Some Hope for Newcomers: A Month Later, My Tinnitus Mostly Sounds Like Residue, and Is Losing Power

My tinnitus came on sometime in late November, and the fact that it didn't go away after a week scared the hell out of me. It also does that "reactive" thing that ruins music by superimposing ultra-high tones over musical notes in real time. But as I've made every effort to do the exact opposite of everything I was doing in November... from being in ultra-high-stress mode to re-learning to relax, from eating junk food all the time to eating tons of vegetables, from not getting any deep sleep to sleeping a lot, from trying to drown out other people's noise with noise-cancelling headphones to avoiding headphones and letting sound be sound... and gradually easing off of masking sounds... I cannot say with any certainty if any of these changes other than time (but most certainly sleep) have contributed to its easing off. I don't have answers. It's still reactive but it takes more to get it there, and bit by bit, parts of the tones seem to be getting filtered out more often. (If you're familiar with electronic music devices, it's like over time a high pass filter is being swept upward.)

One month ago, I was crying on the phone with my parents after leaving the ENT's office.

Now, it mostly sounds like residue, and is losing power. My non-doctor guess is that there has been inflammation that has gradually become less able to affect deeper areas of the cochlea; and that the inflammation is what makes it reactive, so sound -> vibration + excessive pressure -> irritation of the already irritated bits, but subsiding inflammation means it struggles harder to hit the lower tones. (When I say "lower", I mean with 9.6 kHz being the bottom, and everything else being above that.)

Having experienced what I've experienced, especially at its worst points, there is no excuse for the medical field not to figure this stuff out. It's like being trapped in your head and not being allowed to access your own thoughts. They should be able to send tiny cameras into the inner ear and see what's going on. It's 2021.

Addendum:

Some key info I left out: this didn't come on in one sudden moment, it was a thing I didn't even take note of until I realized it had been a few days, like it emerged gradually and was at first kind of blending in with background sound. That could be a clue as to it being something physical like pressure/inflammation, but of course everything is a guess.

 

This sounds like me! Mine came on suddenly, but it wasn't actually suddenly.
It started randomly one morning and was on and off for a few days. Once day 4 hit, it became constant.

My lifestyle was also the same (due to currently being in a lockdown) and I've tried to do my best to fix it, eating healthier, getting out more, doing my best to sleep on time at night.

I was given a course of antibiotics as drs suspected it to be an ear infection (it did help reduce the noise).

However I have yet to be physically examined so the cause is still uncertain.

 

Hope your progress continues. Were you ever diagnosed with anything like hearing loss, or have you taken any medication that has helped?

 

Sorry for the bad news but it hasn't really been progress, it's just better in calm and quiet and worse in noise and stress. I was apparently having a calm moment. I've had a few of those lately, but it's been all over the place.

 

Sorry to hear. How is your tinnitus now?

 

It was quieter a couple days ago but it's back up again.

 

Update, late March: I have had a few quiet days this month, two of which were this past week. They are the exception, not the rule, but they show me my ears are still capable of sounding better. Taking it month by month, being hopeful, but trying to accept that I can't control it.