Stretching / Yawning Takes Me to a Crystal Glass Concert

Hi,

I have had tinnitus for around 15 years now and it's all been about constant pure tone very high pitch.

For 2-3 years now I have experienced another, very different, tinnitus which by reading this forum seems to be pulsatile tinnitus / somatic tinnitus.

It's by far more difficult to experience / live with. It's kind of a morse code being sent constantly. Hard to forget about a beeping sound.

Anyway I'm not here to complain.

I'm here to know if in 2019 those types of tinnitus are now easier to "fix". I have a read a few threads here about somatic tinnitus and I sometimes understand it can be fixed and sometimes it seems to be a "brain thing". So I'm a bit confused.

I don't have jaws issues but I feel my ear with that problem feels a tiny bit "full". I don't know if that's a tight muscle, too much blood inside etc. I'm working on my neck muscles which are very tight but I feel like it's impossible to get them relaxed for real and no-one on the doctor side feels like it's an issue as far as I don't suffer from it on the physical point of view. As for the "blood" theory I'm trying ginkgo biloba and vinpocetine from today.

What is also very scary is when I yawn / stretch. It takes me to a very loud crystal glass concert, with many different tones around 1 kHz.

If you feel like you have already been through this and got it fixed, I would be glad to hear from you!

 

Same for me except the tones are around 2khz. Sometimes they make a major chord, sometimes a jazz chord, other times they arpeggiate for a while.

It used to annoy me in bed and keep me awake when yawning, but I've discovered if I do deep diaphragmatic breathing, they fade away very quickly. So I've got into that habit now whenever I wake at night. I think they naturally fade themselves but take a bit longer.

Have you been diagnosed with TMJ? My ENT said I should address my bruxism and that there is some sideways movement when I open my jaw. These particular tones always occur in the same ear.

 

Mine has been like this since onset. 10khz moving my neck or jaw. I definitely have TMJ and have had for some years but it never caused tinnitus before. Mine is so somatic that I wake up with my entire brain screaming and it takes hours to calm down. I've been stretching my neck and trying to fix my posture as This seems to be the causing factor.. I'm not even sure I had classic Tinnitus to begin with at all in the ear.. But I sure do now. Same as you a morse code.. From what I read this is a type of tinnitus caused by a artery rubbing on a nerve or something, the somatic component picks it up. Posture, jaw work and yoga/stretching are what we need for this type of tinnitus. My jaw moves to one side when I open it for sure its "loose" on the side with tinnitus

 

When I say 1 kHz, it’s « around » but can be a larger range. I guess we may hear the same thing.

And no I don’t think I have a jaw issue. No pain, no sound from it.

I truly think the nerve being squashed in by muscles or vessels is a great possibility as when yawning or stretching you necessarily squeeze your neck / skull muscles...

Moreover, the older I get the harder my neck muscles get. I work as an IT engineer, I spend hours hours and hours sitting in front of a computer and the rest of the time I look at my smartphone the head facing the floor... Maybe these new habits in the modern world bring new tinnitus owners...

 

I've been a VERY heavy computer user since my 20s and had a forward leaning neck.. I'm sure this is a very big contributing factor for many people on this forum, you read it over and over again that most are office workers/coders/etc. The rest are musicians.. And beside loud sounds they are often leaning forward too

 

@Ozwel My listed Cause of Tinnitus is similar to yours, loud music/acoustic trauma. Yet we have these other factors going on.

I'm convinced the reason why some of us suffer damage to our auditory systems from loud music, whilst our friends and fellow concert goers do not, is because we have these underlying conditions which weaken our ability to withstand the same noise levels as "normal" people. Therefore it's a lit fuse just waiting to be triggered by whatever trauma seals the deal.

For me the trauma that led to these tones was a band practice in a friend's house, where he caused a huge feedback squeal to come out of our speakers whilst setting up the microphones. I'd been saying for weeks why do we have to use microphones for practicing at home - anyway the tones I hear are in the same region as the feedback squeals on that occasion. So I think the nerves that detect those frequencies must have been damaged.

My wife is a doctor and keeps telling me the body has a fantastic ability to heal itself, so I'm holding onto that hope. Obviously I don't go near microphones or band practices any more.