My Electrical Tinnitus Gave Me an Electric Shock All Down My Head and Neck

Tl;dr: last night my weird electrical tinnitus gave me an electric shock all down my head and neck. Looking for some advice on how to proceed.

About 6 or 7 weeks ago I developed a hissing sort of sensation in my head that moved to my right ear overnight suddenly a couple of weeks ago.

Ever since, it’s morphed into this electrical buzzing sensation that actual feels like there is a tiny electrical short circuit in my ear.

Over the past couple of days, the buzzing has turned into a more consistent hiss that I can feel as well as hear.

Last night before I went to sleep, the hissing suddenly stopped momentarily and I had what felt like an electric shock all down my head and neck. The hissing then started up again.

Has anyone else ever experienced this before? I know there isn’t really much I can do about it but I’m wondering if anyone has had this sort of transition of their tinnitus and where it ended up?

At the moment mine seems to be changing on an almost daily basis and I’m a bit concerned about the trajectory.

It’s also decided to get massively reactive to pretty much anything to the extent that I have to wear ear muffs around the house to stop it spiking through the roof and making my whole head buzz.

I should add that in my other ear I had a high pitched ‘eee’ sound and a low rumbling sound which disappeared a few days ago and have been replaced with a reactive chirping noise that is triggered by the slightest noise (even just the noise of typing this is making it chirp).

I’m 7 weeks post acoustic trauma.

Any advice or support is very much appreciated. Losing my sanity at the moment.

 

Hi there I doubt you’ll be electrified anytime soon

You could expect your tinnitus to change on a monthly basis the first half year after an acoustic trauma.

The good news for you is that although it might feel it’s getting worse, it’s not necessarily so in the end.

And improvements are not linear. This is important to remember and think about every time you feel ready to give up.

I advise you to be very careful outside amongst people and traffic because your ears may be very fragile right now.

Bill Bauer got a thread for newcomers about good advice. And he got another one about spontaneous recoveries first year. Also you should check out some success stories like Jason C and others.

 

I have never experienced an electrical shock. Tinnitus can have sensation attached to it though.

After a surgery I experienced a tinnitus that was like a rattlesnake’s tail all over the top of my head. It literally felt like the tail was whipping around on my head. Thankfully it went away shortly after the surgery.

Recently I’ve developed a low frequency tinnitus that sounds like a chainsaw cutting, then idling, in a pattern. This tinnitus can give a physical sensation of my head and body vibrating. Others experience this vibrating also. There are many threads on here about low hum tinnitus and people say it causes the vibration sensation. Unfortunately, this has not gone away for me.

 

@Tom_Tom, when you were renovating your house, some type of posture activity probably caused neck pressure muscle spasms. Occipital nerves from this became excited. Posture activity would of at least 30 minutes of lifting head such as looking at a ceiling - or 30 minutes of bending head towards a floor. Add in a noise factor (acoustic shock) proceeding this causing tinnitus. From this, one could experience occipital nerve electric shock all down head and neck and everything else that you mention.

My story:

Spent an hour pulling weeds from lawn with improper forward head bending posture. Two days later went to the dentist where I was lifting head off headrest while the dentist was drilling. Waked out with somatic tinnitus and that night developed all that you describe.

I still have tinnitus (somatic) and neck damage, but all the electrical concerns disappeared in about 2-3 weeks.

Treatment is warm compresses applied gently to upper back side of neck and proper head posture. Two pillows and sleep on sides.

If your situation continues - get checked for occipital neuralgia and have vertebral artery examined.

 

@Tom_Tom, may I ask where are you at now with your buzzing? I have a very similar type buzzing but not all body shocks. Have you improved at all? Mine seems to be related to dehydration/dry mouth, but I am not sure.

 

@kmiki - I'm not doing great unfortunately. I have a hissing/buzzing in my right ear and a more general ringing in my head. And it's loud - very loud. For some reason today it's spiked terribly so I'm just at work trying to get through the day.

The electric shocks are still there to some degree. I tend to get electric shock spasms in my left foot (right ear buzzing so that sort of makes sense) and sometimes when I get a spike my inner ear really hurts.

I'm sorry there isn't better news. Am hoping for better days to come.

(Although one good things is that it slowly seems to be getting less reactive. For example, I don't have to wear earmuffs around the house anymore and I can drive without earplugs and don't tend to get any spikes - when I first got tinnitus I had to wear ear protection pretty much 24/7 to avoid massive spikes).

 

Was that rattlesnake's tail sound, all over the top of your head, due to hearing loss? I have that two, sometimes three days a week. It's very hard to deal with. It started as a spike, and then has kept coming back.

Mine started from a very bad mechanical trauma to the middle ear muscles. It is a sort of somatosensory tinnitus that changes a lot. I just don't know how to deal with it or make it softer. Almost nothing works.

 

Sounds like it's TMJ or connected to a neck or jaw injury. Electric shocks are damaged nerves.

Where are you getting the painful shocking feeling? Because that's where your nerves are damaged. It might be worth seeing a doctor about this.

Have you tried massaging your jaw joints and the back of your neck and temples? You could grind your teeth in your sleep, have a tooth infection, an ear infection, or a physical injury from work - literally anything that is causing nerve damage.

But yes electric shock pain anywhere in the body is nerve damage. You need that looked at.

 

I do not think it had to do with any pure tone audiometry hearing loss. My hearing is normal in the standard range. I have UHF loss, but had it before surgery. I didn’t lose any hearing from the surgery, as my before and after audiometry were almost identical.