Poll: Can You Feel Your Tinnitus?

I bring this up every now and then, to see if there are others who suffer from tinnitus and can feel the buzzing.

I can feel the buzzing in my left ear. It initially started out as a chirping sound, randomly. I have no idea what causes the timing and when it would chirp but I have counted roughly up to 25 chirps consecutively.

Over the years my tinnitus has changed in sound more like crickets now (I'm used to it). and the chirping is not more like a zapping sound, when the tinnitus starts to zap, I can kind of feel a percussion going off inside my inner ear.

I suspect that tinnitus has caused me a great deal of stress (I'm a stressed person in general). and that this stress has caused the onset of hemifacial spams and the stress has caused a blood vessel to no longer support itself and slip, which might be touching my facial and auditory nerve. This contact might be the cause for the zapping sounds and facial tingling and spasms.

I always stop to listen to the zapping, it's such a strange thing to experience. It's like electrical short circuiting.

Note: I believe the zapping is the result of a blood vessel pressing against the facial/auditory nerve on the left side of my head. I don't believe this is related to the initial onset of my tinnitus, which was caused by acoustic trauma.

 

I have the pulsatile zapping too, caused by noise.

 

I definitely feel my tinnitus. It's like a zapping going on inside my head, it doesn't hurt necessarily but sometimes it feels like a burning sensation (when I'm going through a spike). I would say that it usually feels more like a tickle right in the middle of my head, just flickering away.

I can feel the static flicker across both of my ears but I feel like it is located behind my head.

 

I think you guys may be describing Middle Ear Myoclonus (MEM). A rare form of tinnitus.

 

Yeah I can feel mine.

Mainly in my right ear. It feels like two tiny wires touching with electricity jumping between them. It hurts occasionally and sends electric shocks all down my neck and into my fingers from time to time.

When it spikes, the feeling jumps to both ears.

Strangely, when I first had my acoustic injury, I didn't have this symptom. It crept in slowly about a month later. Initially, it started intermittently, perhaps zapping every 0.5 seconds. Over time, the zapping has picked up cadence and is now almost a 'continuous zap' - although I can still feel that it is a very rapid on/off feeling but it's just merged into one constant electrical buzz sensation.

 

That is very interesting. Hopefully “rare” not meaning untreatable?

Do you have any good threads on finding more information on this? I have had a quick look myself. I don’t have tapping or thumping but I do experience it every couple of years.

 

If it is every couple of years and not chronic, I wouldn't worry too much about it.

 

Thanks. I experienced a flutter before but right now it’s definitely static and a high pitch whirr.

 

Since it is an unexplained change in your tinnitus, have you seen your ENT?

 

I have two sounds in my head and ears. One is a high-pitched hissing that I've had for over 25 years. It rarely bothers me as I habituated to it a long time ago. I've never actually felt this physically.

The other sound is a low-frequency hum. I've also heard this for 25 years but have NOT habituated to it. This is the sound that I can also feel. Most of the time, it feels like a vibration as if I'm on a propeller plane. Other times it's like a rubbing or fluttering sensation. I can even feel it in my neck and somewhere in the back of of my head. My guess is this is what's commonly referred to as "phantom pain." But phantom or not, it's still very uncomfortable and irritating. Sometimes I just want to slice open my skull and see WTF is going on in there.

 

Not yet, I have a doctor's appointment on the 23rd. But usually then there’s a lengthy referral process. I am starting to think I should just look into other options.

 

I feel a venous hum in my left ear, that doesn’t bother me much as it only happens occasionally.

However, my pulsatile tinnitus is a different story, it feels like there is a wee man in there banging on a drum - very annoying, and difficult to ignore.