Did Cannabis or Loud Music Through Headphones Cause My Tinnitus?

Hello all,

I’ve been checking Tinnitus Talk since the start of my symptoms, but decided to not engage too much to avoid thinking about it. However my symptoms have worsened this past weekend and I decided to introduce myself.

I’m 33M, avid listener to loud music with headphones since forever. At the end of June 2023, I was listening to a particularly loud song and flinched a bit when it got really loud. Turned down the volume immediately and went home after. In the evening, I smoked weed and went to bed and noticed for the first time the ringing only in my left ear. It was a particularly stressful week at work and I’m sure that it contributed to it. Since then, it’s been ups and downs but it’s always present. It was a mix of a background TV sound with sometimes whistling loud noise in worse days. Sometimes it was reactive. I had hyperacusis as well right after onset.

In most days, it was possible to mask with a tinnitus relief app. In the beginning I was really sad and anxious, but it got better after doing therapy (not the volume but my attitude). I started to sleep better, sometimes waking up with almost non perceptible sound that would worsen during the day. Funny enough I always sleep with earplugs, and even though it does make the sound more noticeable, it blocks everything else and I do wake up with it less loud. My hyperacusis disappeared after 1 month and so far hasnt come back.

During this time I did 2 audiometry tests, which both pointed out to a dip of -20 dB in a specific frequency in both ears, but still within the normal range. The left ear however is slightly more affected, and the doctors think that it could have been a sudden hearing loss. I took Prednisone 2 weeks after onset by myself and didn’t notice any difference. ENT doctor measured the pressure of both ears, said all is ok, and told me to go home and relax, completely dismissing the distress of tinnitus.

I started to manage to engage in normal activities again after a while, seeing friends, work colleagues etc. When highly engaged, I was not noticing the sound at all, only if I specifically thought about it. At home and at work I would hear, but the relief app kept me sane and, although horrible, it was doable. I’ve been protecting my ear and also listening to music only at low volume to distract.

This past weekend, however, I had the terrible idea of eating edibles (cannabis) with my friend and my partner, since things were going well anyway. In the beginning it was fun, but it soon turned into a bad trip and my ringing got suddenly insanely loud, like a zapping in my brain going up and down, left and right. I went home and on bed it was crazy. Next day (yesterday) I woke up and unfortunately it was still loud (not as loud as during the trip, but louder than baseline). I’ve been having bad days here and there, but nothing like this. It’s a moderate cricket sound that I cannot mask with the volume I was using before, it has to be louder and I still hear it on top. Today I woke up and I’d say it’s even a bit worse.

I’m writing this because I’m really scared I might have increased the volume of my tinnitus to a new level after this cannabis. For whatever reason, I feel like it was the initial trigger and now it apparently potentiated the situation. Needless to say I decided to never use it again, but I’m afraid now it’s too late. I’m hoping it will go back to baseline, and this entire mess will fade away soon...

Thank you all in advance for listening to my story. It feels so lonely to live with this.

 

Hi @DanT.

Exposure to loud noise is one of the most common causes of tinnitus. Typically, it results from listening to audio through headphones, earbuds, AirPods, headsets, noise cancelling and bone conduction headphones, at too high a volume without realising it. Since you have regularly been listening to loud music through headphones over a long period of time, the tinnitus has probably been present for quite a while, but operating at a low level where your brain was able to comfortably ignore it. A similar thing happened to me, so I know whereof I speak.

There is a limit to how much loud noise exposure the brain and auditory system can cope with until tinnitus makes itself present. Unfortunately you have reached that threshold. If you are careful and follow some of the advice I am about to give, I believe there is a good chance your tinnitus will reduce to a level where it is not too bothersome and you're able to habituate. If you choose not to follow my advice, then you risk your tinnitus getting much worse.

You need to stop listening to audio through headphones and the other devices I have mentioned even at a low volume, as there's a risk of the tinnitus increasing. I am serious about this, if you want to give yourself the best chance of the tinnitus not getting worse. In time the tinnitus is likely to reduce but please do not give into temptation and listen to audio through any type of headphones even at a low volume. Type headphones in the search box at the top of this page and read the posts. This advice is for people whose tinnitus is noise induced. Although people whose tinnitus was not noise induced, are not as likely to be affected by listening to audio through headphones, my advice is to give all types of headphones a wide berth.

One also needs to be careful of exposure to loud music at clubs and concerts. Although noise reducing earplugs and custom moulded earplugs are helpful, this doesn't mean a person is safe - if external sounds are loud enough they can pass through the head and transfer to the inner ear by bone conduction and spike the tinnitus, which could result in increasing it to a new permanent level. More about this is explained in the posts listed below, that are available on my started threads. I advise you to print them and take your time and read them. This way you will absorb and retrain the information better than reading on your computer screen or phone.

Cannabis is a mood changing drug that can affect people differently and in some cases quite profoundly in a negative way. Although I have never tried it, I worked in a psychiatric hospital for 4 years as a maintenance carpenter and gained a lot of information about it and other types of recreational drugs from speaking to doctors. I am not here to judge you or anyone else but I advise you not to use it. My understanding is that it can make one focus more on their mind. Since tinnitus is an integral part of our mental and emotional wellbeing and cannot be separated from it, it's not surprising that cannabis could make tinnitus more intrusive, which I'm sure is something you don't want.

I advise you to stop using earplugs when going to sleep at night as you risk making your tinnitus worse. Quiet rooms and surroundings are not good for tinnitus. Use a sound machine by your bedside at night for low level sound enrichment. More about this is explained in my posts.

