Freaking Out — Tinnitus for Three Weeks Now

I have had tinnitus for three weeks now. I remember the night i noticed it. I was dealing with a sinus infection and I just so happened to go out. I jumped in my friends car who played loud music however, I had ear plugs in. Along with clogged ears that night, the hissing began.

The next day, the hissing became a little louder until I finally began to notice it nonstop. This all occurred the weekend of April 6th. I had an ENT appointment that following week where I got a hearing test. Doctor said my hearing seemed fine however there was a slight drop in a frequency, but nothing abnormal. This made me feel better. Doctor did say I had negative ear pressure and ETD. I had ETD bad last year around the same time. So he told me to utilize my sensemist flonase twice a day.

Fast forward a few days, I felt that my ears were beginning to lower in volume from April 14th-18th. On the 18th, I began to hear static in my ears. Like a tv was on in another room. Since then, I have had the noise in my ears. It seems to come and go. There are times where I don't notice it, but then when its quiet, it seems to get worse and constant. Maybe I am panicking but I am thinking I am stuck with this for life. I have to sleep with white noise recently but was able to deal with it while I slept when I had the dip in intensity.

Any chance this may go away? Or should I give it some more time? My ears feel clogged as I typed this

 

Welcome to the forum!! I am almost 4 months in on this and giving it time still which I think you should do. There are no such thing as time tables with this but have hope as you are still early on!!!

 

Hi Chris,

Don't panic, stay calm. This will go away or at least decrease so much in intensity you won't even be bothered. Even if it remains permanent, there is absolutely nothing to be worried about. For most people who have tinnitus it goes away, it is just they go on with their life and don't write about it. Try not to read to much scary stuff on the internet!

 

@BlackSwanNSW im trying so hard but I’ve been reading non stop for three weeks. I’m in bed at the moment and I just hear this high pitched riging. UGH!!

 

You cannot predict what tinnitus will do or not do(no one can). There are no guarantees on how tinnitus will act. Whether it fades, stays, goes away.....It's a day by day ordeal and remaining calm is the way to go with tinnitus...no matter how mild or intrusive it may be....

 

Reading is not going to help. Everyone is different, how tinnitus affects one person does not mean it will affect another. Read too much into horror stories and you will end up in a bad spot. Take care of your ears, calm down a little and don't try to listen for the ringing.

Avoid stress, avoid negative people and take care of your ears. Even if your ears return back to normal, the stress alone can have them ringing again.

 

Your progress is amazingly fast. It is unusual to get T to switch to a static in less than 2 weeks. There is a good chance that your T will continue improving, but it might take many months for it to fade.

Check out the thread below where I summarize everything (27 tips) I learned about managing tinnitus after reading the posts on this forum for the past year.
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/thread...eone-else-who-has-tinnitus.26850/#post-307822

 

consider (ask your doctor) prednisolon...it can help as a sinus infection could have been a viral one (it helps when viruses caused it as it soothes the inflamarory process in the inner ear...steroids also help with allergies); and as far as i understand it one also gets it for acustic trauma. it still can help, your t is 'young' (some say steroids right away but i noticed a great improvemend even though i took them after a month)
& i also think that your improvement so far is very good and that it will go away...mine is a bit over 2 months now and much much better then at the beginning.. if i knew that back then.. i was very sad and had panic 'what if it stays like that...' and now i see that the time heals but slowly.. i notice a slow progress week after week.. stay away from noise, treat your infection/allergies if there is such a condition, ask your doctor for meds..and relax (go swimming...running...this helps with the bad mood which comes in the first weeks of this condition)

 

@Bill Bauer Its like this static noise in my head more than my ears. When I plug my ears I hear it more. Almost like a white noise frequency noise in my head that is bilateral.

 

It is possible that when it gets quiet enough, you begin perceiving it like it is in your head. If this is true, it means that you are at an even more advanced stage of healing than I originally thought.

 

@Chris M,
My doctor put me on a low dose AD called Nortriptyline and my head tinnitus went away.
I know it migh not help everyone.
Love glynis

 

@Bill Bauer Why do you say so? Is the tinnitus sound that is in the head and not in the ears anymore, means that a person is healing?

