Hello Everyone. This Is My Tinnitus Story — Anxiety Plays a Big Role

I'd like to start and say hello and thank you for this wonderful community.

A little bit about me, I'm 21, depressed and a very anxious person (hurray).

This all started around around 1 month ago, 15-16th of September to be more precise. I was having a very bad cold during this time, with lots of congestion and sinus problems, I thought nothing of it and thought it was gonna go away. Now to the night it all happened, 15th of September, I decided to go with some friends to a club, music was quite loud. We stayed there for a good 2 hours but I went outside for like 30 minutes to relax a bit. Later that night when I arrived at my home and sat down I noticed a loud EEEEEEEEEE in my left ear, I thought nothing of it and went to sleep. I woke up and the ringing was still present and that's when I started to panic and start reading all kind of negative short of things. I went to the ENT that day who diagnosed me with otitis media and says my hearing is more than perfect and stuff like that. She gives me nasal steroid spray and antihistamine.

Next day everything seemed fine, ringing was reduced from 6-7 to 2-3.I thought to myself it will go away after I'm done with my cold and my meds. Fast forward to today my ringing is reduced even more on my left ear (0.5-1 out of 10) but has started on my right ear very mild as well (2-3 out of 10).

Now to the sound itself. I get lots of fluctuations and change in tones and even the sound. My left ear is quiet most of the time even with my fingers plugged in my ears or separate. I got distant cicadas plenty of times in my left ear. My right ear seems to fluctuate the most or is the one I notice the most since it's louder than my left but changes slightly in tone from lower to higher pitch during the day. I really don't notice the sound right now that I sit on my PC with the dB being around 35 according to an app on my phone or in general most of the day even if I'm searching for it. I only notice it if I put my ear to my pillow or in a very quiet room (20 dB and below).

What really bothers me is my anxiety, because I tried some antianxiety meds and I slept just fine without a tv or background noise and with my ear to my pillow without being bothered at all. I'm not really sure if it's going to go away and I don't like to think about it a lot because I get into a big pit of despair. The past few days have been hell anxiety wise with the exception of today and yesterday where I don't know if my tone reduced or if I just stopped being bothered by it, even with plugging my ears I don't mind that much.

As far as other symptoms, I didn't have hyperacusis but after reading about it here I developed some sort of phobia about sounds and they began stressing me much more. I know it's my anxiety tho, because before reading about it I didn't have any issues at all with it or loud sounds. My hearing is perfectly fine when I'm not stressed but when I'm stressed I start to think that the sounds are different. The only other issue that I have is that my ears pop a lot and I think more than normal, but I had that before as well as far as I remember, maybe it got worse from my cold and sinus issues.

I'm really sorry for the long post and my mediocre English. Any help or insight would be appreciated. Thank you very much.

Forgot to mention that I've always had some kind of pain in the jaw muscles next to my ear and still do and that my tinnitus gets to a higher pitch if I move my lower jaw forward or if I bite hard.

Forgot to mention that I experienced some moments of silence in the past 2 days. One during after my shower where everything was quiet and I thought to myself I don't hear my tinnitus and plugged my ears and there was nothing for around a minute. The other one was when I went into my basement to retrieve some stuff and again there was dead silence and I plugged my ears again to check for sure and yeah nothing again but it came back. Both of these times I was looking for the sound of my tinnitus as well and still nothing for a good 45-60 seconds. Also I'd like to mention that the only thing spiking my tinnitus is anxiety and nothing else, I've been next to people screaming and in front of trams using their horns and still no spike whatsoever. Even when using in ear buds max volume I still experienced no spike (I know it was stupid and I had no clue they could hurt my ears or anything of this sort and didn't do it again).

 

Most everything you've written about how your tinnitus has subsided should be extremely encouraging to you. I'm sure most of those who've frequented this forum for any period of time would agree. So it would seem your main concern would be how to get greater control of your anxiety. If you're interested, I started a thread on anxiety that gives some really good tips on different things that might help. Here's the link:

Three Supplements to Treat Severe Anxiety Symptoms

I'd be extremely cautious regarding those antianxiety meds. I don't know what you're taking, but if you put the name of them in the search box, it's almost certain you'll get some hits where people have commented on them. Unfortunately, they often report how they caused or exacerbated their tinnitus.

Things are going in a very positive direction for you--celebrate that! -- All the Best!

 

Yeah I've had it pretty bad with anxiety and depression for the past 5-6 years. Most of it coming from me being stale as in doing nothing at all over those years other than school etc. Funnily enough I had another issue (psychosomatic) bothering me for almost 3 years before my tinnitus that completely dissapeared after my onset of tinnitus.

As for my antianxiety meds (benzo/bromazepam), I used it only one night just to see the effects on my tinnitus and they were dramatic.I slept like a baby and didn't even care about tinnitus. My tinnitus changed like 20-30 times before I fell asleep and even disappeared for a few seconds but it didn't bother me at all. But I'd never turn to them to find relaxation, even in my past when I had anxiety attacks, I never touched those things.

Anyway thank you for your encouraging worlds and I'll make sure to check those supplements you mentioned in your thread.

 

Unless you hurt your ears during this time of vulnerability, you ought to be ok. Ears take forever to heal. The fact that they haven't completely healed in a month means nothing. The fact that you have experienced some improvement means it ought to continue to fade (it could take 3-24 months for it to Completely fade). Give it time and be careful with your ears.

