Loud Tone for a Few Seconds — Fleeting / Transient Spontaneous Tinnitus

Yes. Middle of the night is my most vulnerable times.

 

Since getting tinnitus/hyperacusis following a microsuction procedure in 2016 my ears are so fragile and react to the slightest noise. In 3 years since the onset both my hearing and my tinnitus loudness has worsened.

Yesterday whilst at a friend's house her pet bird tweeted loudly (very high pitched) and immediately I experienced loud fleeting tinnitus in my left ear. This lasted maybe 10-15 seconds. Straight after this I started to get burning in my ear, twitching and numbness in my face and a pain in my head. The bird was at least 5-10 metres away from me when it tweeted! How can this cause such havoc with my ears and central nervous system?

After the microsuction caused acoustic shock/trauma in 2016 I had extreme pain and burning in my ears, face, neck and shoulders. I'm now 3 years down the line and although the hyperacusis is not as painful, it's clear my ears can't cope with many everyday noises.

 

Now, I am not really sure where to put this story, but maybe it is kind of fleeting tinnitus and somebody knows this.

I went to bed with fairly low tinnitus yesterday, barely audible, slept like a baby. Woke up today and in half sleep I noticed my tinnitus, a bit louder, but that is pretty normal for mornings.
Then suddenly I felt my body tensing up and like a rush of energy going trough it from top to bottom and my tinnitus went up like somebody turned the volume to the absolute max for a second and all frequencies went crazy together. After a second it went back to normal but holy crap...

I have fleeting tinnitus rather often, but mostly it is either a hiss that fades within a few seconds or a pure tone that fades after maybe ten seconds. This was crazy, exactly like a volume control of a radio turned to max and then back down.

Did this happen to anybody?

 

Hello,

I was wondering if anyone has experienced fleeting tinnitus that’s so LOUD that one ear feels like it has lost some hearing?

I just experienced it today.

I was sleeping on the couch and it woke me up in a panic.

It’s been now almost 5 hours and it has calmed down a bit but my ear still feels so clogged! And now a lower ringing tone has come to play

I hope it doesn’t linger. I don’t think I can handle this one.

Has anyone experienced this?

 

Sorry to hear about your problems. One time that I did experience much greater rise in tinnitus in one ear was as a result of a build-up of earwax in that ear - so it might be worth getting that checked out. The other most common cause of spiking tinnitus is noise exposure - there can be some delay on that so it might be a noise exposure event a day before the spike for example.

 

Update:

The sound didn’t subside and didn’t let me sleep.
Therefore I only got two hours of sleep.
The sound is there but it has gotten a little bit less sharp and piercing but STILLLL THERE.
Usually it would be gone the next day but maybe it’s because I only got two hours of sleep due to anxiety and frequently waking up due to the sounds.

 

@sara yes I’ve had your same condition happen. I got it so loud once u almost fell over and that clogged feeling lasted for two full days. Also causes receive tinnitus to any loud sounds. Terrifying man I feel you. It did go away however. I went on prednisone and antioxidants in high doses in an attempt to salvage any haring kiss if that was the case. Perhaps you can do the same it’s safer.having said that these attack’s are harmless. I get severe bursts at least once a week. I’ve noticed a connection to too much coffee starting it as well aspirin and nac kicking it off. Do an YouTube online hearing loss check videos and if you have old. Numbers compare it too now and carefully check if you have lost any hearing in any frequencys. Reply to me.

 

It’s so scary!!! I have to wait to see an ENT ! It eventually went away but it took about two days to completely disappear.

 

Ohh how to check online ??? I tried to go on YouTube but didn’t find any of those videos ! Also what antioxidants do you use ? I just started magnesium and a multi vitamins

 

I've experienced fleeting tinnitus in both ears for as far back as I can remember. Always thought it was normal. Since I developed tinnitus 8 months ago the fleeting T would happen more often and freaked me out, but now it happens about as often as it did before T started, which was like a few times a month.

It always seemed like to me that it's just some muscle in the middle ear having a spasm or something, because I can feel some kind of tension in my ear when it happens. And maybe it happened more when tinnitus started because my anxiety was ramped up. It could be something as normal as hiccups.

 

Recently getting very worried about my transient tinnitus and was wondering if anyone around here has a similar experience.

First of all my tinnitus started October 18 and before that I had a couple of instances of transient tinnitus (it all started after gentamicin!).

My tinnitus started in my right ear before finally settling in my head (how cute of her!) however recently I have been experiencing transient tinnitus on a daily basis. Pressure builds and I experience a 5 second transient tinnitus. Before it used to freak me out big time but now I just say to myself 'oh here we go again'.


Do you think that this is a sign of my situation worsening? Anyone with a similar experience?

