Advice Needed — The Ringing Has Kept Me from Sleeping and Doing the Things I Love

[ashrosi]

Hello everyone, I'm new here so I'm not sure if this is in the right spot but, about 3 weeks ago I noticed a ringing in my ears — more so on the left side. It's only really noticeable when I'm in a quiet setting, although if I really focus on it I can hear it just about anywhere. I'm really not sure what the cause of it is because I've always been very careful with my hearing and such, besides of course being a teenager and listening to loud music. I've been to my family physician and had a tuning fork hearing test done with the results coming back normal, he also looked in my ears and determined everything looked fine. I've been referred to an audiologist but my appointment is months away.
I'm honestly not sure what to do at this point, the ringing has kept me from sleeping and doing the things I love, it's also put my anxiety into overdrive. I have tried a fan and white noise to sleep but it isn't really helping me. I'd love to hear some success stories or any advice you have to offer.

Thank you for reading, and best wishes!

 

[Contrast]

New comers ask the same questions, the hearing test only tests the bare vitals of human hearing (250 Hz-8kHz). Hearing loss outside of the bare vitals can still lead to tinnitus such as hearing loss in competing noise environments like music, or frequencies above 8 kHz.

Check this post for information:
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/thread...-fullness-in-ears-tinnitus.34437/#post-430734

Audiologists are well known for giving awful advice to tinnitus sufferers, it's a meme on this forum.

 

[LugPaul]

Instead of white noise try pink noise out... Get a sound machine with a timer so you give your ears time to rest after you fall asleep. Sound machines are cheap and you get get them off Amazon for 20$. Take Melatonin supplements to help you sleep and magnesium supplements daily as they have research backing improvement of tinnitus. Magnesium supplements are a bit expensive though. Be careful with buying medication advertising a miracle cure for tinnitus because there are none.

Also, if you are presently taking any medications do research online to see if they have properties that cause tinnitus, and switch medications if possible. Tinnitus can be caused by common medications.

Think about talking to another ENT to get a second opinion on your tinnitus. Also, consider taking tricyclic antidepressants if you are struggling to deal with the tinnitus it may be helpful. They are often prescribed to people with tinnitus.

Massages and acupuncture have sometimes shown results in alleviating tinnitus. You may also want to consider talk therapy from a psychologist. Another thing, exercise increases blood flow to your ears which helps your ears heal. Although while you are working out the ringing may or may not get louder because you hear the blood rushing to your head. Try to pick up working out because it helps with stress and healing your ears.

Don't listen to music at all through ear buds or headphones and make sure to stay away from all loud noises. Your ears are very sensitive right now and noise causes irreparable damage. If you are in a loud environment wear ear plugs. Be careful with certain ear plugs though because you can use them incorrectly and make your tinnitus worse.

Good luck, hope you feel better soon.

 

[Bill Bauer]

any advice you have to offer

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/thread...eone-else-who-has-tinnitus.26850/#post-307822

 

[Bill Bauer]

I didn't read all the above comments, but did peruse a fair amount of it, and ran across many good points on both sides of the argument. What strikes me is there seems to be an underlying assumption (of course I may be wrong on this) that all brains and neurological systems are created equal. The way I see it, that's simply not the case, so everybody's way of dealing with tinnitus and/or hyperacusis is going to have to be highly individualized.

I read a book many years ago called "Adrenal Syndrome". A lot of the book touched on the residual resiliency of people's adrenal glands as they respond to life's stresses. Very low resiliency often resulted in months/years of chronic debilitating exhaustion following a stressful event(s) in their lives. Very high resiliency indicated essentially the opposite. The author broke this down into some rough numbers:

25% of people have low resiliency, meaning normal life stressors will often send them into some degree of a tailspin.
25% of people have high resiliency, meaning that no matter how severe a stressor comes into their lives, they will be able to cope without becoming debilitated to any degree.
50% of people fall somewhere inbetween.

I believe there are some kind of corresponding numbers for a person's brain and neurological resiliency as well, which can greatly affect the ability to cope with tinnitus. (I believe adrenal resiliency also plays a major role in our ability to cope). -- Based on these assumptions, it's pretty easy for me to conclude that what may be overprotection for one person will be underprotection for another, and vice versa.

I think the main point to understand for someone new to tinnitus is that their path forward is going to be a lot of "testing the waters". Generally, IMHO, it's going to take a few weeks or months to get important insights that will help us achieve a healthy balance. In all likelihood, most people are going to learn from experience when their over-protecting or under-protecting.

I've come to believe however, that in those early months, if one is going to err in either direction, it should be toward overprotection. It just seems to me the consequences of underprotection (which could result in permanent injury) in those early times are much more dire than the consequences of overprotection--which as I understand, generally results in temporary setbacks.

Doing a number of things to better support the brain and neurological system and the body's stress response (adrenal glands) is quite high on my list of recommendations I would make to anybody with tinnitus. Doing so might even prevent phonophobia or OCD, etc., as we go through our learning curves -- Just my 2 cents worth.

Relative newbies to tinnitus are likely to find all the information/opinions above quite confusing. So here are a few common-sense rules to follow:

1. The best protection of all is avoidance. Even the best earplugs can't guarantee complete hearing protection so those relatively new to tinnitus are best advised to avoid prolonged loud noise exposure - especially amplified sound at for example live concerts and sports events. This may involve lifestyle changes.

2. When in doubt, use hearing protection. In the many tasks we all do through the week, some will inevitably involve exposure to noise - which may be at higher levels than we at first realise - so using hearing protection for many of these is only sensible.

3. Build quiet into your day. It's not a good idea to be wearing hearing protection all the time - so you need to give your ears a break by ensuring that there will be quieter times during your day when hearing protection isn't necessary.This may involve changing your routine. Use soft masking noise and light music (not using headphones) to avoid "silence" where tinnitus is most noticeable.

4. Don't stress about stress. Tinnitus newbies are forever being told that the thing which makes tinnitus worse is stress. But while it's true that how you are feeling at a particular moment can make tinnitus temporarily louder, it won't have a lasting effect. But prolonged loud noise exposure can make tinnitus permanently louder. So don't stress about stress - but do be concerned about noise.

 

[Jack886]

Just a heads up,

The tricyclic antidepressants often prescribed for tinnitus patients are considered to be ototoxic and tinnitus causing even by the American Tinnitus Association Medication Guide.

 

[ashrosi]

Think about talking to another ENT to get a second opinion on your tinnitus.

I took your advice and was not disappointed! This doctor told me my T is the symptom of a viral infection in my Eustachian tubes, and should clear in 4-6 weeks! Thank you soooo much for encouraging getting a second opinion, I'm not sure I would've if it wasn't for you.

 

[Lilah]

Instead of white noise try pink noise out

Why pink noise over white noise?

 

[LugPaul]

Why pink noise over white noise?

Pink noise is the same as white noise but it's changed slightly so your ears don't perceive it as piercing... it's a bit less annoying.