New Sound Exposure and Panic

I was on a less than hour long car trip yesterday and unfortunately there was music playing a bit too loud for my liking. I don't know why I didn't ask to lessen the volume I know it was very stupid. The damage is already done but I can't stop blaming myself.

My right ear started hurting and it's still a bit this morning. It’s hard to say if my tinnitus has gotten worse or not because my tinnitus is so hard to keep track with plus I really don't want to listen to it. I was already in really bad state mentally (crying every night bad) and I yesterday this new sound exposure+my old stress culminated to massive panic attack. I don't know how to keep going. I'd be grateful for some support.

 

I'm sure your tinnitus will calm down over the next day or so to your base sound.
Try stay calm as panic and anxiety will ramp up the sound also so try relax and stay positive over the weekend it should calm down.
Take care....lots of love glynis

 

About a year ago, I took some time out from work to 'destress'.

I was having a nice time, seated on a sunny verandah, feeling relaxed, when out of nowhere a huge gust of wind slammed the front door shut. My left side was closest to the loud noise. I immediately felt left ear pain, and my hearing was a bit muffled. Of course, my tinnitus ramped up, and the flight and fight response was in full force yet again.

That morning was spent chasing an urgent audiogram, stuffing my face with magnesium, nac etc and spiralling into a state of panic. I get what you are going through.

I spoke to Miriam Westcott (an Australian audio who specialises in H and TTT). She reassured me that whilst I had experienced a loud noise exposure, the sudden experience of muffled hearing and pain was a protective reaction of the muscles in my ear. She suggested having a 'quiet day' that day, and do some 'self soothing' activities. She reassured me that she was confident that this wasn't going to be catastrophic, and she was right on the money. No new changes on my audiogram. I drove home feeling relieved. Within a day or two, the pain in my ear subsided and my tinnitus went back to baseline.

But, don't be shy to avoid loud noises...If you find yourself in a situation where loud noise is unavoidable then carry some quality ear plugs with you, and get back to the business of living.

 

@glynis I hope you are right. I've been giving my ears too much attention last week and this is a perfect wrap up for a terrible week. My mom probably thinks I am a complete mess because I've been freaking out so much but now I'm really trying to stay calm. Thank you!

@DebInAustralia thanks for sharing, hopefully same happens with me. I'm happy your ears went back to the baseline. I'm trying to avoid loud situations but sometimes I'm too shy to do anything which is really dumb. I should work with that. I'm surely going to see my psychologist next week but should I see a doctor and get a new audiogram?

 

You should make it a habit to carry ear plugs on you at all times. Even if it's those cheap foam ones. They can come in handy in situations like that. And develop an indifference to what other people think of you using them. There are people who won't understand and who will find your use of ear plugs to be weird. Who cares. It's your ears, not theirs. Don't let vanity and shyness control you. Hang in there.

 

When things get to a critical emotional and mental level it's time to take some action. Make an appointment to see your doctor and tell him or her what's going on. Don't try to handle this on your own. You may need some medication to help you during this difficult time. Don't suffer needlessly there are ways to help you cope.

 

Yeah I'm going to get some help with my mental stuff but i don't know if there's a point to go to a doctor because if my ear issues. I don't have "an own doctor", every time i've gotten an appointment it's been a different one. Maybe in the private sector it would be different but I don't have money to pay that stuff. There's been some bad docs and idk just the thought going there gives me more stress. Whatkind of medication are you talking about?

 

I'm feeling a bit better but this will definitely take time to settle down. Expecially the right ear is still pretty aching, it's hard to say what the tinnitus is doing. I think it's more high pitched and ear on a pillow is kinda awful. I know I shouldn't be thinking about this too much. There’s literally no point doing so. I have exams next week I don't have time for this!

@Zorro! You are so right with the not caring what others think of earplugs. Those cheap foam ones are actually the only ones I have and I have have those with me almost every time. I really should buy some better ones that don't take so much time to put on. I don't know too much about what I should buy and I've been procrastinating reasearching about them.

 

I'm just suggesting that if things start to get really out of control you could go to the Dr and maybe get something to help with your anxiety and depression. There are antidepressants that help anxiety and depression, it could be that you only need to use them short term. It's easy to spiral into anxiety and depression with tinnitus it's important to not let it get too serious.

 

I woke up and can't get back to sleep. When I woke up tinnitus was louder but I think it's quieter now? Ear against the pillow is not good. Maybe I need to speak about the antidepressants to a doctor or the psychologist. I'm so tired of this Is there anything more I can do? People on this forum say that steroids help but would that be unnecessary in my case? Im still under 48 hours from the noise idk just thinking.

 

Get some therapy where you learn relaxation techniques. This will help with controlling the anxiety that is plaguing you. It really helped me to calm down and feel better mentally/emotionally about my tinnitus.

 

So it's been three days and tinnitus hasn't settled down. I got this higher pitch now that's annoying as hell Sometimes it's not as present (like in the morning) but sometimes it's just too much. Ugh I really messed up didn't I. The ear is still aching sometimes and this all gives me way too much anxiety. I got doctor's appointment for wednesday so that's something. Do you have any advise for that? I'm probably going to know tomorrow when I see the psychologist. I've found myself doing the worst thing too often, plugging my ears to listen how bad the sound is. I need to stop doing that.

