Hello, Not Sure What This is or What to Do.

Hello All,

My story starts about 6 or so weeks ago. I am 43, a drummer, loud music lover etc, I run sound for bands etc. I've been playing in a rock band for about 5 years... very loud, no ear protection, etc. About a year ago, after an especially loud evening I woke up a couple of days later to a new feeling in my left ear, some fullness, and a dull tone around 2.5k. I've lived with this because I never really let it bother me, and I can really only hear it in dead silence or plugging my ear. My right ear has seemed ok, maybe only a high pitched ring in dead silence, very quiet, have never let it bother me.

Everything was fine except for some reason about 6 weeks ago, I started to worry about my hearing, (I'm a bit of a high strung person and I worry alot about things.) I started to let things get to my head about my I described above.. "maybe it's from something serious, maybe it's wax.. etc.." I have no clue why I all of a sudden started this... I'm in a small town, we really don't have an ENT around. I probably wouldn't have gone anyway because there wasn't anything even wrong, at this point.

A couple weeks went by and I'm still worrying about my ears, for really no reason other than me focusing in on what I had not let bother me in the past... worrying about doing further damage, what the future might hold, maybe its wax etc. . I go to lunch with a co-worker and we go to a restaurant that we always go to.. its a big open room, no carpet, very lively, somewhat noisy.. As we are sitting there, I start to hear this high-pitched tone coming in around 11khz, it fills my head and the front of my hearing... really freaking me out. I couldn't touch my food, waited for my friend to eat sitting there in horror.

Once we left the restaurant, everything calmed back down and this didnt happen again that day.. I kept telling myself "you've created this whole situation from NOTHING! stop worrying"

Well now, of course Im super-freaked out, constantly listening for sounds, telling myself to calm down. Because it seemed now that I was full of anxiety which brought the same high-pitched tone on, but in the back of my hearing.. and I could get it to go away once I calmed myself down.


However, the next day I was at home and I went into the living to watch TV.. with the TV on, the same high-pitched sound came back... over top of the TV and in front of my hearing. I freak out again.

Over the next few days I kept telling myself that it's all related now to my anxiety.. I keep telling myself that you created this from nothing and to quit fixating on it... that maybe I've always had it but only now noticing it...

But I was hearing 2 different versions of this new high-pitched tone... One that I felt was attached to my anxiety that would stay in the back of my hearing that I could get to go away if I calmed down and the other that I heard at the restaurant and while sitting in front of the TV.. this one is loud and stays ontop and infront of my hearing (this is the one that really stresses me out)

I would prove the anxiety theory to myself by going out to lunch with friends, having a few beers, calming down and noticing that the high pitch would disappear, because my constant worrying up to this point in the day would make it present. I could then even go home, sit in front of the TV buzzed from beer (as sort of a test) and not have the high-pitched tone be present... but then it would return later after the beer would wear off..

So here I am 6 weeks later... If I am in complete silence, I do not hear this high-pitched tone... but if I go somewhere where there is a TV in the distance, music in the background or any sound that isn't a couple of feet from my ears, in comes the high-pitched devil... to the front of my hearing pushing back the sounds that seem to be creating it..

I have tried different things like laying on the couch in the living room with the TV on.. my ears will start out ringing but if I lay there for a while (maybe with my mind focused on something else, I can sometimes get it to quit. But it's pretty much an instant response that will almost go away as quick as it comes once I get away from whatever is causing it, and one I can't seem to control unless I can escape to a quite room or put headphones on and listen to something else.

As I stand now, as long as when I'm hearing the high pitch in the background, I don't really let it bother me... But when is obviously triggered by my surroundings and its loud and in front... This starts to get to me because I feel I can't control it. I still feel that I created all of this from nothing, but now I have something from it that is obviously there, triggered by external things and one that leaves me wondering if this is permanent and wondering if I should be staying away from things that make it happen or putting myself into more of them to get over it.

Thank you,
Rob

 

Anxiety can cause and spike tinnitus and listening out for tinnitus will keep the thought upfront.
So do what you can to keep busy and not focus on the sound and your brain wont see your tinnitus as a threat your brain will build up it's natural filter and not focus on your sound.
You will go minutes to hours not noticing it and try not attach a emotional reaction to it and lower your mood.
Sound therapy played through the night will help as not only helps you sleep but retrains your brain to focus on the sound you are playing instead of your tinnitus.
Set your sound below your tinnitus or mixing point so your brain will work harder to hear the sound and push your tinnitus sound to the back ground...lots of love glynis