If Reactive Tinnitus Doesn't Exist, Then What Is It?

Many people claim that there is no such thing as reactive tinnitus, that the word/term was invented on internet forums. Yet nobody can explain what it actually is. Some say it's a form of hyperacusis, others think it's related to TTS. Julian Cowan Hill emailed me and said it is over activity of the brain/nervous system.

Yet there are so many of us suffering from this. In my case, my "ordinary" T never bothers me, on the opposit. If I were to a enter a silent room I would hear absolute silence. Sometimes I can hear my "normal" T in silence, sometimes it can be a bit louder but not bothersome. But as soon as other sounds get involved, like my computer being on, ventilaiton or an AC, then I hear this annoying background sound coming with it. The moment you shut one of these things off - my T goes away almost entirely. If I'm on the street and a car passes by, I get that background whissling noise. As soon as the car has left - silence.

I was at my friends apartment today. His playstation was on all the time and it's sound caused an annoying background sound all the time. As soon as the PS got shut off I got soooooo relieved - silence. My "normal" T doesn't even bother me at all (with exceptions). It's only the reactive tinnitus or whatever you want to call it.

So..opinions? Any theories? Comments?

I dont know IF it has any connection, but a year before I got my tinnitus I actually experienced TTS symptoms. Like vibrating ears. They could sometimes vibrate by themselves, but mostly it was certain types of sound triggering it. Sometimes when I were to drink soda from the can, the moment i opened by lips it would start to vibrate/spasm around the ears. When I was going to eat soop, as soon as I opened by mouth before entering the spoon my ears/sides could vibrate quite heavily.

 

More people report experiencing a reactive tinnitus, so I am pretty sure reactive tinnitus exists.

 

I actually have experienced this... I was sitting by a printer and the buzzing from the printer was creating this faint extra sound that I noticed and changed when I moved my head... When I stepped out of the room I was back to normal...

I think that the sound we are hearing is being relayed through the hair cells we partially damaged and that's why we hear this extra sound.

 

Did your disappear?

My reactive tinnitus seems to come and go. So it's something triggering it I'm guessing. A theory I have is maybe it is related to tts, when the muscles in the ear tighten up or go in a defensive mode it tries to block sound to protect the ear, so when sound hits your ear some sounds can be distorted because it doesnt let the entire sound pass on, leaving this weird background sound.

 

You raise an interesting point @Raphael7713 and have written your post well. I appreciate you saying "many people claim there is no such thing as reactive tinnitus" instead of saying: Michael Leigh. It shows you have manners and respect and I admire that in a person. I haven't read a post in this forum where someone has said there is no such thing as "reactive tinnitus" As far as I'm aware I'm the only one that regularly says this although I could be wrong.

I do not believe there is such a thing called "Reactive tinnitus" Although I believe tinnitus can react to sounds or certain sounds caused by "Hyperacusis" This is caused by the auditory receptors or gateways in the brain that have opened up due to noise trauma that Julian Cowan, is referring to. When one uses white noise generators (with counselling) over time these receptors/gateways will be desensitised and begin to close down. If you want to get an in depth knowledge on this then please buy the Tinnitus Retraining Therapy book, written by: Professor Pawel Jastreboff and Jonathon Hazell. It is the Reference book that all Hearing Therapists and Audiologist use in practicing TRT treatment and management of tinnitus and hyperacusis.

I have the book and it's very informative and I believe you'll find it a wealth of knowledge. If you are serious about wanting to know more about tinnitus and hyperacusis there is no better book in my opinion. I purchased it years ago and still refer to it. Available from Amazon.

The symptoms that you are experiencing are not uncommon with noise induced tinnitus. Also, consider using a computer "near field" can make tinnitus worse for some people. I cannot use a PC near field and have to have the base unit in another room and use an external: monitor, keyboard and mouse. The same applies with a Laptop. If I use one for 30 minutes or longer my tinnitus starts to increase and by the next day it reaches severe levels.

Michael

 

To be honest Michael I wasn't only referring to you hehe I've been googling reactive tinnitus for months, and every forum I come across there are always a dozen of people claiming there is no such thing.

