Bad Dysacusis / Distortions — Manageable Tinnitus: A 19-Year-Old Guy Suffering for Two Months

In early December I exposed my right ear to a very loud impact blast from hitting a nail gun charge with a hammer. Yeah, big mistake.

Day 1 I felt horrible pain and tinnitus so loud I hear it over mostly everything. Keep in mind this will all be in my right ear as my other one wasn’t pointed towards the blast and felt fine after a day. During week one I believed it would all subside at least to the point where I didn’t care. Week 2 the tinnitus went a lot down but I could still hear it over most things like the fan I keep on in my room. Also much of the pain subsided but not all. At the end of the week I noticed the ringing would get louder in the presence of other noises and if loud enough would make it loud for a long period of time. At this point I was also starting to get major depression because of it as most parts of my life have been fucked up by it. By the 4th week my tinnitus was actually so low volume I didn’t much mind it and I feel that I partially habituated to it. But there was a much more horrible thing that I noticed. This is when I started noticing my hyperacusis symptoms, primarily dysacusis.

Basically my ear hears horrible distortion over almost every sound unless they are very quiet. Not just that, I also have a constant soreness deep in my ear that never seems to go away and temporarily gets worse with every sound I hear. At this point I preferred having just tinnitus by quite a bit. The distortion has made so many situations unbearable: Listening to or playing music, watching YouTube, tv, movies, playing video games, talking on the phone, going to the beach, hearing a plane fly overhead (I live next to an airport), taking a shower, cooking food, being around high winds, women and children’s voices, etc. I’ve had to change up so much of my life that was going oh so well before this happened.

At 7 or so weeks in. I can say now that the tinnitus on its own is only noticeable if I plug my ear and really search for it. But it is also reactive and while most of the time when I hear other noises I hear the distortion, I do hear the tinnitus competing in there a little too. And again if I expose too much it comes back and I can clearly hear it for a while. The hyperacusis symptoms have not gotten better after them showing up weeks after the incident.

I have noticed a few things however. If I leave an ear plug in for large amounts of time, say a good 5 hours, my pain almost completely subsides to the point where I do not notice it. And while the ear plug is in, the distortions don’t occur. I know many believe that if you just leave protection on it will just hypersensitise your ears but if it takes away the distortion while they are in and also eventually bring the pain down then maybe that’s worth it to literally leave them in permanently. I mean I feel almost normal when I have the ear plug in for a long time. Another thing I noticed very recently is when I plug my nose and blow (like if you are trying to “pop” your ears to depressurize the middle ear) I hear a squeaky, almost deep rubbing sound, occur only when I change the pressure amount. Like if I blow harder, while I increase the hardness the rub sound happens and then when I ease the pressure it occurs but if I hold it at any pressure sure it stops. This makes me believe that the distortion and pain are being caused by the bones in my middle ear being misaligned or damaged and what is occurring here is I can physically hear them being stretched out in an awkward way. I’m really curious if anyone else with similar symptoms feels this because I believe it could be valuable info to maybe find a solution to this.

I mean at this point I really do wish I just felt nothing from bad my ear. No hearing, no ring, no pain, nothing. It’s a weird thought but I wish somehow a doctor could actually induce deafness in my ear after a good few years if it still doesn’t get better. When the ear is plugged, I feel pretty normal again since I’m only using my 1 good ear. I just don’t see much of a point of having an ear that not only makes every sound so gross I’d rather not hear it at all, but also just causes me pain in the process.

I’m so thankful I don’t have this in both ears and I am so terribly sorry for anyone who does.

 

Yeah I feel you.

I had tinnitus for 4 years from shooting guns and a few weeks ago I induced dysacusis upon myself.

I have been powerlifting for a while and one day I was deadlifting with an earplug in. That’s what caused it.

Now my normal tinnitus is much louder and most sounds are distorted into a bell or whistling noise.

It sucks. I am miserable. Noise was the only way for me to escape my tinnitus, now noise makes me go crazy.

I have an audiologist appointment Friday so we will see if I have hearing loss. But yeah I wish I could just induce deafness on my right ear without having any ringing or distortion. That would be a gift from god.

 

Did you hear a loud twang sound with the earplug in or does it happen when you yawn in the morning?

 

This is interesting to me. Earplugs and muffs do nothing whatsoever with my dysacusis, the distortions cut through them like a knife going through butter. I have had dysacusis for a month and a half now, it has honestly gotten much better but still unbearable.

 

How could something like that create it? Do you think you overstrained some muscle or something? And why did the earplug make any difference? Also I feel that our cases may be pretty similar while my tinnitus came from 1 blast comparable to a gun whereas yours seems to be multiple, we both gave ourselves it and from super quick super loud sounds.

 

I got my results today. My audiologist said my hearing is even better than before. He said my hearing is so good it explains my sensitivity to sounds. He said I can hear negative decibels, that’s how good my hearing is.

I have another appointment next week with the best ENT in my area. I’m thinking I could have a perilymph fistula. That could explain the pressure and pain and sound distortions. I hope it’s something they can fix.

If I were you I would check if you have hearing loss. If you don’t, that’s a good sign.

 

Describe the twang better...

