New Form of Tinnitus (For Me)

Hi all,
Delighted to find this site.

My name is Anthony, from Ireland.

I have had "mild ringing" tinnitus on and off for years in my right ear. An MRI several years ago confirmed nothing suspicious so I stopped worrying about it even when it became annoying. A few weeks ago I awoke to a gushing sound in the same ear but it quickly passed. Now this gushing sound has returned in the past week and has me a bit concerned (and irritated). It doesn't appear to fit the typical pulsatile description as there appears to be no pulsing sound, just a continuous low level gushing noise most obvious in a quiet environment. Has anyone experienced this? I am bordering on paying a visit to my doctor but I also want to give it a chance to "go away" before I start to get panicky.

Many Thanks in advance.

 

Welcome Anthony. You should pay a visit to the doctor to see if there is a medical cause to your recent increase. If there is no medical cause, then this is a spike which may happen now and then during people's T life. In general, if you stay calm and positive, T usually can't fuel up to stay spiky for long. It feeds off your bad emotions such as fear, anxiety and stress. So if you stay calm, there is a much better chance for it to go away. You may want to try masking it if it bothers you much. This will make you less likely to be anxious and stressed and that will be good for T. If you wish to try masking, here are some suggestions for masking sounds:

TT's own audio player with great masking sounds:
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/audioplayer/

If you need more masking sounds, here is free ‘aire freshener’:
http://www.peterhirschberg.com/mysoftware.html

Rain sounds are soothing indeed. You can make your own rain sounds with this rain generator:
http://mynoise.net/NoiseMachines/rainNoiseGenerator.php


You can also search youtube by typing in the masking sounds, such as ‘white noise’, ‘tinnitus masking sounds’ etc. and you should get a good list of sounds to choose from.

 

Hey Anthony!

I think I recently experienced what you are speaking of as well. My ears have been plugged for 10 weeks now and I feel like my right has finally opened up and is on its way back to normalcy. Once before going to bed I heard a similar gushing noise, like blood was flowing but not pulsing. Almost like construction was going on very very far away. I wanna say I noticed it because my ear had been plugged for so long and the circulation just started returning to where it should be. It lasted the night and one other short instance, but has gone away for me. I hope it does the same for you!

 

Thanks for the replies. In response to billie48 I think stress may be behind this recent spike ( or change in type of tinnitus) . Our family home recently flooded in bad weather and we are in temporary accommodation while we get our affairs in order. Although I believe I am coping well with the situation there is no doubt my stress levels are up. Strangely though, my anxiety levels are quite low ( I suffer from GAD on and off).

One thing I always found strange about tinnitus is that myhearing is perfect, I have regular hearing tests at work and have never failed one or had my hearing questioned. Although, I wonder if this new "gushing"sound is actually affecting my hearing a little. I will take your advice and visit the doctor soon if it continues and many thanks for the links.