Seemingly Unique Case — Soft Sounds Keep Raising My Baseline

Hello Everybody,
I have been reading this forum for a month and I never thought I’d actually post on here but it has gotten so scary for me that I decided I needed to reach out and maybe hear so advice.

Basically, I have spent a lot of years listening to loud music. I basically don’t listen to loud music in headphones, But when I drive I blast music. I also sometimes go clubbing. In the last year I went climbing a lot and drove a lot. In October 2018, I went to a club with some friends and two days later maybe three days later I started hearing noise. I told myself I wouldn’t go clubbing anymore and I even spoke to some audiologists and they told me it’s OK to keep going clubbing if I wear my earplugs which I’ve been wearing for a while. I stopped going out though since I thought they were stupid. But in the end some events led to me going clubbing and driving with loud music anyway. Very stupid.
I now have a problem that I’m not reading anywhere on the internet or on this site... basically it goes like this...

I’m at a point where soft sounds are raising my baseline. I ended up taking Klonopin and it reduced a lot of the noise, but there was a second set of noise and I had a phone call for an hour and ten minutes and that raised my tinnitus. I’m trying to figure out why soft sounds are raising my baseline. Everyone says that only loud noises raise the baseline but for me that doesn’t seem true. Over the last month extended soft sounds have raised my baseline. Even before that, soft sounds like a low tv would make my ears ring, but eventually it came to the point where talking to someone for too long would raise the baseline. Is this noise induced or do I have some other problem? There’s more to the story but it’s hard for me to type but that is the basics...

Started getting very loud from soft noise. Klonopin helped keep it low. Had a conversation on the phone for too long. Now the second layer that the Klonopin isn’t keeping at a low volume is getting louder at the baseline.

Anyone have any idea as to what is going on?

I’m not sure if I have hyperacusis because sounds don’t hurt my ears but some sounds annoy my ears. And as the baseline gets louder those sounds start to get more annoying.

I also feel like I’m hearing softer sounds louder. Like people who are far away are starting to sound closer I think.

Anyway, maybe I have another problem that isn’t just because of noise induced but I’m really not sure.

I’m very scared because it keeps getting louder and now even the Klonopin can’t keep it low...
If I can I’ll write more of my story but I can’t use my laptop because the trackpad disturbs my ears and makes tinnitus louder so I have to type on my phone and I’ve hurt my wrists from using the phone so much in the last month.

Thank you so much.

 

Welcome to the forum. Your symptoms though quite alarming to you are often encountered by members. They sometimes describe this as 'reactive tinnitus', meaning their tinnitus seems to react to most sounds and spike up a bit. This can include low sounds that are too close. I had hyperacusis without pain but at some point, even the soft voice of my wife hurt when spoken too close. Some say there is no such thing as reactive tinnitus, but that it is merely a form of mild hyperacusis that seems to amply even normal sounds to make them hurtful. Usually H will fade over time. I have ultra high pitched T and then severe H, but while T stays, H faded over time. This is happening to many who had H which faded over time,

 

Thank you for your reply... I have read about that and that’s not what I have. Hyperacusis just means momentary spikes. Reactive tinnitus is usually just during the time or for some time there after. Mine are permanent. I don’t know what to do...

 

Reactive tinnitus is not hyperacusis, who told you it was?

 

Wait so @Contrast what do you think I have? Soft sounds tend to permanently raise my baseline after some time (each time is less it seems) but I don’t have sounds that come across as very loud. I also used to get tinnitus where soft sounds would just spike it for a while, but sometimes if the soft sound is extended it will permanently raise my baseline... it’s making my tinnitus go up fast which is very scary...

 

my tinnitus actually sometimes reacts to soft sounds as well, but just for a very short the exact second of the soft sound.

 

No mine busts stays higher up...

 

Just* (not bust)

 

Two weeks ago I started to experience the same kind of thing. Any noise or sensation will raise my tinnitus.
I'm sorry you are struggling. I have to believe it will get better.

 

Does it raise it basically permanently?
I am sorry for you too. This sucks so much.
Basically mine will get raised and go very high and then fall back down a bit to a new baseline but the fall is at a new, higher level baseline than before the rise. Very sad. I cannot block it out almost at all.

 

Yes it can. Tbh I have 4 different tones going on in that one ear; noise will trigger into a higher pitch which will come in waves until the offending noise goes away. And even now, in silence, it's all over the place.

Hang in there, remember anxiety increases T.

 

Now that you have T, your ears have been compromised. Consider staying away from all moderate noises (e.g., vacuum cleaner, hair dryer, car door slamming). In about a year or two you will likely become more resilient. For now, it makes sense to listen to the signals given to you by your own body.

I was in the same situation as you - I pressed a loud phone to my bad T ear, the person on the other end raised her voice, and that was all it took to give me a horrific 3-month T spike (that involve the tone changing from a hiss to a high pitch tone that was harder to ignore). Once I began protecting my ears religiously, my T got better and eventually (after about 18 months) the sounds that would have given spikes to me, stopped bothering me.

Moderate noises leading to T spikes is NOT uncommon. Every month we seem to get multiple reports of this happening to T sufferers.

