Tinnitus Spike from Clogged Ears and/or Ritalin — What Now?

Hello everyone, I'm a long-time listener and first-time caller.

I'm a 42-year-old, decently healthy guy based in Germany. I developed tinnitus in the Spring of 2019, seemingly out of the blue (I can suspect maybe the bad flu I had six months earlier and the flights I took while sick, basic use of headphones, and also simple bad luck of genetics as my grandmother and mother both suffer from what they call "bees in their ears").

My tinnitus was first a high-pitched electrical type noise, only in my left ear, very constant. After some initial months of panic, I got used to it, and it rarely bothered me in the past years. I was careful, avoided concerts and always carried good earplugs.

My right ear started in the past years to have a very different type of sound: a singing, almost melodic, beeping morse code that appeared from time to time. Annoying for sure, but still manageable with a white-noise machine. Interestingly, this right ear sound was also controllable by applying pressure on specific parts of my ear, so I could often just stop it with a rightly place wax earplug.

Last year was rough, with Long COVID-19 giving me fatigue and bad brain fog for months. And a bad encounter with a silly kid throwing huge firecrackers in a tiny resonating subway hallway, spiking my tinnitus for a few weeks... But by the fall, I got much better.

Cut to these few events leading to my current extremely high spike:

• Got COVID-19, again, in November, it gave me a lingering productive cough, still to this day.
• Slipped on ice over Xmas and cracked some ribs, which added to the chest inflammation.
• Took a couple of planes, and on the last flight, I felt my right ear pop wildly.

So it's been more than two weeks now that my right ear is very clogged. My left ear comes and goes. My ENT says that my ears are fine, the problem is that my system was full of mucus because of my ongoing cough/cold and my sinuses are now really blocked. I believe him; even though my nose seems fine, I can breathe with no problem.

And, of course, with these blocked ears, my tinnitus became so much louder, and even new sounds are being created in my right ear, which used to be the "better" one... Not only is everything muffled but there are now two very high-pitched sounds in both ears, making me feel like I'm just out the doors of Metallica concerts all the time. On top of that, my "singing" sound in the right ear is back with a vengeance, preventing me from getting to sleep. This time, impossible to control it. I didn't even think tinnitus could get that loud.

I need to add that in October, I was diagnosed with ADHD, and my psychiatrist put me on a small dose of the local version of Ritalin (5 mg a day first, then 10, then 15). It really helped with my restlessness and focus; I needed that. But I noticed twice that raising the dose would make my tinnitus way more annoying and add to feeling like my head was in a bucket. It also made my jaw clench.

I think the pressure of the clogged ears + the Ritalin side effects was a bad combo. I stopped taking the treatment for now and hope the ears get better. I'm followed by my doctors.

But it's a difficult time. I sleep badly, I have panic attacks and dark thoughts. I have trouble imagining I could live like this. I'm scaring my girlfriend, who feels helpless in how to comfort me.

I know intellectually that tinnitus tends to be very scary at first, but we get used to it. And I hope the sounds will slowly reduce when the ears unclog and my cough finally goes. But it's tough not to stress and fear that it will all stay forever. You all know that.

Sorry for the block of text. I guess I needed to vent. But I'm looking for people who could share lessons of similar experiences with clogged ears and/or Ritalin. Will this get better?

And I'm always looking for advice to deal with all this. I could do with less strident hissing in my head and life, especially as I'm a writer and spend a lot of time alone, needing to focus...

Thanks for this space. Best.

 

Update: My ENT is certain I have fluid in my inner ears. She recommends waiting and using lots of nasal sprays, including corticosteroids. She says it can take months to clear out. Or I could try to get an operation to pierce my eardrums and drain the ears, but she thinks it has risks.

On the one hand, I'd prefer to avoid complications from a procedure, but it's also obvious that my recent new sounds and volume of tinnitus are because of this clogging. Is it better to hope the tinnitus gets better when the clogging dissipates by itself, or try to be proactive and drain everything faster, but with another set of unknown consequences...?

Does anyone here have experience of such clogging, or operation?

Thanks!