Hi, I've Had Tinnitus for 3 Months With No Known Cause

Hi,
My name is Patrick I'm 26, I've had very high pitched tinnitus for 3 months now.

It started over a weekend I gradually began to hear a 15-14Khz noise similar to those made old CRT TVs. I still have no idea what the cause is or was. I thought it was these pills I was taking for hair loss but I only started taking them a week earlier and stopped when I noticed the noise, none of the doctors think it's related. I didn't have an exposure to loud noise.

I've seen an audiology and an ENT doctor and so far my hearing is fine. A CT scan showed a sinus infection but that's it. They gave me some stuff that, but I still have Tinnitus so that can't be it.
It sometimes gets really loud in one ear for 3 seconds (it block hearing) then goes back to normal but this is rare once every 3-4 weeks or so, I don't know what brings it on. Sometimes it's pretty quiet, usually after waking up, then gets worse in the afternoon. The sound was consistent in the first 3 weeks and after that it started oscillating and has been that way ever since.

I hate sounding like a depressed sad sack, but there are nights where I just can't sleep even with the radio on. I'm only young and now I have to spend the rest of my life with this horrible noise screaming at me 24/7 .

The most depressing thing of all is that all of the advice says online and elsewhere says that there is nothing that can be done and to stop looking for a cure and deal with it, even the success stories I've read are from people who have just gotten used to it. I'm a strong believer in solving problems and this goes against everything that motivates me.

I was reading something about tracing the issue to the path in the brain that is responsible for epilepsy and that medication for anti-epilepsy medication can help but I don't know about it.

I really need help as this sound driving me crazy and I don't know if I can stay sane at this rate

I've joined this forum in the hope that some of you can offer advice and support on dealing with it and perhaps help me work the underling cause as well as sleep better.

 

Well Patrick. Im in exactly the same situation. 2 months with high pitch T. And yes its variable and quiet in the morning picking up during the day. Im with you man. Finding a resolution is foremost in my mind. 2 months of research has led me to a group in Argentina who use brain scans to determine exactly which part of the brain is hyperactive and prescribes drugs accordingly. 61 percent success at eleviating all sympyoms and 30 percent major reduction in T. They work with a german institute. It can be done its just it hasnt been tackled in us or uk. Tinnitus can be categorised and treated accordingly with multiple drugs... I've contacted them yesterday. Waiting for a reply. Keep fighting. R

 

I was also taking some bullshit pills against hairloss, before developing tinnitus. But I dont thing its related to them.
In the mornings it is pretty quite and it builds up during the day. I think its related with psychological condition. You, probably like me, were pretty depressed, about the hairloss and this psychological pressure maybe caused this condition.
I have read that minoxidil is causing tinnitus, but everything is going back to normal, after you cut it.

 

Pleased to meet you. Let me know how it goes, have you got a thread going? Also I forgot to mention I'm from Australia so I hope they start trying that method here too.

Pleased to meet you too. I stopped taking the pills and still had the tinnitus for about 4 weeks before I tried minoxidil. So I could try cutting but I don't think I'll make much difference. But I think you're right about it being caused by a psychological trigger, I was feeling pretty bad about the hair loss at the time.

 

@Pj0688 Yeah, I too felt bad about the hair. Now I dont give a f*ck, but I guess its kind of late... But I also have pain the neck and maybe its connected to it too. A week before a notice the sound in my right ear my neck pain was pretty bad, then the ear felt like it was full of water. Its probably combination of the above.
Mine is something close to yours, btw. Its fluctuating, bad days, good days, queter in the morning, louder at night, almost gone for a brief periods ot time...its hard to describe it.

 

I can't say I had the neck pain, but my left ear does have a fullness sometimes as if there was some water there.

 

@RCP1 , have you got a website for those guys?

P.S Nice to see a fellow Irishman on this site.

 

I hope it goes away. I mean there must be something that changed, some part of the brain this is behaving in an unusual manner.
Anyone got any clues as to why it may be changing pitch all the time?