If I flex my jaw a certain way i hear my tinnitus loud as shit for a brief period. When I yawn I could see this flexing happening. Yawning kinda isolates it because I think when you yawn you partially open your eustachian tubes.

 

True. The fluttering noise can change when I turn my head. I took 5 days off the gym so far and limited lifting anything and I woke up yesterday and the fluttering and sound distortions were almost gone. I picked up a heavy bike at work and it came right back. Hmmmmm.

 

At least you seem to have narrowed down a cause.

I woke up 1 month ago and everything just went haywire. Much much worse distortions, noise sensitivity and lately... pain.
Sigh...

Are you still lifting weights?

 

No. I have taken about 5 days off so far.

I suspect it’s a perilymphatic fistula. PLF for short. Doctors don’t care and are not available for months in Florida. It gets better until I lift something at work or hear loud noise. This is very strange.

Then today at work I felt some fluid draining out of my ear, I could not tell what it was. It has to be a PLF.

I just don’t have the time to sit for six weeks in bed like some people on these forums are recommending.

 

Hyperacusis takes a long time to improve, avoiding loud sounds but trying to tolerate low-normal sounds has helped me. I wear hearing protection for unpreventable loud noise but mostly just try to avoid the loudness. Wearing plugs even when sound isn't loud is not going to help.

I suggest to completely stop wearing earbuds. This is just my experience. Hope it helps.

 

So Brian, any news in regards to that?
This is irrational. A doctor must accept you. You need to rule this out and to treat it.
Can't your GP refer you?

Weight training makes my tinnitus & hyperacusis worse too, however my case is definitely different. Blood pressure is affecting mine apparently. Also during exercising our ears work like crazy for balance etc.

 

I try to figure out whether I got so much worse due to extensive earplug use. However I have observed that each time I tried to reduce protection, things did get worse. But regardless of that, my 2 major hyperacusis worsenings happened out of the blue. Unless it was noise that seemed non-harmful to me, while indeed harmed me.

 

No, I’m serious, that’s what has been happening. I slipped my $100AUD and he got me an appointment the next day hahaha!

So I’m set for tomorrow, thank God.

 

Bring da money and y'all set!

 

This reads literally like a template of bad information that audiologists and ENTs give people all the time, holy shit. No, your hearing isn't "so good" that it explains your sensitivity to sounds, you have hearing damage, that hearing damage may lie outside of the range of frequencies audiologists typically test or it may be in the form of cochlear synaptopathy. Your brain is turning up certain frequencies in response to loss, not necessarily "louder" but rather it's like the gain on an amplifier being cranked. That is why you have tinnitus, and that is why you especially have dysacusis. The only thing that you can do about it is reduce your exposure to noise, wear earplugs, and take antioxidants and supplements until it heals (which it has a good chance of doing).

 

The ENT prescribed me Prednisone. Should I take it? It’s a fairly short dose, but the first couple days are high, it goes from 60 mg, 50 mg, 40 mg, 30 mg, 30 mg, 10 mg.

I’m scared to take this stuff man. It fucks with my anxiety, but I honestly think it might help, my ears keep popping and crackling, I have heard crazy stories about Prednisone helping. I just keep having panic attacks thinking about this crap.

 

OK, let me know if I understand you correctly.

You're worried about Prednisone's side effects, which are temporary.

But you're not worried about having to deal with your hearing issues FOREVER? Because that's what can happen if you miss your window of opportunity with the Prednisone.

 

Not all of them are temporary...

 

No, I know. Most of my damage was done years ago. My ears are just bothered from the tire pop a few days ago, but the ENT is prescribing me the Prednisone for ETD and swelling in my ear, so it’s 50-50.

 

Do it once for a couple of weeks tops. Any longer and the risks of making it worse start to go up sharply ime.n my experience.

 

I have been off the site for a while now and I thought I’d give some insight on how I’m doing now.

At this point I wear an earplug from the moment I wake up till when I’m going to sleep. I know I know... it’s not what you should do and I may be risking heightened sensitivity. But let me just say that the pain that develops while leaving it out gets far far too severe for me to handle (pain scale legit climbs to a 10 within an hour just hearing medium and low volume stuff) and while it’s out the distortions get worse and worse. I’m convinced that my hyperacusis symptoms will only continue to get worse no matter if I leave my ear plugged or not. But while it’s plugged... bliss.

Since wearing one all day long I’ve actually started to feel somewhat normal again. More than I have ever in this nightmare. I go to band practice, I’ve resumed working construction, I listen to music and love it, I can enjoy my girlfriend’s voice again!!! At this point I look at my right ear as completely useless and tbh accepting that has really helped bring my anxiety down and I would even go as far as to say my depression is gone. Of course when I plug up it isolates the tinnitus ring, but I’m very used to it at this point and it continues to go down in volume. Unlike the hyperacusis stuff.

