I Got Sound Distortions in Late 2020 — Recently They Got Worse

So I have had tinnitus since I can remember, it was mostly a buzzing and sometimes slight ringing, I kinda thought that's normal so it never bothered me. But what's relevant is that at the end of last year, within a second, weird sound distortions suddenly appeared. I went to a doctor who assured me that it should go away in a few weeks, which it didn't. At the second visit he said I should come again if it's still there next year. It still was there next year, but I knew at this point it's probably permanent and I already got kinda used to it, so I didn't bother going again.

A bit about my past, I was a polysubstance user, one class of drugs I had the worst problem with were benzodiazepines, alcohol and GHB, I had two benzo withdrawals and one GHB withdrawal, and after that I had to stop because a single dose would often give me intense rebound anxiety when it wore off. This mostly happened before the sound distortions, but maybe it contributed to them appearing. After that I mostly just used Kratom and prescription Concerta. I want to stop Kratom since it's opioid like, and opioids might cause hearing loss, maybe it also caused the distortions for me.

Around 4 days ago the distortions got worse after staying the same all the time, which terrified me. Especially reading posts of people wanting to kill themselves because of these distortions. Today when calling with my girlfriend I just broke down crying for the first time. I listened to a song I really like, and the distortions made it so awful that I couldn't listen to it, it makes me so sad just typing this here. I'm just scared it will keep getting worse until it drives me into suicide as well. Thinking that after getting out of my drug addiction and finding an amazing girlfriend this shit might ruin it all just scares me, I want to live.

I'm sorry if this got pretty dramatic at here, I just feel so hopeless right now, especially after finding not a single success story with these sound distortions and people saying how it's so much worse than tinnitus.

 

I am sorry you are struggling.

If this helps at all I once experienced benzo induced sensitivity to sound. I believe the reason was I reached tolerance and I was taken off too rapidly from benzodiazepines. I also tapered off antidepressants before that which I had been using for years. Those things could have played a part why I suddenly was so sensitive to sound. During that time music sounded really different, weird, not enjoyable at all. I believe that medicine induced hyperacusis somehow changed my perception of music someway. It was so bizarre. I stopped listening to music for a long time. I had to reinstate benzos and taper slower. Slowly I got music back, my sensitivity to sound resolved and I enjoyed it as much as before, even more. But it took a long time. I know it is not completely same thing as distortions but I just wanted to give you some kind of hope.

Hopefully your distortions stops after time passes.

Unfortunately after I experienced acoustic trauma some time ago I have got sound distortions. I hear whistling tinnitus sound on top of certain sounds etc. I have tried to listen to music and some songs sound really different from what they were before acoustic trauma and I also experience pain that makes music even less enjoyable, and I have had to take a break listening music. This situation has made me anxious. I try to maintain hope I get music music back someday again and the distortions stop.

 

Hang in there mate, you’re certainly not alone with the distortions. It’s been 10 months for me and accepting that this might be here to stay is very hard. Try to focus on activities you enjoy outside of music for the short term. There are many things that make life worth living so try to lean on these more: going to the beach, reading, having sex with your girlfriend, working on a hobby project. I’m sure one day the distortions will either go away or bother you a lot less.

 

Anyone think as we get older and naturally lose our hearing, that distortions will fade.

 

Curious what a sound distortion is. During loud noises, my eardrum almost feels like it's going to rattle. Is this the same thing?

 

A sound distortion is considered to be a tinnitus sound that is evoked in direct response to external sound. For instance; the moment I walked into my room and heard my computer fan, I would hear a pure tone over it, but it would disappear immediately after I exited the room. What causes this is yet to be determined, but I speculate it is due to synapse damage.

If there is a physical sensation of movement of the eardrum in response to noise, maybe kinda like a thumping, then that may be TTTS. It's the tensor tympany muscle that protects the ear from harmful noises. If your tolerance to sound has decreased, the tolerance for this muscle to spasm can drop and in turn spasm to more sound. My tolerance to sound has been so off that my right ear did previously spasm to my own voice.

So, no, if that's what you're referring to, then they're separate things.

Wish you well,
Stacken

 

I have both distortions and reactive tinnitus. I have a whistling distortion and a beep will go off at certain things too otherwise i have tinnitus that can't be masked and is pretty intrusive and rides on top of sound and will be louder after the sound is removed.

I'm almost 2 years in with this and neither have gotten better yet. I thought that there were times when the distortion was better but that's kind of rare. I usually always have a sound on playing because it'll drive me crazy sitting in silence for hours with my tinnitus. I tried Gabapentin and Klonopin but that didn't really work, it just took the edge off a teeny bit. Doctors don't want to investigate so I gave up on doctors. The only thing left to try is losing weight and changing my diet since I'm considered obese. I will be really crushed if I work out and diet and all that hard work doesn't reduce the reactivity even just a little bit... Why do some people's reactive tinnitus and distortions go away after a few months and others like myself suffer with it for a couple years? I distract the best I can but I hear it constantly at work and I work with the public.

Is hearing loss the reason reactive tinnitus stays for some? I was born with severe hearing loss but my tinnitus was always mild with no distortions til I got a cold two years ago.

 

I'm very sorry to hear about your struggles @Ava Lugo. Dealing with tinnitus when intrusive is always a challenge. Mine has worsened quite a bit over the months, and in silence it can be a bit intrusive, but since low level sound causes long lasting spikes, there's no options other than listening to it.

I think it partly boils down to luck, and terminology. I personally believe distortions, i.e. tinnitus that "rides on sound" truly is a matter of damage, and whether that improves or not is only in the hands of luck(as mine did completely resolve after a few weeks post acoustic trauma). But with regards to spiking to low level sound, I think there's quite a few cases(not all of them) where this is due to a central over-sensitivity in the auditory system, whether that is truly "loudness hyperacusis" or not, I don't know, but I've read of quite a few who has seen improvements by using sound enrichment, treating their sensitivity, and have their spiking reduce.

It's my understanding of it anyway.

I know it's really really hard, but somehow I still have belief that if we arrive at a stable state, where we neither get worse nor improve, we ought to eventually "move on" and occupy our minds with other things. We may never be "happy" about it, or "at peace" but there should be some kind of living. When things get perpetually worse, that's a totally different hell and reality to deal with.

Wish you well,
Stacken

 

Did your reaction to hearing your tinnitus change with time since you're used to constantly hearing your tinnitus? What I mean is does the tinnitus noise bother you less even though you hear it a lot because you've been hearing it for awhile? How bad can your spikes get, like how loud? If it wasn't for the spikes, would your tinnitus be maskable?

 

Definitely. I've listened this "angle grinder running in a sheet of metal" on max volume (that is, using hearing protection) for 9 months soon, it's the only thing I hear. My brain has turned up the gain, so I hear it very clearly, but i rarely get bothered by it in the daytime, so I can still concentrate on my tasks. If I'm in a spike, it bothers me more, and that's most likely because the "habituation" is partly broken due to the change.

My most recent spike made my worst tone in my right ear move closer, sounding louder, but most prominently change in character from a ring to the intrusive angle grinder. This is usually what happens; the character of the sounds alternates between intrusive and less intrusive.

Hard to say as I haven't attempted to mask in many months. I can hear my tinnitus pretty clearly in calm weather outside, but it's mostly due to the highest frequencies which cut through everything. Maybe some crickets or rain could mask it? Probably.

Stacken

 

I didn’t know what distortion was... I have that now again after the MRI. High pitch tone over fans. It went away the first time.

Reading what you go through, that’s rough. You’re the man Stacken.