New to me, not sure how to cope...

[silverpetals]

Hi, I'm 19 years old and I've always had very mild tinnitus - so mild that unless it was totally silent I would never notice it. But, recently it's gotten much worse.

I had a pretty mild cold a few weeks ago and my tinnitus has always gotten slightly worse with illness, so I shrugged it off as down to me being ill. However... I'm pretty much over that now, but maybe still a bit congested. I've had ear problems my entire life (used to get such severe ear infections as a child that even antibiotics wouldn't work) so maybe that hasn't helped things.

I also went to the theatre as well as listening to my iPod pretty loud (85-90%) but not for long... so I don't know if that's what caused it? This was on Saturday and I started noticing it badly the following Friday, which was 3 days ago.

Another thing driving me mad is that it's in both ears and different in both... my left ear is much worse, with a constant ringing and my right ear has a constant whooshing, white noise type of sound.

I really don't know how to cope. It's driving me mad. I have severe anxiety issues as it is so this is really ruining my life... I had hoped that it would just go on it's own after I got better but it's just as bad, if not worse... how do I even begin to cope?

 

[Markku]

First, I would go to an ENT and get my ears checked out. You also want to have your hearing tested, and preferably also the higher (>8kHz) frequencies tested.

Betaserc (Betahistine), Prednisone, are some of the things that are prescribed when tinnitus first emerges or increases noticeably.

If the hearing test shows you have hearing loss, you might want to consider Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (there's more about that in the Treatments section here on TT). HBO is most effective when started as soon as possible after onset. It can be an expensive treatment though, and the effect isn't guaranteed...

It's possible you have acquired new hearing loss, which has made the tinnitus worse. Or not... hearing loss isn't always a factor, but it often is.

At this time you don't need to think so much in the long-term. Get an appointment with a doc and start from there. In the meanwhile, avoid being in silence. You can benefit from listening to different kinds of music or sound tracks, like the ones at http://mytinnitusmasking.com or http://simplynoise.com

And never again blast your iPod at such high levels. It's really loud at 90%. If you didn't listen to such high volumes long-term, who knows, maybe it wasn't the reason for the increase in tinnitus. Multiple factors can have played a role.

It's also possible you will recover and the tinnitus will return to the previous very mild level. You haven't had this increase of yours for that long yet, so I wouldn't call it a chronic change as of yet.

Best wishes, stay strong and keep us posted how your situation plays out,

Markku

 

[silverpetals]

Thanks for your reply.
I've had my ears checked, nothing is wrong with them. It's okay most of the time as I can listen to music or the TV, but I can barely sleep at night because of it

 

[erik]

Since your ears checked out fine, the next thing is get your anxiety addressed. That alone will make your tinnitus much much worse. Getting something for your anxiety will help stabilize you and hopefully the T. See your GP and talk to him/her about your anxiety. Maybe a combination of meds and counseling would help but that is up to your doctor.