Also, I hate being a wet blanket, but this habituating idea seems horrible to me, I hope no one suggests it to me or the re training thing. That's just like taking pain killers instead of getting to the root of the problem.

 

Hi @Pj0688, You're still very early into this and given that you don't know what caused it, it's certainly worth looking into. I fully encourage anyone to try everything (within reason) in the beginning. If you can find a resolution, more power to you!

That said, don't knock habituation. I was 25 when I got T and habituation sounded like the worst thing imaginable. It seemed so sad to get used to something so awful. Fast-foward to now and it's the best thing that has happened to me.

The sad truth about T right now, is that there isn't a cure and there are so many different causes for T that it's near impossible to definitively get to the "root of the problem." That's just the way it is. That's not to say it never goes away for anyone. I've seen it go away for a lot of people and I think you probably have a better chance of that than some because yours wasn't caused by loud noise or something of that nature. If you can't find a cure though and it doesn't go away, it's good to not think of habituation as the worst thing ever. Just know in the back of your mind that if it does come to that - it's not what you think it is. Habituation isn't "giving up" or "getting used to it." You don't wake up feeling miserable and decide to deal with it. It's a combination of time, your brain adjusting and your psyche adjusting. You wake up and the world is about as it was Pre-T. I know that's hard to imagine, but that's the magic of it!

We're all mortal and sometimes things fall apart that we can't fix, or we don't yet have the knowledge to fix the way we'd like to. Habituation isn't putting a band-aid on something bad, it's going to the root of the problem you're left with after you've tried all else: how much T bothers you. I still have T, and I come back here to try and offer a little hope and help, but it doesn't affect my life in any negative way. My whole T journey has made me a far more resilient person.

Again, I'm all for anyone with T trying everything they can to make it go away and I hope you find that cure, just don't feel like if that doesn't work out that you're doomed. Life on the other side of habituation is good, even if that's impossible to understand right now

As for your immediate problems, I would recommend finding a great psychiatrist to talk to about help sleeping if you need it. You can also talk about getting help with the anxiety/ panic attacks if you have them. I know some of those meds have drastically quieted tinnitus (temporarily) for some. It's a nice thing to have on a really bad day. Of course you don't need to take meds forever, but your body can't heal if you're not rested. You could also look into accupuncture, cranial osteopathy, ginko etc. Those don't always cure people, but if your T is really just from some kind of tension/bodily stress/circulation issue, then it could really help, potentially fix you up.

For the changing pitch, no one is going to really know the answer to that, here or elsewhere, but if we're assuming its in the brain, and t is an electrical signal, then it's just the little changes and surges taking place there. That's how I tend to think of it.

Good luck and we're happy you're here!

 

Hopefully an MRI will tell me something.
But I would like some tips on getting through the night, sometimes its very hard to sleep.

 

Hi Patrick,

I'm 22 and in a very similar position with symptoms almost identical as yours. My ENT thinks sinus issues might be causing the T and curing the sinus might help with curing the T.

I experience the same things fullness and T in my left ear. Unexplained. No hearing loss. The MRI revealed sinus to be the problem and thats about it.

I hope you feel better and I hope all of us one day find the cure to this affliction.

 

Water seems to make it worse, I can't see the connection, but it does seem to.

Thanks

 

OK you're gonna hate me for saying this. And remember I've only had tinnitus for 5 months and am no expert. But I'm sure you'll never find a reason for your tinnitus now. And you certainly won't find a cure. Anything you buy to cure tinnitus will be as good at curing tinnitus, as those tablets were at producing hair. I'm not trying to make you feel crappy. But in my experience, the quicker you accept the tinnitus probably isn't going anwhere, the quicker you can deal with it. If tinnitus isn't going anywhere, and neither are you, you have no choice but to accept it and pick yourself up.
As for sleep, try a fan and pillow speaker. The pillow speaker has been worked wonders for me.
It's always possible your tinnitus will go. And there's always a chance a cure may come about in our lifetime. And although it's good to have a bit of hope. We also have to be realistic.