Poll: Did You Ever Have a Vertigo Attack Prior to Your Tinnitus Onset?

Hi everyone,

I'm having a stuffed ear this week, along with feeling dizzy etc. which makes me think a lot.

My tinnitus started at the age of 19, it's been 16 years now.

For 16 years I've been regularly wondering why me and not my friends who went through the exact same life adventure, if not worse. They spent a lot more time in nightclubs than me (I hated that), they didn't eat better while students, etc. And while they always had tinnitus after a night out, it always faded away for them after a nice night in bed.

So I tried to remember if my body already started to show signs of health problems before my ears started to fail.

And I remembered at the age of 16 or 17 I had my first BPPV (benign paroxysmal positional vertigo). At that age I was already the only guy in the school to have that kind of problem. If you don't know what that is: if you move your head a single inch/centimeter, you eyes will try to escape your skull by rotating for a minute (and you'll puke a lot). It's about calcium "stones" reaching your ear liquid and disrupting your sense of balance. For me it lasted for 3 days before an ENT fixed me with the famous movements on a table, those movements where you feel like you're playing wrestling in the arms of John Sena for a few minutes. Then the vertigo went away and I had my life back. Still, I'm wondering if my very mild tinnitus, the one I could only hear at night when I was 18-19 didn't start from here (with the real tinnitus following after going to a nightclub a couple of years later). But I was also going to nighclubs like 3 times a year (a lot for me) at this time so it's hard to correlate.

Anyway, I also had another BPPV (second episode) a few years ago and it's when my tinnitus got even worse. Honestly I don't think there's a direct link between BPPV and tinnitus because I rather think BPPV and tinnitus may have the same health condition source, not one triggering the other, but that's only my thinking, not a scientific fact.

Yet, I thought it would be interesting to run a poll and see if people with tinnitus experienced BPPV before their tinnitus onset, and where the tinnitus didn't fade away the day after like it normally does for healthy people and trigger that injustice feeling we all have here. If many have experienced BPPV, it might be interesting to check on the calcium metabolism side which is also implicated in nerve conduction. It's also implicated in energy production/muscles contraction; I've had chronic fatigue problems for years now.

 

I know this is an old post but I fall in this category. I had BPPV last November, 2020. I noticed my ears ringing about a week after the vertigo. The vertigo finally subsided after 2 months of physical therapy (Epley Maneuver), or time.

Here I am 13 months later and I still have severe tinnitus. It's loud and I can hear it over everything.

 

Hi there, how does your tinnitus sound like? How many tones?

 

Thankfully I guess it's one sound now mostly? It's a high pitch hiss, mostly in my left ear but sometimes feels in my head, almost like a vibration. It went from high pitch tone EEEEE, super loud when it started, to cicadas, then to a white noise machine in my entire head and then it "calmed down" to this constant 24/7 high pitch hiss. Some days it's slightly lower and I can't hear it much outside and other days it's louder and I can hear in the store, driving, outside etc. I feel like I've lost so much from this shit.

 

I think the poll is too specific, imho. BPPV is not the only form of vertigo.

I had severe imbalance for 5 weeks before it miraculously cleared up. During the next 5 months, prior to onset of tinnitus I had a couple of occasions when I was very stressed and felt momentarily dizzy. At the 5 month point I was hit with complete disassociation and dizziness. Disassociation is a classic symptom of vestibular dysfunction.

I wouldn't describe any of those vestibular symptoms as BPPV.

A week later my tinnitus started.

7 years on nearly all my vestibular symptoms, touch wood, have left me, but the tinnitus remains almost unchanged but less severe in its extremes.

In conclusion, yes, I believe vestibular problems can happen in the lead up to getting tinnitus. Imho this gives us a significant clue about what might be happening in the ear...

 

I think the poster created this poll because he/she had BVVP diagnosed and was looking to see if anyone else had the same experience. Vertigo and dizziness are two different things as well. I had to explain this to my husband and other family members. Vertigo is a fast rotary spin of the entire room, your eyes go into nystagmus. I also had dizziness like a drunk feeling having to hold onto walls looking down or going up/down stairs.

I asked Dr after Dr that I saw what happened? Because something obviously set off something in my inner ear and then this started? They had no answers for me. I also had what I now think was a vestibular migraine about a month or so after all of this started. It's upsetting to me that I had 2 other symptoms with the tinnitus and Drs still don't have answers and never will.

 

I don't think I had this kind of vertigo but not sure. It was usually when I laid my head down like going to bed. The room felt like it was falling. No nausea if I remember. It lasted for 3 months.

I believe doctors tried the movement but it didn't seem to work. Tinnitus started immediately and remains.

No real answers from doctors. I believe mine was set-off by drug reaction but also having been a musician.

There is also another condition which matches me called Tonic Tensor Tympani Syndrome (TTTS). You can look that one up.

 

Quite true. Just trying to urge people to consider the bigger picture and the discrepancy between the poll and the title of the Thread.

Yes, it is incredibly frustrating!

 

Did yours clear out on its own? And it hasn't come back? That's good.

My issue started with the constant feeling of like I was bopping my head or that I was like in the ocean. However, it's gotten better. Now I don't feel like I'm bopping my head when I sit down. The Eply maneuver did help. I just hope I keep getting better. I requested physical therapy for it and the doctor said he would.