Anyone Else with a “Chaotic Symphony” Tinnitus?

I’m about 2.5 months after onset of my noise induced tinnitus now. After about 2 months my stable “eeeeeeee” tone seems to be gone 90% of the time, however what I’m left with now feels like a hallucinegenic experience that changes maybe every 2 hours throughout the day, and it’s honestly pretty terrifying.

Sometimes it sounds like someone is playing a scale up and down on a flute extremely fast, and hitting notes rapid fire.

Sometimes it sounds like a mist of random bleep bloop digital computer noises that are firing multiple times per second, none of which is piercing but layer over each other to create a wall of noise.

Sometimes it’s an up down up down pulsing of a pure tone that will just alternate every half second: eeeeEEEEeeeeEEEEEE.

Sometimes it sounds like a random assembly of arcade video game noises, none of which I’m familiar with.

None of these so far as I can tell are the typical, unending constant tone.

The only good thing I can say is that on average, these are all softer than my pure tone was, and are generally not as piercing. However, I feel like I’m losing my mind - I’m not sure at what point to call this a hallucination. It’s still very hard to deal with.

I’m asking because in my reading I rarely see mentions, never mind success stories of people with this constantly amorphous tinnitus, and frankly I could use some company as this is pretty exotic - it would be funny if it weren’t happening in my own head 24/7. It definitely doesn’t seem possible to habituate to rapid fire constantly changing hallucinations.

Has anyone else experienced this shift?

Edit: needless to say my ENT has referred me to a neurologist, but I’m 100% sure noise trauma was the catalyst.

 

My tinnitus changes on a daily basis recently. Sometimes the ringing is louder, sometimes the drill, the static, the hiss. Very annoying. I suspect noise exposure was the cause of my tinnitus.

 

Do you have hearing loss? Have you done tests to rule out an ongoing infection or - god forbid - anything more serious? Have you ruled out the possibility that this has a somatic cause? A changing tone means something is on-going.

 

I have no hearing loss up to 8 kHz. I’m assuming my neurologist will want an MRI but I’m hesitant - aside from the danger the fact that it is bilateral means there is low probability of a tumor or something like that being the root cause. I’m not sure what else somatic it could be but it did come on after a loud noise so I think they is the culprit - maybe my brain is just really weird.

 

Mine has no hearing loss, started as a loud “eee” now it’s almost gone. Try to see if you can modulate the tinnitus with neck and/or jaw movements. Have an ENT check for middle ear pressure. If ETD is present it needs to be addressed regardless. Have your ears cleaned, have the ENT check how the ear drum is (scar, perforation, irritation). Check your bp and try to relax, high bp is a bad thing. You may be having an ongoing infection, inflammation, a lot of things. Check my posts and Greg’s. I’m just trying to help because you seem to be on the edge for a long time. I’ll soon post my “plan” to get rid of tinnitus and then I’m off this forum because even though it helps to an extent, it’s not helping mentally. Also, try to get some sleep dude. You gotta be rough on doctors, be specific, write down the stuff you want, when I went to the second ENT I told him I want everything written, I broke his balls but he didn’t blame me, instead he respected it.

You’ll get better, don’t give up.

 

Thanks! I appreciate all of this!

 

What do you mean by this, something is on-going?

 

Sounds like your tinnitus is on its way out or trying to morph into something less annoying.

Like I said, you're way early on... it might even start fading at the 8-12 month mark...

 

I assume since he is getting constant changes to his tinnitus, something is messing with it. Be it aural pressure, nerve, vessel, tension, god knows. Otherwise he would be stable or completely rid of tinnitus. Assuming he has no infection or trauma.

 

Or it could just be improvement. Total resolution in one month (your lucky case) is pretty rare, I think. Surely in 2000 - 2005 I was healed of disco tinnitus multiple times in one day, great.

 

I don’t have total resolution. My tinnitus right now after finishing physiotherapy session is both static and “eee”. At times it’s only static, sometimes I understand that if I really focus on it it’s as if I’m contracting a muscle and the feeling of it increases. I’m just assuming that change of pitch back and forth probably means something is being irritated. For me, it happens because the nerve on the c1 and c2 is irritated during laser, causing a temporary spike if you will. On that basis, I made the assumption for him.

If I ever have total resolution that lasts, I’ll write in success stories. Honestly and from what life has taught me so far regarding injuries, it never happens when you don’t know what’s causing it. Because if it isn’t trauma or infection but of somatic nature, good luck finding it. It can be a tiny nerve ending being lightly pressured, how am I gonna find it? And how do you expect a neck issue, a nerve compression to get BETTER with time? That’s the problem, the connection of tinnitus to something of a somatic nature means that it will certainly get worse if not addressed. Have you seen anyone’s neck get better as they age?

