Is This a Part of Tinnitus?

1. A weird dull/numb/tight feeling in a part of my sense of surroundings. Perhaps may be a burden to my equalibrium. Basically my sense of surroundings feels off, which kind of aches. Sometimes it feels like the sensation constricts. Sometimes it tingles/tickles.

2. Sometimes it gets better when my tinnitus starts gettings louder, as if my ear loosens.

3. I feel a little unconfortable moving my head left to right, and vice versa.

4. I have felt like my hearing got worse, but there is apparently no change after a year. Even though most of my occupation prior to 2014 was binge watching shows for several hours a day in maximum volume, even though I thought it wasn't that loud (sometimes vocals were hard to hear.)

I lost 5 dB of hearing at 2khz on one ear since 2007, in which it used to be 10 dB (so now it is 15 dB.) Overall it is 10 dB in most frequencies. They say my hearing is normal, and a change not worth mentioning since 2007, and yet I have had many crazy problems, like the stuff I mentioned. I also had an allergy attack that swelled my ears, hearing, and caused constant fiery pain for many months, caused by a bad room environment. (Which I am now religiously cleaning and going outside.)

The tinnitus itself is tolerable, but the senstion is NOT. I don't think I have hyperacusis since it doesn't get worse from loud noises. Every time my tinnitus starts going from a sound much like a high pitched buzzing lightbulb, to a loud faucet noise, it feels as if it is healing. I feel better with the faucet noise despite the louder tinnitus.

Would someone kindly please possibly enlighten me on what is happening? I think I've already reached a point of madness.

Is it possible to lose, say, 3-5 dB of hearing loss after not having 10, within a year of (understandably) foolish binge watching for 4-6 a day on headphones? I wouldn't think this much change is possible.

I am also almost 21, if that information is relevant.

 

It all depends on on volume. You can easily go completely deaf with headphones in a year, provided the sound is extremely loud.

 

Earpieces of 98+ dB? I wasn't always binge watching shows 6 hours a day at maximum, but possibly 65%.

 

You were listening at 98+ db volume??!?

 

Not always. Usually had it on half of that. Only turned it up when I couldn't hear the vocals. I felt no pain or unpleasantness from it, which is why I thought it was fine. I was never told it could cause any problems with hearing as well, only concerts.

 

You're very young. To the extent that you have hearing damage, it is probably mostly in much higher frequencies than are tested in a usual exam.

There is a general trend of hearing damage showing up as "loss" significantly after whatever the traumatic event was.

The good news is, you are young, and if you use all of this as a reason to protect your hearing much more assertively than is typical of people your age, by the time you're 45 you may have much better hearing than most of your peers. And, who knows, perhaps treatments which can actually restore lost hearing will be commonplace by then!

 

I have full faith it will be. Gene therapy looks very, very promising. So does potential myelin sheath repair, which has recently been discovered to affect hearing. I expect 5-10 years before legitimate commercialized treatment.

The gene therapy has shown progress, in fact. One of the people who were experimented, while he had no signs of hearing improvement, his balance improved. I am no doctor, but I believe that this might mean those with mild hearing loss would have better results, due to the structure of it all.

 

Now all my previous symptoms disappeared, but the tinnitus in my right ear increased. Also had no exposure to loud noise. What the heck...? ):