Computer Fan Causes Ear Pain?

Hello everyone,

It's been about two weeks since my spike, gladfully it is going down. However, I seem to get ear pain (warm feeling) in my ears when I sit at my computer. It is a bit painful over time. I believe it is caused by the computer fan, since it also causes my tinnitus to slightly react. It is not a loud fan (30 dB, 40 dB when gaming). Does anybody else experience this?

I am planning to move the tower of the computer out of the room currently. If it doesn't work, I'll shoot for a silent computer.

 

My computer fan used to enhance my tinnitus as well. I did pretty much the same thing: moved the PC to the attic and streamed it all to the TV by using my Steam Link. This is actually still my setup, although computer fans are no longer an issue. Sitting on my couch while gaming is way more convenient

 

It's more the pain that bothers me than the reactivity. I wonder: Can you get ear pain without knowing which noise caused it? I usually get a slight stabbing when it's too loud, not burning.

 

Yes, I think it is possible. I often get ear pain without knowing the cause or being unsure. Even if I suspect I have ear pain from a certain noise, often I feel that I can't be 100% certain. I think I get pain from a particular noise but it's somewhat rare. The problem is the pain remains for an extremely long time. I believe that the pain happens after a noise because there will be a delay afterwards until I have the pain. But, I can't find any other cause as the pain occurs suddenly but sometimes there is a gradual sensation of pain that increases soon after. I wonder if I have both hyperacusis and TMJ. I have TMJ like symptoms but it is still hard for me to tell what the condition is exactly.

As for your computer, is it a prebuilt or one you put together? Depending on which, you can replace the fans. Noctua makes pretty quiet fans. If it is a prebuilt, the choices might be a bit more limited. But, there might be some quieter ones than the stock fans. You can also buy a fan controller to control the fan speed. That would be done via the BIOS. Even if the computer is in another room, it might help when you're in that room. You could also wear ear plugs when briefly around the computer - if you're really sensitive to the computer noise.

Also, try cleaning out the computer with a compressed gas canister. Use earplugs for that.

 

Hey PeteJ, thanks a lot for your answer. I hope you're doing a bit better today. I've come to the conclusion that my ear pain was probably caused by stress/worry. The pain wasn't very consistent throughout the day and it didn't make a difference whether I tried my ear muffs at a computer or not or whether I was around other (louder) noises, so that's why I came to this conclusion. After adressing my worries as good as possible, I used my computer yesterday for 2 hours and I didn't get ear pain. I also remembered that I've had similar pain experiences in the past (once for over a month).

 

That's good. I don't know of any medical reasoning that would explain ear pain from stress but I am glad you are doing better.

I'm not. Actually, my right ear is in some pain and discomfort this evening. I am not sure why.

 

Years ago, that was in 2012 to be precise, I developed ankle pain for no reason. My mind started focusing on it and it became more and more intense. I started avoiding doing sports in fear of worsening it. I feared getting arthritis or fibromyalgia. I started researching and stumbled upon the books of John Sarno, the doctor who developed the controversial theory of tension myositis syndrome. The essence of the theory is that the brain creates pain as a distraction so that we do not have to aknowledge uncomfortable/traumatic feelings/aspects of ourselves (I wouldn't be surprised if it were some sort of thalamocortical dysrhythmia). Back then I didn't really realize from what I was supposed to be distracted (I know it know though), but I realised that my pain was very inconsistent and seemed to be more of a learned pain. It dissipated once I became convinced that I did not have an uncurable illness (after three horrible months). I had small bouts of unexplained pain in the following years, but Sarno's theory worked for me. Later on the pain was replaced with panic attacks, I had three between 2017 and 2019. The reason why I got these problems is that I was not really doing what I wanted to do with my life. On a superficial level, I was content. But deep down there was a small voice that was veery unhappy.
So the reason why I got ear pain was probably that I was falling back into my old habits after getting out of the worst of my spike (sleeplessness) instead of pursuing my real personality. I always had difficulty accepting my nerdiness because it made me an outsider. I guess it's ok to read a book about anatomy just out of curiosity, even if it's weird to others.^^