Tinnitus and Dysacusis from Concussion/TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury)

Hey all, I’m new here and this is my story so far.

I’m a 33-year-old male. I went snowboarding with my family on the 24th of February; my board is pretty old, so when I approached the bottom of the slope, I decided to go straight to get as much speed as I could to reach the lifts without having to walk… well a basketball-sized block of ice appears right in front of me, and I crash into it at a pretty high speed. I don’t get knocked out, but I’m pretty beaten up and have a nasty black eye and a decent blow to the right side of my head. I shake it off, but in the next days, I notice low mood, anxiety, and ringing in my head, but I decide to weight lift and exercise / listen to music with headphones (not crazy loud but with noise canceling headphones) like I usually do to counteract these feelings, thinking they would just subside in a few days, I decide to vape some weed (micro amount) in the following week and it made me care less about the ringing but I was feeling worse and worse, getting less and less sleep.

Then, around the 12th of March, I absolutely crashed. I stopped the weed, and I am left sleepless with nonstop ringing coming from my head; this sends me into a spiral of extreme stress, anxiety, and depression. This goes on for a few days; I just started a new job that I was really happy to get, so I’m toughing it out every day. The ringing at this time is loud and high-pitched from inside my head. During this time, I wake up in complete silence, but the noise starts ramping up as soon as I gain consciousness and is in full swing after about 20-30 minutes awake.

This goes on, then around the 20th of March, I wake up, and as I turn on the sink, all I hear are these sounds like somebody is scratching cutlery on a porcelain plate, and I hear these whistles on top of every sound around me. Naturally, I panic and start seeing a physical therapist for my TBI. He tells me that tinnitus can occur after TBI, shows me all kinds of stretches, and does acupuncture on my neck. My neck is not hurting, by the way. It could be that something went out of alignment, but I don’t feel it. I keep seeing him regularly now. I also see an ENT, who measures my hearing (perfect hearing) and tells me, “It sounds like misophonia and tinnitus,” and basically tells me there is nothing he can do and brushes me off.

Fast forward to early April, I have been taking brisk walks regularly for concussion recovery, and the ringing from inside my head has lessened greatly (it comes up every now and then for shorter periods of time), but what I am left with is a constant EEE (it sounds EXACTLY like the first 3 seconds in the song Adios by Rammstein but louder) in my right ear along with the reactivity to every sound around me. It was like the high-pitched tinnitus inside my head was masking the EEE from the ear. I exercise lightly and go to the hot tub in my gym regularly. I don’t feel a noticeable improvement, but I am starting to have better days mentally (hope plays a massive part). I started to drink coffee again on the 10th ish of April as I couldn't touch it during the height of my anxiety, and I am drinking a very small amount (1 small cup a day only after lunch)...

Well, then, on the 18th of April, I decided to skip coffee since I felt a little too tired. I got a massive headache with high-frequency tinnitus inside my head around noon, which persisted all the way until bedtime that night. I woke up around 3 AM, and the headache was still there, and everything was just on full blast ringing, and when I fully woke up a few hours later, I had this same constant ring that reacted to all sounds in my left ear too but way, way louder. So now I have this tone (although a little different in pitch) in both my ears, which reacts to everything around me: wind blowing, cars driving past my apartment, people talking, even when my car engine is idling, you name it.

It’s a bit frustrating to get a little better, only worrying about your right ear and hoping for it to get better, only for the same (but worse) to happen to your other ear, which was fine.

So yeah, that’s my story. I am a single father of two young boys, so suicide is not an option for me, but this is really, really taking its toll on my mental health. I am only six weeks in, but man, I miss my life; I don’t know what kickstarted this reactivity in my ears, and I keep thinking, “What if I was a little bit more careful on that slope?” But I guess that's an unhealthy approach.

I have dealt with on-and-off anxiety and depression for the most part of my life, but these last two years, I have been in the best place mentally and actually thriving for the first time in my life, so this is pretty ironic.

I started coming onto this forum looking for success stories despite warnings. This forum has given me both hope and despair at the same time, but I guess most of us need something to cope with when beginning this journey.

Note that I didn’t use the words “hyperacusis/dysacusis/reactive tinnitus” since there is some debate around their definitions; I rather decided to describe my symptoms:

From one ear to now, both ears have constant EEE, which competes with sounds around me, not painful and sometimes not noticeable for the first minutes/seconds after first waking up. Sometimes, for a few seconds, I get a high-frequency constant E from inside my head, which drowns out the reactivity, and it is honestly a breath of fresh air. Overall, my tinnitus seems to be evolving as the weeks go by.

If somebody has the same experience and has seen improvement, I’d love to hear from you.

 

Hey @Kiro, I'm sorry to hear about what happened with the snowboarding and the TBI and ringing that resulted from it.

I've been dealing with distortions (beeps and whistles from sounds) for about two years. The symptoms you're describing sound very much like what I dealt with at the onset. Even though my case happened because of headphones, it's a similar case where we both took damage, and at this early point, you're dealing with some very weird noises.

The good news is that for a lot of us here who get dysacusis, it does get better over time. It's not always going to be a full recovery, but you'll notice that through neuroplasticity, the brain's ability to repair and adapt, you'll get more used to it, and it'll feel more natural. I know how scary and distressing the beeping and whistling noises are at first; it drives the anxiety right up to 100, but a lot of it will fade or become less noticeable; it's just going to take some time to get there. You're looking at months to a year to notice some improvement, but it will become more manageable, trust me.

