Loud Tinnitus Makes Hearing Seem Worse?

I've had tinnitus now for 1-1/2 years. It has never gotten any better. It occurred from a severe ear infection, and I did lose some hearing in that ear.

When I get up in the morning, the ringing is at its lowest level. As the day goes on, the volume increases. By evening it is very loud. Same pattern, every single day.

When it is that loud in the evening, I actually have a harder time hearing people speaking. How can that be? I was under the impression that the ringing is just a signal going to the brain when one doesn't exist. How can I have a harder time hearing when the ringing is louder in the evening, when in actuality the tinnitus sound doesn't actually exist as a true sound (meaning it can't be heard by anyone else). I hope that makes sense; had a hard time explaining what I mean.

 

Hi Samantha8,
Tinnitus can cause hearing fluctuations depending on sounds and strength or blocked tubes....lots of love glynis

 

I don't see why this is hard to understand? If your T is very loud it's obvious that it gets harder to understand other people. My left ear has better hearing than my right but I once got a severe spike in my left ear (lasted for two hours) and when I tried to listen to a youtube video I noticed it was much harder to understand the speech out of my best ear due to the loudness of T in that ear.

So yes if the T is very loud it's harder to hear external sounds.

 

I was just curious I guess how a "phantom" sound could make it harder for me to hear real external sounds. I guess to my brain, it is a real sound, so it makes it harder to hear external sounds.

Not complaining, just wondering scientifically how it all works. Maybe the 'real' sounds have to compete with the 'phantom' sound traveling down the nerve pathways that are already taking up some bandwidth.

 

Loud tinnitus, can over take a good amount of hearing. Well, for me at least. I have level 10/Loud tinnitus in both ears and i have a great amount of hearing loss as well. It is very hard for me to hear people that have a soft voice or speak in a low tone. So yes, LOUD tinnitus can make it difficult to hear....