Dramatically Changing Tinnitus — Daily from 1 to 100: How Is This Possible?

Hi folks, this is my first post here on Tinnitus Talk but it's been a while since I started reading your stories.

My tinnitus started in June 2020 in my left ear only, after a bad fever and antibiotics, so I'm almost sure that's the cause. I have a medium hearing loss in the low frequencies. However, what brought me here is the dramatically changing nature of my tinnitus, and I'm just trying to figure out if this is only a personal curse or if someone else feels its tinnitus similar to mine.

When it all started I just had some temporary (very loud!) tinnitus: it could lasts for 30 minutes to 1 hour or maybe more, but then it usually disappeared for days. I didn't know how lucky I was at the time, because some months later I started having loud, chronic, fluctuating and reactive tinnitus and mild hyperacusis which sometimes makes me unable to stay with more than 3 people talking together.

Anyway, after 6 months and many treatments, I arrived to a point where my tinnitus is "low" during the day (and with low I mean just liveable, I can cover it with a fan when it is at its best), but when the night comes or when I'm trying to take a nap and especially in the morning, I live hell. It becomes so loud I can't hear people talking if I plug my "good" ear. So loud that it's just like staying 10 meters away from an ambulance. Literally screaming in my ear. It wakes me up several times during the night, and sometimes I am just unable to sleep for the next 3/4 hours.

No need to say that I'm depressed as f*ck, because I feel like my life is totally wasted. And maybe it really is, I'm feeling hopeless. I don't know if I can habituate to something like this, completely unstable.

These daily spikes usually lasts an hour or two, but sometimes it can take up to 5/6 hours to calm down a bit.

Is anyone in a similar situation? Is this "normal" in the tinnitus community? Will this get better over time?

Thanks in advance for any support.

 

You’re not alone. Mine also fluctuates and also started with an infection/fever. I have days where it’s a 1 and the next day it goes to 11. But unlike you, the intensity remains for the rest of the day. It’s very rare for the intensity to change by the hour. It’s usually set during sleep and I wake up with what I wake up with. It’s very hopeless because with these kinds of fluctuations, it makes it impossible to habituate to something that’s unpredictable.

Does your stress level follow the tinnitus or does your tinnitus follow the stress?

 

Definitely my stress level follows my tinnitus. So I can be suicidal for 2 hours a day and then I feel again like there is hope. It's so depressing. Thanks for your feedback!

 

I have this as well, not sure why. I have days where the tinnitus seems like it's going away and then the next day I wake up with an insane level of atonal crashing noises. I do wonder if this points to a more mental or brain-based pathology, as I'm not sure how the ears themselves could send so variable a signal over time.

 

It is pretty normal to have it fluctuate so much the first year, your body is trying to find its "balance" before it will settle and either go away completely or become permanent. I've had tinnitus for several years now and over the years it had pretty much gotten softer each year and tinnitus is stable.

 

Hi man, sorry to hear that.

I have had tinnitus since April 2020 and I also have a very high daily fluctuation. One day I wake up with silence, one day I wake up with loud screaming. Got a sucky tinnitus frequency at 14000 Hz. I find it really really hard to habituate to such a ever changing noise.

 

I hope it will become softer for me too...

 

Unfortunately I never wake up with silence but I hope your silent days will become much more common than the loud ones. Mine is low frequency, it ranges from 300 Hz to 1000 Hz. But what drives me crazy is how loud it can be sometimes: just like having a fire alarm in my head.

 

That's great to hear! If my tinnitus stabilizes and becomes softer it would go a long way towards habituation.

 

Hello an1992,

Changing the intensity of tinnitus over a period of time is a common fact for the tinnitus. A little less often, tinnitus changes as drastically in a very short period of time as is the case with your tinnitus.

You may find it strange, but strongly changing tinnitus in such a short time interval of just one day is not a bad sign for gradual recovery. The downside of your tinnitus, which is in the frequency range of human speech, however, is that it hinders the perception of other people’s speech. I am sure that your condition will gradually improve. During very loud tinnitus, try to do something that will divert attention to your body (e.g. body based techniques like tai-chi, performing technical tasks like car cleaning, repairing of technical devices etc.).

Most importantly, over time, the flexibility of the brain, the softening of tinnitus, and adaptation allow people with tinnitus to live more or less normal lives. For most people, however, tinnitus completely disappears or becomes unobtrusive. Stay strong and persistent. Don’t let tinnitus dictate your life.

Best wishes!

 

The human brain is seriously messed up. My tinnitus is never stable. It always gets the loudest when I am trying to sleep. Sometimes it gets louder for an few seconds then goes back to it’s original volume.

