Can Anxiety Create a Tinnitus Spike? I'm So Upset

Hello everyone,

I am a slightly different case to most of you in the sense that my tinnitus is not noise induced/hearing loss related and is a result of visual snow syndrome. Over the years of having this I’ve had many spikes lasting a few days to even a week.

Since last Saturday I was having a particular bad and distressing spike in my right ear (mostly all my tinnitus comes from this ear) which was fading by Friday and Saturday of this week.

Due to it being my 3 year anniversary with my girlfriend we went out for dinner last night and the whole time I was stressing out that my tinnitus would spike even though the restaurant was not particularly loud. On the walk back I was terrified but it seemed to not cause any damage after.

However, this caused me to be so anxious about it all night until I fell asleep just in case it did happen (you know how your mindset can get during/after a spike). Shortly after managing to fall asleep I awoke to screeching tinnitus in my right ear which calmed down to the level it was during my initial spike. This caused me to stay up for hours with anxiety and as I am writing now I’ve only had 2 hours sleep.

I just feel like I’ve lost my progress after my initial spike which had caused me a lot of distress. The weird thing about this is that logically, due to mine not being noise induced it shouldn’t really have been spiked so it seems this spike has come as a result of stress, is this possible or should I worry that I’ve done some damage?

Sorry for the long winded post I am just really upset and need some advice.

TL;DR: Just recovered from a spike, went to a not so loud restaurant and the same spike returned a few hours later after stressing that it was a bad idea. Is this spike brought up by anxiety?

 

Spikes happen routinely and 99% of the time your back to baseline in hours or days. You really need to believe that.

Fear and worrying about what could happen will make this worse for you. We have to avoid obsessing about the daily changes and listening for the sounds all day. When your in this heightened state of hyper awareness and fear your body chemistry changes in unfavorable ways. Part of this is a loss of control, which you can’t control. If you know any relaxation techniques then use them, if not consider talking to someone to help quiet your mind and establish a level of acceptance of your condition. It will get better if you let it. As your life goes on you will accrue new health issues and you learn to cope with them. I have two cancers, severe arthritis, neuropathy issues, bursitis, tinnitus, hyperacousis, ear pain, lost my wife to cancer,

.... My other problems are bad enough that I don’t even care about the tinnitus most days, I have accepted it and moved on. Some days it’s shockingly loud and I just don’t care anymore. I do what works to keep it down and get to my day. I don’t want you to have all my problems but it shows that we can start to ignore it with the right frame of mind.

Learn your triggers and avoid them - sugar, salt, caffeine, ... Get adequate sleep.

Get some musician earplugs and use them in social settings. Foam earplugs and headphones for really loud stuff like mowing the lawn. Don’t overprotect.

Get to some doctors to rule out treatable conditions and maybe get some relief to relax. Be careful with drugs for anxiety, they are great for short term crisis situations but they can turn on you with long term use.

Try to relax and learn to breathe properly.

George