Poll: The Longest Tinnitus Spike You Have Had?

If we define a spike in tinnitus as a temporary increase in tinnitus volume, which eventually settles down again, what has been the longest spike you have had? (I am asking because I have a spike going on for a third week now).

 

4 weeks and counting. This has to be a spike, I mean. If this lasts forever I have to start this freaking process-of-habituating-thing all over again.

 

4 months and counting, got a feeling that this is my new level! very depressing!

 

Luckily my spike seemed to last about 3 weeks. It's back to baseline now it seems...

 

4 months and counting....hoping it settles back down

 

I have never had a spike last longer than a day, basically until I sleep it off. If it lasts longer, in my case it sticks around unfortunately.

 

It used to be 2-3 weeks......

 

I had a terrible spike following a virus and antibiotics that were wrongly prescribed that lasted for months. I'd say it took about 5 or 6 months for things to calm down. Since tinnitus is so subjective, it's really hard for me to say for sure if I habituated to the louder sound or if it quieted. Either way, it got better and became something I could live with again.

 

Which antibiotics?

 

Clindamycin and Cipro ear drops. I know if you search, these won't come up as ototoxic but I really, really wonder. I had an audiologist and I think a neurologist who said clindamycin is nasty medicine. I think it depends on the individual a lot as to whether a medicine effects your hearing/tinnitus. I know that's not a very helpful statement because how do you know.

 

You were prescribed antibiotics for a viral infection?

Anyways, the most obvious guess would be that the infection caused your spike, not the medicine. Especially since it looks like the infection has resolved (and so did your tinnitus somewhat).

 

Hi Nucleo, it did take a long time to resolve as I said above, but what you say is somewhat reassuring. It just happened so suddenly and the night after I had accidentally had taken too many drops of Cipro. I guess I will never know for sure. First I thought it was the Cipro (ciprofloxacin) and then I was led to believe it was the clindamycin. Later I was told it was probably the virus and yes, I was seeing an ENT at the time who told me I had an infection. I got a second opinion and was told to come off the antibiotics immediately and that I didn't have an infection but a virus. Right now, I'm worried because I have had to go up on my Zoloft dosage and that seems to be increasing my tinnitus. Do you know anything about that? Getting guidance is all over the place where advice is concerned.

 

I suffer from permanent spikes they never go back down only, add volume and tones... Very tough to deal with...

 

@sgal

I do not know anything about antidepressants.

 

Hey Telis, does your T spike immediately or is it a gradual shift from exposure? Does pain sometimes accompany the spike? Do your ears feel like they have been stretched after the spike?

 

Well, I'm still new to life with T but I think my longest spike was a week. Entirely stress induced.

 

I feel like I have somthing sharp digging around the inside of my ears accompanied by a sensation of presure (I guess this could be described as a stretched ear sensation) this happens directly after the noise exposure. My spikes are small and immediate as well and do seem to stick around permanantly. I get this 3-5 times a week, the pain plus presure lasts about 24-48 hrs depending on how hard my ears get hit, like I say the tinnitus spike seems to stick. To add, it doesn't seem take a lot for my ears these days, a plate banging on the counter, someone laughing or coughing or any type of continuous noise...example : masking sounds at night sleeping or a few hours straight watching TV. The only thing that helps my ears get back to baseline (exception: tinnitus) is complete silence and a heavy sleep.

 

Heavy heavy sleep if its even possible.. Sometimes cant sleep at all.. And some spikes go down but never back to where the baseline was.. We are very unfortunate..

 

Geo, I sleep pretty well, I'm sure you can get there as well. Think of it as some relief from this shit that we endure all day. The one thing T has taught me is that I can sleep in almost any condition now. My gf will run the laundry, clean the house, my dog sleeps on the bed snoring away louder than any human I have ever heard, it all has nothing on my T, I just zone out until I crash no matter what the volume of anything, including my T.

 

Usually my "spikes" last 2-3 weeks.

Btw, why are we talking about "spikes"? Spike would be couple of seconds. I'd like to talk about temporary changes in tinnitus loudness. Ofc this may be language issue but that's how I understand a "spike".

 

When we talk about spikes we mean volume increase or at least i am.. Thats why we say temporary spike or permanent spike( meaning your volume has increased permanantely or new sounds coming in)...

 

I cant man my T sounds like a bad orchestra playing in water and ears are so distorted everything aounds off And right now i am deeply in pain feels like little knives poking my eardrums it hurts bad from a bad spike i got earlier my moms phones ringer went off as we were conversating on my bed... And that shit is loud i always tell her to lower it or put it in vibrate..

 

Well, sorry for being a bit of an engineer but usually we describe short electrical bursts as spikes. this is because they may last only couple of microseconds. Imo this same logic goes to T spike. Only really short duration (couple of seconds) T spikes should be called spikes. Everything else isn't a "spike".

Here you can see a "spike": http://www.naturalhandyman.com/iip/infductclean/i/infsur7.gif

It actually looks like a spike. If you draw a graph of your T-volume. Do you get a spike in your graph if your "spike" has lasted several months?

 

Yeah good call. Guess I'm guilty of this as well.

 

Idk from being on this site everyone seems to call volume increases as spikes either for days or weeks or permanent im not sure what the true word for that is if its not spike... No man i get permanent volume increases very frequent ever since my H returned with a vengeance also have reactive T due to the H... I seem to get permanent volume increase when my spikes get spikes over them as my H is very powerful it sets off on anything it can... I use to get those temporary ones when my T was mild with no H but really not anymore...

 

I think we all are lol.. But we all know what we mean tho

 

I'm on my 12th month...seems it has become a lasting spike...

 

Mine has just gradually worsened over time. It can be worse some days but baseline level increased over time. Not sure about this whole spike thing really. Mine will never return to its original baseline as the baseline keeps increasing if that makes any sense. I notice it getting louder every month hoping it has finally reached its peak.

 

I had a spike 4days until now after taking magnesium citrate and zinc citrate,
I had never been this kind of spike before since my t started, I can't sleep properly maybe it takes only 3 to 4 hrs.
I'm scared now and sometimes my body shaken, i'm hoping this will calm down.

 

Roughly 2 weeks.

But this is with the fact that I extensively protect my ears from harsh sound, taken into consideration.

I don't often let myself be exposed to uncomfortable noises, and most of my spikes have been as a result of trying to listen to music; because, like a couple of other sufferers here, my ears cannot tolerate much in the way of digital audio.

I think if I were perhaps to suffer a moderate noise event, I might experience something longer. But to date temporary spikes have been restricted to irritating increases triggered mostly by music on YouTube.

Which brings me to my next point. There are several other polls enquiring as to the duration of longest spikes suffered, but I chose to share my experience in this one; because @Sound Wave correctly distinguished the vital difference between a spike (temporary) and a spike (permanent).

Simply put, once you've had tinnitus for 5+ years, it's unlikely you won't have experienced a spike that didn't recede, making the inclusion of an option like "spike has not resolved to date" alongside other durations of time, somewhat redundant for the majority, and thus the poll also.