I'm going to try some masking sounds for next night, hopefully to could sleep a bit better. Sleeping actually terrifies me. Is there a chance for this to settle down at this point?? I'm really thankful for all of you who have given support to me, it means a lot. I hope I can start living with this

@Zorro! I've learned some relaxation techniques when I've visited the psych. I tried hypnotherapy, since she is also qualified for that, and it really calmed me down. It's kinda funny, when you start feeling anxious, you need to put your left hand in fist. It has probably lost it's effect at this point, but I still do it sometimes out of habit. maybe that's something I should try again too

 

I keep ear plugs in my wallet, in case I find myself unexpectedly in a noisy situation (like someone else's car pumping ridiculously loud music) or we decide to go to a night club/movie. I have a decibel reader app on my iPhone too, to measure the noise levels....I have compared this to an actual decibel reader and it's fairly accurate. Even if someone is watching TV and I think it's a little loud, I'll use my iPhone to measure and just leave the room if it's too noisy for me (or ask them to turn it out). AMany times I've thought to myself that the noise levels might be too loud, but after measuring have realised they aren't that bad - e.g. I thought my partner listened to TV loud but it sits at around 75 decibels, which is louder than what I would prefer but it isn't too bad for your ears if you're only watching for an hour a day.

The panic will cause the tinnitus to temporarily ramp up, so try to do things that are relaxing and if you're worried about future noisy situations, bring the ear plugs with you.

 

That gives me some hope, I mean hopefully the loudness weren't actually that bad but i don't really know. I went to talk with the shrink, which helped, after hypno I always feel so light headed and positive. I'll try to keep it that way, but it's hard. I wonder why it's only the right ear that seems to be worse, it's always the right ear that starts aching. I remember I had similar high pitch before but it went away, this piece of sh*t needs to do the same.

@Purple Parrot your tinnitus went away? You are so lucky!

 

The worst thing you can do is listen to it and obsess over it, I know because I also had the same issues when my first arrived. I used to play in a lot of bands and had no idea of the damage this was causing my hearing until I went home and it came on full strength' since then it has subsided and the good news is, a lot of noise induced conditions do subside.

I used to be stressed about Tinnitus, but the truth is, it is actually a very very common condition and a lot of people have this. The key to managing it is to carry on with life as normal. If you ignore it the brain learns to lose interest in the noise and it may even go away for good

 

yeah I know, but it's really hard to get to that point again when you are having a setback. Speaking of that my mom's phone just started ringing and it was so loud ughhh. This can't make it worse can it?? It was just couple of seconds and I'm just probably overreacting but Honestly I'm getting so upset about this Stupid stupid me

Good to hear yours has gotten better overtime. It seems that I'm having constant bad luck with this! I've always been a worrier.

 

Mine gets better and worse. I actually totally understand how you panic when the volume for Tinnitus goes up by itself, but the key thing here is to just focus on other things and keep your mind off it.

You are in the acute phase of this , which is being upset and scared by it, take it from me, this will go.

Unfortunately for me my own story is that while my Tinnitus is okay at the moment, an ambulance went past me about 7 days and it decided to turn its siren on.. real loud when it went past me, which has now given me mild hyperacusis, in other words certain high frequencies now startle me.... I first noticed it with car breaks and while it has already started to die down, I am not sure if the damage is permanent, we will see... fingers crossed.

Anyway, in a nutshell you will learn to live with Tinnitus even if it is permanent, or intermittent, but like I said, it may even go completely. In my experience it will improve, but you sound a lot like me and panic. Just remember to take a deep breath and dont think about it, it will eventually calm down I am sure.

 

Unfortunately suffered the same experience last night. My T went from one to both ears and changed from a high pitched buzz to a phone-like dial tone.

Woke up at midnight with feelings of a heavy chest and general anxiety. In recent days I'm ashamed to say I've had suicidal thoughts. Finding it impossible to habituate.

 

@Tommi_boi thanks for your message! I actually feel like it has gone down a bit *knocking on wood* I know I will get used to this again, I've been there before. When I'm feeling bad I think about all the good stuff I have in life to keep going. Positive thinking is the key with everything!

I'm really sorry to hear about your hyperacusis. I'm sure it will go away, since it has went down already. I'm keeping fingers crossed for you

@AWilson32 I'm really sorry to hear about that. Your increase came out of the blue right? There's a huge chance for your tinnitus to decrease, it's been only a day. Try not to worry too much (like I'm the one to give advise on this haha) I've been waking up at night too, but it will get better when your anxiety settles a bit. You can always use melatonin if this keeps bothering you. You really need to talk to a professional about your suicidal thoughts. I got much better when I had meeting with my psychologist, and that's something you could benefit from too. You are still relatively new to tinnitus and this is most likely just a spike that goes away. I'm sure you will get trough this! Do not kill yourself, there's ALWAYS something to live for! Talk to someone, being alone with your thoughts is the worst thing you can do. I'll be keeping my fingers crossed for you too!