TLDR: Tinnitus faded away significantly after 10 days but a constant light ringing remains. Still unsure of cause, several things suspected, please see the last paragraph if you can give any feedback on it.
On April 1st I woke up with tinnitus. It was like a high pitched whistling sound that seemed to be coming from inside my head, along with various other ringing and buzzing sounds. It seemed worse toward my left side, but not localized to any particular area. I remember the first few days it was hard to fall asleep, and I awoke frequently in the night. I tried putting on white noise tracks on the computer to fall asleep to, and turned on a tower fan, but I'm not sure either helped-the tinnitus wasn't particularly loud, but there was a certain sharpness to it that made me hear it over everything. During the first week or so I also remember walking outside looking up at the sky, and it seemed like the whistling noise was just pouring down on me and followed me wherever I went, it was difficult to enjoy anything.
I was fortunate to get a very friendly doctor at the health clinic. I passed for normal hearing range with a rudimentary test. I had my ears looked at and she said they looked fine. There was some fluid behind my left ear drum, but the doctor assured me that is is very common to see this, and it wouldn't be the cause of the tinnitus. I asked for something to help with anxiety, and was described an antidepressant. However, I waited until the next Monday to talk to my counselling therapist about it, as I was very wary of these type of drugs, and only considered it because I was desperate for relief. In the end I decided against it because of the negative health consequences of SSRIs I researched online, and also became less anxious because by that time I was able to sleep normally through the night and not need to mask it at all. I had used melatonin supplements and another herbal capsule called Deep Sleep frequently before, and now I take them religiously, most of the time I fall asleep very quickly.
I still keep the radio on whenever I'm at home and awake, and not listening to or watching something else. One thing I miss is being able to just lie in bed peacefully in silence for a while after sleeping in. If I'm not going to fall back asleep, listening to the tinnitus too much doesn't feel good, so I get up and turn on the radio. Always on speakers, I basically stopped wearing headphones or earbuds ever.
10 days or so after it first occurred, the high pitch whine in my head mostly faded away, and I would only notice it in a quiet room or when in bed. The second half of April I remember as feeling very good, hardly noticing the tinnitus. Though it seemed to worsen slightly in early May, but nowhere near as bad as when it first happened, more easily forgettable. At this point it does seem mostly heard in my left ear, but still as if its from inside my head. Sounds like water rushing through a pipe, a tiny bell ringing, or a soft mechanical rattling, like an air conditioner. I can't be sure exactly about how it fluctuates, and I learned that constantly plugging my ears to check the tinnitus sound will only make me more stressed and anxious about it. I listen to it, then I imagine I'm hearing it get louder, check my ears again, a vicious cycle. It feels like I'm constantly playing a game, where I have to not think about the tinnitus, and I lose every time I remember it. Otherwise, when I just forget about it, life is good. Today I promised myself not ear check at all, and have been feeling much better because of it.
I first assumed the tinnitus was cause by noises I heard outside. I sleep in the living room of an apartment next to balcony doors, which are often left open. The week I got tinnitus, and for some time after, I hears a lot of strange high pitch noises which were freakishly loud. I went to investigate, and talked to neighbors, and it turned out that there was a lot of drilling and sawing in an apartment in the next building over being renovated, and someone in the apartment below me had a cleaning crew that used an extremely loud vacuum. The doctor told me that those wouldn't cause tinnitus, however, being under a lot of stress after being woken up by that noise could. I remember that 2 days before the tinnitus happened, I felt traumatized by the high pitched noises of the maintenance/construction work, and imagined hearing them even after they stopped.
Other things I suspected could have caused/be causing it: Using certain essential oils on my skin without proper diluting, playing with a sound amplifier spy toy that was broken and let out a squeal, anxiety about being woken up to harsh noises outside, and cumulative damage from previous exposure to loud noise, and sticking things in my ear that shouldn't go there. I often stuck q tips deep in my ears to rub out wax, about as often as I cut my fingernails- only just now learned that it is bad to do this. I recall a time recently when I had a q tip in my ear, and I accidentally bumped my elbow on something, and it pushed the q tip in my ear and I felt a quick pain, but the tinnitus didn't start then, don't remember which ear it was. Several months ago my left ear hurt for a while after I walked by a busker with a boom box playing extremely loud music, and didn't think to cover my ears. Even before then, I think my left ear had always felt a little funny, but I've never had any problems with pain or hearing loss.