I've also noticed my RT is different from others. Many people say that reactive tinnitus is when you get exposed to sounds and hours after your tinnitus spikes up. My tinnitus has never (thank God) spiked up from sound. The moment I shut off whatever is causing my RT, it disappears. It doesn't leave a temporary spike and has never done. My RT reacts only when the sound is active, when the sound is gone so is my RT, without ever leaving a spike behind.

 

lol @Raphael7713 thanks for the information at least I'm not the only one that thinks there's no such thing as Reactive tinnitus. It was a term made up in tinnitus forums. Each person's tinnitus and hyperacusis (if it is present) will be unique to them. You are fortunate that your tinnitus doesn't spike. My advice is to try not to analyse this. If I were you I would buy the TRT book. Your reaction to sound is I feel due to "noise trauma" If loud noise caused your tinnitus to begin with. If not, then something else within your auditory system is causing it and will need to be investigated, at ENT and getting a referral to a Hearing Therapist.

I think it's best that you use sound enrichment whenever possible and particularly at night using a sound machine. Please read my post: Hyperacusis As I see it. If you've already read it then I suggest reading it again and follow some of the advice as it may be of help.

Michael

 

Mine does the exact same thing! It rings louder to specific noises, and only while that noise occurs. It rings louder to water, which is especially annoying. Honestly, I find it’s reactive nature far more annoying than tinnitus alone.

I’ve been told by ENTs that it is a subset of hyperacusis and due to a collapsed sound tolerance. They said it should diminish over time.

 

Yea it doesn't react to all sounds. For some reason it doesn't react to music, it reacts mostly to "machine sounds" like AC, computer, playstations, cars etc.

 

My tinnitus is very reactive to sounds around me, and I think this is somehow linked to the presence of hyperacusis.

 

Water and high pitch sounds are triggers for me. It’s been odd when a sudden very loud, low noise completely unfazes my tinnitus, yet turn on a faucet and it reacts immediately.

 

Sounds a little bit like what is called "dysacusis", too. The sound of the car will be distorted by the additional noise.

 

It probably is Hyperacusis. In my opinion based on many years experience and dealing with people with tinnitus and hyperacusis and reading many books on these conditions over the years. There is no such thing as "Reactive tinnitus" what I mean is, it is not a medical condtion. It was made up in tinnitus forums. Now, there are some in the medical field that want to classify it as a "medical conditon" that can be treated and I don't agree with it.

Michael

 

yes it did (edit: i actually just went by the printer again and i still hear it)....another example was a time i was in an office and when i sat at a certain part of the room i heard this other sound...when i went and sat on the other side the sound disappeared. Seems to have been something in the area that my ears were reacting too. Nobody else noticed any noises in the room at all. In my opinion I would not call this hyperacusis...

 

There is a lot more that can go wrong with the inner and hearing mechanism than just tinnitus and hyperacusis. However people who suffer most get put down on this forum. I don't know what this condition is or how to cure it, but it is killing me.


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

 

Yes dysacusis, and "dyplacusis" are likely related to these conditions. Likely caused by synaptopathy, glial scarring, and partially damaged small haircells. Some suspect the muscles in the middle ear are involved as well such as stapedial and tensor tympani.

@Raphael7713 I have experienced what you described since my onset, and it has been the worst part to deal with, worse than multiple constant tones and hyperacusis. Do you hear it over traffic, running water, and any other noise source?

 

Has your reactive tinnitus (or whatever we want to call it) been constant during these 2 years? Do you have days where it is not that bothersome, if there at all? Or has it been the exact same way for 2 years? Mine can literally disappear for weeks. I'm starting to think it's stress/anxiety related but I don't know for sure.

 

Because I also get this whissling sound from certain external sounds, but the strange (yet good) thing is like I said, it can actually disappear entirely and then come back.

 

Mine has been constant. The hearing distortion or whatever it is called is completely constant and unchanging, while the constant tones can be slightly lowered by certain things, and can also raise. The distortions I hear are just always there at the same frequencies it seems, and it doesnt change or lower with benzos like constant tinnitus tones can.

