Longtime Minor Tinnitus, Gotten Worse Lately for No Clear Reason

Hi All,

I'm 28, have had what I considered minor tinnitus for at least the last 10 years, never entirely sure why. I would notice it only in quiet spaces, and even then it wasn't particularly loud nor intrusive. I've always preferred quieter noise volume (no heavy rock radio blasting), but I played trombone growing up, attended crowded sporting events, and traveled by air a fair amount, so I figure something in there started the issue.

Over the last few years, I've ridden motorcycles a fair bit, though I quickly started using earplugs after I started since the wind noise was painful over 40 mph. I do like to drive my car with the windows open, but never felt like that was unbearably loud and definitely wasn't doing it during winter when the current spike began.

So this February rolls around, and one day I notice my left ear ringing (I think ~7.5 kHz) is louder than it used to be. Definitely not sure why. I tried to get into the ear doc about 2 weeks later but that was right when COVID-19 shut everything down so I had to wait until late April to get in, though the ring did not change much.

Doc cleaned out some heavy ear wax and we waited a week, no change. Hearing exams made him think I might have some kind of meniers disease in my right ear, so he put me on a diuretic. A week after starting that, my left ear got louder and so we scheduled an MRI to check for anything amiss in my head. Scan showed nothing, so I'm just continuing the dieuretic until my next appointment on July 24.

These days its annoyingly loud, though I can forget about it when I'm mentally focused in on stuff. Not really affecting sleep/work, and I can still hear pretty well (though I do have slight loss for my age). But (as you all know I'm sure) it's dang annoying and I'm really hoping it doesn't get worse!

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So I've been exploring the internet and learning a bunch about the condition. This forum is awesome! But wow is there a lot of info to go through. I'm hoping someone might see this post and offer some insight on my type of tinnitus and things to do.

Here's some other info:

• Oct of 2019 I had a major anxiety attack, biggest one of my life and didn't really get out of it until late December. High blood pressure, chest pain, bad sleep, the works. By end of January I was pretty well clear though. Did take occasional doses of CBD oil to help relax, not consistent though.
• I've used a projector and home for years. It has noticeable fan noise but hardly uncomfortable to where I'd expect this to be a cause.
• I've clenched my jaw at night for years and years. I wear a night guard so it doesn't damage my teeth, and I do face relaxing massages occasionally. These days I don't feel like I've been doing it too bad.
• Occasionally one ear or the other will "pop" and briefly sound like it is underwater. A new tone will usually accompany this, but it resolves within a minute. Completely unpredictable, but usually occurs when there's not a lot of noise around.

Any insight/advice is much appreciated!

 

Similar thing happened to me. Major anxiety attack started on January 1st and didn't really come out of it until end of March, right when my tinnitus started. I'm a big believer that significant stress can cause or make existing mild tinnitus worse.

Other than avoiding headphones, loud sounds, etc. I don't really have much advice other than giving it more time. Have you experienced any fading since February?

 

Hope you're doing alright after the attack, mine was bad but didn't have to deal with the COVID stuff at the same time!

I've had no experience of fading since February, only the increase unfortunately. But yeah reading all the stories on these boards shows there's really no typical timescale on this stuff, which is frustrating and leaves room for some hope.

 

I got it after 5 months of high stress/anxiety because of a chronic pain condition which itself was hell on earth. So yeah I guess stress/anxiety either kills hair cells or changes brain plasticity.

 

@NeoKortex88

How are you doing now compared to when your tinnitus first started?

 

You may want to look up Julian Cowell Hill - he had stress induced t and is now t free. He practices cranial sacral therapy in the uk and has several videos on youtube.

 

Just kind of a venting post, my tinnitus has been increasing in volume since February and the last few days it's hit a new level. Now just about the only thing that masks it is the shower. I'm still sleeping ok and able to listen past it, but just feeling a bit frustrated that the perceived loudness is still increasing for no clear reason!

While I'm here, anyone with really high pitched tinnitus have tips on how to tone match? I've tried using AudioNotch but I can't seem to pinpoint my pitch very well. I get up into the 7-8 kHz range and think I've found it, but then go up to 9-10 kHz and it's like "Oh, maybe this is it". Then go up to 11 kHz and that feels right, etc. Hard to get specific beyond "really high", which has made it hard to pick a notched audio track for masking.

 

Hi LightBrownPillow,

Having experienced tinnitus for 10 years now I feel that, unfortunately, there is no escaping the intrusiveness over time... unless you lock yourself up and avoid any sort of noise exposure/life. Have a look at my profile should you wish to understand my journey. At this stage I am not out of the woods but am still fighting... there has been a lot more lows than highs recently but am still hopeful that I can, once again, get used to this new level of insanity.

As for tone matching I found that “myTinnitus” app is the one that works for me.

Good luck and stay strong,
Rogi

 

I have high pitched tinnitus and at its worst it was screaming loud. Fortunately, with a variety of things, I've been able to cope pretty well and usually reduce the volume of my tinnitus. As far as white noise goes, the noises that help mask my tinnitus best is just about anything involving running water or rain. I'll listen to storms, beach noises, running shower- they got every kind of white noise you can think of out there. For me, I usually use Youtube. While most Youtube videos are riddled with commercials, most white noise videos only have ads at the beginning and end, with about 4-12 hours of uninterrupted noise. Some people use ASMR videos, but that doesn't work very well for me. I'd usually rather listen to my tinnitus than an hour of crackling plastic, plastic bottle tapping, and disgusting mouth noises. But if it works for someone, then more power to them.

 

Hey man, you can use an AdBlock browser extension like uBlock Origin or install an app called YouTube Vanced on Android. This way you can get uninterrupted masking.