Tinnitus After Hitting Head in Attic

Thanks for all the kind words everyone. I can't believe what happened to me today. I was running by a street like I have done a thousand times. Some idiot in some sort of monster truck blasted me with some sort of fog horn. He probably thought it was funny. Unbelievable. Anyhow, totally spiked my anxiety. My tinnitus is always there so hard to know if it really mattered, but sucks.

Learned my lesson. No more running on that sidewalk.

 

So, I really don't think the air horn did anything further to me, at least I hope not.

Living with tinnitus is just so anxiety inducing. I have been really careful not to expose to super loud noises, and boom it happens just like that. Before tinnitus I would have not lost sleep over it as it probably did nothing and if I did not have tinnitus life would have gone on as normal.

However, with tinnitus you have this event that you don't know if it's spiked you and you go back to obsessive monitoring to try and determine if the tinnitus is still where it used to be. It's like for normal people tinnitus can be an indicator if something was wrong or not, but for many of us something is always wrong so we don't have a true symptom of any one thing like this. Tinnitus is definitely so difficult to live with.

I feel like I am habituating, but the truck horn was definitely a setback to that.

I also just started a run of Prednisone that my ENT gave me a month ago and I did not take the run of it then. I heard it may help stave off damage to a loud event so might as well take it now. My ENT gave it to me because an earlier round of it seemed to help permanently reduce some of my tinnitus back in month two after my tinnitus onset.

I also take Lipoflavonoid. I don't really think it does much, but it's mostly vitamins and it seems to make me feel better and more vibrant and give some placebo effect most likely.

 

I am now six months into tinnitus and I am still honestly struggling to believe the supposed root cause in my case. I have high pitched and a low drone tinnitus in both ears and it's constant. I have some mild discomfort to sounds. I have a habit now of constantly trying to pop my ears.

The doctor's explanation is I had a concussion and my brain lost the ability to filter tinnitus that always was there due to mild hearing loss. My audiogram was barely abnormal in one far and still in the normal range in the other. My tinnitus is in both ears exactly the same level. This theory still makes sense I guess.

Still, thinking back to about a year before my concussion makes me wonder. I did not have a problem or tinnitus before the concussion, but I definitely started having that noise sensitivity before the concussion. I also was having a tough time with sinus problems and anxiety. I also had some neck problems from a bad night of sleeping that caused my neck to hurt for months pre concussion.

When I had the concussion I went over the edge with anxiety and my tinnitus started in a week later and has been raging ever since.

I have a bad smoking habit that I just cannot kick. Tinnitus just makes me stress and want cigarettes even more. That surely is not helping I know.

Part of me wonders if anxiety, smoking, and neck issues have as much to do with tinnitus as my concussion. The only thing that seems to help chill my tinnitus a bit is good sleep and the more open or popped my ears feel the lower the tinnitus.

I guess I just wish I could understand for sure why it's there because then maybe I could treat that. Sometimes I feel if I could just sleep a lot, not smoke, and relax all the time it may stop. Still easier said than done.

My thoughts of sleeping a lot, not smoking, and relaxing sounds great but not easy. Sleeping is hard with tinnitus as you all know. Relaxing is hard too especially since life goes on with work responsibilities and so on. And, to all here who smoke they know how much of a bear that is to stop. I have stopped for long periods in the past, but now that I really should it's harder than ever thanks to the added stress of tinnitus. I mean seriously I can't relax ever.

 

Update. Well, it's been seven months. Tinnitus is still with me 24/7. I am not as bad with anxiety as in the beginning, but depression Is real. My hope is for it to go away. I truly hate this monster. I am numb. I am tired. And, I am not the person I once was. I guess the one thing I can remember Is I am not alone in this. My goal at this point is habituation. I have relearned how to simply exist, but if I could relearn how to actually relax I would call myself habituating. We need a treatment or a cure so bad.

 

Eight months later, my ears are still ringing. I have had a few times recently where it's a bit less intense or so it seems, but fluctuates and mostly Is still going full bore.

I had a follow up with my ENT. I told him of my neck ache troubles since the concussion. Those troubles feel minor to me, but they did start after the concussion. My ENT suggested a doctor he knows to check into that. He said that neck issues have been known to cause tinnitus. So, I will do that and see how it goes. My ENT says Tinnitus Retraining Therapy after a year Is an option.