 

Over the past 14 months, several times I stopped hearing my T in my ears and got that "head T." When I wore muffs, I could actually hear it a little in my ears again. It Felt like it got quieter. In any case, it didn't last for me, I mostly hear it in my ears and not my head.

 

@Bill Bauer , still did not get it, why did you say that Chris is in even more advanced stage of healing?

 

If head T = quieter ear T, then head T is a more advanced stage of healing.

 

@Bill Bauer I sure hope so. Im feeling super depressed today because of this. To constantly hear this high frequency hissing noise is killing me.

 

@Bill Bauer eveytime I don’t hear my T in my ears.It move to my head . Then I will stop think of it because it mild and my brain handle it better. But the next Day it back to the ears. Just can’t get two days in a row.

 

@lena_ hi Lena. You think there’s a chance this thing can go away even though it’s 3 weeks now?

 

Hey Chris,
Of course 3 weeks is nothing, give it some time. Remember during the first 2 months, this thing is a roller-coaster, it is like psychological guerilla war if you want, the field is changing every day and it wears you down. You have to stay very strong psychologically even though it looks like total s**t. I have very similar symptoms to yours except in much worst (read my intro) and after 2 months it got like 10 times better. I have the static noise as well from time to time, it is actually not annoying as say a terrible high pitch sound. At the 2 month mark, I had felt really good for like 3 weeks without spike and headaches, one day it came back for like 2 days of hell to remind me of how it can be terrible, it crushed me psychologically... and then boom I am 3 month mark and totally good with minor spikes here and there.
Quite funnily some days, I experienced total silence and I had to put fingers many times in my ears to actually check if the static is still there (and it was there but barely noticeable), I stopped doing that paranoid crap especially in public places
Some days are good some days are bad, the ratio of good days will gradually improve. I am in my 3rd month now and it is mostly gone, I am 100% confident it will either go away or I won't care at all.
Some people in above posts say it is possible it gets worse, nobody can predict etc... but of course everything is possible, you may also die from a car accident tomorrow etc... all I meant to say is given your symptoms it is very likely it will improve so hang in there.

to answer your questions:

"Any chance this may go away?"
Yes very likely.

"Or should I give it some more time?"
You don't control this, you don't have any other choice than be patient and give it some time. Take it as a chance to make positive changes in your life. Try to eat healthy to help your body. read about vitamins in this forum for example.
Try to sleep and not panic. Sleep is the most important thing I believe. Try and take deep breath to help relax, think about something else like work, hobby or your girlfriend . I used Valerian root tea myself and it helped me a lot. Lol my girlfriend is very happy I came back to sport and do a lot more of cooking at home now

 

yes!! totally, it will get better and better! 3 weeks is nothing, just as blackswannsw said

in my case it got much much better after the 1st month, one ear got silent for the most of the time in tje 2nd month..

in med books it says that 70-80% of t resolves in the first 3 months and later on 1/3 or 1/4 (i forgot) of the remaining t patients hear silence... i even think much morw cause oncw you don't have a problem anymore you don't visit your ent anymore...

 

It’s so weird. I find myself obsessing. I can now hear heightened frequecies like electronics. I’m trying to protect my ears while I’m driving cause I’m afraid it will get louder. Maybe I’m overthinking it? @lena_

 

yes you are...driving should not cause a problem in a modern car.

 

Thanks @Jason37
I think I’m reading too many of these stories!

 

i had this stage too...this kind of noise i thing, but it was gone after prednisolone/after a month for good.
you are not overthinking it, you are jusr worried and are looking for yoir way to cope and what you are ok with. i don't protect my ears in a car but sometimes in a public transport, it depends. i never got what some call spikes and my t does not react to noise, i also do not have h; anyway i do take care that i spend most of my day in silence/at peace so my ears have some time out which they may need, who knows...

