How Did Your Tinnitus Start?

Just being curious. How/when did you tinnitus start?

In a lot of the stories I read it seems that the tinnitus either started immediately after the acoustic trauma or that the person got it "over night."

To me it is a bit different.

I have had fleeting tinnitus for as long as I can remember and when my permanent tinnitus started it was one of those fleeting tinnitus experiences. Full ear sensation, hearing muffled and ringing in the right ear. The full ear sensation and muffled hearing cleared up after a 30 - 40 seconds like it used to do but the ringing stayed and has been with me ever since. I have no clue why exactly that day was the day it decided to stay.

I was listening to music but not at a high volume and not through head phones. I will just have to guess that that was the day where the stupidity of going to concerts without earplugs finally caught up with me.

If only I could turn back time, hah. But hey. Since I can't I might was well live my life the best I can.

After all I am only 21 and has almost the entire life in front of me, and maybe I will live to see the cure for tinnitus. Who knows?

 

Its like my brain suddenly realized it was there one night after a fleeting tinnitus attack. which changed itself into kind of a hissing sound, and Ive been noticing it ever since. Sometimes I wonder how long Ive actually had it for without noticing it, because I dont know if I ever heard silence or if I maybe always heard some kind of ringing/hissing in the background. Your story scares me though thats my biggest fear with fleeting tinnitus. There must be going on something in my ears though, because the doctor noticed a retracted ear drum in the ear thats making all the hissing sounds when I first went to see him.

 

I owe to say though that the loudness of the ringing went down quite a lot the first few days of ringing after fleeting T that didn't go away. For the first 3 years I wouldn't notice it other than at night when I was about to go to sleep and even then it didn't bother me. However, I had a spike in august, and like you I can't help but wonder if it is actually a spike or if this is just me noticing my T because I was super anxious, depressed and stressed when my T spiked or if it is an actual spike and change in pitch and loudness. I like with the onset on my T I'll never know what caused the spike but luckily it has calmed down a lot over the past month.

 

I didn’t get mine overnight. I was living next to a huge supermarket and always heard some sort of a whining sound from it (fans, ventilation, etc.), but it never bothered me. Then a strange sound started to follow me at night only, but I tried my very best to find out where it was coming from with no success. Each night I tried to plug my ears and see if I still hear it or not. Then apparently I’ve overdone it and I finally heard the sound inside... sometimes I wonder what happened if I didn't try that hard to find a sound inside of myself.. I must say that that time was very stressful for me, so maybe my nervous system picked on that quickly.. I’m an idiot for not letting that go easily... at the very same time after I set myself into a panic mode I’ve got some sort of reactive T, which passed after I calmed myself (2-3 months). Now it has returned as I’m again going through things in my life (to be precise, I got my T first when I moved out of my native country, and now I’m having H/spike because I change country again. I mean.. strange??). Oh well..

 

I don't really know what caused mine. It seems like noise, but the place I was in just wasn't that loud.

I was on levofloxacin for 2 weeks before I got T though, so I think that may have put my ears in a vulnerable state.

Anyway, I went to a bar. I had my earplugs in my pocket. But I walked in. The girl I was with said, "You want your earplugs?" since I'd been talking about hearing loss and how much I wanted to avoid it. That's right, I had been talking about avoiding tinnitus for the month before I got tinnitus. I'd never had it or anything, I'd just been to a club that seemed way too loud.

Anyway, that particular night at the bar, I said, "Nah, doesn't seem too loud, this is okay."

At one point in the night I stood with a speaker a few feet to my left for 60 seconds while I paid the bill, at the register.

I woke up with screeching tinnitus in both ears, a mid-high tone in my left only, and noise-induced hearing loss on my left side.

I still can't believe it, really. Either my ears were just barely not broken when I walked into that bar, or it was the levofloxacin, with a side-effect that nobody has ever recorded and nobody told me about.

 

I just noticed mine one day when it was quiet, but I'm certain loud sounds/music was the culprit. It was very faint back then and it didn't bother me. I didn't even protect my hearing after realizing I had it, until it gradually became louder. In later years flights, colds, ear infections, medication and stress has made it worse.

 

Good question!

Mine began by waking me up from an evening nap (I fell asleep watching a movie). It was like a freakin' riot in my head and totally disoriented me. I had never had episodes of tinnitus, no ringing, no buzzing, nothing. Every six months or every year or so I'd hear an eerie high-pitched whine that came out of nowhere and disappeared after a few seconds, but nothing more than that. (There's a medical term for it but I can't think of what it is, something syndrome.)

