Tinnitus Back Again After Not Noticing It for a Few Years

[GoingGrayy]

I developed tinnitus in 2015 after a music concert, a ~16 kHz tone.
Then I developed a ~1.5 kHz tone in my right ear after an ENT exam/cleaning.

The 16 kHz tone is constant, but responds to 15-17khz external tones (goes away for about 2 mins at a time).
The 1.5 kHz tone is very variable. Pressuring my ears changes it, pressing my earlobe into my ear changes it, sometimes even just lying on my left side makes it subside/go away completely. I get a similar tone in my left ear when I blow my nose/my ear gets caught pressurised, but then it clears/goes away.

By 2017 I didn't really notice either anymore, but unfortunately this week I was exposed to a very loud noise (trash compactor) and both are back full-force. I believe the 16 kHz tone is back because of the acoustic trauma of the event, and the 1.5 kHz tone I'm just more sensitive to because of hyperacusis (I'm very sensitive/aware of all sounds now).

Any advice welcome.

 

[Bill Bauer]

Any advice welcome.

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

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.

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.

 

[Contrast]

The ENT may have damaged your hearing.
http://www.tinnitusjournal.com/arti...resulting-from-cerumen-removal-procedures.pdf

 

[Contrast]

I developed tinnitus in 2015 after a music concert, a ~16 kHz tone.
Then I developed a ~1.5 kHz tone in my right ear after an ENT exam/cleaning.

The 16 kHz tone is constant, but responds to 15-17khz external tones (goes away for about 2 mins at a time).
The 1.5 kHz tone is very variable. Pressuring my ears changes it, pressing my earlobe into my ear changes it, sometimes even just lying on my left side makes it subside/go away completely. I get a similar tone in my left ear when I blow my nose/my ear gets caught pressurised, but then it clears/goes away.

By 2017 I didn't really notice either anymore, but unfortunately this week I was exposed to a very loud noise (trash compactor) and both are back full-force. I believe the 16 kHz tone is back because of the acoustic trauma of the event, and the 1.5 kHz tone I'm just more sensitive to because of hyperacusis (I'm very sensitive/aware of all sounds now).

Any advice welcome.

How long have you had hyperacusis?

Is your hyperacusis pain from sound or noises sounding too loud?

 

[Digital Doc]

You have suffered a repeat acoustic trauma. Sounds like the tinnitus is noise induced. Folks with tinnitus remain at risk to respike from repeated noise exposure.

Best recommendation is to protect from any additional noise exposure (much easier said than done), and hope it goes away.

 

[JohnFox]

The ENT may have damaged your hearing.

Ya know, I have wondered about this too. During my "treatment" with the ENT over my sudden loss of hearing and onset of tinnitus, I was of course given a series of hearing exams. In the beginning the ENT put me on a prednisone treatment. Following that treatment, I was given another hearing exam. When I entered the little cubicle the technician asked me if I felt there was any improvement (I lost all hearing in right ear) in my hearing. I told her that "no, I still cannot hear a thing in my right ear." She proceeded with the test. At one point she inserted a kind of noise plug into my deaf ear telling me to let her know if I experienced anything painful. During the test I did actually hear some input into my right ear. I also at one point felt a vibration in my ear that bothered me and I yanked the plug out telling her that that was too much. Following the test I told her that I indeed heard "something" in my bad ear. She told me "well, I turned it up really loud almost to the "dangerous" level. Your still essentially deaf in that ear." The dangerous level??? What the heck did that mean? I already knew walking in there that I was essentially deaf in that ear. I didn't need some technician to crank up the volume to the "dangerous level" to tell me that. How many ears have these people compromised just so they could present you with some chart telling you how deaf you really are?

 

[GoingGrayy]

How long have you had hyperacusis?

Is your hyperacusis pain from sound or noises sounding too loud?

I've had the hyperacusis since the incident last week. It seems to be getting worse unfortunately.

 

[GSC]

Ya know, I have wondered about this too. During my "treatment" with the ENT over my sudden loss of hearing and onset of tinnitus, I was of course given a series of hearing exams. In the beginning the ENT put me on a prednisone treatment. Following that treatment, I was given another hearing exam. When I entered the little cubicle the technician asked me if I felt there was any improvement (I lost all hearing in right ear) in my hearing. I told her that "no, I still cannot hear a thing in my right ear." She proceeded with the test. At one point she inserted a kind of noise plug into my deaf ear telling me to let her know if I experienced anything painful. During the test I did actually hear some input into my right ear. I also at one point felt a vibration in my ear that bothered me and I yanked the plug out telling her that that was too much. Following the test I told her that I indeed heard "something" in my bad ear. She told me "well, I turned it up really loud almost to the "dangerous" level. Your still essentially deaf in that ear." The dangerous level??? What the heck did that mean? I already knew walking in there that I was essentially deaf in that ear. I didn't need some technician to crank up the volume to the "dangerous level" to tell me that. How many ears have these people compromised just so they could present you with some chart telling you how deaf you really are?

That's really gross that they'd do that especially when you're trying to regain your hearing. Things like that could've potentially jeopardized the treatments you were going through...