Tinnitus Fluctuations: Signs of Recovery or Just Normal?

Hey all,

I just hit 4 months with my tinnitus. It started in my right ear only from a bad ear infection. Then I caught a virus or two soon after, and that’s when the bilateral tinnitus started with other tinnitus sounds along with distortions/reactivity to shower, heating system, refrigerator, driving, etc. I have no hearing loss on any audiogram up to 8,000 Hz, however, I just recently discovered, on my own, that there is a definite hearing loss/difference in my right ear compared to left at around 12,000 Hz and higher. Just imagine if someone tested me past 8,000 Hz four months ago and tried steroid interventions? I digress.

Anyway, what I am experiencing recently is constantly fluctuating tinnitus with regards to frequency (low and high pitch) and characterization (hiss versus tone). My constant 12.5 kHz hiss is now going from a hiss to almost a pure tone (no strong hiss sound) to going out and not even being there, to back to a hiss. It’s basically like changing the dial on an old radio and you get static, a pure sound, then nothing, then repeat. This can happen in a matter of seconds, but can also be “stuck” on one of the presentations for a while. This may be “normal” but to me it’s almost like my brain is trying to “figure it out” instead of just being a constant high hiss all of the time.

Intrusiveness also goes in and out. Some moments it’s so present and cringing, then changes to mild. Again, this can happen in seconds to minutes. My other constant tones (a pure tone and a morse code note changing tone) also change based on sound around me. They will be lower in frequency, then shoot up to higher frequency, get quieter, get louder. Nothing is ever constant, except for my reactivity/tinnitus winding up to higher pitches when around more sound, and the fact that I have some type of 3 noises usually going on at one time.

Also, what boggles my mind is that my loudest tinnitus sound/tone is in my left ear, the ear that was unaffected by the ear infection. What gives?!

Could these more recent fluctuations, especially with the high hiss, mean anything in terms of progression of healing? I know only my brain knows that, but hoping to maybe get some feedback from others who have experienced anything like this. I truly hope I can experience improvement, given my case/possible hearing loss on higher frequencies in my right ear. I had NO idea what a bad ear infection could do, I literally thought maybe just 1-2 constant sounds for a few weeks/months, then gone. Not this cacophony of changing sounds and noise reactivity/winding up.

 

I think it’s impossible to know if these fluctations means something in terms of healing. In my early months I often hoped that sudden fluctations (or any changes at all) was a a sign of better days to come. I would kind of be listening for changes. Nowadays I’m not that hopeful.

 

It could be. Only time will tell though. As others have mentioned, it's impossible to know really. And every case is somewhat different. My tinnitus fluctuates on a daily basis, but it is more stable when I'm more stable. Stable in a sense of mood, stress levels, food, sleep and such. It all connects - to me.

There is a good chance that you will feel a lot better at one point @ErikaS. Whether it will take 3, 6, 9, 12 months to get there, God knows. I believe in you and your journey, and that you have the power within to heal.

Healing may not necessarily mean you'll be free of this, but that you'll come to a point where you find acceptance and that you're okay with it most of the time. That it doesn't limit your life, and what makes life fulfilling for you.

 

Your words are so, so appreciated @MindOverMatter... I am in some deep depressive moments with this as it is not getting better. My reactivity is still so sensitive, and I want to just try to live my life but am afraid of too much sound exposure. I went to two family holiday gatherings that were small and quiet enough to attend, but I was still so anxious and worried most of the time I was there. If it wasn’t for this reactivity/sound sensitive tinnitus, I would be so much better off. And then with it being volatile this early on, I just don’t want to do anything to worsen it. I am thinking I may need to try an antidepressant soon as my body and brain cannot calm down enough. I wish I could just go to sleep and wake up in 3 months and it be somewhat better.

So appreciative of your positivity. I too hope I can heal from this to an improved level. I’m 33 and before this I was going through 3 years of infertility. Still no child, and we have embryos on ice waiting for us. I need to get better so I can be what I have been trying to be for over 3 years now - a mom. I am a faithful person and I pray every day.

