Thought My Tinnitus Was Caused by Hearing Loss — Maybe I Was Wrong...?

[hearandnow]

Hello, fellow ringers:

About a month ago, I got tinnitus. This coincided with a few days after a weekend of going to clubs (two in three days). At first, I thought that sound damage was the culprit. My ears were sore, sounds were more sensitive than usual, and of course, there was tinnitus. I went to an ENT and tested well on a sound test, for what that's worth. (I know, hidden hearing loss, hidden hearing loss.)

Since then, the tinnitus has gone down marginally, maybe a 2 or 3 out of 10, primarily in my right ear. The sound has changed, too. It's gone from crickets-plus-chalkboard-scratching to crickets-with-softer-high-pitch-noise. Occasionally, I'll hear spikes that last for a few seconds, where other tones come in the mix. Overall, the sounds seem to be changing for the better.

My question is this: when I swallow, or even just flex my ears, I hear a clicking. To my understanding, this is a Eustachian tube thing, but I'm not sure. Is this ETD, and if so, could this be the cause of my aural fullness (which has greatly diminished over the past month) and tinnitus? One important piece of information is that I have been sleeping and commuting with earplugs, which are in for a significant portion of the day.

Thanks for your help. It's greatly appreciated.

--n

 

[JohnAdams]

My opinion is that you have noise-induced hearing loss.

 

[Contrast]

I have heard many cases of tinnitus being caused by hearing loss and neck/jaw issues combined.

I believe hearing loss is the main culprit but also that their are other factors at play but technically hearing loss is the root problem as the audiotory brain is generating tinnitus to compensate for hearing loss.

 

[Digital Doc]

Sounds like noise induced hearing loss is the major culprit here, although there may be other factors coming into play.

Do you need so much earplug use? Is it all foam earplugs, or some musician earplugs or something else?

 

[Bill Bauer]

Since then, the tinnitus has gone down marginally, maybe a 2 or 3 out of 10, primarily in my right ear. The sound has changed, too. It's gone from crickets-plus-chalkboard-scratching to crickets-with-softer-high-pitch-noise. Occasionally, I'll hear spikes that last for a few seconds, where other tones come in the mix. Overall, the sounds seem to be changing for the better.

Your T is fading rapidly. Some people take a year or two to get to where you are now. If I were you, I would keep doing what you have been doing (e.g., protecting your ears during commutes). Your T ought to continue fading. Assuming that you won't hurt your ears again, in a year or two you ought to feel a lot better compared to how you are feeling now.

Most of us (and many healthy people too) have that clicking when we swallow. No need to worry about it.

Do you need so much earplug use?

It seems to be working amazingly well for him. Why would he want to change?

Check out
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/thread...eone-else-who-has-tinnitus.26850/#post-307822

Also take a look at the posts below.

Relative newbies to tinnitus are likely to find all the information/opinions above quite confusing. So here are a few common-sense rules to follow:

1. The best protection of all is avoidance. Even the best earplugs can't guarantee complete hearing protection so those relatively new to tinnitus are best advised to avoid prolonged loud noise exposure - especially amplified sound at for example live concerts and sports events. This may involve lifestyle changes.

2. When in doubt, use hearing protection. In the many tasks we all do through the week, some will inevitably involve exposure to noise - which may be at higher levels than we at first realise - so using hearing protection for many of these is only sensible.

3. Build quiet into your day. It's not a good idea to be wearing hearing protection all the time - so you need to give your ears a break by ensuring that there will be quieter times during your day when hearing protection isn't necessary.This may involve changing your routine. Use soft masking noise and light music (not using headphones) to avoid "silence" where tinnitus is most noticeable.

4. Don't stress about stress. Tinnitus newbies are forever being told that the thing which makes tinnitus worse is stress. But while it's true that how you are feeling at a particular moment can make tinnitus temporarily louder, it won't have a lasting effect. But prolonged loud noise exposure can make tinnitus permanently louder. So don't stress about stress - but do be concerned about noise.

I didn't read all the above comments, but did peruse a fair amount of it, and ran across many good points on both sides of the argument. What strikes me is there seems to be an underlying assumption (of course I may be wrong on this) that all brains and neurological systems are created equal. The way I see it, that's simply not the case, so everybody's way of dealing with tinnitus and/or hyperacusis is going to have to be highly individualized.

I read a book many years ago called "Adrenal Syndrome". A lot of the book touched on the residual resiliency of people's adrenal glands as they respond to life's stresses. Very low resiliency often resulted in months/years of chronic debilitating exhaustion following a stressful event(s) in their lives. Very high resiliency indicated essentially the opposite. The author broke this down into some rough numbers:

25% of people have low resiliency, meaning normal life stressors will often send them into some degree of a tailspin.
25% of people have high resiliency, meaning that no matter how severe a stressor comes into their lives, they will be able to cope without becoming debilitated to any degree.
50% of people fall somewhere inbetween.

I believe there are some kind of corresponding numbers for a person's brain and neurological resiliency as well, which can greatly affect the ability to cope with tinnitus. (I believe adrenal resiliency also plays a major role in our ability to cope). -- Based on these assumptions, it's pretty easy for me to conclude that what may be overprotection for one person will be underprotection for another, and vice versa.

I think the main point to understand for someone new to tinnitus is that their path forward is going to be a lot of "testing the waters". Generally, IMHO, it's going to take a few weeks or months to get important insights that will help us achieve a healthy balance. In all likelihood, most people are going to learn from experience when their over-protecting or under-protecting.

I've come to believe however, that in those early months, if one is going to err in either direction, it should be toward overprotection. It just seems to me the consequences of underprotection (which could result in permanent injury) in those early times are much more dire than the consequences of overprotection--which as I understand, generally results in temporary setbacks.

Doing a number of things to better support the brain and neurological system and the body's stress response (adrenal glands) is quite high on my list of recommendations I would make to anybody with tinnitus. Doing so might even prevent phonophobia or OCD, etc., as we go through our learning curves -- Just my 2 cents worth.

 

[dpdx]

noise induced heaeing loss