 1-2 weeks.

Also, guys? Turn off vibrate. I have it off because it aggravates my chronic pain. Never missed it.

 

[JoshuaD2002]

If it makes you feel any better, I've had additional tones accompany a spike before and they went away after 1-2 weeks.

Also, guys? Turn off vibrate. I have it off because it aggravates my chronic pain. Never missed it.

Well I just had an incident with my dog barking as visitors came and now it's actually louder so I have no idea whether I have chance of this going away now

 

[JoshuaD2002]

I bet this is permanent now cos my phone vibrated on my bed with my head on pillow. Do I still even have a chance? So sad...

 

[Red]

I bet this is permanent now cos my phone vibrated on my bed with my head on pillow. Do I still even have a chance? So sad...

For me, spikes are accumulative. Accumulated spikes are louder and take longer to go to baseline.

 

[Striveon]

I bet this is permanent now cos my phone vibrated on my bed with my head on pillow. Do I still even have a chance? So sad...

My phone has vibrated with my phone under my pillow and my ear right on it. It did spike, but went away a few days later! Take NAC if you're worried, I didn't take anything and it went away! It's okay, try to remain calm, I know anxiety can make your T seem louder. I had an audiogram and I have a feeling it's probably anxiety that makes it seem louder. Try to stay distracted. I hope it goes away because it did for me so I'm sure it will for you also!

 

[JoshuaD2002]

I should also mention that about a month ago now, a football hit me with some force straight on my left ear. Was pretty painful but I did not notice any tinnitus after at all. My hearing seemed a bit muffled for maybe a minute but I was basically fine. Hoping that incident didn't do anything... all it actually did was push some wax into my ear.

Otherwise unless it's chronic anxiety and depression, I really don't understand why I have tinnitus. I've had that reactive tinnitus - static noise - since like April now (sometimes it's got alot better) but right now I'm hearing that static noise in silence... no idea why.

It's quite likely to do with the way I process sound and also my anxiety, so I have been told in the past.