Relationship Breakup and Tinnitus

[Oldfriend]

So I don't have tinnitus but my friend does. When we were in high school and early college we were really close. We had a fight and the friendship faded.

Fast forward 30 years and we start talking again. We talk every day, multiple times a day. She is in a long term relationship she says she is committed to him.

We reached a point where I thought it was good to step back - because my feelings for her seemed > hers. ( I want more).

We went two weeks w/o talking now we are talking again. When we started again she told me that when we stopped talking, she had loud ringing in her ears for several days. She also mentioned the same thing happened to her when we stopped 30 years ago.

What does that mean? I googled some and assumed tinnitus. Anyone have any ideas?

 

[.bill]

Anxiety

 

[Oldfriend]

How do you manage this or potentially prevent it from happening?

 

[Autumnly]

Yes, sounds like tinnitus. But it's not chronic, right? Her ears ringing during those times could be due to several different reasons. Maybe she was grinding her teeth more at night or had more tension in her neck or it was due to anxiety or stress. As for preventing it... well, usually you would say don't listen to loud music, avoid loud places and ototoxic medications, try to reduce your stress level. And as for managing it, she could, for example, try breathing exercises or have some relaxing music or white noise in the background.