Hey Everyone. A Little Advice Would Be Greatly Appreciated.

Hi people. I'm 30 years old and well... it's complicated.

So, this is going to be kind of a long one, but please bear with me

It started with hearing a rather faint ringing in my ear (not sure which one was more frequent), never at the same time. That's all it was at first, and it wasn't even every day

One day, I decided to look it up. I found out about tinnitus and read that it can be associated with hearing loss and well... down the rabbit hole I went. I started getting so panicky and paranoid that I was sure I was going deaf. I've been taking all sorts of online hearing tests. The thing of that is, I passed most of them with flying colors, but since I've been obsessively re-taking them, I've been doing less well on them. I'm now fixating on my hearing no matter where I am or what I'm doing. I read that tinnitus can be caused by anxiety and that anxiety just makes it worse, which I guess is kind of a vicious cycle. The point is: I'm not even sure how severe my problem is, or if I even have one at all. There have been times where I was certain there wasn't anything wrong anymore, then going right back to panicking that something was terribly wrong. My symptoms (if they're real) have gotten worse as well. They've become more frequent, and the sounds are varying, sometimes switching between each ear (at one point with a different sound in each). It also varies whether it's worse when it's quiet or when I have some sort of noise going. I'm obsessively checking whether a sound I'm hearing is tinnitus or just something I'm perceiving as such.

I don't want this to be too long, so I'll just mention a few things:

I've listened to sound on my computer at full volume since I was a teenager, but I've never had problems until very recently (I've since lowered the volume considerably, and take breaks). I've done the same with the headphones I use for my TV (though I've only been using those for two years).

I've got an appointment at a hearing clinic on Tuesday, but I'm really not sure what's wrong. Could it be all (or partly) in my head? Am I just paranoid and obsessing about it too much? Could my anxiety be exaggerating my symptoms?

I'm terrified of having a severe case to deal with and/or losing hearing.

Can someone help me, at least with some advice? This is driving me crazy

If anyone has any questions, ask away

Thanks

 

@TheSpectreMonk

Don't let tinnitus run your life. Stay off of google and when you want to get to googling come here. I made the same mistake as you initially, and even though I still suffer from tinnitus I have found true peace here on these forums. Also if you aren't satisfied with the answers you get at the hearing clinic don't stop there. Sometimes it's just about finding the right doctor! There are many many causes for tinnitus, I too assumed the worst but learned my cause wasn't that "bad" after all. Hope you find the peace you're seeking.

-Your friend, Nate

 

Hello, Recent research indicates that hearing test used at most audiology clinics and ENTs are extremely inaccurate, they only test for hearing loss within the human voice range, learn more here about hidden hearing loss and how hearing loss outside of speech ranges still can cause tinnitus and noise induced pain.

http://hyperacusisfocus.org/innerear/









https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0378595516302507

 

The problem is doctors don't test for hearing loss correctly, and 90% of the time when someone's tinnitus is labelled "unknown" it's based on their own ignorance. Virtually always tinnitus is related to hearing loss, and hearing loss can usually be determined by noise exposure, certain medications, age, or an ear infection/disease.

 

@Contrast

I'm sorry, but I'm curious why you found my post funny!

 

Tinnitus sufferers/pain hyperacusis are basically repeating the same mistakes. Research gets no where because people ignore it or they get lucky and it goes away and move on, yet the smaller minority of sufferers have super severe tinnitus and or noise induced pain and are basically giving up without research to help them.

I'm trying to raise awareness for the less minority of sufferers that need real help.

 

Hearing aids are radically over priced, medical scams promising miracle curs for tinnitus are everywhere, research is being surpressed, pallative medicine is being paraded and the leading medical authority on tinnitus isn't holding up with the small amounts of research that is emerging.

No one ways attention to the minority of sufferers that have complications related to tinnitus and hearing damage.

 

@Contrast

Sounds like you're doing a great thing! But I'm still missing what was funny about my comment... I was simply trying to give words of comfort to someone, because I know that words of comfort helped me. I don't find anything funny about it, with that being said to each their own.