How to Habituate to Ear Pain? My Ears Throb Every Single Day

I am 2.5 months in. I will be starting CBT next week.

I know that I must habituate to tinnitus (and somehow learn how to defeat hyperacusis), which seems like a mammoth hurdle for me right now given the mess I'm in emotionally and psychologically (not to mention the volume of my tinnitus)... but it's get my life back for myself and my family, or live a life of distress and disability. So I want to give habituation and CBT a really good try.

What I don't get though, is how I habituate to the pain? My ears throb EVERY SINGLE DAY. The aching seems to be the ear canal, the ear drum and the inner ear. I don't know why, the just do but I am told my ears are fine and no infection at all. No idea what the pain is but tips on how to habituate to it please. They have been aching for 7 weeks, and they feel heavy as well if that makes sense.

 

Who will you be doing CBT with?

Your ear troubles started in December last year? That's a couple of months ago. All your ear troubles will get better in a matter of a year or sooner. Ears heal slowly. Don't lose hope if it seems slow progress.

The ear pain will subside too.

 

I hope so. I have just brought myself back up to the emergency room. No doctors are treating me and I am an absolute mess. After writing this post I learned that I can no longer tolerate using the microwave because of the noise of the buttons. I am getting worse by the day.

 

Hello AliasM

I have previously corresponded with you but unable for find the thread. I believe you attended a few concerts many years ago in your 20s but haven't since and you're not a user of headphones, earbuds or headsets. Neither do you listen to loud music. Please advise me if I'm wrong.

I have mentioned the above because it's important to know what is causing the pain in your ears and oversensitivity to sound? Whilst your symptoms may indicate hyperacusis other things can cause it too. This is not my area as I mostly advise on noise induced tinnitus and hyperacusis. I think you need to be properly evaluated by an Audiovestibular consultant, that specialises in balance and hearing disorders before starting CBT or TRT.

Furthermore, you are just 2.5 months with this condition. In my opinion this is too soon to be starting CBT for tinnitus and have mentioned this in my articles on TRT. Reading some of your previous posts, I see that you have 4 young children so you have a lot going on around you. My advice would be to have a talk with your family doctor and explain how you feel. Ordinary counselling and not CBT for tinnitus would probably be helpful and an antidepressant. I also advise seeing the health professional I've mentioned, as you need to be properly examined and diagnosed as I don't think you have been.

Hyperacusis caused by noise trauma, is usually treated by wearing white noise generators and having regular counselling with an Audiologist, trained in tinnitus and hyperacusis management. Many of these health professionals also have tinnitus. If you are going to have CBT for tinnitus, ideally, the therapist should have tinnitus otherwise I don't think they can give high quality counselling. A person has to have tinnitus in order to fully understand how it affects a person's mental and emotional wellbeing.

Take care.
Michael

What Is TRT and When Should It Be Started? | Tinnitus Talk Support Forum
TRT, As I See It | Tinnitus Talk Support Forum

 

I can completely empathise with your situation as this is how I felt nine years ago. I have now fully habituated to tinnitus, no longer suffer from hyperacusis. But it did take time and in my case I think time and extreme caution around loud noise were the things which helped far more than any therapy.

Give the CBT a go - but be careful about their advice also, they may well only have very limited knowledge of tinnitus. I would ignore any arguments that seek to treat you of a "loud noise phobia" - for you loud noise exposure is the thing you need to be most careful of. Avoiding loud noise situations as much as possible, limited time exposure to noise and wearing hearing protection when that's not possible are the most important steps forward.

 

Thank you. Yes, all details above correct.

My hearing is low normal. I did have an MRI around the time I first heard tinnitus early December but I cant recall if that was before or after. I worked in a nightclub 20 years ago which could be the reason for my low normal hearing, or the low normal could be because I couldn't hear the sounds on the hearing test properly because my tinnitus was so loud!

I highly suspect the reason for my tinnitus is an ototoxic accumulation. I was taking Ibuprofen 2-3 times a day for many weeks for headaches (on top of 2 blood pressure meds). I was told this was ok... and doctors still say this is an unlikely cause of my symptoms. They say I would have to overdose on it to cause this. Maybe it was the headaches themselves that caused my ear troubles? They were worse on the right side of my head and my right ear is worse.

