Can a Brave Soul Kindly Give Me Advice? Lost and Getting Worse. No Living Family to Turn to.

[another sean]

Hi there brave soul,

I am a bit lost in my situation and wondered if someone could kindly give me some input regarding my condition. I have seen an ENT but I feel like those meetings are so short and he may not fully understand my condition and I was hoping people here with first hand experience with T may be able to help me more effectively. I have read many long posts and people are truly incrediable. I thought I could solve this on my own by reading posts and not bothering anyone but I've learned thru reading here the many cases are different in how they got it and effects treatment and advice so I thought I needed to make a post. I know its long, but If anyone had any chance of helping, I felt they needed to know some history.

Back in 2008 is when I first noticed it. It was after wearing new headphones for 2 weeks. These headphones were tight fitting and open backs 650 Sennheisers. I would wear them all day long. even when not listening to music because it was quiet. I have always taken good care of my ears. Always wore ear plugs to shows, and when using these headphones, I measured the decibel at 75 using a sound meter. Mostly piano stuff. I stopped wearing headphones after one night hearing a slight hiss. Later on I noticed sounds from any speaker would aggravate it. So I avoided speakers for a month and then it seemed to go away. I would have to hunt for it to hear it again. I could play music fine, watch movies at home fine. But if I went to a movie theater with ear plugs, it would ring for about an hour and then be fine. So I wouldn't see more than 1 movie a year in the theaters.

Fast forward to May 2015. I saw a opera quartet at a music hall. I wore ear plugs. I only stayed for 45min after not liking it that much. When walking to my car my ears rang. But this time, it hasn't gone away.

I saw my ENT, did a hearing test. Said my hearing was "amazing". ENT said that my T was coming from my brain. I am not sure what he means by that. He suggested trying a anti depressant. He also ordered a MRI scan to check for any brain lesions, tumors or any nerves pressing up against anything. I put that off risk getting Nephrogenic systemic fibrosis (NSF) from the contrast. So I've been dealing with it on my own. When I wake up its very mild. Not a real bother.

Then 2 days ago it reached a new level when gardeners were outside my windows using lawn mowers and leaf blowers, then later that day I played 10 seocnds of a song thru speakers which caused a spike. feeling stressed from the spike I play one song on my accoustic guitar which never bothered me before, but this time it did. Now I'm more senstive to everythying. When I hear the fan in the bathroom, do the dishes, hear my nieghboors AC, it gets louder. I have stopped listening to music and tv completely. Heariing anything from a speaker will cause my T to go up after seconds. hearing my refrigerator even affects me. What I really don't understand is sounds from a speaker in particular really upset it before. I wonder if that is a certain type of T or if that is common.

So here are some things I am confused about.
Why does the slightest sounds from a speaker aggravate it.
Why would my ENT say my T is in my brain when external sounds from a concert and previously headphones acted it up?
Is this what you'd call Reactive T?

What I am hoping for is if I really try to protect my ears from sounds that in the next 6-12 months they will have a chance to heal and go back down to previous levels. Because it looks like its been getting worse for the last 2 months and I haven't been doing enough to protect my ears from day to day sounds and let them truly rest. I have a dated concise detailed list of events and changes under my profile under Information too if needed.

Any help understanding my situation would really help and any tips that come to mind would be greatly appreciated as I got really lost in the supplements thread. In the last 2 days I have noticed depression and anxiety setting in and starting to feel lonely. Never felt like that this much before and thats saying a lot considering I have been single for years and have no surviving immediate family except for my cat.

Thanks for taking the time to read this. I really really apprecaite it.

 

[Danny Boy]

Hi there brave soul,

I am a bit lost in my situation and wondered if someone could kindly give me some input regarding my condition. I have seen an ENT but I feel like those meetings are so short and he may not fully understand my condition and I was hoping people here with first hand experience with T may be able to help me more effectively. I have read many long posts and people are truly incrediable. I thought I could solve this on my own by reading posts and not bothering anyone but I've learned thru reading here the many cases are different in how they got it and effects treatment and advice so I thought I needed to make a post. I know its long, but If anyone had any chance of helping, I felt they needed to know some history.

Back in 2008 is when I first noticed it. It was after wearing new headphones for 2 weeks. These headphones were tight fitting and open backs 650 Sennheisers. I would wear them all day long. even when not listening to music because it was quiet. I have always taken good care of my ears. Always wore ear plugs to shows, and when using these headphones, I measured the decibel at 75 using a sound meter. Mostly piano stuff. I stopped wearing headphones after one night hearing a slight hiss. Later on I noticed sounds from any speaker would aggravate it. So I avoided speakers for a month and then it seemed to go away. I would have to hunt for it to hear it again. I could play music fine, watch movies at home fine. But if I went to a movie theater with ear plugs, it would ring for about an hour and then be fine. So I wouldn't see more than 1 movie a year in the theaters.

Fast forward to May 2015. I saw a opera quartet at a music hall. I wore ear plugs. I only stayed for 45min after not liking it that much. When walking to my car my ears rang. But this time, it hasn't gone away.

I saw my ENT, did a hearing test. Said my hearing was "amazing". ENT said that my T was coming from my brain. I am not sure what he means by that. He suggested trying a anti depressant. He also ordered a MRI scan to check for any brain lesions, tumors or any nerves pressing up against anything. I put that off risk getting Nephrogenic systemic fibrosis (NSF) from the contrast. So I've been dealing with it on my own. When I wake up its very mild. Not a real bother.

