Tinnitus Caused by ETD — Symptoms

[Lilah]

I've been doing some reading and think that my tinnitus might be caused by ETD. Does anyone else with ETD also have these symptoms? Please add other symptoms that you may have experienced.

- negative ear pressure
- feel pressure behind your eyes, forehead, and top of your head
- started in one ear, and then moved to both ears
- tinnitus can gradually increase (either slowly or quickly) from a 1 to 10
- tinnitus is different based on movement/body position (louder when lying down, less loud when walking, etc.)
- a variety of sounds
- have normal hearing
- tinnitus gets much louder temporarily when sneezing or yawning

 

[Aaron44126]

My ETD was brought on my an infection in my right ear so it never moved to my left ear. My tinnitus has always been right ear only (though sometimes it seems to be in my head rather than in my ear). Even after over 1.5 years I can still tell that my right ear is not quite right, physically (in addition to the sound).

I can say that I share(d) some of these symptoms. The tinnitus started very mild and gradually increased to intense levels over the course of maybe three or four weeks. (It has since subsided considerably but hasn't completely gone away.) I have noticed that sometimes the tinnitus intensifies when I lie down, depending on my position. I did have a variety of sounds during the second month. Tone, ringing, hissing, electric buzzing, tea kettle, you name it. Sometimes it would change gradually or sometimes it would change abruptly. That also settled down after a few weeks. My hearing seems normal otherwise, as far as I can tell, and my hearing test came back practically perfect. My tinnitus does intensify if I stretch out my jaw (yawning?).

 

[Lilah]

@Aaron44126 did your T usually intensify to a loud pure tone? I am having a lot of different sounds and fluctuations, but when it gets loud and intense, it is always a loud pure tone. Also, did you find that your T get louder when you get a bit sleepy or drowsy, and were you waken up by your T? I find myself dozing off to mild T and waking up to blaring T.

Another thing I've noticed is that my T decreases a bit when I'm paying attention to something else such as music or talking, but it increases soon after once I stop. Did you have have the same experience? This leads me to think it is more of a brain issue than ETD, or does everyone with T regardless of cause experience this.

Thanks so much.

 

[Aaron44126]

At its most intense, it was strictly tonal. I was able to reproduce and measure it in that case, over 15 kHz. I did notice that it was more intense after I woke up, especially if I was woken up in the middle of the night (happens with young kids). It rarely actually woke me up, but it persisted in my dreams sometimes, I would hear it during a dream and wake up for whatever reason to the exact same sound.

It is normal for it to be less noticeable when your mind is otherwise occupied. I noticed this a lot during the first few months. Now I realize that it is the beginning stages of habituation, something I never thought that I could achieve in the early months but since have. (The noise is present but the negative feelings are gone; as such, I do not fixated on it and get through the day without even realizing that it is there except for a minute or two here or there. I like to draw the analogy to wearing socks, which you have on your feet all day but normally don't consciously feel them.)

Hopefully, the noise also calms down over time for you, and if it doesn't go away, you get used to it and it becomes a bother no longer. I know that sounds impossible at this point, but it happens over time for most people.

 

[Lilah]

@Aaron44126 did you also experience fleeting tinnitus and somatic symptoms (when you stretch, etc.)?

 

[Aaron44126]

I did experience fleeting tinnitus occasionally. I experience somatic as well, mostly when I open my mouth wide or stretch my neck in certain positions when lying down.