Strange Issue with Low Frequency Tinnitus and Low Frequency Sounds

I just recently developed a low frequency tinnitus tone that at its worst sounds like a rumbly chainsaw cutting through something, then idling for a few seconds. This tone can cause my body to physically feel like it’s vibrating. When it isn’t bad, it takes on more of a higher pitched whirring sound. It started in my left ear and within a week or so spread to my right ear.

It is least reactive when standing up and progressively winds up from sitting, to lying down, to lying on one side. @Greg Sacramento has told me he believes it is pulsatile tinnitus. The only thing that seems unlike any pulsatile tinnitus I’ve ever read about is it reacts to residual inhibition very well. When it’s going crazy I can play low frequency sounds that will cause it to turn into a low gurgling sound like the chainsaw is running inside like a tarpit, for lack of a better description.

For some background, I have noxacusis and had a severe setback that’s had me in 24/7 hearing protection for close to 2 months now. When I wear high NRR foam earplugs, the winding up and vibrating sensation are much worse. This is the complete opposite of my other tinnitus that normally settles down some when wearing hearing protection.

Another thing I’ve also noticed is that in the past few weeks when I take hearing protection off, low frequencies sound much more rumbly. It’s as if through extreme hearing protection I’ve developed some kind of sound sensitivity.

I’ve recently been able to drop to a lower NRR musician’s earplugs and not get moderate pain in them quickly, which was why I was wearing high NRR earplugs originally. In these earplugs the rumbling tinnitus doesn’t wind up nearly as bad. I may also be a little less sensitive to low frequency sound in them. Not sure of that yet.

I know people hear sounds within or over top of other sounds, distortions and what not. I believe that’s dysacusis. Does this sound like sound like some sort of dysacusis where I’m hearing the rumbling in low frequency sound, or does it just sound like a sensitivity?

Has anyone else developed a similar type of sound sensitivity? Basically I’m wondering if it will go away as I’m hopefully able to reintroduce sound with progressively less hearing protection.

When I had loudness hyperacusis, I definitely had sound sensitivities, but this seems different. It’s odd that I would develop low frequency sensitivity since it would actually be the most prominent type of sound in my environment when constantly wearing high NRR hearing protection since it doesn’t block out low frequencies as well as higher frequencies.

 

Yeah sound sensitivity came with my low hum. Listening to a bassy kick drum for a while can make my ear sore. Doesn’t have the sharpness of loudness hyperacusis, more of a ache and ear fatigue. Which I assume is what you’re saying?

I also get weird amplification of quiet or distant bass sounds but have no issue with sounds above 45 dB. Along with it cutting in and out like a switch for no noticeable reason.

For example, if I tap my head softly my hum ear will lengthen the sound/reverberate. The tap sound becomes more of booom, then a donk that most people would hear. If I tap harder it doesn’t happen. This is why many of us believe this form of tinnitus is more mechanical in nature rather than in the brain. Also why I wouldn’t think it would be pulsatile tinnitus in our scenario. @Greg Sacramento may have experienced something else. But I don’t think it would have this reactivity if it wasn’t genuinely part of the ear mechanics.

I’m also leaning to a theory set around outer hair cell damage. Which could make sense why the sound is easily inhibited(not masked) by sound, also triggered by sound and why it begins to amplify low level sound in quiet settings. You can damage up to 70-80% of outer hair cells without hearing loss showing up on tests.

The outer hair cells mechanically amplify low-level sound that enters the cochlea.

Something for you to look into. Visually imagine damaged outer hair bundles misfiring, vibrating and self oscillating intermittently whilst they try to pick up low level sound.

Hard to know if it will go away but I have seen that happen in a few people.

I’ll post more on this soon. Already been looking into it for a while.

 

All of my current pain is delayed onset so I cannot say I get a pain response from the low frequency sensitivity. I just hear that rumble more pronounced than the rest of the sound in anything that emits that frequency. Like an air purifier, white noise generator or my refrigerator. I didn’t used to notice this rumble before in these things. I guess it could be me just hearing the tinnitus in these things, but I don’t usually hear my other tinnitus frequencies “in” the sound something else gives off I guess. That’s why I was wondering if it was like dysacusis or something like that.

I’ve listened without earplugs, but I quickly plug back up because I don’t want to get a pain cycle. I usually have to stay unplugged anywhere from a few minutes to a half hour to begin experiencing ear pain. The problem is the pain then lasts for hours. Sometimes 8+ hours.