I think my brain snapped after 20 years of barking dogs next door. The last two were the worst, two high-pitched Shelties that went nuts every time I stepped outside with my dog. Sweet dogs, but very high strung and everything set them off. I could feel my blood pressure go through the roof every time I went out, plus they barked throughout the day and my home office is right next to the back yard next door. I was also under a lot of stress, trying to start a website development business, which of course crashed and burned when tinnitus hit because it was so severe.

Neuroscientists don't know why, but tinnitus does seem to be intrinsically linked to the sleep cycle.

I hope there's a cure in your lifetime, too!

 

I was not around noise and no meds, so that not it,but I had a root canal and later a crown, and a couple of days later the noise began that didn't stop. I also thought it would go away, and I never heard of T before. After awhile from learning it might be from extended stress or my age. I certainly didn't know stress or age I'm 53 can cause such a loud and different noise in your head.

 

Loud concert at Wembley Arena. Stood at front near speakers for 3 hours - that coupled with bereavement (a couple of days prior to this event).

 

Thanks for your answers, I really appreciate them!
Tinnitus is a weird phenomenon. The same condition yet there seems to be so many different reasons to why it begins.

 

I've had mine as long as I can remember. I have never experienced silence. I first learned that it was not normal when I asked someone what tones they heard when there was no other noise and I received a puzzled look as a response.

 

Have you ever felt like you had habituated? Is it the case that your T got louder over time?

 

I was fine with it, so while I always heard it it didn't bother me until the first spike a few years ago.

Yes, a few years ago it spiked permanently with a significant volume increase, and a couple months ago now it did it again. I list my habituation a few years ago and it took a few years but around July of this year I was at my wit's end. Any habituation I had was completely gone and I was at the point where I completely understood why some people with tinnitus commit suicide. I found this forum and, while I have not started many posts, I have been helped by many people here, including yourself, @Michael Leigh , @Bobbie7 , @billie48 , @Charbee , @Jazzer, and a few others whom I know would prefer to go unnamed, but they know who they are as I talk to them on an almost daily basis. There are others I know I am missing, and please forgive me, any omissions are not intentional.

I still have not habituated again yet, but I am struggling with severe depression as well which makes habituation difficult.

Forgive the long reply, I hope I answered your question Bill. If not, please let me know because I do owe you, and everyone I named, didn't name and forgot to name a debt of gratitude for helping me through all of this.

 

Is there anyone whose tinnitus started at a time when they were not already under intense mental stress?

 

I wasn't under stress when I got my acoustic trauma.

 

Hi @Kolisar.
You were one of the first to chat to me when I came on here some months back, and I really appreciated your input.
I’m sure you’ve helped lots of us with your friendship.
As you may remember, I had moderate Tinnitus for about twenty + years, but it ramped up, due to the inconsideration of one musician, in June 2014. I’ve had 3 1/2 years of very loud hiss; but I must tell you, I’m getting much better.
Rather than try to escape it, mentally, which is always futile, I now ‘expect’ it to be there, and I care less about it.
Knowing that I have Tinnitus, my mantra is:

“Easy Dave - hiss is perfectly normal....”

My only medication is a 2ml Circadin (Melatonin) tablet, available on prescription from your doc, for Tinnitus sufferers.
I sleep great on that.

I must repeat, I’ve had so much help from so many good people on here, and thank you for your friendship.
Best wishes

Jazzer x

 

Well, as I said, I have had mine as long as I can recall. So I think I can raise my hand on that one.

 

I got tinnitus in my left ear September 2011 after extreme pain in that ear during a bath; turned out to be an ear infection.
In February 2012 I had a cold and got tinnitus in my right ear.
Last month I got a cold and the volume increased quite a lot. I used to only hear it in quiet rooms, now I can hear it with the tv on and the fan motor, and the radiator all at once.
I haven’t gotten used to this spike yet.

I am kind of terrified to get another cold

 

Remember that scene in the Sopranos where the guy shoots the other mobster while he's sitting in the car with him, and then puts his hand over his ears?

Like that, minus shooting someone.

 

woke up with mine one day after a lame retirement party. not sure why. my suspicion is that i was previously using in ear headphones too loud trying to drown out the noise and shitty music at the gym a few months prior. i can’t figure why a retirement party was what broke the camels back.