ENT Said My Hearing Is Perfect — But Tinnius Is Crippling Me Still

I have been told by the ENT today that my hearing is perfect. But my tinnitus is crippling me still. Today I am barely coping as he said there is most probably nothing can be done.

I woke up today in full fight or flight mode and have remained that way. I have been like this for weeks now and I am so exhausted.

This is ruining my whole existence. I can't cope with work because all I focus on is the sound. I'm trying hard not to but I feel I am losing the battle.

 

Did he test the higher frequencies as well? Might be hearing loss above 8khz.

 

@Jason Goodwin
Jason,
Please look for my article: Tinnitus, A Personal View, in the forum. I believe it is on page 6 or 7 under the support tag. I am using a tablet PC and unable to paste a link here. I believe the information will be of help to you.
All the best
Michael

 

@Jason Goodwin, you list your tinnitus cause as unknown. What exactly happened in the events before the T?

 

I just woke up one morning with a weird feeling in my head, fullness and ringing. Left eye was a bit blurry also. I almost felt like i had slept wrong . I had slight numbness in my arm but the CT scan was clear. I did have some sort of hayfever/sinus thing going on though.

 

Thanks Michael
I will have a read. I am at the mental health ED right now because i am not coping.

 

@Rubenslash, i think he tested all frequencies as far as i know.

 

Have you been checked by a muscle specialist? Perhaps there's some underlying muscle spasm. Any injury or rigorous activity beforehand (even if it seems somewhat remote and unrelated)? Small things like that won't appear on a CT, even an MRI (unless you tore a muscle or ligament pretty badly).

 

I need to check that also. I do tense up a lot. It is definitely worth looking into.

 

Hello Jason.
I dont say yours is permanent but if it is, it will get alot better with time. I got my T around 2 years ago and the first 3-6 mounth was extremely hard for me, but i can tell you 2 years after i got my T i can have a normally life 85-90% of the time.
When you get use to not think about it all the time(This will happen trust me) then you will see that your T gets lower over time and when you can hear it, it will not be that bad. Every time i play computer games i never think about it, but when there is no sound around me, it sounds like a machine in my head :/ im 22 years old now and got it when i was 20.

I wish you the best luck and hope it goes away.

Sorry bad english.

 

Thanks heaps Rasmus

 

@Jason Goodwin Hopefully they will prescribe something to help with the stress and anxiety you're feeling. Hope you start to feel better soon.
All the best
Michael

 

Hi Red Viper
I am definitely going to look into it. The only other thing i can think of was the antibiotic i was given doxycycline has done this.

 

Hey Jason,don't go by what your hearing test says,it's only a very rough guess of inner ear health and isn't by any means accurate.

They tested your hearing up to 8,000hz but remember your hearing extends further than that,from 8000hz up to about 16,000hz for someone your age.
There's also synapses connected to all those haircells and that's something they also can't test in the audiology department so still be very careful with your hearing regardless of what they said.

The good news is it's still early days for you,the T can totally disappear in the coming months or at least become way quieter than what it is now.I know because after I got T from a loud club with earplugs it was insanely loud for about 6 months,by the end of the year I could only hear it in bed if I actually payed attention to it.
Keep the chin up,I'm sure it'll be the same for you too.

 

Where are you in Australia Jason?

 

Hey Jason. I am going to give you the run down of what's probably happening and what's going to happen to you. This is exactly what happened to me, and many of the other people who go through tinnitus.

Like me, you probably have hearing loss at a really high frequency and the test did not even go high enough to notice it. You probably have tinnitus as a result of the rapid hearing loss. The hearing loss is not bothering you because it's at such a high range, that you don't even notice it. The tinnitus does bother you, because it's constant, and annoying as shit.

You're going to get progressively more pissed off and desperate about the tinnitus as it hangs around longer and longer. You're going to monitor it every second of every day, wondering if it's getting louder, or softer. You're going to freak yourself out and convince yourself that it's changing tone, and it's getting worse, when in reality it's exactly the same as it has always been, and probably always will be.

You're going to start going to tons of doctors and probably paying ass loads of money to try their shit therapies and sound generators for habituation. Then, you're going to get more depressed and suicidal as you realize that none of it works and that you just wasted all your savings in addition to still having tinnitus.

Then one day, about 6 months from now, you're just going to start living your life as normal again. The tinnitus will probably still be there, exactly like it is now, but you will just stop monitoring it. You will be depressed at first, that everything you do is a little bit less fun, because you have an annoying ring in your ear during all of it. However, you will accept that you have no choice in the matter, and you would rather be doing the things you enjoy with a ring in your ear, than not doing them at all.

Then, after you have completely surrendered to the tinnitus for a good 3-4 months, you will start forgetting that you have tinnitus. The ringing will become so familiar to you, that you will forget what silence sounds like. The tinnitus will no longer be a foreign threat, and will instead be a normal part of you. At this point, you will be habituated, and you will look back and laugh at the stupid things you did when you first got tinnitus.

 

Hi Jason,
My tinnitus is sever in both ears and head.
My doctor put me on nortryptaline as it settles down missfiring nerves and helps you sleep.
It has stopped head tinnitus and calmed my ears down a notch ....
Nortryptaline or Amitryptaline can help sever tinnitus for some people...
I hope you had support from mental health as we're great for me...lots of love glynis

 

Hi everyone
Thankyou from the bottom of my heart for all your help and advice. Without you all i dont think i would be getting into work right now and being able to function albeit in a very basic and stressful way. I am from a seaside suburb in melbourne australia and married with two boys aged 10 and 15. God bless all of you for taking time to help me.