Habituated to Tinnitus Now That I'm Having Worse Problems... Hi Hyperacusis and Acoustic Shock

Hey everyone.

After a few weeks of researching what was going on with me, I finally came to the conclusion that I'm suffering from Acoustic Shock. This, was of course, due to an ear irrigation in my left ear. I have all the following symptoms which fall into this category:

- Tinnitus (however it's super mild and I can barely hear it, even when I sleep I'd say it's about a 0.5/1 out of 10, hoping it stays that way) my right ear is definitely still ringing but idc about that anymore, I can sleep just fine (maybe a 3/4 out of 10).

- Ear fullness (this happened right after the ear irrigation, once the water came out I heard perfectly fine for say idk 2 hours? Then all of a sudden I felt a decrease in my hearing. I got scared and sought attention from an ENT right away, still took 2 days, but had "no signs of hearing loss". I know people are going to say HIDDEN HEARING LOSS, I've been tested to some of the lowest decibels and have taken some tests online - I can distinguish sounds very well in background noise environments HOWEVER, my hearing feels muffled or as if there's something that's trying to "protect" my ear from loud noise)

- BALANCE PROBLEMS. This. this is the biggest concern for me at the moment. While I can walk just fine (and can still balance on one foot in both legs), I sometimes get dizzy (another symptom) and feel like I stumble just a tad. It's something I've been able to notice since the cleaning. SIGH.

- Dizziness when I get up. Sometimes If I get up normally it's still enough to cause that dizziness that most people feel when they first wake up. I have to stand there for a few seconds and recollect myself.

- Ear pain. And itchiness. Holy shit. Excuse my language but the pain from the fullness gets to me sometimes. I'm currently doing nasal spray in my nose because my DR told me I had a bit of fluid back there. It helped and my ear no longer feels like it has water in it although, like I said, I still feel constant "fullness" in my ear and wish it would go away.

-Now, the hyperacusis. This developed a few days after my cleaning. The way I noticed this was prior to the cleaning I was already having a bit of trouble with sound (tinnitus in right ear), I was wearing ear plugs like crazy. I hypothesize that the cleaning damaged my ear but once I was able to hear everything was super loud, I didn't wear protection right away and think my ear got the ultimate case of hypersensitivity because within two hours my ear plugged up and I started to get all these symptoms dizziness, balance problems, etc. My hyperacusis is there and I'd say it isn't as bad as others (my mom can talk to me and I feel no pain, my boyfriend talks to me and I feel fine), however I have musician's plugs that reduce sound by 18 decibels so I wear those whenever I go out.

My Theory on how this happened (feel free to agree or disagree with me on this one) but be nice because so many people on here are toxic and my friend who is also on this forum warned me and told me to not even post but I need other opinions....

Okay. So, the ear irrigation was a NO GO. I was stupid and hadn't even been introduced to TT when I got this work done... Had I known people can get hurt from this I would have never done it. I had impacted earwax in my left ear. During the irrigation, it was PAINFUL. Not only was it painful due to the water pressure, my ears started to ring really loudly. Now, this is going to sound crazy considering people on here have tinnitus that's 9 or 10/10, but the tinnitus was so loud I feel like that's what caused me to have acoustic shock. I got scared by the own noise of the tinnitus. Like yes, it was loud, and it was painful! The water itself made my ears hurt like crazy (idk how people do this procedure and are fine afterward), the doctor even applied light spritz of water with a spray bottle, still don't know how this could have caused issues. The reason why I believe this is acoustic shock and not acoustic trauma is because I've had 3 audiograms done and they've all come back normal.

I don't currently have any symptoms of TTTS (I kind of hope I don't), there is a clicking noise every once in a while but I was told that's my ear trying to recompensate for changes in pressure. To be honest, with so little research I have no clue what the hell is going on or how to fix this. The ear pain and "tightness" I feel, kinda like my ear muscle is tightening to protect me from sound, is annoying. Sometimes the pain radiates to my temple and my jaw (another symptom of Acoustic Shock, I know).

I just want to get better. I was told that in most cases, this goes away but it takes months. To be honest, I'll endure the pain and all this stuff for months as long as I know I'm going to improve. This all really sucks and has affected my way of life, although I am also not complaining because I know people on here have it a lot worse than I do.

If anyone here has suffered from these symptoms, got better, or are currently going through it, please feel free to just talk to me on this post. It's super sad and draining for me to have this at 20 years old. Any words of encouragement and advice are greatly appreciated. Thanks so much.

 

Take out the ear plugs. If you are not in a loud environment (one that would damage the hearing of a normal person) you are only worsening your hyperacusis. Even -18 DB in a near silent environment can train your brain to become even more sensitive to loud sounds.

Read "case study": https://www.audiologyonline.com/art...eracusis-phonophobia-tinnitus-retraining-1105

I have had very bad hyperacusis... couldn't even stand conversation at one point. You need to expose yourself to normal sounds where possible. Don't keep your tinnitus constantly masked... but background noise is good.

 

You should protect your ears from sounds that seem too loud and/or painful. I tried to go through noise incidents without plugs sometimes and ended up going from mild h to severe in a couple months. Be careful and protect yourself you'll be fine, just be careful with the noise exposure and rest your ears when needed