• New to Tinnitus, What to Do?
• Tinnitus, A Personal View
• Hyperacusis, as I See It
• The Habituation Process
• How to Habituate to Tinnitus
• Can I Habituate to Variable Tinnitus?
• Tinnitus and the Negative Mindset
• Acquiring a Positive Mindset
• Will My Tinnitus Get Worse?
• Keeping Things Simple With Tinnitus

I wish you well,
Michael

 

Cannabis edibles aggravate my tinnitus, sometimes the entire next day.

What a bummer! I waited over 50 years for decriminalization and now I can't enjoy it.

 

To each his own, I guess. I tried once, never again. Not worth it. Never understood the need or desire, and completely do not understand it after trying. Life was great for me as-is. Never had to resort to substances, even alcohol was meh. Beer or a drink here and there, sure, why not, but any more than that - no, thanks.

 

I tried it to see if it would help with my insomnia after a co-worker said his wife can't sleep without it. I tried 2.5 mg, 5 mg, and 10 mg various times, but it didn't appear to have any measurable effect on my sleep. I thought it might even be making my anxiety worse when it wore off. The higher the dose, the more my heart rate increased temporarily. However, I didn't notice any effect on my tinnitus.

 

It might be because of the THC? It's known to spike tinnitus in some people. It usually goes away though.

CBD isolate seems to have no effect on mine at the moment, I'm up to 25 mg in a day.

 

Well, it didn't spike my tinnitus. But my heart rate did increase after taking it. It was certainly the THC that increased my heart rate. The dose with 10 mg THC increased my heart rate the most.

I have taken up to about 80 mg CBD/CBN Broad Spectrum, CBD/CBN/CBG Broad Spectrum, CBD Full Spectrum, and Delta 8 THC, and none of these helped with my sleep, either. But no tinnitus spikes, either. Just a lot of money down the tubes, like with all the different supplements I've tried.

 

So I don't bother with spectrum anything. I just take CBD isolate, there's nothing else in there except for Cannabidiol. I find it helps me with sleep and calms me down. It's definitely different for everyone tho.

 

I went with the spectrum products because I had read that the whole range of phytochemicals, cannabinoids, terpenes (such as lavandin and myrcene), plant esters, fatty acids, minerals, and compounds work together to provide the entourage effect for a more substantial benefit. Broad spectrum removes most of the THC if that is an issue. Isolate should have the least THC, though, as well as removing other cannabinoids/compounds. Of course, in the end, they didn't seem to help my sleep. I still have a lot left so will probably try it again.

 

Same here. However, I notice that CBD has little to no effect on my tinnitus. Also, cannabis in moderation might not cause a spike. And if it does, in my experience, it is short lived.

 

Are you guys sure the cannabis is making your tinnitus worse or are you just zoning in?

With time, as you accept the noise and it becomes less bothersome, it might change: I have a mate who has had tinnitus for a long time and you can’t keep him away from cannabis. I’m hoping I can get to that point.

 

I don't know what "zoning in" means, but yes, there's definitely causation there. I was surprised at first, but did experiment to verify. What I haven't yet experimented with is to find a dosage "sweet spot" where the cannabis has only the desired effect and not the undesired.

I've had tinnitus for 25 years and so am excruciatingly familiar with my own case. Very little affects it any more. Loud sounds, aspirin, and, sigh, cannabis are about the only things that make it worse.

 

I hope we haven't hijacked @DanT's thread. How are you doing, @DanT? Any improvement months later?

 

Cannabis definitely makes my tinnitus worse. When my tinnitus was intermittent, really strong cannabis always spiked me. But to be fair, I wasn't as bothered as it would be gone after sleeping.

And I was able to still use painkillers and headphones and go to noisy places.

 

Oh yeah, there's a definite medical link between weed and tinnitus. The web is full of it, and it really amped mine up. So much, that I had to give the weed up. But weed induced tinnitus should be temporary, once the weed is out of your system it usually will return to baseline. Takes a while to get it out of your system though, THC is delectable in people's blood for nearly a month. Loud music induced tinnitus tends to stay w/ you.

Tinnitus is, unfortunately, predictably unpredictable. The most innocuous thing can set it off, or nothing at all. Mine will go down and up often of its own accord, but I never know when. At first this caused me to panic, but after 2+ decades w/ tinnitus, I know now that it will eventually go down. Mine is usually quiet upon waking, then will get louder later on. The other day, all I did was twist my ear a tiny bit and it went up a lot louder!

 

I've found tinnitus to be consistently inconsistent as well.

 

When I first developed my tinnitus, I read that weed causes some to experience relief and some to experience spikes. I figured I had nothing to lose. Well, after a small hit, my tinnitus went from a 7 to a 25. It was like Huey Lewis loud. I could barely hear anything else around me. And of course, with the paranoia of being stoned, it was one of the worst experiences of my life.

Never try that again.

 

Hello there,

It will take some time for the cannabis to exit your system, after this you may see some relief? I do not think this caused the increase, but it may have enhanced the perception of your tinnitus, as cannabis can do that, especially an edible. Almost like a bad trip. We do not know how much THC is in edibles, it could've been a significant amount which opened up your "third eye," making you very aware etc.

Also, stress increases your tinnitus, I have realized this myself.

Maybe just think of it as a "bad trip" and it can decrease the volume of your tinnitus.

Exercise has been a huge savior for me, exerting energy and boosting endorphins, making your blood pump.

I hope you get better results soon!

 

Unfortunately, I am in the "THC significantly increases the loudness of my tinnitus" camp. When I tried it during a spike hoping it would calm it down, it instead boosted it. Thankfully, after sleeping it off the spike came down.