- Feb 3, 2017
- 40
- Tinnitus Since
- 2006
- Cause of Tinnitus
- Assault which perforated my ear drum (Spike 2017 unknown)
Hello all,
This is kinda a long post, please forgive me for that.
So here is another new member of the board. Although I always said to myself, that I shouldn't use such a board (because of the habit of focusing more on the problem) I am now in a position, where I really could use some support and backup.
Background:
I have been having T for 10 years. Initially it came from a hard slap on the ear which broke my ear drum. At first I wasn't aware, that the ear drum had ruptured, and it was probably not a large rupture, but when I the following day had to blow my nose, I blew out a piece of the ear drum. After that I got the T. I developed 2 sounds. One constant humming that was almost only noticable when I covered my ear. The other sound was a variable semi-high pitched whistling sound, which was the one that bugged me the most. However, I did habituate extremely well to this. In fact, I habituated so well that I could go for months and months not even thinking about the word Tinnitus. Considering the fact I suffer from pretty severe anxiety I've always been quite impressed by this. This habituation and succes went on for 10 years - until 3 weeks ago.
Before the situation:
I had a cold with a congestion 2 weeks before the situation. During the cold the T got louder and at some point during the cold I was so congested that no air could get through the tubes. However, it did subside and I felt ok again.
The situation:
The 19th of january 2017 I had a pretty stressed day. In the morning I was at the dentist where I am about to get the final touch to some dental implants. Afterwards I had to make several errands that made me more stressed and I remember sitting in my car and suddenly listening to my T and thinking to myself, whats this now? And why is it noticable? I got on with the errands and came home and didn't think more of it until bed-time. Lying in my bed half asleep, I wake up and feel totally consumed by the T. It seems so loud. I start to panick and I take my blanket and pillow and go into the living-room and sit on the couch. I start to panick even more. I suddenly can't seem to do anything else than tuning into the T. I get anxiety attacks and desperately try to find some sound sources. At last I felt asleep.
The following days was a nightmare.
Then at the 31st of january I wake up with fever. Only 3 weeks from my last cold. This time I have the flu and feel extremely ill and fatigue. With this also comes a cold and a congestion. The first days I had to blow my nose many, many times. But after 2 days with blowing my nose I suddenly experience immediate increase in the T for each blow thus I stopped blowing it. You know when you blow your nose and the ears pop and the T shortly is very loud until the ears pop back in again? This is how it sounds constantly now even though it popped back in. Now i'm almost done with the flu. The fever stopped yesterday. The congestion finally subsided today. The increased T is however still there.
While I have experienced tiny, tiny stress-related spikes this is by far the most serious spike and the new volume is extremely high. Nothing can mask it.
Problem:
This spike has left me in deep depression and anxiety and even very dark suicidal thoughts. I have never tried this before. Will it ever be better? Why did it happen? Is it the cold? How much time should I give it and are there anything I can do you make it better?
How to get going from here?
Please give me something to hang on to for a hope...
Ps. I visited the ENT and he said I passed all tests. Audiogram, drum pressure, no fluid in ears etc. He asked if I had been stressed and to that I could just say a definite yes. He also told me that I should not worry about having a hearing loss from the random noise from new years eve (me and my girlfriend stepped outside for 5 minutes at midnight to watch the fireworks and then went inside again) because then I would have experienced the hearing loss and/or increased T immediately plus my hearing was all normal (though it still bugs me they only test up to 8khz).
Thank you so much for reading my post. Sorry for the long story!
This is kinda a long post, please forgive me for that.
So here is another new member of the board. Although I always said to myself, that I shouldn't use such a board (because of the habit of focusing more on the problem) I am now in a position, where I really could use some support and backup.
Background:
I have been having T for 10 years. Initially it came from a hard slap on the ear which broke my ear drum. At first I wasn't aware, that the ear drum had ruptured, and it was probably not a large rupture, but when I the following day had to blow my nose, I blew out a piece of the ear drum. After that I got the T. I developed 2 sounds. One constant humming that was almost only noticable when I covered my ear. The other sound was a variable semi-high pitched whistling sound, which was the one that bugged me the most. However, I did habituate extremely well to this. In fact, I habituated so well that I could go for months and months not even thinking about the word Tinnitus. Considering the fact I suffer from pretty severe anxiety I've always been quite impressed by this. This habituation and succes went on for 10 years - until 3 weeks ago.
Before the situation:
I had a cold with a congestion 2 weeks before the situation. During the cold the T got louder and at some point during the cold I was so congested that no air could get through the tubes. However, it did subside and I felt ok again.
The situation:
The 19th of january 2017 I had a pretty stressed day. In the morning I was at the dentist where I am about to get the final touch to some dental implants. Afterwards I had to make several errands that made me more stressed and I remember sitting in my car and suddenly listening to my T and thinking to myself, whats this now? And why is it noticable? I got on with the errands and came home and didn't think more of it until bed-time. Lying in my bed half asleep, I wake up and feel totally consumed by the T. It seems so loud. I start to panick and I take my blanket and pillow and go into the living-room and sit on the couch. I start to panick even more. I suddenly can't seem to do anything else than tuning into the T. I get anxiety attacks and desperately try to find some sound sources. At last I felt asleep.
The following days was a nightmare.
Then at the 31st of january I wake up with fever. Only 3 weeks from my last cold. This time I have the flu and feel extremely ill and fatigue. With this also comes a cold and a congestion. The first days I had to blow my nose many, many times. But after 2 days with blowing my nose I suddenly experience immediate increase in the T for each blow thus I stopped blowing it. You know when you blow your nose and the ears pop and the T shortly is very loud until the ears pop back in again? This is how it sounds constantly now even though it popped back in. Now i'm almost done with the flu. The fever stopped yesterday. The congestion finally subsided today. The increased T is however still there.
While I have experienced tiny, tiny stress-related spikes this is by far the most serious spike and the new volume is extremely high. Nothing can mask it.
Problem:
This spike has left me in deep depression and anxiety and even very dark suicidal thoughts. I have never tried this before. Will it ever be better? Why did it happen? Is it the cold? How much time should I give it and are there anything I can do you make it better?
How to get going from here?
Please give me something to hang on to for a hope...
Ps. I visited the ENT and he said I passed all tests. Audiogram, drum pressure, no fluid in ears etc. He asked if I had been stressed and to that I could just say a definite yes. He also told me that I should not worry about having a hearing loss from the random noise from new years eve (me and my girlfriend stepped outside for 5 minutes at midnight to watch the fireworks and then went inside again) because then I would have experienced the hearing loss and/or increased T immediately plus my hearing was all normal (though it still bugs me they only test up to 8khz).
Thank you so much for reading my post. Sorry for the long story!