I Don't Know If What I Have Is Tinnitus, Please Help

Hey I just want to start off by saying I'm 19 years old. Less than a week ago, I woke up around 5am (usually wake up at 9am-10) with this vibrating noise/feeling in my right ear. It was a constant vibration, the best way I can explain it is if you live in an apartment building and your neighbors are blasting music, and you can hear/feel the bass, or when an airplane is passing by, or when someone has their engine on in their car outside and you can hear it inside. Well that vibration like feeling ended later that night, and it had gone away for a couple of days till I woke up again today to it and it has not gone away, it's not painful or anything, it's more of a nuisance and it's not really loud. I'd also like to point out that when I speak or hear moderately loud noise that it stops, I'm not referring to the sound being masked, I'm saying it completely stops because when I stop talking or hearing a noise it starts back up again. There is literally no vibration sound/feeling in my ear even if I hum quietly for a third of a second. It literally stops, and I don't know what caused it. I listen to a lot of music with earphones on and around 30% of the time it's on max volume I'd also like to point out that I have anxiety, HBP, and hypothyroidism and I take medications for them and I've had them for more than 5 years, so this isn't something new. I also did a tinnitus tone match 1-16 KHz sine waves on YT and I could hear all the way to 16 KHz. Does anyone if I should see a doctor or if it's water in my ear or earwax? I haven't seen a doctor because it went away the same day so I thought it was nothing serious but like I said it came back.

 

It sounds like exactly what I have. Mine started in July. I went to a gp after about day 5 or 6. They put me on 5 days of steroids. It went away completely for 3 weeks. Then it returned even louder. After a few more rounds of steroids, it kept coming back and louder, now with plugged ear feeling and hypercausis (which is sensitivity to certain sounds). I have been struggling with it since then. I started taking vitamins and supplements and it seems to have helped. Mine cycles. I will have about 3 good days (almost complete silence) and then 2 awful days. But this past time I had a solid week of good days and only 1 bad. Today was the end of the good week though. Woke up this morning to ringing. I have an appt with an ENT finally in Jan. Hoping for more answers. My MRI did come back clear, which is great. I did have a hearing test that showed some hearing loss. Hope this helps.

My T is a low frequency T as well. It sounds like a bass noise sometimes. Other times when it is louder, it sounds like a car idling. There are days where it is reactive T, which is where I talk or hum it disappears completely. It was awful at first, but that was because I kept dwelling on it. I started masking at night. Surrounded myself with sound during the day. Also learned to not be afraid of it, rather, not give it any importance. That helped greatly. Eventually it got softer, at times, unnoticeable.

I believe it probably is T. My advice would be go to a clinic or gp, if it is just ear wax, they will tell you and can remove it easily. If not, see if you can get on predisone (steroids) immediately. The sooner the better. Less chance of permanent damage. If it is T, it's not the end of the world. It is manageable. Just a little annoying to get used to at first.

 

Ok so I definitely should go see a doctor? There's been days when I hear nothing and everything seems to be fine. Should I be worried that this might make me depressed? Or that this will ruin my life? What about music, do you still listen to music through earphones? Or is that no longer something I can do? Thanks for replying btw