Hello, I am a 23 yo, male from Toronto. Last Monday I experienced an SBUTT (sudden tinnitus that disappears after 10 seconds) to my right ear. This has been happening a few times for the last month but I made nothing of it as it would go away quickly. I have also been experiencing ear fullness, which started on my left ear but would move back and forth between ears. I don't think my hearing has been affected but its hard for me to tell. I've done a bunch of hearing tests online and they all seem to come out mostly fine.
I am a hypochondriac so I've been searching about this for hours a day. I even decided to go to the ER today however I ended up leaving because the wait was long and I couldn't help it with my anxiety. I had already been to the ER last week for some other health issue I was experiencing and that was already draining. The triage nurse was nice and tried to help me, but I just wasn't able to stay. She made sure to ask if I was suicidal and I said no (I am not), but I have been having very dark thoughts lately. For the last month and a half I've been a mess. I've been under constant stress due to health issues and a very serious health issue that happened to a close family member of mine, which I won't mention because I want to remain discrete. This whole thing has been a traumatic experience for me. Everytime I thought I had finally reached rock bottom and I was coming out of it, something else has come up and made me depressed again. Now it is tinnitus that has caused me to worry nonstop.
I'll give a brief timeline of what has been happening since I got this ringing:
Monday: I experience another SBUTT episode and started researching if this was something that happens to other people (it is). Then I noticed that there was still some ringing remaining. At first it started as a light static noise but then it started to amplify the more I focused on it. I tried to sleep through it and got maybe 3-4 hours.
Tuesday: My family went to go visited my family member. I had to spend a few hours outside in part of my city while an appointment was taking place. I didn't notice the tinnitus at all the whole time and just enjoyed my day. When I got home I started to notice the ringing again so I went out for a walk again as a distraction. I got some ear wax cleaner from the pharmacy and tried using it, but ofc it didn't help with much. I spent my whole night researching and got 1 hour of sleep.
Wednesday: I booked an appointment with a walkin clinic doctor and got my ears checked. He said that my ears were clear and that he would refer me to an ENT doctor. He wasn't very comforting tbh. I decided to go out with friends after this to take my mind of things but I had a horrible time. I eventually ended up leaving early. I was so sleep deprived at this point, but so as night fell I tried to sleep but the ringing was so loud at this point. My dad ended up giving me some lorazepam which localised the ringing back to the right ear. I ended up sleeping 14 hours.
Thursday and Friday: Its kind of a blur. We went and visited my family member again for both days. I ended up researching a lot about tinnitus on this forum and google for both days. Pretty much, all I've been doing the last month was researching about health and certain diseases, so the trend continued. My sleep was again very poor.
Saturday: Again visited my family member. This is when I went to the ER, however I left because of anxiety. Instead my dad and I ended up going to a nice park and again I barely noticed the tinnitus. I decided that I'll rest today and consider what to do next tomorrow.
I am feeling somewhat better atm. Ironically, the tinnitus is barely present right now as I write this. I really don't understand what is going on and how this happened. Maybe its stress induced. I honestly don't know. I've been having a really horrible year this year, after having the best year of my life last year. It's really quite the contrast that I wouldn't wish on anybody. I definitely do think I've been struggling with depression and intense anxiety over these last few months. I know this is not solely a post on tinnitus but all of this has led up to this point. I really feel like I'm struggling to hang on to reality. I spent my birthday 2 weeks ago at a party my friends threw for me and I barely smiled.
All I'm asking in this post is for some words of encouragement and hope that this tinnitus (and other things) will get better. I know I've only been experiencing this for a short time but its been really draining.
Edit on symptoms: Besides the ear fullness every once in a while, I've been feeling pain in mostly my right ear. (Earache). Sometimes I just feel a strange sensation around my right ear. The right side of my jaw (crunching at joint), throat and head have been having some discomfort too. I'm not sure how much of this I'm imagining. I would say that the tinnitus is not noticeable when I'm not focusing on it. This is why I have been taking long walks recently because it gets my mind off of it. However sleeping is very difficult, so if anyone has any tips for sleeping that would be helpful. It just gets louder and louder when I try to sleep and moves to both ears and the middle of my head after a while.