 

My tinnitus has been incredibly unstable since the start. It can be anywhere from hardly detectable (rare) to super loud (also rare). Usually it's audible over most low background noise, and it spikes/fluctuates pretty randomly. My tinnitus is seldom the same throughout an entire day. It's been this way since January with little to no improvement.

I've given up on the why and just deal with each moment as it comes.

 

I'm losing hope: 7 months in and not getting better with my fluctuating, reactive tinnitus.

Today I had my hearing loss checked and it has remained constant, even if I feel my tinnitus is getting worse (bad spikes with new horrible sounds).

Are there any success stories about people having experienced something similar? Is it possible to habituate to this kind of tinnitus?

 

Don't lose hope. Maybe the reactiveness gets less over time. 7 months is not a long time.

@Bill Bauer says you can get better in 2 years.

 

It is good that your tinnitus isn't relentlessly at the same level. The fact that it isn't improving isn't a good sign. Could it be that you continue to be exposed to the kind of noises that cause your tinnitus to spike?

 

@Bill Bauer my tinnitus is due to SSHL (maybe antibiotics), so I can't say if sounds are making it "spike".

Maybe I have a different definition of spike, which has led me to misunderstand most of the content on this forum. My "spikes" are temporarily (hours, days) increments in tinnitus loudness, but crazy ones. When I have a spike my tinnitus goes from 40 dB to 80, 90 dB, depending on the frequency (usually 1300 Hz when it's at it's worst). Totally unbearable.

Of course loud sounds hurt my ear, and I have a mild hyperacusis which sometimes is worse. And as I said my tinnitus is reactive, which means that external sounds make it react just like it competes with them and it happens with almost any kind of sound, including my own voice. Anyway I'm avoiding noisy places or situations, just because I can't stand loud places anymore.

 

If your tinnitus is reactive, then how can you mask it with a fan?

Mine is super reactive and nothing can really mask mine. It sounds like if you can mask yours with a fan then you can get breaks from the reactivity.

 

Quacking duck is my latest joy. Half an hour of this and my tinnitus stops, keeping an eye on why and how it starts up.

 

@Ava Lugo mine doesn't react to every sound. Mostly it reacts to people's voices or with high pitched sounds. Yes, I can sorta have a break from reactivity when I'm with my fan on. But everyday sounds are a shit with my tinnitus and I can't leave my house without hating myself for the rest of the day.

 

@an1992, sorry to hear about your troubles. Here are my 2 cents.

The loudness and fluctuation of your tinnitus will not change before your reaction to your tinnitus changes. The tinnitus feeds off your reaction and the attention it gets. Once you start reacting less, the tinnitus will start to change.

You describe some instances as "totally unbearable". With time your brain will adapt and those same instances will become "somewhat bearable". Then they will become just "bearable" until they are "totally bearable" and in the end "outside of your awareness". That is just how our brains work. But our brains need: time.

I used to wake up every day with the first thought being, how is my tinnitus now and will it be this way the entire day? I had (or may still have) large differences from day to day. But nowadays I don't notice differences anymore because my tinnitus is mostly outside of my awareness. And when it enters my awareness, it's just that: something that I am aware of. It does not hold any other value.

FYI, I can still make my tinnitus sound very loud when I focus on it. But I can not focus very long because I get distracted with other things, I just lose attention. It used to be the other way around that the tinnitus dominated my focus all day long. Now it's hard for me to focus on it. Again, that is just how our brains work.

So maybe it will be more helpful if you focus more on your reaction to tinnitus than on the tinnitus itself. Or better yet, try to not focus on anything., just let it be and power through.

Hope this helps.

 

My tinnitus will virtually go away for 5-8 days and then return loud as ever for 1-2 weeks. The pattern is relatively the same since it started 11 months ago.

I had sinus FESS surgery in October and as of late when I start feeling pressure in my head, the tinnitus starts up and hangs around for days.

ENT has me on OTC allergy meds and I am going to start immunotherapy soon. I am not very optimistic it will make things better.

I have been doing TRT since July. Every time it goes away for a week I get giddy that my life is back, only for it to return to hell.

 

What is "quacking duck"?

 

@cruise, thanks for your kind words. I really appreciate it. I'm trying to ignore the sound and live my life but it's so hard. I also have a mild hyperacusis and ear fullness, so for me it's not that easy to distract myself form the condition.

I'm doing my best and I hope that time will be my medicine too.

 

It doesn't matter if you try or not try, hope or not hope, it will happen! In the meanwhile, you are building mental toughness that will help you with many other future challenges, after your tinnitus challenge is behind you.

 

A Donald Duck like constant noise, lasts for about 20 minutes.