Anxiety, Stress and Louder Tinnitus

I just read a journal article that mentions that fear and anxiety trigger the limbic system which creates a stronger tinnitus signal and prevents habituation.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3925227/

But according to the article, in habituation it isn’t that you are ignoring tinnitus - it’s that over time brain centers “switch off” the signal that generated the tinnitus.

Also depressed anxious patients perceived tinnitus as being louder and depression anxiety resulted in louder tinnitus.

“On the other hand, in the case of emotional reinforcements caused by fear, anxiety, or tension, the continued perception of tinnitus is supported by the limbic system, primarily by the amygdala; this establishes a vicious circuit which leads to the amplification (increased excitability) and the chronification (through neuronal plasticity mechanisms) of the signal.“

 

Makes sense. But is this unconscious thing always in effect or the second you’re stressed or think about tinnitus... boom it’s back?

Whenever I mention “what’s your tinnitus sound like” to my ENT he says “damn now I hear it again! See what you did!”

 

While this is a process that works for millions of people, and for many it happens naturally, it unfortunately doesn’t work for millions of people. However, many say the majority of people with tinnitus are fine.

If you’re new tinnitus I’d definitely say give it time and have hope, your chances are good that you’ll improve.

But the truth is that many people do not react negatively towards their tinnitus and it doesn’t allow them to tune it off. The idea that it’s just your emotional reaction that causes emotional distress and prevents habituation and that loudness doesn’t matter (or that people struggling don’t actually have loud tinnitus and just think it’s loud) has been propagated for a long time but it doesn’t represent the whole tinnitus spectrum.

 

I am always able to hear my tinnitus, it is a tea kettle whistle that has never ceased, from day one. It is loud. Not reacting negatively to the sound is something that I (personally) have been able to manage through mindfulness, meditation and physical activity.

Stress absolutely can, and does, play a factor in how one perceives their tinnitus. Like I said, my pitch/volume has not changed in over a year, until recently, after a particularly stressful event. I woke up with a loudness that was off the chart. It was scary, very scary. It took a couple of days to get myself together, this was not an easy fix, but thankfully it has gone back down to baseline.