Clicking, Crackling, Buzzing Oh My

Hi all,

I woke up with tinnitus in my left ear one day about 4 years ago.

If my tinnitus isn't bad, then it's an occasional click in my ear, a lot like touching two live wires together. If it's a bit worse, the clicks become a crackle. If it gets really bad, the crackle becomes a buzz.

There is a definite link to sounds around me. The crackling might be brought on by a running tap, or someone talking, or a car passing by. However my ear seems to change sensitivity also, so escaping to a quiet room doesn't work... the ear adjusts, and then the crackling occurs at the slightest noise, and eventually (especially at night) spontaneously.

Sometimes I have had months go by with no T at all. Other times, it has started one day and not stopped for 4 months. Sometimes it will be mild (a slight crackling in the morning), other times it has been extremely bad (a loud buzz bought on by almost any sound).

I can often get rid of my T for the day by 'blasting' it with noise. Nothing really loud, but a shower often helps, as does going outside and being near heavy traffic. However if the T is bad then this tends to work only temporarily, and as soon as I'm back in the house, it will creep back minutes later. I tend to have white noise playing constantly, in the hopes that this fends off the T (and I think that it does, if the T isn't too bad).

I'm at the point right now where I have no idea if this is physical or neurological. From description of symptoms that I've read, I think there's a chance it could be Stapedius Myoclonus. The sound I have is not like a beating drum (which I've read is typical of Tympani). Rather, it's a "snappy", almost digital noise, closer to electricity.

I also have the standard ringing-in-the-ears T in both ears, but that doesn't really bother me, it's cake compared to this clicking/crackling/buzzing nightmare.

I'm hoping that I'll hear from other people on this forum who have similar symptoms. I've not had much luck with tinnitus specialists or ENTs.

 

@nerdvegas
This is obviously troubling you and I suggest that you go back to ENT for tests on your auditory system. If they say there is no underlying medical problem then ask to be referred to a Hearing Therapist or Audiologist who's trained in the management and treatment of tinnitus. There are a variety of treatment options available that could be of help. Please click on my "started threads" and read my post: Tinnitus, A Personal View. Also read: Hyperacusis, As I see it.

I advise that you use a sound machine at night by your bedside for sound enrichment. I feel the way forward for you is to seek help at ENT and if needed a referral to a Hearing Therapist or Audiologist.

Best of luck
Michael

 

I get that crackling sometimes after doing the Valsalva maneuver, or using a device that mimics it's purpose. Running water, silverware clanking, and other sounds set it off, but it usually stops after ten minutes or so. In my case, I believe it's due to clogged Eustachian tubes, which I'm trying to clean out. I have other more typical T & H symptoms and sounds, in addition to the crackling.

 

Mine is in my right ear only due to ETD. The nature of the tinnitus sound has changed tremendously over the 2.5 months that I have had it, but I wanted to mention that I also had the electrical buzzing sound on and off for a few weeks in September. Sometimes I would wake up in the middle of the night, and it would be there and pretty intense... It actually sounded and felt like there was some kind of electrical zap going on in my brain, or like some electrical connection was loose and the auditory system was going haywire. I tried to describe it to both my wife and my brother and they both said that it sounds like aliens are trying to talk to me.

Opposite you, I actually didn't mind the electrical buzz tinnitus so much and found it much easier to handle than the ringing sound, mostly because I was honestly fascinated by it rather than annoyed, it was so strange.

No idea what causes this sort of sound. I wondered if maybe it was the brain failing to cancel out actual electrical sounds occurring due to brain activity or if some other activity was somehow making it into the auditory system. It seems like its origination has to be neurological, though there may be a physical symptom that is triggering the strange neural activity.

 

The most disturbing thing for me is waking up from sleep or a nap and there's a white noise/electrical sound that is constant. Once I"m up and around it fades after an hour or two and is replaced by/changes to various degrees of tinnitus which sometimes fade by the end of the day. The first thing, the white noise/electrical sounds, though, happens every day/night. That leads me to fear I might have Meniers Disease, but I have not thrown up, had the room spin from vertigo, or had any significant hearing loss. I did visit a ENT when this started and nothing was found in the tests to show I had anything seriously wrong, my hearing was within normal limits with high frequency Sensorineural Hearing Loss (SNHL), which may have been due to working in loud environments or other reasons. My word discrimination was judged to be very good.

 

I had those brain zaps around six weeks. It was really awful.

 

Does anyone get the buzzing in response to noise, like I do?

The noise itself is interesting too. It's like the clicking, crackling and buzzing are all differing configurations of the same base 'click' sound. As in, if you put a bunch of clicks together erratically, that sounds like crackling. If you put them really close together, it becomes a buzz. Sometimes the buzz slows down enough that I can actually hear the individual clicks that make up the buzz.

Also, when the buzzing gets really intense, it always does this on-off-on-off thing. One intense buzz might last 3 seconds or so max, then a second of silence, then the buzz again and so on. If the buzzing is less intense, then a single buzz can last longer, 5-10 seconds maybe. There seems to be a linear relationship between buzz intensity and maximum individual buzz length.

These observations are what make me wonder if this is the stapedius spasming. Perhaps the on-off-on-off nature is due to the muscle tiring out and not being capable of constantly spasming for that amount of time. That would explain why the buzz can last longer if it is less intense.