 

Hi, @GoatSheep, it’s hard for me to really say, but I’m inclined to say it might be a sensitivity issue.

Distortions affect and alter the way you perceive sounds around you. Hearing quality, sound perception, and unusual sound effects are involved here. I suppose if you wanted to inspect for dysacusis, you would need to examine all types of sound sources with wide range of frequencies and determine if anything appears out of tune or unusual to you. But since you’re currently dealing with noxacusis, it’s probably best not to do that atm.

I’ll share you my experience with distortions and see if any of it pertains to your current issue. In my case, basically sounds were not being perceived as they normally would and the quality of what I hearing in some of the sounds were very off-putting. It feels like a hearing impairment at times.

Examples:
- Any music was like listening through a blown out speaker. Feedback and static sound effects overwhelmed the music making it extremely difficult to comprehend.

- Crowd noise from sporting events on TV sounded like a car engine revving up.

- Water running sounded like sizzling bacon on a frying pan.

- Wind sounded like the noise a rattlesnake makes with its tail. There was a rattling effect + unable to hear the ordinary sound of wind properly.

- A person’s voice sounding very robotic. I use the robots from Wall-E if you’re familiar with the film as a good description as to how people’s voices came across to me.

The rumbling as you described seems to be an added sound effect to the source source, so it’s possible it could be some sort of dysacusis. Does the sound coming from the low frequency source seem very unnatural, strange, or out of the ordinary to you? Are you getting any reverberation from it?

Can you still hear this rumbling “tinnitus”when in complete silence? It could be some sort of tinnitus reactivity. I have the kind of reactive tinnitus where the moment I’m exposed to something like an air conditioner, one of my tinnitus tones will increase immediately and match the volume of that AC as if it were a competition. Once I turn off that AC, the tinnitus will immediately go back down to a baseline I’m familiar with. I can always hear this tinnitus even in complete silence. If you’re unable to hear this rumbling in complete silence, I would personally classify it as distortions.

What I find interesting, is that this issue seems to have emerged while you were under 24/7 hearing protection. I personally feel like there could be some sensitivity issue at play here as @Benjaminbb said... not 100% sure though.

 

Thanks for explaining your experiences.

The rumbling does sound unnatural in that it sounds extremely pronounced vs all the other frequencies in the sound.

Yes I hear this tinnitus all of the time. Mine is quite the opposite of reactivity. Sounds that carry this low frequency cause residual inhibition. I was using this quite a bit the first couple days I discovered it even with my noxacusis to suppress the sound, but then the sound of the thing I would use would actually be added to my tinnitus within a little while. This sound getting stuck thankfully went away in each instance, but kind of made the residual inhibition not worth it.

Now I’m sleeping with my bed elevated and basically doing as little as possible to not stir it up currently. Because when it’s ramped up my fight or flight goes into full hyperdrive. The past two days I’ve kept it fairly quiet and got a few hours of sleep each night and I’m functioning a little better. Only in the sense I’m getting what I have to do done though. As far as coping with it, it’s the worst tinnitus sound I’ve ever experienced.

I would honestly prefer it be normal tinnitus and not pulsatile so I can have some hope maybe when Auricle comes out I could treat it. That is if my noxacusis improves again to a level I could use the earbud.

 

But pulsatile tinnitus can be treated now in many cases, no?

Yeah my pain is delayed too.

Also I thought you reported originally the rumbling was the same as the hum we're all having?
I.e. intermittent, suppressed by sounds, head movement, below 100 Hz in frequency, occasionally amplifying bass sounds? Or do you believe this is something different?

I have a question about your '24/7' plugged up scenario.

Are you saying that if you sit in a silent room without plugs your hears will still hurt? Arguably your inner head sounds (when plugged) should be just as loud as a normal silent room and in some cases louder.

Assuming you then get pain from talking? Talking with ear plugs in registers much higher than normal due to the occlusion effect. I'd say the volume would be close to 80 dB with ear plugs in. Either way far higher than a silent room unplugged.

 

I posted in the hum threads. Mine is more so low frequency tinnitus in that it’s a rumble like a chainsaw low end. No, I cannot shut it off in any way with movements. Yes, it can be suppressed with low frequency residual inhibition sounds.