 

@ErikaS, fluctuations are very common. My tinnitus has been very fluctuating in volume and sound type since the onset 9 years ago. Now, it is just a bit more stable than during the first few months, but I still get very different sounds that change every few hours or every few days. One of the crazy features of tinnitus is how it plays withe everyone's mind.

Do not read too much on sound type changes, and work on avoid to decreasing the emotional response to the noise. It is the only way out.

 

Ugh, what I would do for a constant non-reactive tone *words I never thought I would say in my life*!

Thank you for your feedback.

I see you had high frequency hearing loss, what caused it and is yours unilateral? I have seen success stories on here with those who have lost hearing even from an ear infection like I did, so I am hoping I’m not screwed and stuck with what I have for life.

 

Mine is not too different from yours. Though my frequency is about 9500 Hz. I have had mine 10 months and yes, it does fluctuate - normally it is a hiss - but it can be a razor sharp tone instead. I prefer the hiss type. Sometimes I wake in the night and can barely hear it at all - but in the morning it is back to normal.

If this is a sign of improvement then - GREAT!

But is it?

I don't know. Mine is not really improving or getting worse.

 

Hi @ErikaS, I just wanted to reach out to you - another young woman to another I suppose and say I understand your feelings at present. I too have very recent tinnitus - it started as a hiss or slight eeeeeeeeee and now there is also a True Tone in my right ear. I would say we both share the same timeline but my cause is different.

Navigating life has become much more of a challenge for sure. I note you are hoping to become a mother, I am a mother of a moody 16-year-old girl that brings its own challenges at present.

I am reaching out to you in solidarity. I have no answers to your questions as such but I have the same hope as you that this affliction doesn’t get worse and that we can get better or integrate it into our lives. Much love xx

 

Hi @ErikaS, in the past when I have had spikes to my tinnitus, as soon as it started fluctuating, it improved day by day. So I used to celebrate when it did not get stuck on a specific noise and fluctuated. However, the past ten weeks has been the worst spike I have ever had, and when it started fluctuating after about 12 days, I was really glad as I thought it would be like the other spikes once it started changing, it would improve day by day. Unfortunately, this time, it has not worked like that, it's been the most horrible ten weeks ever.

So I guess it's hard to tell whether it is a good sign or not, but definitely in the past for me changes meant a good thing, just unfortunately not this time.

I hope it's a good sign for your tinnitus that it is changing.

Take care,
Xenia

 

I see fluctuations as a sign of tinnitus being 'capable' of improving. Normally this is after noise trauma.

 

In the small hours of the night I have read many posts by @Bill Bauer, who seemed to me as if he knew the history and stats of the success stories back to front.

He always said in a number of posts that if the tinnitus is fluctuating, then it is a better sign than a tinnitus that stays stable for months on end.

 

Thank you everyone. I honestly don’t know what to make of it all. Because I seem to have had very high frequency loss in my right ear from the ear infection 4 months ago, I feel like I am in a “worse case” than someone who had a noise trauma and the nerves are inflamed but not dead, therefore can heal. I feel like the more I read, a sudden hearing loss, even minor or very high frequency/not on the spectrum of what is tested on an audiogram, is kind of a longer haul to see improvement with. I could be wrong, but that’s my sense. I also don’t know why I have tones in my left ear which was barely affected by the infection and doesn’t have any hearing loss. So many seem to have/stay with unilateral tinnitus when one ear was affected, I hate that I experience bilateral tinnitus.

 

@ErikaS, unilateral hearing loss can affect both DCN.

 

Well then I (and all of us) need Dr. Shore’s device asap.

 

You will realize over time that this monster called tinnitus is not what you thought it was. My advice is to not analyze or think about it because paying attention provokes the subconscious into creating anxiety. It will get better because the brain learns to ignore it. This may sound like I do not know what bad tinnitus is like, which is not true, as I would have done or paid anything for relief, for the first year and a half that I had tinnitus.

There are likely times during the day, even if only for a few seconds when you are engaged in something, or not, and you do not hear or notice your tinnitus. As time passes, these moments become minutes, then longer periods upwards to hours. As this happens, your emotional responses to tinnitus change. In the meantime, there are ways of relaxing and helping yourself to lower what is sometimes called Tinnitus Distress.

