Could My Anxiety Be Making My Existing Tinnitus Worse?

Hi guys hope you are all doing well.

I have had tinnitus for years now. (Since around 15). A hissing in both ears by sounds mostly from the right and a whistling noise in the right ear as well. After the panicking and stress from this I had as a kid I finally got used to it and it didn't bother me anymore.

Now (21 years of age) about a week ago I woke up and noticed a similar but different whistling noise in my left. I didn't think much of it at first because after I got up and starting doing things by night time I couldn't hear it. However after coming back from work one day I noticed I could hear it. That's when the panicking and anxiety kicked in. It's been about 3 days since then and I have been focusing on my tinnitus a lot. Sounds of when I flush the toilet and it's relfilling I focus on because it sounds like that new noise. My brain is completely fixated on it. I've been so worried that even my hissing that I've had for ages sounds like it's a lot louder and is worrying me more than the new noise i have got and i can't tune out from it I just focus on it constantly. Is it possible that my brain is just hyper aware of it all?

Would you reckon I do to try and habituate again and get my brain to accept it again?

* I should also mention that the work I done was taking down a stage from a concert so it was quite loud.


Sorry for the long post,
Nathan

 

I would also like to add that I had the hissing so long I thought it was normal. Until I asked someone the other day if they hear something similar and they said no. And that made me panic. It's almost as if I unhabituated myself by thinking about everything too much?

 

Yes, in short you are correct.

However, if you exposed yourself to loud noise recently or previously that certainly could be the reason for the tinnitus being louder now. Also, it has a good chance of returning to it's previous level as long as you take care of your ears from now on.

 

Yeah either it will settle down or you'll let used to it (habituate) again. Could your anxiety be making it worse? I'm not qualified to say, but I think it's likely the other way around, that your tinnitus is giving you anxiety. I can't imagine how anxiety could affect your inner ear, but maybe there is some physiological link. I've just never noticed a change in my hearing when I've had anxiety.

 

Thank you for the replies. @CMIH yeah I understand I was thinking because the new noise I got in my ear made me anxoius and made me super aware of noise and I was listening in to everything that it then made my tinnitus I am used to appear to be louder. If that made any sense.

 

@HeavyMantra I was thinking the same. However after I was exposed to the loud noise I did not notice that the hissing got any louder. It was just days after of worry and anxiety I got the thought that it is louder.

 

Could be either. I got my permanent spike 1 week after the suspected noise exposure

 

Sorry to hear. How you getting on with it?

 

Well, my life is objectively much much worse now and I don't expect that to change sadly. That said, it has gotten a bit easier to deal with after 6 months.

 

That's upsetting. You don't think more time can heal?

 

@NathanNd Anxiety and panic can make T louder but should subside once they are dealt with. I say “should” because that’s been my experience, but everyone’s different.

 

How did you personally deal with the anxiety and panic? I feel like a rookie all over again

 

I had severe panic attacks over a couple of weeks. Wave after wave... really horrible times. My T would crank right up when they hit. I had to take aprazolam during that time. It helped bring the T down too. But being a benzo, it’s not good to take for too long. After that I was able to improve on my time gradually.

 

I have times when my anxiety cranks up and get horrible thoughts. Not sure how I should deal with it. How loud is your tinnitus? And how is your life now?

 

You could consider seeing a professional about it. Or try practicing mindfulness...? You have to try to learn to not react to it too much emotionally.
I’m just trying my best to live an ok life. My tinnitus changes a lot.

 

This question was not for me, but I have a few comments.

Everybody has disturbing thoughts, but they can't hurt you. CBT and Mindfulness can help by letting ourselves defuse our reactions to the bad thoughts. Among other things, I use the methods in the book "The Illustrated Happiness Trap", by Russ Harris and Bev Aisbett, to learn how to do this, which is a very good primer to ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy).

 

I will look into mindfulness. I mean for me it's still early days. This anxiety and panic only started on Monday.

 

I'll look into practicing mindfulness. As it's only been 4 days since I've been in this anxious state I'll wait with CBT if it persists. Thanks for your response.

 

I guess. My emotional reaction to it has gotten better, but the actual tinnitus just keeps getting worse

 

Update:
My other sounds have gotten louder. And I get a strange burning sensation when I try to mask my tinnitus. Is that hyperaucsis?

 

You are over thinking it maybe? What work do you do, does your job require being around loud noises daily? Do you wear ear plugs every time you are around noise? These are important questions worth considering.

 

Pain from sound is called noxacusis
https://www.statnews.com/2016/02/18/noise-induced-ear-pain/


Seek medical attention and tell the doctors you have "pain from sound" and it was caused by loud noise exposure.

 

This is why you got worse, loud noise can damage hearing thus worsening tinnitus. That's your problem. This is a ear damage issue not an anxiety issue.


Futhermore how would anxiety cause burning ear pain from sound?

 

He could be wearing ear protection while he was doing those things.

 

what is occams razor?

 

To me it's the other way around, tinnitus causes anxiety to run bad. Once you get the anxiety under control, you will start to feel better and can cope with tinnitus.