Check out
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/thread...eone-else-who-has-tinnitus.26850/#post-307822

 

Thank you very much, I've read most of the thread you linked and the links there before I even signed up and it was a big help to me. As far as hurting my ears I've ordered earplugs and I'm using my in ear buds without music that do an ok job canceling most of the noise for now. So all there is left is hoping and trying supplements I guess.

 

Thank you for your kind words.

What kind of noise are you protecting against? If it is not very loud, are you protecting because the noise gives you spikes or ear fullness or just feels like it is harming your ears? If it is loud, then are you getting away from it as soon as you can do so, or are you relying on your ear buds?

 

I have no issues with loud noise and yes I watch tv and stuff normally inside my house. I noticed today though that I get ear pain after I'm done eating food, especially if it requires a lot of chewing so I think my jaw joint might have something to do with it.

 

A bit of a positive update. I was with a friend playing some video games and I had completely forgotten about my tinnitus, I decided to check after about 5-6 hours and there was minimal to no tinnitus, even with both my ears plugged my tinnitus was barely audible (left ear actually 0 and right at around 1-2) and walking into quiet places there was no tinnitus until I focused really hard on trying to hear it. My tinnitus on my left ear is still gone or around 0.1. I'm pretty positive as of now that I might be able to have a full recovery.

Something I'd like to add is that earlier today I did some steam inhalation. I've also been taking zinc, magnesium, a b complex vitamin and around 200mg of ginkgo biloba daily in tablet form. I have no idea whether any of those things helped or not, just pointing it out.

I'd also like to thank you guys for helping me with my anxiety and giving me hope. I will keep you updated.

 

I had a very good day, barely any tinnitus at all even in places that I was able to hear it I didn't. No tinnitus at all in left ear, in the right ear in quiet places kind of a hissing instead of ringing. I can notice ringing only if I plug both my ears in a very quiet place. Guess I have to stop with my compulsive ear plugging and trying to listen for it because I did notice that the more time I sit with my ears plugged and focused on the sound, the more noticeable it gets.

I don't know if my tinnitus came from stress, loud noise, congestion or even my TMJ. I read a story about another member that had had tinnitus for some time and then he kept repeating and hearing the sounds in his head due to his GAD. I think my issue is pretty similar to his because the less I check and obsess about it, the lower the volume is (maybe complete silence as well) until I check by plugging my ears and I start already playing the sound in my head before I even hear it.

Also I want to thank you all.
Because without you guys I wouldn't get over my anxiety. I really hope that there will be a treatment soon because I feel for all of you, my first days of tinnitus when the ringing was loud it was unbearable.

Also one final thing. I'd like to tell you about my mother who suffered severe hearing loss in one of her ears due to some vertigo issues around a decade ago. She did have tinnitus for a year or so but it did go away after that. She still gets it from time to time due to ear infections but it goes away 1-2 months after the infection clears up. She's the kind of person that doesn't stress at all tho.

I'd really like to stay with you guys but I think the best thing that I can do for me is to forget about tinnitus completely. I wish you all the best and hope the next time I'll post will be for a success story of total complete 100% silence.

What took my mind off my tinnitus was a really bad fall from the stairs that made me hurt my ankle pretty bad and made me focus on my pain.

 

An update on my situation.

6 weeks with tinnitus and I'm doing much better nowadays.

I've started taking vitamin D (heavy deficiency) and curcumin.

I'm also sleeping without background noise at night starting about a week ago.

I don't know exactly what helped but every morning since I started sleeping without masking sounds at nigh t(a week ago) I wake up to complete silence for 10-20 minutes where I just lie on my bed until a really faint hiss (tire leaking air) appears.

As for my daily life, my tinnitus is only on my right ear and has faded a bit since the last time I posted here, I check 4-5 times a day now compared to 50 during the first few weeks and there are times where it's ringing, other times it's hissing (both very low and audible only in very quiet rooms or by plugging my ears) but most surprisingly during the last week I'm experiencing more and more random moments of silence during the day even though they last only minutes they make me somewhat positive about all of this.

My anxiety levels are dropping as well with the more moments of silence I'm experiencing.
I still hope that my tinnitus will fade completely on my right ear as it did on my left and I'm actually more positive about it now.

 

Good to know you are getting better!!! Please, from now on, take extra care of your ears.
Best to you!

 

Will certainly do so.

Lately I've noticed my ears ache a bit when I'm in the quiet too long and I'm not focusing on anything. Could that be caused by my anxiety?
Another thing I started doing when something is making me anxious is that I pop my ears by moving my jaw muscles a bit unconsciously lol.

 

I've been reading the forum for the past 2 days and I feel like it has made my tinnitus louder or me more aware of it.

I'm going to take another break from here and stop checking for my tinnitus by plugging my ears and see how it affects me and my tinnitus.

Until then I wish you all the best.

 

I'm back with another update.

I decided not to check my tinnitus for the past 5 days, I did forget at times about it all together.

Today I decided to check on it, it was the ringing sound but what I've noticed is that the sound became slower or lower pitched? I don't really know.

The only way I can explain it is that when I plugged my ears my old ringing was like EEEEEEEEEEEEE and now it's like eeee.

Also mornings are weird because I wake up without tinnitus, then it appears, then it goes away again, then it comes back and I have no clue what's going on.

I'm happy with that development though cause that eeee doesn't feel like it's drilling my brains out when I plug my ears.