Tinnitus — Created by Myself

For 5 years I've had a hissing noise in my ear. I've (almost) never been to parties or loud concerts and when I did, I've always used ear protection. Strangely enough, the noise seemed to be caused by myself, almost as if I 'tricked' my brain into hearing noises that weren't there. And that was the end of silence in my head.

Now, this hissing noise doesn't really bother me anymore, only when I focus on it, but last year a lot changed. With lot of stress and lack of sleep because of my studies, it got worse and there seemed to be an effervescent tablet in my ear. Well, I could live with that, since I knew this was caused by the stress and fatigue. Summer came, vacation, relaxing... I thought it'd do good.

But suddenly, after a few weeks of vacation, a new and completely different noise entered into my ear. I wasn't near loud sound or music, the stress was gone, I wasn't tired at all but still, there it was. I panicked and went to the ENT specialist. Like a lot of us had to hear: "Sorry, we can't do anything about it." Little was my relieve when he added that "there is no ear damage".

Since this new noise got in my ear, I created the habit of constantly checking if the noise is still there. I hate myself/my brain for doing this, but I can't help it. Even when there's enough background noise, I think I hear it, which seems to strengthen the noise. I feel frustrated, scared and helpless.

So, this is my story. I'm sorry if this is another story you've read for the 1000th time. But I had to write it down for people who might share tips or who can just give me some positivity.

Also, sorry for my English, it's not my mother tongue.

 

Hey Edward.. yeah it seems partly a hypersensitivity /stress / anxiety with me also. After all my talking about it these last couple of weeks my wife told me she can hear it in a quite room.. She reckons everyone can. I had Pulsitile Tinnitus last year and that is hugely loud.. Like listening to your entire human machine raging full of blood. Your brain normally blocks all that out.

 

I try to distract my brain with natural sounds on my phone all day long and with a little stress ball to keep myself busy. It helps in a certain way, I don't hear it that well, but I catch my brain for checking every minute if the sound is audible at that moment. Sometimes I even have the impression that the brain tries to mimic the sound so I think the sound is there.
Recently I found an article about somebody who tells his brain: "No not now. I know it's there and it bothers me, but right now I'm busy with other stuff." Seems like this helpen for this particular person. Maybe this might help to calm down our brain.

Anyway, thank you for answering and sharing a bit of your story as well, together we're stronger than alone and isolated.

 

I hope you will recover from the mindset at least, I'm doing it hard myself and I've only had regular tinnitus since a couple weeks ago. I've had a couple of days where it's been completely gone no matter how hard to try to see if it's still there so I'm hopeful. I went and got some antivirals just before, I've read a lot of research papers on the way virus interact with inflammation in the past because I have a chronic autoinflammatory disease and I think it's always worth trying anti virals for anything. The always make you feel "lighter" and better in general because your viral load goes down.

 

Listen, you have to go one week WITHOUT plugging your ears or sitting in silence listening for it. I know it’s hard but try to forget it, perhaps it will then greatly lower its intensity. Helped for me once.

 

If you have to listen for it you're in a pretty good spot when it comes to T intensity.

You should focus on learning to reduce stress I think. Myself I find breathing techniques to be helpful, or being in nature

Just writing to say I think youll be fine

 

I might want to try that, but the problem is that I have to do a lot of work at my desk. Sometimes I put on some nature sounds which helps just a tiny bit. I've also noticed that my sleep is getting worse. When I lay my head down on a pillow, my brain is panicking because 'my ear is being closed which puts pressure on it' and this results in very bad moments during the morning.

 

Maybe the stress is still present, eventhough I don't really feel it? I found out that breathing out very strongly through my nose for about 5 times in a row can lower the intensity. But this doesn't work for the high pitch in my left ear.
I already put on some nature sounds, hoping for disctraction for my brain. Maybe I should try to go for a walk more often?
Thanks for the tips!