Member- Apr 11, 2020
- 17
- Tinnitus Since
- 08/2019
- Cause of Tinnitus
- Acoustic Trauma
Hello, I've been lurking the forums since last August when I got tinnitus, but only recently joined to post some suggestions. I thought might as well introduce myself while I'm at it.
So first off I want to say that I'm 22 and I have gotten tinnitus only once before this when a firecracker blew up in my face when I was 8 years old. I always thought that ear ringing was temporary like in movies and never knew that you could have it permanently. I have also been living next to a train for 10 years, and have used headphones excessively. Also keep in mind that I valued my silence greatly, at the end of the day, sleeping in pure silence was beautiful to me.
I got my tinnitus over a week where I was calling someone on the phone. I had the speaker close to my ear and turned the volume up because I could barely hear them. But at random times, the sound would shoot up loudly and I would feel a sharp pain in my ear. I knew something was wrong but my stupid self just ignored it. I didn't know at the time the damage it could possible do.
So this happened about 5-6 times over a week before I said enough is enough and told them they had to fix their phone or not call me. after a few days, I woke up with initially hissing which progressively got louder and louder over the next few days. At this point, I was having the following things happen:
During the week, I was using ear plugs and I pushed one in too deep which caused me to impact my ear wax. I believe I probably already had some impacted ear wax, but pushing the ear plug in made it worst because I could barely hear after that. So I went to a clinic to get that check out. They said I did have impacted ear wax and cleaned it out. Afterwards it actually felt a ton better, the noise got quieter, although I still had hyperacusis.
At this point I still didn't have tinnitus in my left ear, but over a week during the end of August, I would randomly get a hissing in my right ear that would come and go randomly, along with sharp ear pain. Then one night at the end of August, I had this crazy intense pressure sensation in both ears, as if I was getting two screw drivers driven in ear side of my head. For some reason I kept yawning and when I was finally able to sleep from exhaustion, I woke up with hissing tinnitus in my right ear. It raised my anxiety but subjectively, the sound wasn't too bad.
Over the next two months from this (at the end of October), my hyperacusis when away completely, it would gradually decrease to the point where no sound would hurt my ears. From September to January, my tinnitus would fluctuate ever few days where it'd be around 6-7/10 (multi tone high pitched E heard through most of the day) to 3-4/10 (no high pitched E sound heard through most of day). I would also have random sharp ear pains, along with ear fullness, and fleeting tinnitus almost daily. During January, it went down to 1-2/10 (multi tone E sound went to a hissing sound) where I didn't even notice it much when I was sleeping. I stopped having the random ear pains too. Fleeting tinnitus has became more rare as well. It been like that for til a few days ago where I was doing some stretches with my neck and one of the high pitched E tones came back, although it doesn't cause me much distress.
Just wanted to share my story with some hope for new comers that it can get better! I didn't really try much to get rid of the tinnitus, but I stopped using headphones and got some small speakers instead for my computer. Headphones would give me a weird fullness feeling after using them. I also covered my window up so the train wouldn't be as loud. I also avoid going to any loud places now. I will say that I have had incidents where I couldn't really control such as an idiot on a motorcycle and dog barking randomly near me. I just covered my ears with my fingers and ran. They would result in my tinnitus being louder temporary for a few days but nothing permanent.
One thing I really recommend is reading the Research News section! Understanding the new treatment options that are going to be coming in the future gave me tons of hope during the hardest times.
So first off I want to say that I'm 22 and I have gotten tinnitus only once before this when a firecracker blew up in my face when I was 8 years old. I always thought that ear ringing was temporary like in movies and never knew that you could have it permanently. I have also been living next to a train for 10 years, and have used headphones excessively. Also keep in mind that I valued my silence greatly, at the end of the day, sleeping in pure silence was beautiful to me.
I got my tinnitus over a week where I was calling someone on the phone. I had the speaker close to my ear and turned the volume up because I could barely hear them. But at random times, the sound would shoot up loudly and I would feel a sharp pain in my ear. I knew something was wrong but my stupid self just ignored it. I didn't know at the time the damage it could possible do.
So this happened about 5-6 times over a week before I said enough is enough and told them they had to fix their phone or not call me. after a few days, I woke up with initially hissing which progressively got louder and louder over the next few days. At this point, I was having the following things happen:
- Severe tinnitus in one ear (morse code, multi tone high pitched Es, loud BURRR feeling/sound, electrical buzzing, weird on and off whistling) 10/10
- Terrible hyperacusis to the point where even eating hurt my ears, a rustling plastic bag would cause INTENSE pain
- Sound distortions
- Terrible anxiety where I always had an empty feeling in my stomach and chest
- Ear fullness, sharp random pains in ear, empty feeling in ear
During the week, I was using ear plugs and I pushed one in too deep which caused me to impact my ear wax. I believe I probably already had some impacted ear wax, but pushing the ear plug in made it worst because I could barely hear after that. So I went to a clinic to get that check out. They said I did have impacted ear wax and cleaned it out. Afterwards it actually felt a ton better, the noise got quieter, although I still had hyperacusis.
At this point I still didn't have tinnitus in my left ear, but over a week during the end of August, I would randomly get a hissing in my right ear that would come and go randomly, along with sharp ear pain. Then one night at the end of August, I had this crazy intense pressure sensation in both ears, as if I was getting two screw drivers driven in ear side of my head. For some reason I kept yawning and when I was finally able to sleep from exhaustion, I woke up with hissing tinnitus in my right ear. It raised my anxiety but subjectively, the sound wasn't too bad.
Over the next two months from this (at the end of October), my hyperacusis when away completely, it would gradually decrease to the point where no sound would hurt my ears. From September to January, my tinnitus would fluctuate ever few days where it'd be around 6-7/10 (multi tone high pitched E heard through most of the day) to 3-4/10 (no high pitched E sound heard through most of day). I would also have random sharp ear pains, along with ear fullness, and fleeting tinnitus almost daily. During January, it went down to 1-2/10 (multi tone E sound went to a hissing sound) where I didn't even notice it much when I was sleeping. I stopped having the random ear pains too. Fleeting tinnitus has became more rare as well. It been like that for til a few days ago where I was doing some stretches with my neck and one of the high pitched E tones came back, although it doesn't cause me much distress.
Just wanted to share my story with some hope for new comers that it can get better! I didn't really try much to get rid of the tinnitus, but I stopped using headphones and got some small speakers instead for my computer. Headphones would give me a weird fullness feeling after using them. I also covered my window up so the train wouldn't be as loud. I also avoid going to any loud places now. I will say that I have had incidents where I couldn't really control such as an idiot on a motorcycle and dog barking randomly near me. I just covered my ears with my fingers and ran. They would result in my tinnitus being louder temporary for a few days but nothing permanent.
One thing I really recommend is reading the Research News section! Understanding the new treatment options that are going to be coming in the future gave me tons of hope during the hardest times.