Yes, if I sit in a silent room, I get pain within 30 minutes. I don’t get pain in 3M 1100 earplugs unless it’s from artificial noise like my kids’ iPads. Sometimes I do feel a little pain when talking too much. Not all the time.

I just recently dropped down to some Eargasm earplugs and was doing ok for a few days then night before last I woke up from brief sleep to about 15 hours of consistent pain in my face and ears into the next afternoon. Even though when I woke up I switched plugs to 3M 1100s.

That’s how my pain has worked since this noxacusis worsening. It’s not how it worked before. I used to get instant pain way more often then delayed. I never wore hearing protection 24/7. I was pretty much pain free as of July 2021.

Now since my trip to a record store playing “safe” levels of music and some subsequent setbacks also from “safe level” sounds of like 50 dB I’ve been in 24/7 protection because if I don’t then I get hours long pain cycles. I’m honestly not sure if they’d stop period if I didn’t plug up once they start.

Maybe my “inner head sounds” are not at whatever frequency is causing me pain. I don’t know.

It’s an atypical scenario and one I was certainly shocked to find myself in. Believe me I’ve tried various exposure techniques now.

At first I was only exposing my ears for a couple minutes an hour. I worked myself up to about 10 minutes per an hour 12 hours a day. At that point I began “pushing through the pain” during these cycles at some points. When I did that, I noticed that when I had to drive to go get my kids from school, the trip was painful or way more painful. Even with double protection.

I tried sleeping in no protection and I woke up to an 8 hour long cycles of pain the first time I think. Then the second time my ears were just really sensitive the next day and when I had to drive, that’s when the pain cycle set in.

I stopped that then switched to lighter earplugs. I didn’t really notice anything in my right ear. In my left ear I’d get a little bit of stinging pain and switched to a 3M 1100 till it subsided, then switched back just to see if I could gradually step down like this. After a couple days, I woke up in the middle of the night in a lot of pain. I don’t know what finally caused enough aggravation for that to happen. I’m guessing maybe the heat kicking on periodically or my son snoring when he was congested. But that cycle of pain was the longest I’ve had since this started.

Pulsatile tinnitus can be treated, but the path to a diagnosis seems difficult and I have really bad noxacusis issues right now. There’s no way I could do an MRI/MRA or go to a loud hospital or crowded medical facility in my current condition. I only leave the house to take my kids to and from school and pick up grocery orders right now.

 

Is the drone/low hum/vibration you are feeling these days (I am assuming you feel it more than hear it) pulsing or not? If not, especially if not in sync with your heartbeat, I don't think it's pulsatile tinnitus.

Is it pulsing in any way or is it vibrating in the same way if you sit and do nothing?

 

I hear it more than feel it, but that’s because I keep my bed elevated as when I lie down and then to one side that’s when the vibrational feeling begins to develop.

I have not detected it being in sync with my pulse. I hear it mildly standing, more sitting, even more laying, and the most laying to one side. Which could be somatic or pulsatile I guess.

When I take Clonazepam it can go away, or to undetectable levels at least, even in earplugs.

 

@GoatSheep, I have this drone too (for 3 years now) - still trying to find answers (how to solve it at least, because I know what caused it: noise).

When I tap my droning (left) ear, even if it is a VERY light tap, it sort of echos that tap. My ear also echos my own (I have a low voice) voice when there is no surrounding sound to absorb it.

Basically I can go days without noticing the drone, not because it is low volume, because it's fairly loud, but just because it can be easily drown out by surrounding sounds at the same frequency.

I know it is my left ear that is droning, but sometimes I feel like it jumps to my right ear, as if it originates there, but that's not the case.

I know for certain that mine was caused by loud noise (I used to be a raver, not anymore of course) so there is definitely damage, but I have no clue where the damage is.

You say Clonazepam pushes it to the background, I wonder why that is (I have taken Clonazepam and Deanxit for a short while, but I don't think it pushed mine away.) Recently I started contemplating to start up the Clonazepam/Deanxit combo again - at a low dose just to make my life a bit easier.

I mean: I'm nowhere near where I was 3 years ago (suicidal) but what if just taking a small maintenance dose of Deanxit that helped me before (to care about it less) could make my life easier, it would be sad if I made myself suffer needlessly just because I'm scared of the impact of a certain drug (both Clonazepam and Deanxit get a bet rep on here).