I guess that's about it for now. I will update once I check into my neck. I sort of hope that Is the cause because it may lead to a cure. You never know. Mine was brought on from a bump to the head and my neck has not been quite right since.

 

Hello, sorry you’re here with us.

A hit to the head can give tinnitus, just like loud noise or ear infection, chemotherapy etc.

If you’re lucky the neck is related and you’ll benefit from physiotherapy. I’ve heard of stress induced tinnitus going away after physiotherapy.

Did they check hearing up to 16 kHz or just the normal 8 kHz?

 

Here is my audiogram up to 8,000 Hz.

I feel like my ears have been like this forever. My left ear is supposedly better than my right, but the tinnitus shows no favorite, and is very much the same in both at any time. I'm pretty convinced that the concussion I suffered is the root reason I have tinnitus.

 

Regarding the title of this post... This is precisely why one should not be defecating in attics.

Sorry

 

Well I can sure say I don't much care for attics!

 

Does your neck feel jammed? Did your neck lose any range of motion?

 

I did not lose any range of motion. I do get pain in my neck right from the base of the skull down to shoulders. It’s mild pain, but persistent. Before the attic, I don’t remember having this sort of pain.

 

A concussion can damage hearing too. There was a man on a skateboard here, took a hard hit and some blood came out of his ear. It took 2-3 years until he was much better. It took almost a year before improving started I believe.

 

@Exit, that's interesting. I find it so odd how a concussion affects hearing. Particularly a mild concussion like mine. I would have thought nothing of it really if it weren't for the hearing issues it triggered. The strange thing to me Is the ringing did not start until a week after the blow to the head. Maybe I will improve after a year. Hopefully so.

 

Have you noticed any sort of habituation in the sense that you can tune it out when you're doing stuff or in outdoor places?

I began to experience this at the 7 month mark.

 

Oscar PP - Yes, I have noticed some habituation, but it still bothers me that it's always there. Still, I tune it out when engaged in activity now better than in the beginning.

It still bugs me mostly at night when I'm wishing to relax, but tinnitus sort of blocks that. Habituation is better than non-stop stressing, but still not really a cure in my opinion as if it were gone I would be immediately happier and stay happier.

 

I went to the physical therapist. My neck does in fact have some problems, and I have TMJ issues. The therapist suspects that some muscles at the base of my skull may be contributing to tinnitus. Will start to work on my neck. I have a bunch of muscles there that he said are in spasm, whatever that means. No idea if it will help tinnitus, but I am hopeful that working on my neck makes a difference.

 

Hi @Gman45 -- In the following post, I describe how I began using DMSO and Magnesium oil many years ago to help with chronic tightness and inflammation in my neck.

DMSO & Magnesium Oil for Tonic Tensor Tympani Syndrome (TTTS)

 

Interesting. Did this Magnesium therapy reduce tinnitus for you?

 

Hi Gman, I remember a comment I saw on YouTube last year (it was one of those "tinnitus therapy" videos) where a guy wrote about his dad who fell badly in the cellar at home and lost consciousness and when he woke up at the hospital he had severe tinnitus... and he suffered several years from it until one day he woke up in the morning and it was gone, he had regained his silence again! Success stories like this actually happens so do not lose hope.

 

Gman, I'm new here. I recently experienced a fall which resulted in a concussion diagnosis.

Never really hit my head, but the force of the fall produced a labyrinthine concussion. In the middle of tests and specialist visits.

I can relate to a lot of what you're saying.

 

Time for an update. I have been doing physical therapy on my neck for about a month. Did dry needling too. I feel like it helps, but tinnitus still persists. My doctor told me last session. I think you are on the right track, but will probably take a while. I am sure he wants to help, but tinnitus is a real motherfucker. I hate that I had a concussion in such a silly way. I would probably never have known this pain without it. I just can't get back to myself. Not a day goes by I don't feel somewhat tormented, and on the outside to others I probably look just fine . Tinnitus sucks.

 

I guess it's worth noting that my tinnitus seems less than it was in month one and two, but that may just be habituating. I just can't seem to accept that habituating is good enough though. I don't see how folks do it and truly be happy again with true peace. I know that not caring about the noise is the goal, but damn I care. I can't help it. Sorry to vent.

 

I believe not caring is only possible if the tinnitus noises are nice enough. I have 13 different noises and some are no problem while others are pure torture so I understand about venting...

You had bad luck with getting this from a bang in the head. But you’re less than a year in and if it’s calmer than it was then there’s still hope for even more improvement.