Sounds like hyperacusis. If you rest/protect your ears, it should go away within 6-12 months.

Check out
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/thread...eone-else-who-has-tinnitus.26850/#post-307822

 

Wow thank you so much! @Bill Bauer
I have another question.
If I take klonipin or other meds that quiet the symptoms, but there are still noises that of i wasn’t taking the meds I would receive spikes, then when I go off the meds, in theory my tinnitus should be louder right?
I’m asking this because I need to move my location and that requires taking a car which causes spikes for me. Also I want to go to a doctor but since traveling makes the spikes happen I’m wondering if it is a stupid idea even if the meds are quieting the tinnitus.
Thanks for your input!

 

Also I had tinnitus already for over 6 months butnreally it’s been having troubles over the last 2 months so I guess the rest will come starting from when I stopped listening to loud sounds. Is that correct?

 

It used to give me spikes too. Eventually I figured out that when I go on road trips, I need to wear my noise-cancelling Bose Q25 headphones over earplugs. The earplugs are there to protect me from the headphones, as some people had reported getting T spikes after wearing those headphones. Of course the earplugs add another 5 dB or so of noise protection. You could also wear Peltor X5A muffs over foam earplugs.

It is not on
http://hlaa-sbc.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Ototoxic_Brochure.pdf
which is good. But still when you take it, you are not actually protecting your ears. The noise still does its thing, you are just not getting any signals (i.e., T) from your body about it.

I think if you wear good earplugs (e.g., 3M 1100 foam earplugs) in your car, it ought to help.

I think that it could "catch up" to you. If I were you, I would look for ways to protect myself while I am in the car.

Also check out the posts on this forum about klonipin=clonazepam:
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/search/3018218/?q=klonipin&o=relevance
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/search/3018219/?q=clonazepam&o=relevance

You want to be careful with benzos...

By the way, it goes without saying that you want to maximize the time when you don't use any hearing protection (and wear it only when you expect to be exposed to the kind of noises that have given spikes to you in the past). Some people end up in a situation where they feel compelled to wear hearing protection 24/7. You don't want to become one of them. But having said this, you do want to learn from your past mistakes and to give your ears a chance to recover. You won't need to do this for the rest of your life (but personally, I plan to do what I can to avoid loud noises for the rest of my life) - in two years or so you ought to be able to handle many of the moderate noises that you find to be problematic right now.

 

I believe you are right. Give yourself 6 months of ear rest. If you find that it works for you (as your T has faded, or at least stopped spiking), then you might consider giving your ears even more time to rest.

 

First off, if it goes up and down then it's not raised permanently. That's reactive tinnitus in a nutshell. Your baseline can't keep going up. It's like people who say their tinnitus is a 10 - but it gets worse in X, Y, Z situation. If it gets worse, it's not a 10. I have somatosensory tinnitus and pulsatile tinnitus in part because of a dehiscence in my left ear - a condition known as SSCD. It's highly reactive because my left ear lets in more sound than it should - it's informally known as 'the third window' as there's normally only 2 'windows' for sound to get into your ear. I go into a loud restaurant or something and my tinnitus just ramps up right along with it. Generally takes several hours for it to dial back down. I wear earplugs in the shower or it's the same thing.

You may have a touch of hyperacusis - I did for the first year, some sounds that never bothered me before became like nails on a chalkboard for me but that's pretty much disappeared. Tinnitus and hyperacusis are both a result of confusion in the brain - confused fusiform cells in the DCN - and it takes a while for the brain to sort things out unfortunately. Right now it's your anxiety that's making things worse, not the sounds. Best advice for now is don't tough out, get on an anti-depressant like Nortriptyline to help stay level. I'd actually recommend Lorazepam 1mg (ramp up as needed) over Klonopin, but dealer's choice.

Low sound is actually good for your tinnitus in the long run as it helps your brain sort out signals. The absence of sound entirely can actually cause tinnitus. And when I say low, I mean really low. Just enough to make out what it is. TV or music in the background. Your brain should figure that out pretty quickly and you'll stop getting those spikes with low sounds. If you're going to be in a loud environment bring earplugs or even just use your earbuds to help block out noise - much less conspicuous than daily orange ear plugs.

Don't worry, it'll pass. The beginning is always the worst. It'll end one of these days, it always does. Just no more loud stuff.

 

@Halsy - thanks for the info - hopefully you are correct - this stuff sucks and is making me sad - although hopefully some good will come of it.

 

@Halsy - question: if I have reactive tinnitus or hyperacusis, and I’m taking meds which help it spike less, can I still have conversations with people or is that hurting my ears? Because the conversation will still make it spike sometimes but I’m guessing it’s not causing permanent damage since it’s not loud noise. But I’m wondering if it’s preventing my ears from healing - what do you think?

 

Or like if I go in a car then after the car ride it is super loud... is that preventing hyperacusis from healing?

 

Actually probably not because for weeks I was listening to things at low volume and the amount of time I could handle low volume kept getting shorter and shorter. So I guess mine will never get better.

 

My tinnitus always ramps up when I’m driving. I don’t want to wear noise cancelling headphones mostly because that would be dangerous plus it’s illegal in my state. Any suggestions on how to keep tinnitus from spiking while driving?