That’s the problem and that’s why I’m spending time trying to figure it out and why I’m telling to our friend that he should maybe be on the lookout.

 

Sure proper check up is necessary. But one has to be aware only of the dangerous tests. In the end if you know your tinnitus is noise induced currently you can give your ears only silence and magnesium to heal.

 

I’ve had my ears looked at by multiple ENT as of today and they all can’t find anything obvious - I’ve passed every diagnostic. Because my onset was right after a very loud noise I assume it is a noise trauma - I do have some pain hyperacusis as well. Just not sure why my ears always cycle through sounds but I am taking lots of supplements.

 

I have a quality to my tinnitus which is so hard to bear, which is that it rapidly pulses. It's like morse code except even faster, and it's in both ears. It's honestly so disorienting. At this point I'd love to just have steady tones...

 

Post acoustic-trauma, I hear oscillating tones of idling engines, ringing bells, static, plus an explosion distortion (potential ossicular lesion) triggered by sharp and sudden sounds. I can relate to the inhumane auditory torture chamber!

For 3 months after taking magnesium citrate, the tones in one ear disappeared until another trauma. Hoping for such a reprieve to return and be lasting.

 

I took tons of supplements too, until a chiro told me to detox from most of them because some were hindering my body.

Have you considered CBD? I'm curious and tempted...

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/major-relief-—-finally.33986/

 

I tried CBD both with and without THC (the psychoactive component in marijuana). It does work for anxiety, but for me has no effect on the actual tinnitus. That being said, the experience of others may be different.

 

Which brand did you use that at least helped with your anxiety? Care by Design 1:1 ratio to THC was mentioned in the thread.

 

I used two, Bluebird Botanicals and Nootropics Depot. The former has THC, the latter does not.

 

Be careful with the CBD. It can make tinnitus a hundred times worse.

 

Ignore this ignorant statement everyone

 

Can you tell me how that is ignorant? Maybe I should have stated it made my tinnitus 100 times worse the multiple times I tried it? Also, I did say "be careful" rather than "don't try it". There's no reason to be rude. We are all suffering with this. But CBD is not the answer to everything. Sorry, it's just not.

 

My tinnitus has since dramatically shrunk in terms of the number of noises and variation - it took about 5 months - the number of sounds has shrunk from too many to count to a stable of 3-4. Just thought I would provide an update.

 

Hello, im new here. I have the same noices. A constant fluctuating symphony of sounds that are the same type as what you describe. Sort of hissing intermittent sounds that all seem to take turns constantly aswell as a high pitched tone..I get a kinda morse code aswell behind the other sounds. somtimes my right ear will subside into a more gentle wooshing sound it all changes from minute to minute and Had it for 3 months so far.I think it was noice induced.i was using a small mouse sander around 4 days before i noticed the noice which started in rite ear first then went to both ears. I have had some other symptoms to tho. Nerve pains across head. And dizzyness and somtimes numbing over top teeth and sinuses. So im trying to work out if it could be nerve realated..also get neck ache and gerd which feels like you have something stuck in throat..
All really horrible really.
Im still waiting on ent reffered but since lockdown im stuck on a waiting list..forever.
Do you get any other symptoms like the ones I've described?

 

Hey guys, @GBB and @Lolla, my tones and symptoms are pretty much the same as yours.

For me, usually I start the day with just 1 or 2 tones, then during the day the other tones increasingly start to play in my head (sometimes there are even a new tone), until a point where they get "stable". Then, after dinner, the whole orchestra shows up and when I go to bad I have more or less 5 or 6 tones at same time.

Since my onset of tinnitus, 2 months ago, I have been suffering from:
- Headaches, a different kind which I never experienced before
- Neck and cervical pain (doing physio sessions)
- Dry Eye and Floaters onset
- In this meanwhile I was also diagnosed with high blood pressure =[

I have visited 3 ENTs so far. The only issues they found with my ears is hearing loss, which I already knew I had.

On last week I visited a rheumatologist. The doctor did an ultrasound analysis of my neck and found something strange with the size of my thyroid. Now I need to do a blood test see what is really going on... I will try to post the results here.

 

That's great news - congratulations!

 

I am happy to hear that!

I have been reading your posts, since you are very active on the forum and you share your experiences and the things you try to get better. My tinnitus is most of the time also a changing "chaotic symphony" as you called it, reactive... and reading your posts make me feel hopeful, because even though you are going through very difficult times, you are very proactive and do not stay in despair mode.

Also, you remind me of my little brother

So I am rooting for you big time!