- May 10, 2016
- 4
- Tinnitus Since
- 04/2016
- Cause of Tinnitus
- Nutrient deficiency?
I'm truly grateful that I'm finally among people who understand. Even though what I believe caused my T is a chain of terrible / weird life choices and lifestyle (unlike many of you who did nothing to deserve this torture) we now share this unfortunate companion and I hope we grow stronger together in our quest to overcoming it. This is going to be a tl;dr and I apologize for it. I've marked the tinnitus-relevant part in red.
I'm 24 and live in Europe. Early this March I woke up with what felt like someone had squeezed my brain in the middle, with this dull, after-zap feeling spanning across its width. Any sharp noise or head movement would make it worse. I thought my brain simply wasn't getting enough blood from the way I was sleeping (face down, on top of a pillow, neck compressed), so I turned around and forgot about it.
For a year straight (early 2015 - early 2016) I hadn't gotten out of bed, always with my laptop on top of my stomach, hunched forward, malnourished and drinking beer / wine every day. It wasn't always like this. I studied abroad and held several jobs, had an active social life, then returned home to chill and complete my BA thesis in peace, for which (throughout the year in question) I was failed 3 consecutive times. In the beginning of February I developed dry / blurry vision in my right eye. In the beginning of March I started feeling weird sharp pain in my upper and lower back teeth (left side) upon chewing food. Got checked out by a dentist - no cavities or visible cracks. Just sharp pain (but bearable) upon chewing any kind of food, with each bite. Thought it was stress as I've had similar pains during stress before, thought not as intense.
On March 28 I was trying to fall asleep to a past-life regression video (link) just for fun. Well, I woke up halfway through it from what I now believe was a bout of hyperacusis. The next day I was totally fine, chilling, having fun, drinking an entire bottle of homemade red wine. Two days later I woke up with what felt like someone had squeezed my brain dry of any liquid. It felt like I had really bad fever, felt dizzy and drunk. I felt like I wasn't 100 percent myself, like I was actually caved in deeper in my head, looking from behind my eyes. It's difficult to explain, but imagine being drunk and having high body temperature.
I went back to sleep for a bit more and woke up even worse. Once again I was on top of my pillow, chest and neck compressed against it. I didn't even think about a hangover. I've had many and it didn't feel like one. When I got up I felt extremely light-headed and had balancing issues. Thought I should eat something and it'd go away. It didn't. I was already shaking and panicking because it had been an hour and this feeling kept persisting. As I booted up my laptop I realized I was losing feeling in my left arm and felt extremely dizzy. I thought I was having a heart attack so I called an ambulance and the doc checked me out (BP, chest) He said "lol ur fine m8 probably stress".
The feeling didn't go away. I tried to fall asleep at night but kept waking up in "shock-waves" - the kinds that PTSD veterans get when they get traumatic flashbacks (sorry if this offends anyone, I'm bad at comparisons). Later during the night I was awakened by what felt like my heart pumping out acid. It was a very painful, strong feeling in my chest, so I couldn't sleep. I was convinced I was getting these symptoms because of a failing heart. I was getting 120-130 beats per minute no matter lying or standing, so I went to my GP first thing in the morning. She had an EKG and blood work done on me in the days to follow, which came back normal - no blood problems, no anemia, no critical heart issue, no thyroid issues.
This is where my Tinnitus started
I can't remember much because of the stress, but I was getting daily panic attacks. One night I was just at home by myself reading a book when I started hearing the standard high-pitched ringing noise in my right ear. It didn't go away after an hour so I knew s**t had hit the fan and that there was probably no going back. It was and still is worse at night, especially the hyperacusis. I can hear my T with my headphones on full volume if I listen closely for it, I can hear it over the fridge noise, while in a car, and have the ear fullness feeling almost all the time. If the fullness and hyperacusis goes away I can say for a fact that I can definitely deal with it, even if it sticks. It has gone from a high-pitched sound to more of a "dispersed", less piercing sound, so it's not as irritating now. Was it noise damage-induced? Perhaps the ear is more sensitive and fragile during a hypno-session, in a hypno-state - the one I had a week earlier?). Maybe I damaged my hearing and the tinnitus showed up a week later? Perhaps it was the stress? The latter is what everyone around me thought. I feel like all my tendons and nerves are borderline stretched out, on alert and hyper-stimulated. When I'm anxious and I tap the inner side of (just behind) my elbow bone I can feel an "electrical" surge in my fingers, the one you get when you have a panic attack but you think it's a lack of blood flow when it's actually stretched out nerves / tendons. When I'm relaxed and I tap it I don't get it, so I know my nervous system is always on edge for some reason. I just don't know.