 

About overthinking. There was a period during my second month, I was
-giving a rating to my T for morning, afternoon, evening,
-writing down everything I eat, everything I feel like headaches etc...
-not eating any dairy, coffee, salt, no alcohol of course,
-taking the whole range of vitamins B, C, D3, magnesium, zinc, omega3, turmeric, ginger, etc...
-protect my ears with earplugs,
-go to bed with masking noise at 8PM,
-do just basic sport like a bit of gym and rowing. Nothing too much cardio not to amplify headaches.

After visiting my 3rd ENT, when she saw all my notes, she told me I was overdoing things... that it does not help to ignore the T... She suggested I go for drinks with friends which I had stopped doing, I go do sport, dink coffee etc... I told her.
Me: "what? drink wine? you are sure?"
Her: "Yes, go out with friends and get drunk"
Me: "hmm ok"

I went out of there very disturbed to say the least... I stopped over-analyzing things and decided go with the flow. Life is much more enjoyable and honestly it got better.
This is one thing human brain tend to do very well and it is called "false pattern recognition". When you have a problem, you analyze everything you do thinking there is a correlation with your problem:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pattern_recognition_(psychology)#False_pattern_recognition

I now drink coffee and lol that changes my day at work. I still take vitamins but I gave up all the rest. I went back to heavy sport also which is great (I love running half-marathons).

To give you an example, this morning I went for a 10km run in park, after like 15 min I got a T spike... I was listening to music via headphones but not loud. I could clearly notice the high freq T. I freaked out for like 30 seconds wondering what I should do but continued... I even increased my pace haha and by the end of the run it had kind of disappeared... My point is that I could start thinking it was the music, the running or the food I had that morning but I want to enjoy my life like in past. I think it is not a good idea to protect your ears because they need to work and adapt again to your real life. I think they rest enough during the night.
To give you an idea, I tried doing a run like that during my second month, my head literally imploded with pressure. I freaked out and thought I had a meningitis or some virus.

 

Why do you think that?

I think you are ripping the benefits of protecting your ears early on. Your progress might stop or slow down as a result of you abandoning most of your good habits. Of course I might be wrong. Or you might be the one who is making a bad bet.

In any case, it sounds like what you are doing is working well for you. Sounds like you would be ok even if your T were to stop improving. This is good for you, but someone who actually wants their T to continue improving might want to think twice before adopting your advice.

 

@Bill Bauer , you may be right!
The biggest problem for me: I found protecting my ears made my T much louder because there is no masking. So very very hard to ignore it with ear plugs for me.

Just to be precise, I am not saying people should listen to music/sound loud! of course if there is some heavy work on the road I protect my ears while I walk around.
I am merely saying you should let your ears function and work with "normal" noise levels. I have been recommended by my ENTs to always have noise around me so my ears and brain can work again and "filter out" the T overtime. They recommended masking noise just at the T level. The idea is your brain will focus on the interesting sound and filter out the T. But if I hear and focus only on the T this is gonna be hard!
A good analogy is with the eyes, if you are used to darkness, even with top healthy eyes, just a little bit of light provokes a lot of pain.

Disclaimer: I started having T with sinusitis/otitis, not noise induced. I have never been to loud concerts and never listen to music loud. I did experience minor hypercusis at beginning (with doors banging mostly).

 

@lena_
I’m proud of myself. Yesterday, I forced myself to be social. I did notice my t because it’s switches from the high frequency single tone to static in my head every few minutes. I slept last night then woke up at 4am because the t woke me up. I put on white noise then fell back asleep. Now, I’m in my bed and I have that frequency static in my head. Just trying to keep busy.

 

@Bill Bauer
Hey Bill, quick question. How would you determine the difference between head and ear tinnitus. I think I have both but I am not sure. Also, I was told that I have mild hearing loss in one frequency (4000hz). I wonder if this is the case does tinnitus have the ability to fade away still.

Either way, this static high frequency noise seems to come and go all day every few minutes and the ringing seems to change in loudness throughout the day as well...

I think Im going to go to a second ent. The first one said it could be due to ETD, however, my ears dont feel clogged and Im still having the symptoms. It is continuous...

 

Head T is this hum that you feel in your head, and that you don't really hear.