 

Hi, I've been experiencing this thing where my hearing spontaneously stops, then I hear a high-pitched, intensified, moderately loud ring, then my hearing fades back in as the ringing tone fades away. I'm not quite sure how to describe it better than that. It occurs in both ears (not both at the same time, though), just randomly at any point in time. This all happens very quickly, within the space of, around 5-10 seconds, then my tinnitus just goes back to its usual stuff (24/7 hissing, faint ringing tones that come and go). It isn't painful and doesn't seem to be causing any other symptoms (or so I think), just scares me that it might mean something bad is on the way...

My story, in case it helps:

"I am currently 19 years old and first got constant/unchanging, hissing tinnitus after flying (Australia to UK) in December of 2017. I remember hearing it not go away the first night we arrived in the UK. Since then, it stayed at that very low, unobtrusive volume, where I could only lightly hear it when I'd try to sleep. In 2018, I had impacted earwax in both ears and got it syringed out by my local GP with no complications at all. The procedure went as smooth as it could possibly go. Earwax became impacted again (in April 2019) and, this time, after getting ear syringing from a different, possibly less experienced GP, my tinnitus amped up to maybe 2.5-3 times the volume (I also got mild-moderate hyperacusis from that syringing). Not sure about the root cause, as I didn't listen to headphones loudly on the planes (and was always very cautious with headphone volume in general as I'm a musician and am careful with my ears). I've had a hearing test with an audiologist and according to that I don't have any hearing loss at all, so I don't know where to go from here."

 

Yes, it's very common, hearing appears to go down and you hear a higher tone for a few seconds - on this forum call it fleeting tinnitus.

 

I have persistent mild / sometimes moderate tinnitus and have done for some time. Last night whilst riding my motorbike with rubber earplugs in (the left one was causing a fair bit of discomfort for some reason) I had a very intense wave of tinnitus - almost deafeningly loud which lasted for maybe 3 seconds and subsided. I can't remember if this was accompanied by any hearing loss, but if the tinnitus was there I imagine it must have been - do remember some slight vertigo. My hearing immediately returned to normal.

Should I be worried?

 

Hi, just to start things off I'm a 20 year old female and I believe I've had tinnitus since 13 years old. I started to hear a high pitched "eee" when it was quiet and it gradually got louder as years went on.

But, recently, I've been experiencing an extremely loud high pitched noise that instantly makes me feel disoriented. It starts off as not being able to hear as well, then I start to hear a ringing noise that gets louder and louder, and as it's getting louder it's getting harder to hear. Also, happens roughly 1-2 times a week and usually lasts around a minute, but the worse it's been was around 5 minutes. I haven't noticed anything that triggers it, seems like it's completely random. I could be lying down, on the computer or just standing up and it will just come out of no where.

I'm not sure if this is a more severe case of tinnitus or something completely different?

Feel free to ask any questions if needed!

 

I literally just had this happen to me, so I came to the forums.

I’m lying down on my affected ear (because it’s comfy) and sudden this high pitched ring (something like this https://www.ata.org/sites/default/files/ATA_Tinnitus_4000Hz_Tone.mp3) and it put me at a COMPLETE standstill. It terrified me. It went away after a couple seconds and I checked to see what my tinnitus was like it remained the same (kinda low pitched, faded a bit with normal ear ringing whenever I plug my ear). Is this normal to experience???

I haven’t used headphones to make my tinnitus worse or anything, but my mom was playing loud music in a car while we were driving to the movie theater. It was loud and I tried my best to protect my ears by plugging them with my fingers, but since I didn’t wanna look weird in front of my friend, I didn’t really do it much.

I still haven’t went to a doctor due to a checkup being soon, so I’m just waiting for that.

 

Hey,

I had chronic pain and it was really really terrible. Like 8/10 pain for months. Also I couldn't sleep and was severely depressed. Now the stress caused me some mild tinnitus which I can live with very well and I think it's getting better too. I have one EEEE sound in my right ear and several other sounds in my head. The head sounds are going away. The EEE is still there but I can only hear it in quiet environments.

However I sometimes now get mini short tinnitus attacks, like fleeting tinnitus. Which is very audible and very loud but goes away after 5-20 seconds. It's louder than human speech. The longest it was around for 2 minutes and usually I get it in my left ear (the other ear) but usually it only lasts 10 seconds. I get it about 1-2x a week.

I wonder will this at some point turn into real tinnitus? Can it go away completely? I already take good care of myself as in avoiding noise, stress, headphones, caffeine. I don't want these tinnitus attacks to become a permanent part of my life. Before my stress period I never had short tinnitus attacks like this.

 

Hey everyone,

For the past couple days I've been getting fleeting tinnitus more often. It's been happening a couple times a day for the past few days. I would get it once in a while but I can't remember ever getting it more than one time in a day. When I get it now it's only in one ear.

I've been careful to avoid noise trauma and my regular tinnitus has been at a pretty constant level. The fleeting tinnitus episodes last around a minute I would say.