Around mid-March I started seeing trails and negative after-images which last anywhere between 20 seconds to 2 minutes. My eyes seem to "lag behind" when looking right and left, they take a split second to adjust from double vision to a fixed point if I move them quickly. I became extremely light-sensitive. I was very cold-sensitive, feverish all the time (that's gone), had weakness in random limbs. felt dizzy all the time and would constantly bump into stuff in the dark. I feared the worst - Multiple Sclerosis, Meniere's, brain damage, etc.. I went to a neurologist who did the whole hammer-to-the-knee thing and diagnosed me with a "central otoneurological syndrome" (from what I've read it points to brain damage, trouble with / slow neuron conductivity, etc.) told me not to worry about it and gave me a prescription for Nootropil and a bunch of post-stroke medicine (vasodilators) for it. It's been a month and they haven't helped at all, apart from lessening the hyperacusis. However, when I was reassured that nothing serious was wrong, I had an entire 24-hour period where I was barely hearing my T and was free of symptoms, leading me to believe it's all anxiety-related.
Just a week ago I noticed new and very intense central floaters that swipe through my vision and blur the text. I've had a floater in each of my eyes since I was 16 which never bothered me, but the new ones do. Today I was trying some neck exercises to relax my neck muscles (read stiff neck muscles could lead to dizziness and tinnitus) and I ended up getting visual snow. I just don't know, guys. I've just started habituating to my T and the after-images, but new floaters and visual snow? F***!!! How much crap can a guy take on at the same time? The visual stuff scares me more than the T itself. Oh well.. I'm having a NMRI done tomorrow and I'll let you guys know how it went. Will do a Doppler ultrasound of my neck arteries too some time next week and post updates. Fingers crossed it's not MS.
I'm 24 and live in Europe. Early this March I woke up with what felt like someone had squeezed my brain in the middle, with this dull, after-zap feeling spanning across its width. Any sharp noise or head movement would make it worse. I thought my brain simply wasn't getting enough blood from the way I was sleeping (face down, on top of a pillow, neck compressed), so I turned around and forgot about it.
For a year straight (early 2015 - early 2016) I hadn't gotten out of bed, always with my laptop on top of my stomach, hunched forward, malnourished and drinking beer / wine every day. It wasn't always like this. I studied abroad and held several jobs, had an active social life, then returned home to chill and complete my BA thesis in peace, for which (throughout the year in question) I was failed 3 consecutive times. In the beginning of February I developed dry / blurry vision in my right eye. In the beginning of March I started feeling weird sharp pain in my upper and lower back teeth (left side) upon chewing food. Got checked out by a dentist - no cavities or visible cracks. Just sharp pain (but bearable) upon chewing any kind of food, with each bite. Thought it was stress as I've had similar pains during stress before, thought not as intense.
On March 28 I was trying to fall asleep to a past-life regression video (link) just for fun. Well, I woke up halfway through it from what I now believe was a bout of hyperacusis. The next day I was totally fine, chilling, having fun, drinking an entire bottle of homemade red wine. Two days later I woke up with what felt like someone had squeezed my brain dry of any liquid. It felt like I had really bad fever, felt dizzy and drunk. I felt like I wasn't 100 percent myself, like I was actually caved in deeper in my head, looking from behind my eyes. It's difficult to explain, but imagine being drunk and having high body temperature.
