Tinnitus Spike from Snapping a Tree Branch — Possibility of It Being Permanent?

[Poseidon65]

Hi folks,

Today I was outside looking for firewood in the forest. I found some branches on the ground which were too long. One of the branches was particularly thick (maybe 1.25 inches), which I broke by stepping on the branch with my foot. *Immediately* after the break, I got a noticeable spike. I was surprised by this as I never thought of breaking branches as being a particularly loud activity, but in retrospect, it definitely is.

Around 8 hours later, my tinnitus is still noticeably worse than it was before.

What's the likelihood that a spike from this kind of incident is permanent? Does the fact that my tinnitus spiked immediately have any implication on this?

FWIW I am not planning to seek out Prednisone or other steroids, as the evidence for them seems thin at best.

 

[Jodi]

Your spike most probably is psychological only, since your brain filters out sound as a serious threat, and this sound stood out, your brain got scared, triggered fight/flight. Therefor the effect is kind the opposite of habituation. I.e. your brain will notice your tinnitus more... for some time; minutes, hours, maybe days. But to cause more actual damage the noise needs to be louder, think closer to 100 dB or usually much more.

 

[Matt9]

It's not permanent, it will subside.

 

[Poseidon65]

Thanks all, the sound has definitely gone down.

 

[Matt9]

How much did it take for the spike to subside?

 

[Poseidon65]

It went down within a week.

 

[Poseidon65]

Your spike most probably is psychological only, since your brain filters out sound as a serious threat, and this sound stood out, your brain got scared, triggered fight/flight. Therefor the effect is kind the opposite of habituation. I.e. your brain will notice your tinnitus more... for some time; minutes, hours, maybe days. But to cause more actual damage the noise needs to be louder, think closer to 100 dB or usually much more.

The temporary spike was definitely real. I had broken some smaller branches with no effect on my ears. Only when I broke a larger branch, which made a much louder sound, did I get a spike. It was honestly pretty loud being right next to it (no dB meter in use at the time obviously).

 

[GBB]

Your spike most probably is psychological only, since your brain filters out sound as a serious threat, and this sound stood out, your brain got scared, triggered fight/flight. Therefor the effect is kind the opposite of habituation. I.e. your brain will notice your tinnitus more... for some time; minutes, hours, maybe days. But to cause more actual damage the noise needs to be louder, think closer to 100 dB or usually much more.

I also get spikes from innocuous stuff - really sick of people saying spikes are "psychological" - please stop telling people that, lest someone else begin to retort that your tinnitus as a whole is psycho-somatic.

 

[B18c1vtech]

99.99999% chance you triggered a fight or flight anxiety response. It's the biggest reason we see posts like these. Try to relax, you'll be fine.

If it calms your mind, take some antioxidant supplements for any inflammation, and some vitamins.

 

[dan]

I also get spikes from innocuous stuff - really sick of people saying spikes are "psychological" - please stop telling people that, lest someone else begin to retort that your tinnitus as a whole is psycho-somatic.

Unfortunately even the tinnitus world is divided, we don't understand each other at all.

"mildies" vs "modies" vs "severies" ... mildies start understanding severies if and when their tinnitus gets worse in a decade or so... till then, any spike is "psychological" and their spikes may not go back down just by staying calm once they breakout in pre-severe range.