A Startling Revelation Regarding Possible Past Habituation

I'm new, or so I thought, to tinnitus, it started in July, after I cleaned some badly impacted earwax out. I went to an ENT doctor after doing this and he said there was no wax, although I was hearing noise. The hearing test results weren't bad, loss of high frequencies which could be age related or other issues which are mentioned below. I cannot differentiate which ear the T is coming from, I think that it's the cranial type of T (I'm not well versed in the terms), along with other sensations and symptoms. It got worse when I began measuring it, listening for it, obsessing, etc., but I did not know that this could make it worse, until I saw the Back To Silence video on this site, which is helping me cope.

Before last July I did not even know how to pronounce, or spell, Tinnitus. I never thought I'd had it before, but I now think that I did. I finally recognized, the other night, that many of these sounds and sensations were always there, for at least 30 or more years, but extremely subdued and not a problem. This was a major thing to realize, as I will explain.

I was exposed to all kinds of noise, from concerts and playing in rock bands when younger, to working for several years on the trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange in the 1980's, where they had their own medical clinic upstairs that included a a hearing test isolation room for employees and brokers, because it was extremely noisy on the floor. I also loved stereo equipment, and listened to headphones a lot.

About 35 years ago I went to see a doctor because I felt a numbness in on the sides of my head, I don't remember if there were any hearing problems, such as frequency changes which I'm having now, but he gave me a Rx for Valium, which I took for a few weeks, and it calmed me down. I can't remember if or when it returned, but I get this fullness feeling now and I suspect that I just ignored it or blamed it on the weather. I believe that I had mild T back then, but I didn't know what it was, or associate the symptoms with ear damage, and I now suspect that I habituated, without realizing it or knowing that I had T. I had mild symptoms, but they rarely bothered me, the worst was the numbness issue which resolved or I habituated to.

I realized the other day, that it may be possible I've caused this spike, by undoing previous habituation by obsessing with my T when I had spikes after the earwax removal. I suspect that there's a chance that most of my recent (since July 2017) symptoms aren't new, but they've spiked to a high degree possibly because I unwittingly abandoned my previous habituation. I may have new ear damage in addition, from over-cleaning (using a big ear cleaning sprayer Rhino Ear) or another reason.

Whether it's new or old T, or how it happened, etc., is very hard to determine for certain, but it doesn't matter. I hope to get myself better, with the help of the great people on this site, and other resources.

 

It's interesting to see everyone's T is unique to the individual...I have a high pitched ringing 11kHz... I habituated over 20 years ago, it is unmaskable and yet it doesn't bother me in the least...