Poll: Can You Make Your Tinnitus Louder by Shaking Your Head?

A short history. 3 1/2 years ago I experienced what they call SSHL (Sudden Sensorineural Hearing Loss). One night for no apparent reason I lost 100% hearing in my right ear, leaving me with significant tinnitus inside the dead ear. It's the loud hissing static untuned radio noise with some chirping thrown in. It's reactive tinnitus, and I also now have hyperacusis in my good ear. Being reactive tinnitus, the tinnitus gets much louder when I am in a noisy environment, especially certain types, such as being indoors with a lot of background noise and people talking. I love absolute quiet. It is then that my tinnitus calms down a little bit.

Anyway, the reason for my post is this. If I shake my head from side to side, my tinnitus noise spikes. It's like my tinnitus is a thing in my head that is moving around as I shake my head. I'm wondering if it has something to do with fluid trapped in there somewhere or whatever. If I new why it does this, it might help me understand more what I am dealing with. I was wondering if anyone else experiences this.

Again, my tinnitus is not noise induced. I was fine before the night it hit me suddenly, just like someone getting a stroke. When it first hit me, the inside of my head was popping and crackling and felt very full with a feeling of pressure on my right side and also with vertigo. After a couple of hours the vertigo subsided and the popping/crackling noise went away, leaving me with my present condition. I had an MRI which came up negative.

 

Maybe it has to something with the vestibular system in general. Not necessarily fluid.

SSNHL. I know it well. Sucks hard, doesn't it?

 

Yea, what a deal. If you read my post, you know that it just clobbered me one night while I was asleep. Life's never been the same since. I guess I am better at coping with it now than I was 3 years ago, but I would walk across the country to get rid of it.

Do you also have significant tinnitus?

 

Yep, with 3-4 tones, always while sleeping. It's definitely a challenge

 

If I shake my head, many of the symptoms and sounds of tinnitus actually disappear (while shaking). So quite an opposite response to what you experience @JohnFox.

 

Wow, I just tried this. The same thing happens to me as well. Don’t hear the tinnitus.

 

Seventy percent of those receiving tinnitus get it from noise. In an emergency room setting seventy percent did not get tinnitus from noise.

For these individuals, some had earwax or used medications, but most had a physical condition. When a physical condition or injury is cause, tinnitus more than not will get louder when shaking head or bending over.

A complete medical and lifestyle history is needed to help in evaluation. Many tests are needed that include, inflammatory and blood, blood pressure, joint and connective tissues, and neck MRI.

Reactive tinnitus and hyperacusis often is accompanied from noise. Some will develop reactive tinnitus and hyperacusis from inflammation body conditions and disease or from arthritis and cervical joint/connective tissue diseases.

 

Always ever helpful @Greg Sacramento, I have reactive tinnitus and hyperacusis with my cervical issues.

Hope you are having a better week. I just keep coming across your treasure troves of information around the forum.

 

@JohnFox, I also have the hissing static and some chirps/zings that happen several times a minute.

Does yours ever “hurt” physically or feel so shrill that it almost causes pain-like sensations? Mine feels like electrical shocks with intermittent pain sensations.

 

Just curious, did you ever recover any of your hearing at all? Did they put you on steroids when it first happened? Sudden sensorineural hearing loss is a medical emergency. I’m sure you know that though. It sounds like they never figured out why it happened to you. I’m so very sorry. Talk about a game changer in life. Thinking of you.