- Oct 31, 2020
- 1,244
- Tinnitus Since
- 9-17-2020
- Cause of Tinnitus
- turning everything up to 11
Basically the title says it all, but I'll expand...
Backstory:
When my tinnitus became noticeable in non-silent environments back in 2020, it was a mild hiss that bothered me all day while working, but not outside or anywhere with decent ambient sound. It was mild enough that my refrigerator's hum would mask it.
It quickly increased to where I could hear it outside and the refrigerator no longer masked it. I still managed to quickly begin habituating to it in a few short weeks.
Not too long after, I experienced an acoustic trauma from an Acoustic Reflex test, as you all have probably heard me groan about a million times. I was then bombarded with a couple pure tones and static in my left ear and louder static in my right. After a year or so I managed to get to place where they didn't really bother me, except while wearing earplugs, but I managed pretty well.
The important stuff:
After a bout of drinking of drinking alcohol too much, a COVID-19 infection, a vacuum cleaner as well as an ambulance incident, I began regularly having spikes in which my mild hissing would become increasingly loud, usually in my left ear, but sometimes in my whole head. These spikes last anywhere from a couple days to a few weeks, and it seems nearly anything sets them off: certain sounds, medications, not getting enough sleep.
Sometimes the hissing will pulsate with along with my heartbeat and sometimes it morphs into almost an ultra-high pitch ring. Other times it changes all kinds of pitches like a car alarm or electricity.
When I get these spikes, it feels like a fog overtakes my mind and I cannot focus or function, even if the spike isn't too terribly loud. The nature and frequency of the sound makes it stand out over everything. My other tinnitus tones never gave me this foggy feeling. It's the most difficult symptom I've had yet with tinnitus.
Question:
I believe others on this forum have similar tinnitus and I just want to know how you handle it, and if it's possible to overcome this brain fog and habituate, even if it is never constant. I'd like to get to a place where I don't care whether it's there or not, as all my attempts to avoid it spiking seem to fail.
Backstory:
When my tinnitus became noticeable in non-silent environments back in 2020, it was a mild hiss that bothered me all day while working, but not outside or anywhere with decent ambient sound. It was mild enough that my refrigerator's hum would mask it.
It quickly increased to where I could hear it outside and the refrigerator no longer masked it. I still managed to quickly begin habituating to it in a few short weeks.
Not too long after, I experienced an acoustic trauma from an Acoustic Reflex test, as you all have probably heard me groan about a million times. I was then bombarded with a couple pure tones and static in my left ear and louder static in my right. After a year or so I managed to get to place where they didn't really bother me, except while wearing earplugs, but I managed pretty well.
The important stuff:
After a bout of drinking of drinking alcohol too much, a COVID-19 infection, a vacuum cleaner as well as an ambulance incident, I began regularly having spikes in which my mild hissing would become increasingly loud, usually in my left ear, but sometimes in my whole head. These spikes last anywhere from a couple days to a few weeks, and it seems nearly anything sets them off: certain sounds, medications, not getting enough sleep.
Sometimes the hissing will pulsate with along with my heartbeat and sometimes it morphs into almost an ultra-high pitch ring. Other times it changes all kinds of pitches like a car alarm or electricity.
When I get these spikes, it feels like a fog overtakes my mind and I cannot focus or function, even if the spike isn't too terribly loud. The nature and frequency of the sound makes it stand out over everything. My other tinnitus tones never gave me this foggy feeling. It's the most difficult symptom I've had yet with tinnitus.
Question:
I believe others on this forum have similar tinnitus and I just want to know how you handle it, and if it's possible to overcome this brain fog and habituate, even if it is never constant. I'd like to get to a place where I don't care whether it's there or not, as all my attempts to avoid it spiking seem to fail.