Sudden Ear Fullness and Ringing

I've been struggling with a tinnitus bout since October 28th of this year.

As a preface: I am a music producer and regularly listen to music and sounds. In my younger years, I managed a music venue and attended shows sometimes multiple times a week. I also performed in a few bands and was around rather loud noise. "But surely you wore earplugs," you say. Let me tell you, earplugs were some sort of visual stigma in the 1990s. More often than not, I never had ear protection.

When I was maybe sixteen, I had my first longer experience with tinnitus. It was maddening. I recall pacing around at night, feeling overwhelmed at the concept that the ringing might never go away. This went on for some time, though I couldn't say the extent of it now. But definitely far beyond your average post concert ear ringing/muffled sound. In the end, it turned out that I had a B Vitamin deficiency. Upon regularly taking a B Vitamin supplement, the ringing went away entirely.

Here's the thing. I became considerably more conscious of my ear health over time. I also rarely played in a band type setting, and my involvement with music events dramatically decreased. To my knowledge, I don't believe I've been at a live music event of any kind in four or five years. I haven't been exposed to any unusually loud sounds during that time. I do use headphones at times. Never more than a few hours per week. I almost always have music playing while I work, sometimes at louder volumes. Still, I sincerely doubt it's ever more than 85 decibels on average. I get it, you don't want to overexpose yourself at those levels.

My point is, I haven't done much to hurt my ears during my 30s. At least, to the best of my knowledge.

At the end of July this year, I had a severe panic breakdown. It was rough. The medical powers that be decided to prescribe a mood stabilizer called Lamotrigine to me. Some of you might recognize it by the name of Lamictal. After around a month of taking Lamotrigine, I noticed that my vision was very difficult to focus. It got to the point I was having trouble looking both far off, and at objects right in front of me. Freaked me out, to say the least. A doctor had assured me that Lamotrigine had "virtually no side effects". Well, what do you know. It was at this point that I came to realize that I could experience seizures simply by coming off Lamotrigine too abruptly. It also can cause vision issues, sometimes quite badly.

I saw an eye doctor. All checked out, no issues there.

This is all mentioned to give you the full picture of my story. The eye issues ended up getting much worse. My eyes were in severe agony for probably three weeks straight. I could barely function. I do not exaggerate when I say, I could hardly work. It was brutally intense. During that time, I slowly tapered off of Lamotrigine. Considering Lamotrigine is an anticonvulsion medication, I do wonder what effect it was having on my eyes (and potentially ears, which I'm getting to).

In the past, I've had sinus pain that resulted in agony in one of my eyes. I've never had many sinus symptoms, such as nasal congestion. It always seems to manifest itself as pain. Thus, I contemplated whether this was a Lamotrigine or sinus issue. I likely will never know.

On October 26th, I woke up and my right ear was ringing and felt super plugged up. This went on for a few hours, but went away completely. It was random enough that I made a note to myself to avoid headphones or any loud sounds.

This all escalated on October 28th. My eyes reached a pain level that I could barely handle. And then, just like that, the pain went away that evening. It was so relieving. During the night, I was cleaning some dishes, quietly listening to a podcast, and my home was very quiet. I then went to go lay in bed.

And that's when it started. As I lay there, I suddenly heard a high pitched ringing in my ear(s). At first I thought I was imagining things. "What in the world? I literally just lay down and I hear ringing?" It was incredibly sudden. I hoped that a night of rest would sort out whatever was going on there.

The next day was fairly unbearable. I woke up with my left ear ringing incredibly loudly. Just to clarify, this was now my left ear. A few days before, it had been my right here. The ringing was so loud that I was having trouble hearing people talking in the room. It was louder than the water during my shower that morning. And it didn't lay off. I seriously thought I might lose my mind. The thought that it might never go away was devastating. In addition, my ear felt completely full. I could had intermittent pain/pressure that would grow super intense, then subside.

