Howdy! Tinnitus, Crackling, Voice Distortion

Hey Everyone,

I would like to firstly thank this forum for providing me with support along time ago when I first experienced a traumatic ear injury. You all helped a young man who felt truly alone and I have prospered ever since then.

I am writing you now for help because it has been 12 years since I had a bag exploded in my right ear and my symptoms are worsening and I have becoming increasingly tired of dealing with them. To sum up my story briefly at 16 I had a bad popped in my ear, went deaf for 2-3 weeks, tinnitus started, my hearing returned but symptoms continue. Below are my symptoms.

Tinnitus(I would rate this as low-mild but it has been worse lately)Not my main issue
Voice Distortion (This is what I want to fix, it has never gone away since that day) I even hear my own voice distorted in my right ear..Every single time I talk above "softly"
Sensitivity to loud noise( Mostly b/c of the distortion)


I recently went to an ENT and I had a perfect hearing test and acoustic test (ear drum test). This was my worst fear, I actually wanted something to be wrong with my eardrum or something.. alas.

The issue that bothers me is the crackling, blown out speaker sound that I hear with almost every noise.. The louder the sound more distortion that happens and it just sooooo uncomfortable. Do my symptoms match anything specifically? I was reading about TTS and that seems to fit some thing but I don't have much fluttering or fullness, my fear is that my nerves are just shot and I am stuck with this for life.

Thank you,

-Craig

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dysacusis

 

Sounds like possible inner ear damage which won't show up on a standard pure tone hearing test - unless you point out to the audiologist that the test tones sound distorted or different in each ear

 

Congratulations on your 6,000th post, Glynis!

 

Exactly my main issue. Quite coincidently also in my right ear. The distortion is dreading.
On top of this my hearing diagram does show the well known noise damage dip (especially right ear).
It is "only" three years for me now. I tried so many things to try to improve things.
I understand it is inner ear related. Which means nothing can be done.
Also for better coping with this condition I convince myself researchers will be successful eventually.

 

Thanks guys

Yeah I am pretty sure it is inner ear damage. Basically when it flairs up it is really bad, when it goes doormat life feels almost normal.

I was weed-wacking this weekend and experienced something funny. I had only a hearing plug in my right ear and my unprotected ear experienced the same distortion when the wacker got going to full speed.. Not sure what that really means regarding how I can fix my right ear, but interesting none-the-less..

 

Since I posted, Tinnitus and distortion have reduced in 1/2. This stuff is funny, please stay strong everyone! It can come in waves.

 

Mine is very constantly bad, but as I've found with my constant tones, if they do fluctuate, it can be just as upsetting to habituation. But habituating to dycasusis is so much more difficult to begin with.

Is there anything you credit your recovery to? Any tips? I am still in need of answers and treatment.

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/dysacusis-hearing-distortion-etc.26866/

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/hearing-distortion-recruitment-reactive-tinnitus.19449/

need cure

 

As cliche as this sounds I stopped really caring. I was stressing so much about it that I think it just amplified everything 2x. I gave my ear some time to rest by using ear plugs in certain situations and it just..faded a bit.

The thing that most improved was my distortion, now it is back to where it was, originally which is manageable.

Oh, I also started taking fish oil pills, but no idea if this would be correlated.

Goodluck my friend. I will stick around as my T will likely never leave me and I bound to have a flair up again.