Recent Tinnitus and Hyperacusis — Underactive Thyroid or Stress Induced?

So the last 2 or so months have been the most stress and anxiety inducing in my life due to a series of large changes that came on. I am still dealing with processing those thoughts / stresses / emotions and have started seeing multiple therapists for those issues which has been helping.

At first the only thing that came on hearing related was my hyperacusis, and I became sensitive to louder sounds. Didn't think much of it , as thought that's just my body's response to stress.

The last 10 days or so, pretty bad tinnitus kicked in that now I cannot shake of, in addition to the hyperacusis. The ironic part is that kicked on just as some of my other anxieties starting to calm.

I'm beginning to worry and stress about my tinnitus now as I can't shake it off and it's ever present 24/7 now. Last week or so, the smallest of triggers will SPIKE my tinnitus and it will take me hours to calm down of it, and it's almost like I get paralyzed in the moment of a spike. The fight or flight response takes over my body. My tinnitus is the typical EEEEEE running through both ears.

I can't particularly trace my tinnitus to anything specific noise related, especially recently --> so thinking it WAS some version of overwhelming stress/anxiety that brought it on.

So I'm wondering if it's stress induced and if I have a chance it will still recede.

I also have a mildly underactive thyroid for which I DO NOT take any medication. Doing some brief research, approximately 40% of underactive thyroid patients suffer with hearing loss. I have no other symptoms of underactive thyroid, so have never looked into starting treatment for that. Wondering if I should consider starting treatment for that in order to help alleviate the tinnitus. Anybody else on here face underactive thyroid or trace it back to hearing loss of any sorts?

My last attempt is thinking that partially the tinnitus can be caused due to teeth grinding / clenching at night due to recent stress/anxiety. I made an appointment at the dentist to try and get a mouthguard to wear through the night.

For about 1/2 day especially if I'm occupied I do not think about tinnitus - but then after a spike, or an event such as driving , it takes me an hour or two to calm down from that. But now seeing how debilitating this can be and what it can lead to , its making me scared for all future activities, outings, events and even performance at work.

I am trying to stay positive, and not let this rule my life, or totally degrade the quality of it. I do fall into patterns of negative thinking quick, and trying not to hold myself in that spot as that's a dark rabbit hole with no escape.

I cut out all caffeine, alcohol, started doing more meditation and keeping up with exercising. I take no other prescription meds.

Any suggestions will help. Thanks!

 

Welcome to the forum. Sorry to hear you are struggling with both tinnitus and hyperacusis. Perhaps extreme stress and anxiety can aggravate or spike tinnitus due to our nerves not too stable and may be functioning in fight or flight mode which tends sharpen our senses and zooms in any sensations, including the ringing. It tends to amply it once it doubts it is a threat (even erroneously). So your above stated attitude is what I highly recommend in my success story. It will be nice there is a magic cure for tinnitus of all types. But without this cure, we still have to survive tinnitus and so staying positive and calm dealing with tinnitus is a good way to help out. At least hopefully we can keep the limbic system out and we won't function in fight or flight mode. I share with you my own struggle and triumph over high pitched tinnitus and hyperacusis in the following story link. I share some helpful strategies in it. Hope you will benefit from that. Hopefully your spike will settle down as you take on a positive and calm approach. Take care. God bless.


https://www.tinnitustalk.com/thread...w-i-recovered-from-tinnitus-hyperacusis.3148/