I've been taking a multivitamin, magnesium, vitamin b12, fish oil, anti histamine and melatonin to help with sleep and the lack of food I've been eating this last week (no appetite unfortunately).
I am a hypochondriac so I've been searching about this for hours a day. I even decided to go to the ER today however I ended up leaving because the wait was long and I couldn't help it with my anxiety. I had already been to the ER last week for some other health issue I was experiencing and that was already draining. The triage nurse was nice and tried to help me, but I just wasn't able to stay. She made sure to ask if I was suicidal and I said no (I am not), but I have been having very dark thoughts lately. For the last month and a half I've been a mess. I've been under constant stress due to health issues and a very serious health issue that happened to a close family member of mine, which I won't mention because I want to remain discrete. This whole thing has been a traumatic experience for me. Everytime I thought I had finally reached rock bottom and I was coming out of it, something else has come up and made me depressed again. Now it is tinnitus that has caused me to worry nonstop.
I'll give a brief timeline of what has been happening since I got this ringing:
Monday: I experience another SBUTT episode and started researching if this was something that happens to other people (it is). Then I noticed that there was still some ringing remaining. At first it started as a light static noise but then it started to amplify the more I focused on it. I tried to sleep through it and got maybe 3-4 hours.
Tuesday: My family went to go visited my family member. I had to spend a few hours outside in part of my city while an appointment was taking place. I didn't notice the tinnitus at all the whole time and just enjoyed my day. When I got home I started to notice the ringing again so I went out for a walk again as a distraction. I got some ear wax cleaner from the pharmacy and tried using it, but ofc it didn't help with much. I spent my whole night researching and got 1 hour of sleep.
Wednesday: I booked an appointment with a walkin clinic doctor and got my ears checked. He said that my ears were clear and that he would refer me to an ENT doctor. He wasn't very comforting tbh. I decided to go out with friends after this to take my mind of things but I had a horrible time. I eventually ended up leaving early. I was so sleep deprived at this point, but so as night fell I tried to sleep but the ringing was so loud at this point. My dad ended up giving me some lorazepam which localised the ringing back to the right ear. I ended up sleeping 14 hours.
Thursday and Friday: Its kind of a blur. We went and visited my family member again for both days. I ended up researching a lot about tinnitus on this forum and google for both days. Pretty much, all I've been doing the last month was researching about health and certain diseases, so the trend continued. My sleep was again very poor.
Saturday: Again visited my family member. This is when I went to the ER, however I left because of anxiety. Instead my dad and I ended up going to a nice park and again I barely noticed the tinnitus. I decided that I'll rest today and consider what to do next tomorrow.
I am feeling somewhat better atm. Ironically, the tinnitus is barely present right now as I write this. I really don't understand what is going on and how this happened. Maybe its stress induced. I honestly don't know. I've been having a really horrible year this year, after having the best year of my life last year. It's really quite the contrast that I wouldn't wish on anybody. I definitely do think I've been struggling with depression and intense anxiety over these last few months. I know this is not solely a post on tinnitus but all of this has led up to this point. I really feel like I'm struggling to hang on to reality. I spent my birthday 2 weeks ago at a party my friends threw for me and I barely smiled.
All I'm asking in this post is for some words of encouragement and hope that this tinnitus (and other things) will get better. I know I've only been experiencing this for a short time but its been really draining.
Edit on symptoms: Besides the ear fullness every once in a while, I've been feeling pain in mostly my right ear. (Earache). Sometimes I just feel a strange sensation around my right ear. The right side of my jaw (crunching at joint), throat and head have been having some discomfort too. I'm not sure how much of this I'm imagining. I would say that the tinnitus is not noticeable when I'm not focusing on it. This is why I have been taking long walks recently because it gets my mind off of it. However sleeping is very difficult, so if anyone has any tips for sleeping that would be helpful. It just gets louder and louder when I try to sleep and moves to both ears and the middle of my head after a while.

I've been taking a multivitamin, magnesium, vitamin b12, fish oil, anti histamine and melatonin to help with sleep and the lack of food I've been eating this last week (no appetite unfortunately).