However some people have had experienced the same hearing distortion I experience, and had it go away in the acute stage (probably because their hearing healed to some extent). @Tom Cnyc and @3ri0w both had distortions like this, and say theirs went away. @VRZ78 has them too, though I think his hearing issues are not from sound exposure. I think his distortions fluctuate if I recall correctly.

 

I dont want to give false hopes (Im a sufferer too afterall) but according to all sites i've read on, these symtoms usually resolves/disappears over time.

If you were to enter a completely silent room, how bothersome would it be for you?

 

Less bothersome than a room with white noise sources or music at any volume (or any real world environment). I have 3 constant tones in 1 ear and 1 in the other, but they don't bother me as much as the other hearing issues, so hearing them in a quiet room isn't that bad, unless i think about how it happened and get depressed.

I don't know though, true environmental silence or even some decent quiet is pretty scarce where I live, so maybe after a while silence would be annoying too, but I havent experienced silence yet.

I wear 27-31db muffs lots, so thats about as close to silence as I get. Sometimes i use foam plugs in addition to them,.

 

Try not overprotecting your ears. What we are experiencing could have a connection to hyperacusis, it's not impossible.

 

I think hyperacusis worsens the experience of any other hearing related issue, so it's definitely connected. I don't think I overprotect, my regular environment is 35-40db constant white noise from traffic below, so thats constant "sound enrichment".

I also agree with your statement earlier that it sounds like this sort of condition can improve for people. Like I said most the people who I have talked to here who had the same sounds I describe saw improvement, so there is lots of hope. However unfortunately I have not seen any or certainly not nearly the noticeable improvement others have after a fairly significant period of time now.

It is probable or possible that the people who improved significantly early on were not exposed to the same unit of sound damage that I was.

Do you have heavyness/fullness sensation in your ears at all?

 

My situation is very strange to be honest (I'd like to think that most in good ways..or I hope so at least).
I can get feeling of ear fullness or blockage but very rarely. Maybe once a month or every other month. My reactive tinnitus/dysacusis (whatever it is) symptoms can literally go away for weeks and weeks and then return.

The thing with me is that an entire year before my T debutated I had very clear TTS symptoms (didnt know at the time what TTS was). So in my case it COULD be related to TTS.

 

Have you seen an ENT?

 

You have to give it time for your auditory system to heal and be patient. This is not something where you will be able to dictate the pace. My first noise trauma took two years to recover using TRT. If you are able to get this treatment then it might help you to get rid of your symptoms sooner. However, I don't recommend it since your tinnitus is improving. I advise you to use sound enrichment whenever possible and especially at night.

Michael

 

I have the exact same thing but I hadn't heard it for 4 weeks untill
yesterday when it came back. Constantly coming and going...

The reactive whistling is 1000x worse than my constant tone. Luckily I don't have it %100 of the time.

 

@Raphael7713

I just want to add the following as it may be of some help. Try not to stress yourself over this reactive tinnitus(Hyperacusis) or sensitivity to sound. If you do then you risk it becoming more permanent as a result of reinforcing negative thinking. This is the reason that it's not advisable to peruse too many websites and forums looking for answers. I know this is not easy to stop as the temptation is strong. You want to make a full recovery and be like you were before the onset of the tinnitus. It is one of the classic mistakes that people new to tinnitus make because they are in distress.

You are in a good position that your tinnitus isn't more intrusive. I advise you to accept that you're making progress and take things slowly. If you don't believe what I'm saying, ask other people in this forum that have had "noise induced tinnitus" and habituated.

All the best
Michael

 

Are you saying that everybody who has distorted hearing has it because of negative thinking? Lots of people have distorted hearing besides the high frequency resonant type that is sometimes called "reactive tinnitus" for instance @Lex has mentioned bass sounding distorted in music and music sounding scratchy. you're saying everybody who experiences this has it because of negative thinking?

That is asinine, and I don't see you referencing anything reputable to back up your claims. It is a distorted form of classic TRT rhetoric you seem to offer.

 

I have this from acoustic trauma but perfect hearing tested all the way up to 16K, weird huh..