I went back to sleep for a bit more and woke up even worse. Once again I was on top of my pillow, chest and neck compressed against it. I didn't even think about a hangover. I've had many and it didn't feel like one. When I got up I felt extremely light-headed and had balancing issues. Thought I should eat something and it'd go away. It didn't. I was already shaking and panicking because it had been an hour and this feeling kept persisting. As I booted up my laptop I realized I was losing feeling in my left arm and felt extremely dizzy. I thought I was having a heart attack so I called an ambulance and the doc checked me out (BP, chest) He said "lol ur fine m8 probably stress".
The feeling didn't go away. I tried to fall asleep at night but kept waking up in "shock-waves" - the kinds that PTSD veterans get when they get traumatic flashbacks (sorry if this offends anyone, I'm bad at comparisons). Later during the night I was awakened by what felt like my heart pumping out acid. It was a very painful, strong feeling in my chest, so I couldn't sleep. I was convinced I was getting these symptoms because of a failing heart. I was getting 120-130 beats per minute no matter lying or standing, so I went to my GP first thing in the morning. She had an EKG and blood work done on me in the days to follow, which came back normal - no blood problems, no anemia, no critical heart issue, no thyroid issues.
This is where my Tinnitus started
I can't remember much because of the stress, but I was getting daily panic attacks. One night I was just at home by myself reading a book when I started hearing the standard high-pitched ringing noise in my right ear. It didn't go away after an hour so I knew s**t had hit the fan and that there was probably no going back. It was and still is worse at night, especially the hyperacusis. I can hear my T with my headphones on full volume if I listen closely for it, I can hear it over the fridge noise, while in a car, and have the ear fullness feeling almost all the time. If the fullness and hyperacusis goes away I can say for a fact that I can definitely deal with it, even if it sticks. It has gone from a high-pitched sound to more of a "dispersed", less piercing sound, so it's not as irritating now. Was it noise damage-induced? Perhaps the ear is more sensitive and fragile during a hypno-session, in a hypno-state - the one I had a week earlier?). Maybe I damaged my hearing and the tinnitus showed up a week later? Perhaps it was the stress? The latter is what everyone around me thought. I feel like all my tendons and nerves are borderline stretched out, on alert and hyper-stimulated. When I'm anxious and I tap the inner side of (just behind) my elbow bone I can feel an "electrical" surge in my fingers, the one you get when you have a panic attack but you think it's a lack of blood flow when it's actually stretched out nerves / tendons. When I'm relaxed and I tap it I don't get it, so I know my nervous system is always on edge for some reason. I just don't know.
Around mid-March I started seeing trails and negative after-images which last anywhere between 20 seconds to 2 minutes. My eyes seem to "lag behind" when looking right and left, they take a split second to adjust from double vision to a fixed point if I move them quickly. I became extremely light-sensitive. I was very cold-sensitive, feverish all the time (that's gone), had weakness in random limbs. felt dizzy all the time and would constantly bump into stuff in the dark. I feared the worst - Multiple Sclerosis, Meniere's, brain damage, etc.. I went to a neurologist who did the whole hammer-to-the-knee thing and diagnosed me with a "central otoneurological syndrome" (from what I've read it points to brain damage, trouble with / slow neuron conductivity, etc.) told me not to worry about it and gave me a prescription for Nootropil and a bunch of post-stroke medicine (vasodilators) for it. It's been a month and they haven't helped at all, apart from lessening the hyperacusis. However, when I was reassured that nothing serious was wrong, I had an entire 24-hour period where I was barely hearing my T and was free of symptoms, leading me to believe it's all anxiety-related.
Just a week ago I noticed new and very intense central floaters that swipe through my vision and blur the text. I've had a floater in each of my eyes since I was 16 which never bothered me, but the new ones do. Today I was trying some neck exercises to relax my neck muscles (read stiff neck muscles could lead to dizziness and tinnitus) and I ended up getting visual snow. I just don't know, guys. I've just started habituating to my T and the after-images, but new floaters and visual snow? F***!!! How much crap can a guy take on at the same time? The visual stuff scares me more than the T itself. Oh well.. I'm having a NMRI done tomorrow and I'll let you guys know how it went. Will do a Doppler ultrasound of my neck arteries too some time next week and post updates. Fingers crossed it's not MS.
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