Tinnitus from Long-Term Stress

Hello there,

I'm new to tinnitus. The last couple of weeks have been a nightmare.

My tinnitus started about 6 weeks ago after 9 months of crazy stress in work. I got a mild eeeeee sound in my right ear at first. I went to an ENT the next day. They did an audiogram and a tympanometry, both with normal results. All they said is it's probably stress related, prescribed Betaserc, and that it will probably go away in few weeks. After 2 weeks the noise started to lower and was almost gone.

I went to a physiotherapist two weeks ago to unblock my right shovel, and not even hour after that a new sound started - high-pitched noise, something between static and cicadas, which is still present in same loudness as it was first day.

Luckily I can still fall asleep without background noise, but I'm scared that my tinnitus will get worse.

 

Hi,

The struggle is real, but it gets better with time. Chances are that your tinnitus will either go away, as it does in many cases or you will learn to live with it without it being anything more than a nuisance.

Why would you assume it will get worse? Just take care of ears, live healthy and everything will be alright.

A large majority of people simply get better and never look back. No reason you won't be one of them.

G'day.

 

I can relate to your story @Wolfka. I had about 6 months of extremely high stress from work just prior to the onset of my tinnitus.

It's interesting that yours spiked after the shoulder adjustment. I'm guessing your tinnitus is somatic maybe? If so, perhaps your tinnitus will settle back down after your shoulder has a chance to settle after the adjustment.

 

Tinnitus tends to get worse over time. Older people statistically have a higher incidence of tinnitus, for example.

Over more than 20 years, my tinnitus has continued to get worse, and even since a more dramatic worsening in early 2022, it has gotten worse despite protecting my ears and no noise traumas. You absolutely cannot say that it definitely gets better with time as many people on Tinnitus Talk can state that theirs has gotten worse, more intense, more tones, progressed to hyperacusis, etc. If you're lucky, it does get better, though, so it's good to have hope, but just be realistic.

I use masking sounds (crickets) to help fall asleep. Some people use masking sounds through the day as well, sometimes calling it "sound enrichment".

Protect your ears and avoid noise trauma.

 

Dear @Wolfka. I am sorry that you are in this situation. Tinnitus is a mental, physical and emotional endurance test that I think is hard to fathom for people who haven't tried it themselves.

You say yours is stress induced. I am no doctor but to me that sounds like there's a good chance of healing. Mine is noise induced but the noise trauma also came after a period of insane stress at work. I very often (prior) to the noise trauma had a clear and scary feeling that I was heading in the wrong direction, that I needed to stop the insane work hours or something bad would happen. I didn't listen to myself :-(

And the noise trauma happened outside of work anyway, but I still feel guilty for treating my body so poorly for not only months, but years - due to being a bit of a workaholic. I suspect my tinnitus to be part of an overall "burn-out" in my case.

I completely understand your fear of tinnitus getting worse. If you can, perhaps take a break from work? If not sick leave then a few weeks off? Trying to relax your entire nervous system right now is very important.

I wish you all the best and hope you recover completely.

All the best.

 

That’s because people that did get better left Tinnitus Talk and never came back. People that did worsen are indeed still active but (at least) according to my ENT and several others: with proper protection and precaution your tinnitus has no reason to get worse. This was based on noise-induced tinnitus though.

Just look at how many profiles are inactive at the moment. That’s hope.

 

Not necessarily true, my uncle got tinnitus when he was 18, he’s 60 now, I think?

Anyway, it’s no worse now than it was when he was 18. At least that’s what he tells me. He did have a bad spike that lasted months after his blood pressure skyrocketed but it has since gone back down. Other than that, no issues, and yes, his tinnitus is from acoustic trauma (shotgun).

If only I was as lucky as him, I got screwed at every turn...

 

Stress was maybe the straw that broke the camel's back but inner ear damage, temporary or permanent, is usually required.

 

There are always anecdotal cases, exceptions. What I said was true, though. I didn't say it 100% for all cases.