It’s a very restricted life to try to take care of ears but we should try a little bit longer.

 

So, struggling lately. It’s closing in on a year since that day when I hit my head. It's been the hardest year of my life. Not one second of silence since except the strange sleep awake moment. I don’t hear tinnitus when asleep. So, sometimes when waking there is a blurry moment when it’s not there. As soon as concious, it’s back though. It’s a part of my default state now unfortunately. Best wishes to all here. I feel you.

 

Hello Gman45,

I started developing tinnitus after a severe neck injury on 6/21/21. My first 5 months is almost exactly like yours in terms of fight or flight response, mental exhaustion, yearning for silence, hyperacusis. I'm 28 years old and been trying to cope with tinnitus too.

My tinnitus was raging at first but subsided to half its volume. I had an MRI of my neck done and turns out I had a lesion in my cervical spine from the injury and the inflammation spread to the brainstem. If I could give some insight, I believe maybe you hitting your head damaged the auditory nerve that connects to the brainstem, more specifically the inferior colliculi. The inferior colliculi is responsible for filtering out background or nonimportant noise so your brain can focus on what is important.

The initial damage to the nerves can lead to inflammation in the brainstem region to damage the nerves. Inflammation is your body's response to foreign objects but also injury, inflammation in the brain or spinal cord can lead to a prolonged fight or flight response because it takes time for the injury to heal. Inflammation near the auditory nerve by the brainstem can most likely lead to tinnitus and hyperacusis as neural connections are broken and loss. That is why Prednisone is so effective early on for tinnitus, it stops the inflammation process to prevent further damage and promotes healing. Once the inflammation decreases, then the fight or flight response starts to go away and healing can return. However, these neural connections may take months or years to return.

Going back to my earlier point. Since we likely damaged our auditory nerve or our inferior colliculi. Our brain's ability to filter out background noise has been affected. This can lead to hyperacusis as your brain can't shut down or ignore background noise as well. Lost connections from auditory nerves in the brain to the hair cells in the inner ear can lead to inner hair cell death and feeling of fullness in the ear due to an inflammatory response (removed dead cells). My theory on why everyone's tinnitus is different(some more severe than others) is because those with greater exposure to noise such as those who go to concerts often, those with age-related hearing loss, have increased ability to filter out noise due to activity in the inferior colliculi. I believe everyone is habituating to very minuscule amounts of tinnitus throughout their life as their inner hair cells die, however it is so small that we never really hear it. However, as this ability is lost through damage to the nerves/brainstem, the ability of the brain to filter out noise through decades of habituating is diminished.

The good news is that... I believe the brain can start this process all over again and the trick is to take one small step at a time.

You are not alone. I too wish for silence. I have very bad days and some good days. I just read all of your posts on this thread and I do believe in time, you will get better.

 

Hang in there, @Gman45. I’m 8 months post concussion and 6 months post tinnitus, so can relate to your struggles. The last few months have also been the hardest of my life — went from my living the best life to the shell I am now — and time has only made my tinnitus louder.

Can’t give up hope though. Maybe our brains will learn to tune tinnitus out, maybe one of these treatments will be effective, heck maybe we’ll wake up one morning and tinnitus will be gone. I try my hardest to convince myself that one of these will ring true every day, while mentally fighting the likely possibility that none will happen...

 

Thanks for your responses. That sounds about right. I do suspect that my inability to filter out noise since my concussion Is likely my root cause. I have found that I hear sounds now that I don't remember noticing before. Sounds like crickets in the grass, fridge noise, the sound of the distant highway when going outside, I can't turn up the radio without it seeming really loud, etc. I don't know what to really do about that though. I guess it's just time and wait?

 

Well it's been a year now. No more counting weeks or months. It's too bad it didn't just magically stop at a year. I don't really have anything profound to say on this anniversary of tinnitus. Just sort of a sad milestone. I do have hope that the next year must be better though.

 

Concussion causes neuroinflammation = disrupts Potassium channels, gabya receptors, and hormonal balance.

 

I can't imagine I am still inflamed over a year later, but tinnitus remains. I have to live with it, but concussion really stinks. I am used to it, but no way I feel like I did before the noise.

We all need a cure, but who knows what that is. I do believe something may work someday.

I no longer take any supplements or do neck physical therapy. I really don't believe any of it made much difference besides placebo.