Any helpful feedback would be appreciated. I acknowledge that my situation is very minor compared to what others with very severe tinnitus are going through.
On April 1st I woke up with tinnitus. It was like a high pitched whistling sound that seemed to be coming from inside my head, along with various other ringing and buzzing sounds. It seemed worse toward my left side, but not localized to any particular area. I remember the first few days it was hard to fall asleep, and I awoke frequently in the night. I tried putting on white noise tracks on the computer to fall asleep to, and turned on a tower fan, but I'm not sure either helped-the tinnitus wasn't particularly loud, but there was a certain sharpness to it that made me hear it over everything. During the first week or so I also remember walking outside looking up at the sky, and it seemed like the whistling noise was just pouring down on me and followed me wherever I went, it was difficult to enjoy anything.
I was fortunate to get a very friendly doctor at the health clinic. I passed for normal hearing range with a rudimentary test. I had my ears looked at and she said they looked fine. There was some fluid behind my left ear drum, but the doctor assured me that is is very common to see this, and it wouldn't be the cause of the tinnitus. I asked for something to help with anxiety, and was described an antidepressant. However, I waited until the next Monday to talk to my counselling therapist about it, as I was very wary of these type of drugs, and only considered it because I was desperate for relief. In the end I decided against it because of the negative health consequences of SSRIs I researched online, and also became less anxious because by that time I was able to sleep normally through the night and not need to mask it at all. I had used melatonin supplements and another herbal capsule called Deep Sleep frequently before, and now I take them religiously, most of the time I fall asleep very quickly.
I still keep the radio on whenever I'm at home and awake, and not listening to or watching something else. One thing I miss is being able to just lie in bed peacefully in silence for a while after sleeping in. If I'm not going to fall back asleep, listening to the tinnitus too much doesn't feel good, so I get up and turn on the radio. Always on speakers, I basically stopped wearing headphones or earbuds ever.
10 days or so after it first occurred, the high pitch whine in my head mostly faded away, and I would only notice it in a quiet room or when in bed. The second half of April I remember as feeling very good, hardly noticing the tinnitus. Though it seemed to worsen slightly in early May, but nowhere near as bad as when it first happened, more easily forgettable. At this point it does seem mostly heard in my left ear, but still as if its from inside my head. Sounds like water rushing through a pipe, a tiny bell ringing, or a soft mechanical rattling, like an air conditioner. I can't be sure exactly about how it fluctuates, and I learned that constantly plugging my ears to check the tinnitus sound will only make me more stressed and anxious about it. I listen to it, then I imagine I'm hearing it get louder, check my ears again, a vicious cycle. It feels like I'm constantly playing a game, where I have to not think about the tinnitus, and I lose every time I remember it. Otherwise, when I just forget about it, life is good. Today I promised myself not ear check at all, and have been feeling much better because of it.
I first assumed the tinnitus was cause by noises I heard outside. I sleep in the living room of an apartment next to balcony doors, which are often left open. The week I got tinnitus, and for some time after, I hears a lot of strange high pitch noises which were freakishly loud. I went to investigate, and talked to neighbors, and it turned out that there was a lot of drilling and sawing in an apartment in the next building over being renovated, and someone in the apartment below me had a cleaning crew that used an extremely loud vacuum. The doctor told me that those wouldn't cause tinnitus, however, being under a lot of stress after being woken up by that noise could. I remember that 2 days before the tinnitus happened, I felt traumatized by the high pitched noises of the maintenance/construction work, and imagined hearing them even after they stopped.
Other things I suspected could have caused/be causing it: Using certain essential oils on my skin without proper diluting, playing with a sound amplifier spy toy that was broken and let out a squeal, anxiety about being woken up to harsh noises outside, and cumulative damage from previous exposure to loud noise, and sticking things in my ear that shouldn't go there. I often stuck q tips deep in my ears to rub out wax, about as often as I cut my fingernails- only just now learned that it is bad to do this. I recall a time recently when I had a q tip in my ear, and I accidentally bumped my elbow on something, and it pushed the q tip in my ear and I felt a quick pain, but the tinnitus didn't start then, don't remember which ear it was. Several months ago my left ear hurt for a while after I walked by a busker with a boom box playing extremely loud music, and didn't think to cover my ears. Even before then, I think my left ear had always felt a little funny, but I've never had any problems with pain or hearing loss.
Any helpful feedback would be appreciated. I acknowledge that my situation is very minor compared to what others with very severe tinnitus are going through.
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