Many people probably never return to Tinnitus Talk for reasons other than that they suddenly got better. In some cases, things ended tragically. There's still hope, but be realistic.

Note, it's difficult to be completely objective about your tinnitus getting slowly worse over decades. You might think it hasn't gotten worse because you've slowly gotten used to it over many years and tuned it out better. But statistically, older people have a greater incidence of reporting tinnitus.

Note, my post was in response to the statement that "it gets better with time". And that is certainly not definitive, as it often won't, and statistically is more likely to be worse with age.

 

In case some haven't run into this, @Markku posted about a survey conducted targeting members who haven't visited Tinnitus Talk in 2+ months. It got around 2,800 responses. I'm just sharing to provide more info, not to weigh in on whether people's tinnitus is more likely to worsen over time.

You can make a similar argument for the situation when someone's tinnitus slowly gets better over time.

I haven't read studies yet that show that older people have a greater incidence of reporting tinnitus, but I believe that's what some studies have shown. But a greater incidence of reporting tinnitus doesn't necessarily show that, for the people who do have tinnitus, their tinnitus worsens over time. That's like saying, "Since elderly people have a higher incidence of reporting that they own a car, for people who own cars, their cars get bigger over time."

 

It all seems like a crapshoot to me. I haven't had my audiogram yet but I feel like I hear just the same as I did prior to whatever happened. Either way I am stuck with it now. If the reason for Mr. T helped my treatment, I would care more, but but not sure it much matters at this point.

 

It’s likely due to presbycusis (age-related hearing loss) I think. Nothing you can do unfortunately, it’s just natural progression as the human body ages and deteriorates. Just gotta take it all in stride.

 

Hello @DeepakB, thank you for your kind and supportive message.

I took some time off my work, started doing all the things I loved before tinnitus, like long walks in nature, painting and even playing video games.

After googling too much and reading all those sad stories how other people's tinnitus got much worse, I went into a spiral of depression.

Now I'm trying to read only success stories and news in research/treatment.

My tinnitus is still there but in the last few days it has annoyed me a tiny bit less.

I also asked a lot of my friends about tinnitus and many of them had it/have it but they are completely habituated, which brings me hope.

 

I’m slowly getting to the 3 month mark now. What has changed?

Short answer: a lot.

Long answer: I started going out for walks much more. I walk about 70 km every week now. I started with SSRI antidepressants which greatly helped me with anxiety and overall calmed my nerves and reaction to tinnitus. Back to Silence method helped me as well - I went from checking my tinnitus 50-60 times per day to 3-5, then I stopped checking how often I do it, but I am still checking my response to tinnitus.

Now I’m going only to Research News/Treatments, Off Topic and Success Stories parts of Tinnitus Talk to keep myself from negativity. Slowly but surely I’m getting my life back. I event went to cinema to see Oppenheimer and it was a blast (pun intended). Since I’m not a big fan of concerts, I guess I will never miss that part of life. Going to small clubs where music is not that loud and I can hear people talking without their voices raised is much comfortable for me.

Sadly physioterapy didn’t help me with tinnitus, but they really tried to help me as best as they could. But a week ago or so I discovered that when I yawn, my tinnitus gets much louder for a few moments. Does it mean my tinnitus is somatic?

What annoys me more than the sound of my tinnitus is ETD with which I’ve been struggling for the last 4 months. It is slowly getting better but hearing that popping every time I yawn or swallow is driving me crazy.

I hope that I will habituate even more in the next months and that the ETD will finally resolve.

 

That's great to hear that you are improving, @Wolfka.

What type of SSRIs are you on? Do you find they are reducing your perception of your tinnitus, that you tinnitus seems quieter?

Or is it the same volume but just bothers you less?

 

I’m on Citalopram 20 mg and my tinnitus is quieter by 30-50%. Now I mainly notice it when I’m going to sleep, because I don’t use a sound machine. But even then it's still really silent eeeeeee noise.