I Think I May Have Tinnitus

Hi everyone. I think I have tinnitus. My name is Greg. I’m a 20 year old male. Since like the 6th grade I think I’ve heard a fan like noise in my head. Not in my ears but in my head.

Recently a couple of days ago I notice a ringing in my left ear. Is it possible that I have tinnitus. I hear all different types of noises in my head. I have OCD and anxiety disorder. I haven’t gone to the doctor yet.

But is the ringing in my ear tinnitus and the different noises in my head OCD and anxiety? Or is the ringing in my ear and noise in my head both tinnitus? Thank you.

 

If you hear noises that do not have an external source, then you have Tinnitus. It may be mild and very manageable, but strictly speaking, it is Tinnitus.

 

Sounds like you have Tinnitus. Since 6th grade? Have you ever had a complete hearing exam? You may have suffered some hearing loss early in life.

 

Thank you for the response. There are a lot of noises in my head and sometimes if I think about it I can change the sound and the pattern of the sound, sometimes I can’t control it and it just goes in all types of sounds and patterns. This too is tinnitus?

 

Yup.

 

Thank you, you are helping me out a lot, I’m new to this. Any tips for sleeping?

 

Hi @Greggtoonie -- Sorry to hear how this is affecting you. Were you by any chance taking any OCD or anxiety medications at the time you started noticing noises? And are you on any medications now? If so, you may want to google whatever medication you're taking and tinnitus, and see what you find out.

Also, I'm a BIG believer in nutritional interventions for just about any kind of health condition we may run across. A couple years ago, I ran across a remarkable article on OCD, and how a researcher in Israel discovered that a simple supplement can often dramatically improve OCD symptoms. Here's a link to a remarkable article in case you might want to check it out: -- LISTENING TO INOSITOL: CLINICAL NOTES

I'm sharing this Inositol/OCD link because I think any brain condition that results in OCD can also result in tinnitus. And that successfully treating OCD "may" just improve tinnitus. Insitol supplementation sounds like one of the best possibilities for doing that. -- You may also want to check out THIS POST & THIS POST I made, which describes some supplements and other alternative type therapies that may be worth considering.

All the Best...

 

They are both tinnitus.

Check out
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/thread...eone-else-who-has-tinnitus.26850/#post-307822

 

It's certainly tinnitus. Not sure when I got it actually, though I think it became more noticeable a few years back when I got an ear infection. You should be able to function just fine though. Usually just listening to music or watching videos helps me out a lot. If it's entirely silent I can hear it, typically in my right ear, at least that's where it's louder. One thing I discovered is that the pitch changes if I move a finger or toe, not sure why that is though maybe something with blood flow. I wish it would go away but since I doubt it ever will it's just something I will have to live with.

 

Thank you for the answer. I have different types of noises in my head they sound different at times and sometimes I feel like I’m thinking them and sometimes I feel like I hear them. Is this still tinnitus?

 

Some people here call it "head tinnitus" or "head T". I've had it for a while too. When one has head T, one doesn't hear the sound, but is still sensing a hum or a vibration or Something in their head.

I am not sure whether that is what you meant when you wrote "sometimes I feel like I am thinking them"...

 

Sometimes I feel like I hear the sound and sometimes I feel I’m thinking it but even when I feel like I’m hearing it I know it’s just me and no one else can hear them. Is this tinnitus?

 

When you hear sounds that aren't there (unless it is "voices" that you are hearing) it is definitely tinnitus.

 

Thank you you helped me a lot

 

It depends on how much it bothers you. Does it?

One common practice is to sleep with a fan on or some environment noise (like rain) playing out of a speaker next to you (on your nightstand for example). There are sound machines that you could buy for that, but a simple bluetooth speaker connected to your phone should do the trick (there are tons of apps - even free - that will play all kinds of sounds).

 

It bothers me a lot, the past couple of days I’ve been getting little sleep, now I saw a post on here’s saying that someone was scared that they might die from insomnia, does a person really die from that, a lot of the posts on here scare me.

 

I suggest you go down the diagnosis path with your doctor(s). You can use this diagnostic flowchart to help guide them through it: https://www.tinnitusresearch.net/index.php/for-clinicians/diagnostic-flowchart

You are unlikely to die from insomnia.

Perhaps you've become more anxious about it in the past few days and that's played a nasty trick on you.

Take posts that you read in here with a grain of salt. There is a lot of catastrophizing due to the understandable anxiety linked to the condition. Take a look at the Success Stories section and remember that most people with Tinnitus just move on with their lives and are not on this forum: those who are struggling do come here, which explains the negative bias.

Good luck!