I have seen so many doctors. I have also seen an audiologist. I asked for a repeat appointment with audiology last week when I knew my sound sensitivity was escalating but they told me to see an ENT before returning. The last ENT I saw spent 2 minutes with me, didn't even sit down, and told me I had allergies. I suspected that was gross laziness on his part in diagnosing me but I have been following the steroid nasal spray/antihistamine regime regardless. Audiology said I need a second opinion before seeing them again but the waitlist for the only other ENT in our town is months long. I can't really travel due to COVID-19, plus I am struggling to even leave the house let alone travel 700km to the nearest city. I live in a regional area.

My regular doctor doesn't care about my ears. I have told her that the pain is next level but she has stopped listening. Because the MRI is clear, and my ear "looks good" she is treating me as a psych patient now and says I need CBT. I've had excellent mental health in all my 42 years before this... although I do have an OCPD which makes the the distress I feel heightened.

The medical care I have received to date has been absolutely shit. No one is looking after me. I am on my own taking advice and basing my treatment from people on the internet.

Thanks so much for your time in responding to me. I really appreciate it. I feel so alone.

 

My hyperacusis was getting a bit better. I started showering again without ear protection is the indicators and the car don't cause me significant pain anymore. Also, the pain and fluttering has really settled down these last 2 weeks.

I think I have had a setback though.

I had a very emotional day yesterday because tinnitus was just so bad. All over my brain, several different tones and I could feel my brain vibrating. Since then, my right ear is a tight painful mess and my kids aren't allowed to speak. I hope this is a short setback and not a downward spiral.

 

My ear pain is a lot more acute than yours but I did notice that the car indicator didn't hurt me today (literally everything else still does) and I took this as a positive sign. I'm sure it is for you too. Hang in there.

 

Ibuprofen everyday isn't great but shouldn't be causing things to be this bad... nor would noise exposure umpteen years ago.

If you have headaches constantly it could be intracranial hypertension (which can cause high ear pressure), an CSF infection, even a cancer... so basically get the hell checked out, because if it's a bacterial/viral infection it'll likely just get worse, because the tinnitus/ear pain could easily be a side effect of that (tons of things look "normal" on the outside, you need more than a hearing test and someone with a scope in your ear).

 

I have been begging for medical help. I have been to the emergency department 11 times since December, seen 3 GPs and admitted once. They have no idea. I see a neuro and an ENT FINALLY this coming Wednesday. They ruled out intercranial hypertension as I had a lumbar puncture in January. Before tinnitus and my headaches started, I had a cough that lasted for 5 weeks. I think the cough was viral because I had 2 courses of Amoxicillin which did nothing. The headaches started when the cough ended and the tinnitus started not long after that. There was a gym injury at the same time, and I had a non related MRI at the same time as well so there are so many things that could have caused this. I don't have a history of headaches.

I feel the hearing in my left ear isn't sharp. It has also gone from my good tinnitus ear to my bad ear.

I am going for another hearing test this afternoon. I am very anxious about it though. Can I exacerbate hyperacusis with a hearing test?

 

Cancel that. He wouldn't do the test because he said my left ear drum was covered in wax. No wax comes out because I use ear plugs so much so this has become an issue.

 

Do you take any supplements or anything else for the pain?

 

Lots and lots of oral liquid Magnesium Chloride. That's it.

 

@AliasM, how are you doing now?

I've been struggling with one sided ear pain, jaw and face pain for a year now so I know the struggle well.

ENT looked at my ears for all of 2 minutes and diagnosed eczema of the ear canal... Bullshit diagnosis IMHO. The drops did nothing.

Hearing test with the Audiologist came back perfect... Even though I feel my right bad ear isn't hearing very good.

I spoke to the GP yesterday and she suggested Trigeminal Neuralgia but again I'm not convinced.

All I do now is live day to day sometimes hour to hour and hope that one day time will help me out.

Shaun.

 

It doesn't seem to help the ear pain (or sound sensitivity)--might be a penetrance thing--but Ambroxol has personally made my face and jaw pain tolerable. It's OTC in a lot of countries as a mucus thinning drug but it also works on similar ion channels to lidocaine.

 

Hi,

I've just ordered some off Amazon. Here's to hoping it does something!

I was really hoping to be better now. My hope of ever feeling normal again is drying up though

Shaun