No Tinnitus Spikes, Only Minor Hearing Loss and 24/7 Ear Fullness

Hi everyone,

I’m just over 6 months in. I am now able to deal with my tinnitus a bit better, and have mastered the art of sleeping which has been great.

Obviously I’ve read a lot of posts on the forum, with many referring to spikes. I’m just wondering if it is abnormal to not experience tinnitus spikes? And if that means that my tinnitus is not noise induced? Don’t get me wrong, I do have louder days, but I think it’s to do with my mood more than the actual noise itself. I do have TTTS occasionally and sensitivity to some sounds. Unfortunately my young daughters voice/laugh hurts, but most other sounds I am completely fine with.

The worst part of the experience for me is the 24/7 ear pressure. Has anyone seen improvements in this symptom past the 6 month mark? Sometimes it feels like the pressure also effects my throat.

I have a ‘perfect’ audiogram, but after testing myself, I know I have a 20 dB dip at 5 kHz that wasn’t picked up (they only tested 4khz and 6khz which I hear just fine). I do get dizzy on occasion, but I never get vertigo, so I don’t think its MD. I do have low blood pressure, two autoimmune conditions and a slightly overactive thyroid, just to complicate matters! I was just recently diagnosed with these conditions, and have refused to take Hydroxychloroquine because of its link to tinnitus. My Rheumatologist is resisting prescribing immunosuppressives because I am unvaccinated, so currently I am just toughing it out. Thankfully my most recent Lupus flair has subsided, but I’ve had no improvement in my tinnitus, just joint and nerve pain.

I have not taken any COVID-19 vaccine due to their unknown long term side effects, and the worry that my overactive immune system will react too strongly to the mRNA vaccines. The prospect of a tinnitus and Lupus flare at the same time is my idea of hell, and is a risk I am not prepared to take. If people could try understand and keep opinions on vaccination to themselves it would be appreciated.

Thanks for reading, hope everyone is doing the best they can today.

 

Hey @makeyourownluck,

You seem to be managing quite well which is awesome. I think you'll do even better in the time ahead.

To the contrary; spikes to low-moderate sound are abnormal. Most people with noise induced tinnitus doesn't experience this, but since this phenomenon causes a lot of distress, you'll see more cases of people getting spikes concentrated on this forum. So your tinnitus could still very well be noise induced, in my opinion.

Some may consider a 20 dB dip to be very minor, but I have a similar dip in my left ear, and I can hear this difference very clearly, and likewise, my tinnitus is worse on that ear.

Just keep moving, and protect your ears, and you'll be fine.

Best regards,
Stacken

 

Hey @Stacken77.

Thanks for the reply. I am doing much better with the sounds, although this would not be difficult as I was a complete mess 6 months ago. I would say my life has changed quite dramatically though, I now basically live for my daughter and partner. Most of the time I am there but not there, if you know what I mean.

I was always annoyed that my 'regular tinnitus' remained infuriatingly constant. I now understand that I have been very lucky, in the most unlucky sort of way.

Really, it's the pressure/fullness that makes me feel depressed, I can't imagine living every day with this sensation. Did you have any issues with this? I am 6 months now with very little improvement. I have noticed that when I initially wake up it's much better but once I've been up for 5 minutes it's back, and gets worse as the day goes on. I am trying to figure out if it is caused by hearing loss/hyperacusis, or if it is just another symptom of systemic inflammation. I am still waiting for an ENT/Audiology referral due to NHS waiting times.

 

Hey,

sorry to randomly bring up an old thread, but you seem knowledgeable and though I frequent this site a lot I feel like I still don’t KNOW much about tinnitus. So much of the information is anecdotal experiences.

Anyways, I was wondering what you consider low-moderate sound that wouldn’t normally spike people with noise-induced tinnitus?

I have had anxiety issues prior to the tinnitus onset (lifelong actually) and it’s making me wonder just now, that maybe I have been hyper vigilant and fixating on spikes in an almost phobic way.

Is there like a decibel range you can give me for some clarity of things that don’t spike an average noise-induced tinnitus fellow? So many times I’ve been exposed to moderate and sometimes even loud sounds (not my choice accidental or unexpected) and nothing has *really* happened yet.

That’s not to say I haven’t had spikes. I definitely had one when I had an ear infection, it was really loud. But most things don’t trigger my louder tinnitus moments. It almost seems random when it goes louder for a few days and then settles back down. I would say I have moderate tinnitus and it went to high-moderate if not more (conservative estimates). And if anything I feel like I get more tinnitus noises coming in and out from week to week rather than a volume difference. But occasionally I’ll have louder volume and it can be a bit distressing but it isn’t severe so I can ignore it (unlike the time I was ill).

Thanks if you’ve made it this far,
Shelby

 

Hi @Shelbylynn,

Very good question!

I'll just preface this by saying that I don't know anything for sure, this is just my understanding, having experienced things first hand, and read through countless anecdotes.