 

Thank you so much! It is very surreal to be dealing with something so widely known, but people have no idea how much of an impact it has on your life (I for sure didn’t). I see people and TV shows joke about tinnitus all the time, lol. I honestly would have taken the choice to break all my limbs instead of getting tinnitus after the fall. At least that kind of damage is treatable.

 

Hi @Kiro. Welcome, and I'm sorry you are dealing with this.

You are in the "shit luck" category. Yes, snowboarding or skiing are somewhat risky sports, but this kind of injury could happen to anyone, just slipping on a sidewalk and hitting your head. Or in a car crash. Many of us here are with noise-induced tinnitus, usually due to ignorance of the real dangers of loud sounds. So, unlike myself, for example, you don't have a real reason to beat yourself over it.

Tinnitus from trauma to the head seems rare, but I remember from perusing success stories that folks recovered. So you have great chances!

I guess there is not a whole lot you can do except take care of yourself and avoid anything that can make you worse. However, given this is not sound trauma, perhaps a physical co-factor can be found and should be looked into - like some kind of inflammation or lesion resulting from the impact that may be exerting pressure on a nerve. I guess an MRI could help find it - so look for component neurological advice. But note that MRIs are very loud and can badly worsen people suffering from noise-induced tinnitus. It's not your case, but risks are to be considered, and proper precautions must be taken - double hearing protection - use both ear plugs and MRI-safe earmuffs. You could also seek quieter machines, some are better than others.

In any case, take precautions and protect your hearing just as if it was noise-induced tinnitus. It is best to avoid headphones and any loud settings - use earplugs when driving a car. Airbag explosion is 160 dB+ and can destroy healthy ears, not to mention compromised ones. Also, absolutely stay away from weeds - weeds can make tinnitus worse (or induce it in the first place). Stay away from antidepressants, and especially from benzos and SSRIs - many here have tinnitus from them or severely worsened their pre-existing tinnitus.

Don't let anyone tell you it is a mental issue. It is not. Yes, it takes great mental strength to cope with it, but it is a torturous neurological condition misunderstood by the medical community and people at large.

Good luck.

 

Thank you for the kind words and advice; there is one thing I keep ruminating about.

Before the tinnitus turned into dysacusis, I was using this video by a channel called “Art of Zen” called “Ultra High Pitch Tinnitus Therapy.” DO NOT check it out without setting the volume WAY down, as I suspect that this video might have caused some further damage and maybe kickstarted my dysacusis. Do you think that makes sense or am I overthinking this injury of mine?

 

You are not overthinking. The injured auditory system is susceptible to further damage—or, more likely, maladaptation of the brain—in response to unusual auditory stimuli. It should be avoided! For example, my first real bad tinnitus showed up the next morning after the first ENT/audiologist visit. All I let them do was a standard pure-tone audiogram test. Coincidence? I think not.

 

OK, so on the 22nd of April, I woke up in a panic, my ears blasting, and I noticed that there was a wineglass hum on top of every sound around me. This sent me into a spiral of extreme anxiety, and I saw a doctor who told me that I should rest and wrote me a note for ten days of sick leave and Hydroxyzine for the anxiety and sleep. I took 25 mg of Hydroxyzine and was able to get some sleep. I could feel the constant tone in my left ear lessening for the next few days, until last night when I had trouble falling asleep since I have some aversion to L-Theanine; I noticed the left ear was bad again.

In short:

- I got head-ringing tinnitus following a snowboard crash. Extreme anxiety and stress ensued.

- 10 days in, dysacusis popped up; whether it is from the extreme anxiety and stress/sleeplessness, I don't know.

- 20 days in, the head ringing has lessened, but low-hum tinnitus persists in the right ear; the left ear is fine. Dysacusis is still present but minor. Here, I am starting to feel better and exercise more.

- 35 days in, I took 600 mg NAC + 3 g Glycine for two days and had a massive headache for a whole day. The following morning, I woke up with dysacusis/competing tinnitus in my left ear (previously a good ear). I tried to stay positive, but it was hard.

- 38 days in, I woke up with a wineglass hum overtone on top of all the sounds; I can't pinpoint which ear this is; I think it is my brain. I fell into massive despair and got prescribed Hydroxyzine for sleep/anxiety. I took one pill and managed to get some sleep.

- 43 days in, I noticed my left ear becoming more dysacusis-only with no constant tinnitus, which was a welcome development. I took some L-Theanine to help me sleep. Still, it had the opposite effect, and I lay awake until I had an anxiety attack at 3 am and literally noticed my left ear “switch on,” with constant tinnitus along with the dysacusis reacting to all sounds.

What is going on? It is like my auditory system is literally rotting away; at first, I was counting on sleep to “heal” my brain from the TBI and ringing. Still, now I have become so anxious and afraid of sleep because I am so deathly afraid that I will wake up in a panic once again to some new setback, and I become more stressed, anxious, and sleepless, making everything worse. I already saw an ENT who waved me away. I went from a happy life to literal hell in two months.

I am at the psych ward now, hoping to get some answers, or I don’t know. I broke down today. I've tried to cope with all of this for two months, but instead of things getting better, they have only gotten worse.

Does anyone have any advice?

 

@Kiro, I'm so sorry. There is really no advice to give except to try to ride it out and hope for some healing. I hope you find the strength. Be careful with meds, but if you are in a ward, who knows what they will give you.

I could not relate more.

P.S. I would add - you should not be in a psych ward. You suffered TBI. You should be seen by another neurologist, not by a psychiatrist.