Then 2 days ago it reached a new level when gardeners were outside my windows using lawn mowers and leaf blowers, then later that day I played 10 seocnds of a song thru speakers which caused a spike. feeling stressed from the spike I play one song on my accoustic guitar which never bothered me before, but this time it did. Now I'm more senstive to everythying. When I hear the fan in the bathroom, do the dishes, hear my nieghboors AC, it gets louder. I have stopped listening to music and tv completely. Heariing anything from a speaker will cause my T to go up after seconds. hearing my refrigerator even affects me. What I really don't understand is sounds from a speaker in particular really upset it before. I wonder if that is a certain type of T or if that is common.

So here are some things I am confused about.
Why does the slightest sounds from a speaker aggravate it.
Why would my ENT say my T is in my brain when external sounds from a concert and previously headphones acted it up?
Is this what you'd call Reactive T?

What I am hoping for is if I really try to protect my ears from sounds that in the next 6-12 months they will have a chance to heal and go back down to previous levels. Because it looks like its been getting worse for the last 2 months and I haven't been doing enough to protect my ears from day to day sounds and let them truly rest. I have a dated concise detailed list of events and changes under my profile under Information too if needed.

Any help understanding my situation would really help and any tips that come to mind would be greatly appreciated as I got really lost in the supplements thread. In the last 2 days I have noticed depression and anxiety setting in and starting to feel lonely. Never felt like that this much before and thats saying a lot considering I have been single for years and have no surviving immediate family except for my cat.

Thanks for taking the time to read this. I really really apprecaite it.

I had reactive tinnitus and this sure sounds like it. It's truly awful isn't it? Like it competes with certain sounds and amplifies itself. Sorry this has happened to you.

 

[Mad maggot]

I think the ENT is saying this T is coming from your brain because he does not find any damage to your ear. I also have excellent hearing. No hearing loss. But I have loud sporadic T like clicking or buzzing which is obviously not coming from my ear. It is neurological in origin. But my T is probably not strictly speaking real Tinnitus as mine is accompanied always with my eye jumping in time to the buzzing which means it can be difficult to see because I can't hold my eyes on whatever I'm trying to look at! I do have the usual T everyone talks about also. It's a low kind of static ringing and along with this a pure tone that fluctuates in volume. Usually I don't hear it unless I'm in a real quiet room but sometimes it can be loud enough to hear over the television. This T does not bother me. I just tune it in or out at will. Like the way you might tune out the noise of the washing machine while you are listening to something else and your brain just chooses to ignore it. Even when it's quite loud I can still do it. But when I have the real loud clicking, buzzing it comes on with no apparent reason and is so loud I can't hear much else. I guess I could ignore that also in time but it isn't a noise alone. It comes with the vision jumping and bouncing all over the place and throwing me into a spin or making me want to throw up. I also have hyperacusis off and on. Some days I can't stand noise as it seems so loud it vibrates my head. And other days I couldn't care less. I have no idea what causes these things. I assume it's nerves that are being irritated or inflames or possibly some kind of partial seizure in the brain.
What advice I can offer is to not come here! Ha ha. Sounds silly. But I suggest at least for a while that you stay away from trying to talk about it and focus on it. Because in the early stage when it really drives you crazy,mths more you try to fight it the worse it will be. That's only my opinion and you can ignore it but I think this advice applies to many things in life. When you have the flu and you ache all over you try to keep warm and rest and do things to take your mind off your misery rather than lying in a room and concentrating on the aches and pains and misery right? You should see Drs to rule out anything dangerous like a tumour in your ear or something crazy. And if nothing shows up and no treatment is found to get rid of the problem the next step is to learn how to cope with this. I don't think spending time here is going to help too much with that personally. What I mean is, you need to avoid allowing this T to start controlling your life and influencing your every thought. It's too easy when you have a chronic illness to become introverted and focused on your own suffering which magnifies it. I don't mean that it is just a small problem and you are making it big by focusing on it - it's a big problem. What I mean is take charge of it and do not allow it to get bigger.
I'm not sure if you can understand what I'm talking about. But I feel I'm speaking from some experience here because my symptoms are so bad that in the beginning I couldn't get out of bed to use the toilet, then I was able to crawl, then I could walk by holding the walls and so it went until now most people have no idea anything is wrong with me because despite my head buzzing like a chainsaw, the room jumping and spinning round me so it's hard to know which way is up and where the floor is, I can pretty much walk a straight line without holding anything most of the time. I think your brain can adapt and other senses take over or I can figure out the reality from the false messages if that makes any sense at all? So I think that the brain can adapt to T in much the same way if given time and help. Al this probably took a year. If you try to slowly behave as you normally would or at least try to as much as you can it will be like a person whose had a stroke and they learn to walk again.
Maybe this doesn't sound very encouraging? I'm trying to be but I'm not finding it easy to put my thoughts into the right words. But I think you're talking about purely a horrible noise in your head that's driving you nuts and understandably so. I'm talking about that plus a whole bunch of other stuff going on at the same time and I've learned to live pretty near to normal or close enough to be happy and not let it depress me. Although I still have my moments! I'm not especially brave or clever. In fact I'm a wimp and maybe average intelligence. So I'm sure you'll do just fine if you give yourself time and trust your ability.