Help! Progressively Getting Worse and I Have No Clue Why

Hello everyone,

Here with another post, if you would indulge me.

I'm currently having a hard time coping with my tinnitus, since it seems to be getting progressively worse, even though I'm trying to protect my ears the best I can. I do not want to freak anyone out, considering most people get improvement after a few months. There's plenty of testimonies out there. I seem to be one of the exceptions.

Some measures I have been taking:
-No more headphone usage
-No more nightclubs/bars/concerts/what have you (this is self-evident)
-No more alcohol and caffeine
-Trying to fit in a regular sleeping schedule and enough time under the wool
-Trying (that is the keyword) ralaxation exercises (techniques such as cardiac coherence and neuro-linguistic programming)
-Taking a wide variety of supplements: Ginkgo, Magnesium, Vitamin B and herbal remedies.
-Been seeing an accupuncturist
-Been seeing a TRT counsellor and considering WNG's (but hearing distortion makes that difficult)

Until this day I have a hard time figuring out the cause of my tinnitus. I got my tinnitus during exams and had some ear wax development the same time, as well as some troubles with my tubes. These haven't persisted or been aggravated since though. After the first week my tinnitus improved to a very bearable level. I even thought it was gone during one night shortly thereafter. A common flu brought it all back and since then it's been going downhill.

Nowadays I have about 4 different tones consistently. Though every day new ones come in and others go (often central to my head). The ones that have been constantly present, also often change in pitch (high frequency hissing to cicadas and to electrical drill) or in volume. This makes it so terribly difficult to get accustomed to. I also have this super weird hearing distortion that is volatile, where I get whistling and echoes over certain frequencies. This makes it hard to use any form of masking. Safe to say I'm absolutely terrified thinking about what the future will hold for me. I got my last exams before graduation coming up in a few weeks and I cannot for the life of me get in the zone or find the necessary focus.

Could it be that stress and my lower sound comfortability threshold is giving me this world of grief? I have, a few weeks after the flu had subsided, been starting to get really sensitive to certain frequencies (especially the higher ones) and my Tensor Tympani muscle is going haywire at even my own voice. Actual pain sensations are still doable though. Most sounds do seem to be louder or much more apparant than they used to, so there seems to be some H as well?

Does anyone please have any ideas or advice? How do I proceed from here?

Thanks a million!

 

Tinnitus can be incredibly difficult to diagnose. Most people don’t get a diagnosis, but that being said, you could very well be a candidate for stress induced tinnitus. You seem to be very preoccupied with it which may be the reason why you can’t let go. The more you try the louder it gets. That’s a common theme for a lot of people. Ironically, it usually gets better the less we try. That means doing less tinnitus related activities because that’s one way that you can empower it. Instead, do nothing. Just accept it. I know it sounds bizarre but it’s the same principle that the ‘back to silence’ method is based on. Essentially, you need to calm your central nervous system right down by giving it no attention whatsoever, even if it’s REALLY bothering you. Many people have found that once they stop caring and fully accept it, it stops bothering them.

This isn’t always true, but it’s true for a very large amount of the population. From a medical standpoint, have you exhausted all possible pathways for a cause?

 

I’ll add that this is very similar to my own experience. I’ve got a loud, very high frequency, dentist drill that fills my head. Got 2 tones in my left ear, a low drone and an intermittent pure tone frequency. My right ear has a different pure tone frequency and underneath all of this is various hissing and static noises. The way you describe the experience with masking and it turning into cicadas is spookily similar. In the early days I stopped using masking for the simple fact that it was never a great experience for me. It was almost counterintuitive, because the more I masked, the more I concentrated on my tinnitus, and my tinnitus would react and rise above the masking anyway. From my experience, there’s a certain amount of obsession involved. When I learned to break this obsession, I improved.

 

Thank you so much @Ed209. You give great advice. I do indeed obsess over it quite a bit. It is especially the fear of it getting worse that keeps taking over. Maybe creating a self-fulfilling prophecy? I'll be doing my utmost best to give it a rest, but the circumstances in which T has developed are inopportune (though are they ever for anyone?).

I've always asked the most of myself during my exams, trying to live upto my parents' and others' expectations and that is why I'm trying to create optimal conditions again under which I get to function. The closer they get and the longer all of this persists (and like I said, seems to be getting worse), the more I'm stressed out of my mind. This is a vicious circle I must put an end to.

I will take your advice to heart and thank you again!

 

I have seen two ENT's and they did all the standard tests. Everything seems normal. Maybe a bit of negative pressure on the eardrum (tympanometry). I do have a little bit of hearing loss around 6khz, but that is often present in people of my generation, or so I was told.

The only thing I haven't dared going for yet, is an MRI, but I thought it wouldn't be useful since I have bilateral (and head) T? The ENT's did not even offer this either.

I have also booked an appointment with a jaw specialist to look into TMD and a night brace, since my jaw sometimes acts up.

 

College is stressful. It's easy to let looming exams and stuff give a constant level of stress that never goes away. Give yourself time to do your favorite distractions. It seems like you are dedicating a lot of effort into dealing with the T, you're giving it too much power. For me, my T kept getting worse until I accepted that it may never get better. That instant it began to feel better. It's more of a mind game than a physical ailment, think of it that way. Mind over matter!

 

I agree. Any stress looming over us is not just bad for our T but for our health in general. I made a long post about stress to highlight what it can do:

 

Hey, it is similar to my situation. I got tinnitus after sinusitis and the sound is only getting louder and louder... I have no idea why...

 

We are all invalids.