Hello Everybody, Let's Talk Tinnitus

Hey, how is it going? Just thought I'd share my story and see if anybody had something to say. Roughly 3 weeks ago I woke up to my neighbors loud ass car so as usual I put my foam ear plugs in to enjoy my last hour of sleep before work... or so I thought. Not sure if I fell asleep or what but I the shortly noticed an odd sound of machinery coming from outside so I took my ear plugs out and started investigating. And while there was a sound coming from outside (I think) it was resonating in my ear in an odd way. I switched rooms and it was still there so I knew something strange was happening. I then decided to get up because I couldn't sleep anyways. I turned the shower on and as soon as I did this that weird sound I heard came back. It is a medium tone and varies in loudness from one moment to the next.

Next I went to work and noticed I was getting that sound from the computer fans at work. That medium tone switched to a low pulsing base like tone and then everything stopped for the rest of the day. That is until I went to bed I turned on a fan that I bought that day thinking It was the ear plugs that damaged my ears so mo more ear plugs. But the fan was causing me to hear the medium tone again. So what the hell is going on? With no external sounds I have no tinnitus / tone but as soon as the heater or fridge kicks on there is a slight delay and then that tone starts up. I hear it all the time at work because of the fans. But I silence I hear nothing but the silence. Music doesn't produce it either. I went to ENT and had a hearing test. No infection normal hearing. A slight dip at 4 kHz in both ears but very slight.

Of course the ENT says it will go away and wouldn't even order an MRI for me. Ironically he has two hearing aids with severe tinnitus due to Meniere's disease so my problems were of no concern to him. I feel like my symptoms are strange and don't match up to general description of tinnitus. I'm a 28-year-old man.

Any thoughts?

 

Not sure you'll see this as this is such an old thread, but I recently inherited a tinnitus tone like this. It switches ears and it raises itself in volume to match certain sounds. Fans, heaters, even certain frequencies during certain songs I listen to will trigger it.

Did yours resolve? I know this was a long time ago but just thought I would ask.

 

Ya it is an old thread and he may be inactive.

Do you have tinnitus that reacts to sound? It is quite common for new tinnitus to do so. It may be a light form of sound sensitivity due to the tinnitus. This tends to fade over time. Don't worry about it if you also have periods of silence like the original poster. That is like a God sent condition for those with constant loud ringing 7/24.

Take care. God bless.

 

Mine does the same thing.

 

Yes, from the sounds of it, it is an existing tone I already had that was very mild before and non-reactive. But two weeks ago I used over the hear headphones and thought I was safe using them at a low volume but turns out that didn't matter. They definitely caused a huge spike. Ever since it has been highly reactive and very intrusive as it wants to be louder than everything around me. Has really done a number on me so to speak. I am hearing from some this form of ultra sensitivity to sound calms over the course of 3 to 6 months after exposure if I keep protecting my ears and being smart so I am hoping that is the case. It is not a 24/7 ring and does go down to being inaudible like you described sometimes. When it's not competing it just kind of fluctuates between mild and non-existent.

Thank you for your reply, truly. and God bless you too.

 

Update:

Sorry it took so long to reply and I’m not sure if anybody even cares anymore but just in case this helps...

Yes, most of my symptoms have gone away. I’d say it took about a year or two for them to go and I’m still left with a sensitivity to sound in my right ear. No distortion or ringing, but my right ear will “flinch” at certain sounds and higher volume.

I think that staying away from tinnitus related websites helped tremendously. There’s a lot of doom/gloom and catastrophic thinking. I also did some other things like spending copious amounts of time outside and I would never allow myself to be in silence. I would just carry my phone with me and play music if it was silent. This broke my habit for listening to the ringing. Eventually, I noticed when I did try to hear it it would take a few moments to find it. This told me that what I was doing was working. Continuing in this fashion made it go away completely.

As for the distortions, that kept up for much longer. I would get tones from anything electric. But honestly I lost interest in listening to those too and they went away eventually. Sometimes I’ll hear it still for a second but I just forget about it.

Also, let me tell you something. I’ve had done pretty bad acoustic incidents since healing! I’ve had a firecracker explode a foot away from my right (bad) ear, and another incident with a car backfiring. I also listen to music very loudly with AirPods.

 

That’s great to hear. Thanks for updating.