I booked a doctor appointment right away. The following day I was examed by a doctor. He seemed very reassuring about the whole thing. He told me that at 37-years-old, and without being around anything super loud in some time, he just didn't see how I could have damaged my hearing. He said there was no visible infection. He informed me that it was Eustachian Tube Dysfunction and prescribed me some prescription level Sudafed. He told me it wasn't even worth seeing an audiologist, and seemed absolutely certain it was all due to Eustachian Tube Dysfunction.

However, as mentioned above, I had been recovering from a serious panic disorder. Taking Sudafed didn't seem like the brightest idea to me, as I didn't want to introduce any elevated anxiety into my system. Instead, I tried using Flonase for maybe two weeks. I also bought a rather expensive EarPopper device. I've been using it routinely since. While I'm not sure if the EarPopper has done any good, it absolutely does push air out of my ears. When I've had a lot of head pressure, it sure does seem to reduce it. I wouldn't say dramatically, but for anyone curious, it does seem to relieve things.

For the first week, any loud noise was super painful to my ear. I could barely handle my children talking to me. However, after about a week this went away completely. My head would feel super cloudy, as though the most strange pressure stuck in it. I don't want to say that I was ever dizzy. I just felt super funky from the intense pressure on my left ear.

Weeks went by, and the pressure, fullness, and high pitched ringing did not lay off. I mostly felt like I was tolerating being awake each day. No matter what I did, the ringing and pressure was much more noticeable.

It's now been five-and-a-half weeks. A few weeks ago, the ringing seemed to get much better. This coincided with me completely ending the Lamotrigine. The pressure also improved considerably. Last week, I kept realizing that I hadn't thought about the ringing in hours. I can't tell if it's my imagination or I'm getting used to it. But I could swear it became much less intense. The fullness was still there, but even that seemed less bothersome. I also rarely felt any pain.

Last Sunday, I suddenly felt a bunch of pressure again, and sounds became super painful to hear. Out of nowhere, I was literally reading a book to my kids. The next morning the pressure and pain were completely gone. However, it seems like the ringing level got just a bit louder.

I realize that I should seen an ENT as well as having a hearing test. Obviously, using any sort of hearing test at home couldn't come close to having an audiologist inspect my hearing. That being said, I've used the Mimi app on my iPhone. I used both on-ear headphones and Apple earbuds for two separate tests. Both tests showed no hearing loss and informed me that my hearing was very average for my age. Again, I get that I can't base my health off of an app. But I do find it encouraging that I could pass that test using two completely different ear devices. I also have attempted tests like covering my non-ringing ear to see how well I can hear. I am able to pick up very quiet sounds equally in both ears. So far as I can tell, I can hear just fine. It's just that fullness that makes it difficult to hear through the ear, if that makes sense.

And now, my tinnitus community, some questions for you:

1. Does this sound like Eustachian Tube Dysfunction to any of you? Is it possible for Eustachian Tube Dysfunction to get a bit worse out of nowhere, then subside again? Do you think that over five weeks of this sounds realistic?

2. Have any of you ever had sinus issues in your eyes, that then manifested in your ear(s) like this?

3. Have any of you had Lamotrigine (or Lamictal) effect you in this way? Or any other similar medications? If so, do you think there's hope that it will go away considering it's already been over five weeks for me?

Thank you so much for your insight. It's been really encouraging to look through your posts on here. I think that community can be one of the strongest forms of processing any life struggle.

Lastly, for anyone who has just been inflicted with this condition: It does get better. It absolutely does. Even when the ringing volume hadn't improved for me, I was fully able to find a calmness and continue on with my life. There is definitely hope.

 

This sounds like my experience tapering benzodiazepines. Also it works on GABA receptors. Exercise, eat well, don't drink booze, and it will probably simmer down in a few months.

 

Thank you so much, I really appreciate that.

Yeah, I don't drink alcohol at all and vigorously exercise on normally a daily basis. I also have a fairly health conscious diet. So it sounds like I have those items in a row at least.

I'm not even going to pretend that I understand how GABA receptors work. That being said, I do believe Lamotrigine effects your GABA receptors. So maybe that's exactly what this is.

I so appreciate your response. Thanks again.