Recently the friends of my mother told me that she actually has a friend that is an ENT. Since then I’ve had 3 visits in her office. The first one they did a whole boatload of tests. Almost all went fine although I had to keep my plug out which then involved sounds being played in my bad ear and making all of my symptoms jump through the roof, but I held on through it. Once again everything came back normal. The very last test however, didn’t go as planned. It involved a constant pitch being played very loudly in my bad ear for a prolonged period of time while the other one tried to detect beeps at high frequencies. The test was supposed to switch ears but while they did the first portion of it, out of absolutely nowhere I felt a massive pressure drop in my bad ear and then suddenly the room started spinning super super rapidly and jaggedly. I didn’t feel nauseous, but I felt incredibly tired like I could pass out at any moment in the chair. This scared the hell out of me. The ENT assured me that it probably isn’t the onset of Meniere’s disease but I’m not completely convinced. The episode lasted around 15 minutes and I haven’t felt another since.

Today I had another visit with the ENT. Based on yet another test she thinks I may have a dysfunctional Eustachian tube and is trying to get me on a medicine that costs 95 dollars even with insurance that apparently helps keep the tubes closed more. The thing is the condition she thinks I may have doesn’t come from acoustic trauma and I believe the test they did to find this was screwed up because I was very congested on my bad ear side. On top of that she also suggested steroids and I’m more ok with that but still extremely doubtful it will do anything at all.

At this point... here is my plan. I’m going to go back to therapy. I don’t like it and don’t trust it but I’m going to give it another try. I’m going to try TRT as well. If it doesn’t help I will stop. If in 2 years’ time I see absolutely no positive difference in my bad ear or if no regenerative drug comes out by that point, I’m going to seriously consider a Labyrinthectomy or other destructive surgery. Please understand that I have lost my ear in my eyes. No sound I hear through it sounds right to the point where I’d rather be hearing nothing at all, and not to mention the ear causes me so much unbearable pain if I try to use it. I understand that the surgery will induce complete deafness on my right side but if no sound is worth hearing and causes me pain then there is no use having it at all. People who have undergone this surgery for severe hyperacusis are rare, it’s normally done for bad Meniere’s disease. But for those that have had it done for hyperacusis, their symptoms do disappear for obvious reasons. I truly feel like this surgery is the cure for hyperacusis. It comes at a great cost but it makes sense. Thank God I still have one good ear.

 

You are new to hyperacusis and tinnitus. If I were you I'd leave TRT alone for at least 6 months and see how you recover naturally. Personally, I don't think you will need it or any treatment as you're showing signs, that all is required is time for your auditory system to heal. This will happen so try to be patient as it's something that cannot be rushed. The fact you're able to continue working is a good thing.

In most cases hyperacusis becomes worse because of continued exposure to loud sounds. The only thing that I can see that might be of concern, is playing in a band. I advise caution here because if you're not careful this could hinder, stop your progress or make your conditions worse.

Whilst it's good for a person to engage in the things they like to do, when it comes to noise induced tinnitus and hyperacusis, which is what you have, these conditions do not fair well with loud sounds. Many people with noise induced tinnitus and hyperacusis, make a good recovery but it can take up to 12 to 18 months. I say again, this cannot be rushed so try to be patient. I don't think you need any therapies or operations at this time, just leave your ears alone and carry on with what you're doing. When you are able to change to using noise reducing earplug(s) I suggest you do that. Please read my post: Hyperacusis, As I See It, where this is discussed in more detail. You may find my post: The Habituation Process, helpful.

I strongly advise you not to use headphones, earbuds or headset even at low volumes, as you risk making the tinnitus and hyperacusis worse.

Michael

Hyperacusis, As I See It | Tinnitus Talk Support Forum
The Habituation Process | Tinnitus Talk Support Forum

 

@Pierce Wolf, your acoustic trauma may have been severe enough to trigger endolymphatic secondary hydrops, which isn't Meniere's but pretty similar, and that may explain the dysacusis, pressure changes, eustachian tube problems, and especially the vertigo.

Try experimenting with antioxidants and if that doesn't work, maybe a diuretic could help.

 

What medicine?

 

Google about Tulio phenomenon and try to stay away from loud noise or pressure on your ear.

 

I think you may be on to something. Both SEH and Ménière’s sound very similar and the treatments seem to be the same. I will try to avoid salty and sugary foods. Recently I’ve had many more attacks (multiple a day) and they are increasingly violent I even vomited during one.

 

Hasn't done shit for me yet.

I will say last time I got drunk the wavering tones were BAD, like volume up by a factor of 3.

Am doing blood work and then a diuretic myself.

When you yawn do you get any wine glass humming or twang sounds that only cease when your yawn is finished?

 

Yes I get all kinds of strange noise when I burp or yawn. It basically is my tinnitus spiking for a second. When I stop burping or yawning, the noises stop as well. Flexing my jaw a certain way has the same effect.

When I’m drunk I notice a significant decrease in my symptoms. I would assume it’s just because I’m “fucked up” from the alcohol. While drunk, I often do check how my tinnitus is doing. Even the small amount I have in my good ear. It’s always less when I’m intoxicated from alcohol. Every other drug I’ve tried increases my tinnitus, including THC, Psilocybin and Nicotine.

 

That's interesting that nicotine increases yours. Vaping doesn't affect mine... Have you tried a benzo to see if that has any positive effect for a break once in a while? Not a great solution but they do seem to help some people.