I as was wondering if this is a sign of anything and if it was something to be worried about. Thank you!

 

I get very loud high pitched ringing in my ears which seems to go after a few seconds (separate from my normal tinnitus). It only occurred to me recently that this probably isn’t normal. Does anyone else get this?

 

My normal or current tinnitus right now is all over the place in terms of what sounds I hear. Changing between hisses, sizzles, tonal, whistles. The normal frequency is very high 10-12 kHz.
For some day it's been actually lower in volume (please stay like this), my mental health around it is still horrible. Still can't see how to live with tinnitus.

But. Yesterday I got a fleeting sound (unilateral) of around 1000-2000 Hz, which lasted like 1-2 minutes each quite a few times the day. Scared the hell out of me. It is definitely tonal. And very, very, super annoying. Have you experienced this? And usually, or according to your experience, does it indicate that this will become the next permanent noise? Is my brain calibrating a new sound?

I am so very tired of this always changing nature, make habituation tremendously hard for me. And I haven't done anything, I guess, to make it worse. Haven't left the house for days, no exposure to loud noises. I listened to music for a long time yesterday, but on the lowest possible volume on my phone (no headphones) and it was classical, just to provide distraction. Still not sleeping after 6ish weeks, and I barely eat.

Can crying exacerbate tinnitus?

 

Hey everyone, so I have been great this past year, tinnitus is always present but I have habituated for the the most part.

Every now and then I get fleeting tinnitus on top of my existing tinnitus which usually only lasts a few seconds and never longer than a minute, hearing gets dulled and then it fades away.

I was driving in my car and about an hour ago this high pitch tone started in my right ear. It sounds exactly like my fleeting pitch but it’s not going away. I also have some distortion with my hearing in that ear and I’m trying not to freak out!!

I took my anxiety medicine to try to calm me but I’m still scared, what is the longest something like this ever happened to someone and will it most likely go away?

 

@Dginobile how are you now? My fleeting tinnitus has been super loud it's scary.

 

Hey so I woke up the next morning and my tinnitus was back to normal. I just did my best not to focus on it which seemed to work. I was definitely scared tho because it has never lasted that long and I have had tinnitus for 2 years now.

 

When you experience fleeting tinnitus, do you get it on top of your already existing sounds or separately? I mean, out of nowhere, for a second I experienced dead silence, everything quietened, then a loud tone which sounded like a rocket or plane diving to the ground very fast, but gradually, appeared. (Can't explain better. ) Lasted for a minute, then stopped, but left some residual tonal sound, unfortunately the silence went away too, so back to the regular sound and the new one. I experienced fleeting tinnitus before but nothing like this and not in that ear. When it happened, I was like: whoa, that's new, but now I'm freaking out that it will stay.

 

Lately I have been having more SBUTTs (transient tinnitus) episode. They are super short, usually like 10 seconds. I sometimes feel pressure change in my ears. I'm wondering if body stress has something to do with it.

I was smoking a lot of marijuana a couple of months ago, but quit in December. Contrary to popular belief there are withdrawal symptoms (check the sub-reddit "r/leaves" for plenty of stories). It's nothing like heroin, but marijuana withdrawal can cause depression and extreme anxiety along with sweats.

I am sleeping good, mostly from exhaustion, but am very, very anxious daily and the SBUTTs are not helping me.

I'm almost one month clean. I am trying to make a real, conscious effort to be more "present" and stop acting like such a jackass all the time. I have a lot of maturing to do.

 

I have had tinnitus for about 3 months now.

This is going to be hard to describe, but you know that high pitches noise you get in your ear that lasts a few seconds, and fades away? People say that it is a dying hair cell or something.

I’ve been having that every now and then, except the high pitched noise is EXTREMELY loud. Like so unbearably loud that I can’t hear other noises - it’s deafening. It lasts around 5-10 seconds before it starts fading out and it is absolutely terrifying.

What if it stays and it becomes my new tinnitus tone?

I never thought I’d say this but it makes me thankful for my usual tinnitus sound.

Has anyone else had similar experiences? What the hell is it.

 

I'm really hoping someone can help! I get a sudden and obvious sound in both ears as though I've closed the door in a soundproof room. Within 5 to 10 seconds my hearing is back to normal. I can't find anything on line which describes this feeling. I do also have mild tinnitus which is mainly buzzing or like a fire alarm in the distance. Does anyone else get the first feeling?

 

Do you have any sinus congestion? I get that feeling anytime there is pressure built up. Have you tried popping your ears?

 

Thanks for your reply. It's so hard to explain but the sound is nothing like that and there is no 'feeling' of pressure per se. The best description is like walking into a soundproof room... No pain at all.

 

Interesting... Does your tinnitus go away during the experience? Are you able to hear anything at all during those 5-10 seconds? Or is it that you just don't hear any ambient noise?