Spikes: Indication of Actual Harm? Or Just a Symptom Spike?

[MattS]

Hey community,

I'm trying to figure out if noise-/vibration-related spikes indicate that more damage is being done to your auditory systems, or if it's simply an indication that we've gotten our screwy neurons all riled up.

For instance, I go for a 1 hour drive in my 78dB car with plugs in, and end up with 24 hours of post-drive electricity running through my head because of the tire/road/engine vibrations. Normally 78dB should not be remotely close to being something to worry about. But in my damaged brain does this indicate that driving is killing my remaining hair cells and making me worse? Or does it just mean that the neurons that are already broken are vulnerable to being woken up by excess noise/vibration in ways they weren't when they were intact?

These are critical questions - maybe *the* critical question actually. Because if most of you are like me, what you're really worried about - more than how to deal with your tinnitus, is whether or not you're going to get worse. If every time we spike we're one step closer to a deeper, darker pit of crickets and fireflies, then we should all be battering down the hatches, and running for our lives every time the decibel meter touches 75dB. If, on the other hand, our remaining hair cells remain healthy, and the spikes we endure are just our damaged neurons getting ornery over and over... well, then we just have to learn to tell them to fuck off and get on with our lives.

In some sense, I'm sure the answer is somewhere in between. But where exactly? What's the actual truth? Does anyone know? Know of research? Have years of experience with spikes? I, for one, would love some additional insights here.

Cheers
-Matt

 

[HeavyMantra]

Thinking about this a lot as well. If I knew that it wouldn't get worse, I would get my life back in a sense. Now I live in fear.

I doubt there's any solid info about this though.

 

[MattS]

I agree there probably isn't doctor-level info on this. But in this case the may be a lot to glean from anecdotal/experiential information. If 99% of spikes have a regular course, come back down to baseline in, say, two days, then we may be able to surmise that the damaged neurons are just getting riled up by vibrations. If it's super variable, some spikes take 2 days, some 12, some 47, some don't come back down... that would seem more ominous. The basis for the question stemmed partially from the fact that everyone on her is so used to spikes, and just days "don't worry, it's just a spike, it'll come back down". That suggests to me that these spikes may just be symptomatic rather than pathogenic.

So I think that info from some long time sufferers could be really helpful here. And recent sufferers too. Anyone... But we need to compile the data.

Maybe I'll create a poll.

 

[Phendran]

Maybe I'll create a poll.

Please do, you can test it on me.

 

[MattS]

K - will do.

 

[MattS]

@HeavyMantra @Phendran

I just out up a poll that I think is designed smartly enough to get some useful data on this. It may require some iteration, but it's a start.

Please have a search for it in my postings, and please provide your responses to help clarify this important issue.

 

[John Mahan]

Hi Matt,
Likely spikes may occur to different people for different reasons but will speak to mine.
This dynamic...my particular spiking dynamic is very similar to others on here.

Best way to say it in my case is...has nothing to do with any worsening. At least in my case.

My spikes are both equivalent and pretty severe....as is regression back to my baseline tinnitus which I have right now as I type this which is a sound I hear...mostly in my left ear but a bit in my right ear as well...a hiss with whistle harmonic woven into the aggregate sound.

My spike seems to be purely related my sleep patterns which likely correlate on some level to cortisol level.
Happy sleep for me is more rare than nightmares I have. My tinnitus seems to follow accordingly. When I have a good run of happier sleep, my tinnitus is lower. Bad run of more nightmarish sleep, my tinnitus tends to spike.

As you can imagine, there is momentum to such a spike. Nightmares beget more nightmares because of increased stress level and happy dreams follow happy dreams more. A continuance and pattern.

That is all I can surmise about my personal tinnitus as I make sense of it.

The most unsettling element of my tinnitus is likely its variation. I can never predict it or count on it. Unlike before I knew what tinnitus was….I could pretty much count my whole life on no tinnitus.

But equally unsettling about my tinnitus is when it gets loud, it seems to demand my attention. Hard not to think about it. I try to ignore it and get on with my life but this is difficult as many know here.

All I have. As reported on the forum, there is a wide variation in tinnitus type...some people for example sleep doesn't seem to influence it, nor does their tinnitus vary much.

So maybe hard to deduce whether a spike is a physical worsening or just a repeatable trend. For me, if there is a confidence I have on 'some level'...is my tinnitus will hopefully go down in noise level eventually. It always does and hope the day never arrives if stuck with acute tinnitus. I feel deeply for those in this state and I hope so much that help will come to all of us in terms of therapeutic paths to help each of us and in particular those that suffer the most.