What I meant by that is this; the usual noise induced tinnitus sufferer you meet on the street do not have loudness hyperacusis. They likely have their tolerance to sound completely intact. I believe any sound that causes a spike for them would have to be objectively loud, likely above 100 dB. Maybe loud enough to cause a Temporary (or Permanent) Threshold Shift.

If we spike to sounds below that which is objectively loud, I think we have a problem with decreased tolerance, i.e. loudness hyperacusis. I got loudness hyperacusis right after my acoustic trauma, and it improved quite a lot, but even after three months, I still spiked to sound in the 80 dB range, so there was likely some residual intolerance left.

So to answer your question; if our tolerances to sound are in order, we shouldn't really spike between 0 to at least 80 dB sound. Though, and this is important; I think, what is truly damaging in terms of hearing damage can vary greatly from person to person, and if the ears are pre-fatigued, or there's some genetics at play, one can get structurally damaged in the inner ear from sounds lower than the general guidelines. One should always be careful, but in my opinion, nobody can tell me that spikes to 20 dB sound is damaging, instead, it makes perfect sense to me that it is due to intolerance thereof, and in such a case one should try to get their hyperacusis under control, if possible.

If you don't spike to a lot of stuff, and you believe your tolerances to sound are pretty alright, I think you can relax. I'd still advise to caution and protection in everyday life. I'd personally use ear plugs in environments above 70 dB, even though it shouldn't be damaging. But that's just my take. Better safe than sorry.

Best regards,
Stacken

 

Very sorry to hear about your struggle, @makeyourownluck,
I haven't really experienced any long lasting fullness or pressure, but I think it would be a good thing to have checked out.

Really wish you some improvements,
Stacken

 

I've had the misfortune of being around objectively loud sounds many times. Even just now two of my mother's dogs just went ballistic. Somehow I haven't been able to draw a cause and effect or a noticeable spike. Am I just lucky? Is my penance coming?

That's what I have a hard time understanding, and what I wish I could understand to absolve at least some extra anxiety. I worry I am underestimating or misunderstanding my own unique form of tinnitus and treating it as a worse case scenario instead of being just generally careful and then going from there. I do know family with tinnitus who claim that it doesn't get worse (at times it's worse but they claim not worse overall), who don't protect their ears, and for all intents and purposes seem to live a somewhat normal life. What we know is that there are objectively damaging sounds, but does that damage always result in a 1:1 louder subjective tinnitus?

All this is to say, that no I won't be discarding what I've learned here, I will still be very careful as I think that my tinnitus is more fickle than those I know. But I worry of developing hyperacusis, when I haven't had h not even from my onset. And my onset was noise induced but I also think medication played a big role because I was taking Tramadol at the time of the onset (it used to make my ear muscles contract -- never thought it might be for a harmful reason). So I have a lot of fears that are based on others experiences instead of my own. Thank you for sharing. And I agree with all you said. Thanks for the clarification as well.

Tinnitus is just one big confusion isn't it? We need a book or something, a road map. Hell I would be happy with a flow chart.

- shelby

 

I think this is a very good sign, and that you don't need to worry. If I were you I'd try to mitigate these objectively loud sounds, if possible.

Very good question. My grandfather who worked half his life in a machine room have noise induced tinnitus, and have since lost quite a lot of hearing to old age, but his tinnitus has remained the same. I on the other hand, have worsened my tinnitus permanently due to "safe" sounds and without getting hearing loss (likely due to reactive tinnitus with hyperacusis). I think this clearly tells us that tinnitus severity is definitely not a 1:1 correlation to the amount of hearing loss one has. I think hearing loss is a big factor in tinnitus severity, but not necessarily the defining factor. As tinnitus seems to mainly be a brain problem, a lot has to do with how the brain responds to further hearing loss or sound, and this can differ from person to person due to e.g. genetics.

Sounds good. I think it's a good thing to be a little careful. In my opinion, using hearing protection in some potentially loud situations, like in public spaces, greatly reduces stress and anxiety from maybe encountering a loud sound.

Don't worry about that. In my experience, the tolerance to sound would only drop if you like use hearing protection all around the clock, 24/7 - I think that would be a really bad thing. But as long as you don't use hearing protection indoors(maybe with the exception of handling the dishes if you want), I'm convinced that your tolerances will remain normal. As I've written elsewhere; we don't need to be exposed to 80+ dB of sound to maintain our tolerances.

It definitely is, but we do our best to try and make sense of this crap.

Wish you well,
Stacken

 

Hi!

I had 0.5/10 tinnitus since July/August, it was stable, I felt almost normal, no spikes.

Then in November I went to the cinema and got a terrible permanent spike (or I think so) at the same time that I have serious ETD issues. But the tinnitus remained constant, no spikes to loud noises, not changing during the day or weeks.

But yesterday I had the first real temporary spike, it was terrifying!

So consider yourself and myself lucky for not having those on a regular basis.