 

Just to add as others have hinted - extrapolating from seeming trends you notice is a fruitless mindset as tinnitus seems to be a condition that defies any real pattern. You can be really stressed out and have a quiet ear day - or you can be on a Caribbean beach relaxing and have screaming in both ears. You can eat junk food for days on end have have fairly tolerable tinnitus - or you can take on an inflammation busting low carb, gluten free diet and be begging for a suicide pill. It just can often make no sense at all. Thus - habituation and acceptance gets most people through in the end. But that is fine for me to say - I got it at 57 - and I gather many of you are young and embarking on life. You have my sincere sympathies but for most of you it will become less significant and life will go on well enough.

 

You are right. Tinnitus has no rhyme or reason at times. Analysing the ifs and buts only makes us give it more significance in our lives. I am guilty of always wanting to know what made it worse or how I can calm it down but regardless, it does its own thing.

 

@Luman, @Stuart-T, thank you for your input. As you know, 4 months in is still the panic/hard to accept this stage, especially when I haven’t seen any improvement with reactivity with tones that present like oscillating high pitches, uneven mores code beeping, and electric hissing. However, I remember complaining about 5-7 constant tones 2 months ago when in quiet, now it seems to be 3-4. Again, these beginning months are so volatile with the shock/fear/denial that one can’t keep up all the time with true changes, I’ve been so stuck on the reactivity aspect as this is what affects my life the most as my tinnitus volume doesn’t seem to go above a 5/10.

I went from a working 33 year old (speech therapist in a school) and juggling infertility/IVF procedures to build a family with my husband to now doing neither of those. Everything is put on pause, and the pressure I put on myself not only to get back to work, but become a mom is a huge part of why this is so hard for me and I just want it to improve. I don’t need silence, I need minimal to no reactivity and 1-2 background low level tones. I pray daily and will seek interventions that make sense as I am a firm believer in early intervention to help the body heal/adapt.

 

Hey @ErikaS,

I’m about 8 months in now, but have very unstable/fluctuating tinnitus. I will say the last 3 months have been much better then the first 5/6. It does take time like they say. Mind you, I’m in a spike now, but it’s been doing that off and on. I have 3 tones - one’s a morse code and the baseline goes really high pitch (dog whistle/tea kettle). It changes sometimes if I swallow or even depending on the background noise. I’m still hopeful it will improve. I’ve had a couple weeks where it was so manageable I remember even thinking/saying ‘If it stays like this, I can handle this no problem.’ So I think I can get back there and I’m sure you can get to that point too!

 

Thank you so much for sharing @SamRosemary this truly brought me positivity and that this can improve.

Did you have any hearing loss with yours? I show normal hearing up to 8,000 Hz, but at home I discovered (with YouTube) that my right ear cannot hear 12.5 kHz and above at the level that my left ear can. So it seems I suffered some very high frequency loss in my right ear, which is my cause. I hope this doesn’t keep me “stuck” where I am and that my brain can adapt and quiet down and acclimate.

I hope, given our age, we have neuroplasticity on our side and we both improve from here!

 

Hi. I think as we age, we progressively lose higher frequencies. So dependent on your age, your hearing in that range could be classified as normal unless you have a test pre your ear infection you can compare it to. I have done those online tests but unless I can benchmark it to a recent enough pre-issue test, then I wouldn’t be able to say hearing loss is contributory to my tinnitus.

As we head so swiftly towards New Year, I think I need to heed the advice of many on here and that’s acceptance for now.

On another note - I was in contact recently with someone who had tinnitus onset as a result of a head injury in a car accident. She was also very young and has since had a baby as well. I thought I’d tell you so that you could hold on to that hope xxx

 

Unless you have tested your hearing prior to this discovery, you may have had this hearing loss from 12 kHz and above for many years without knowing.

I have high frequency hearing loss starting mild at 6 kHz and am more or less deaf from 10 kHz and above. I have probably had this for many years prior to tinnitus onset without being aware. Four years ago we were on vacation with friends in southern France. One evening someone mentioned the sound of the cicadas. There were 10-12 people sitting outside and everyone could hear them loud and clear, whilst I didn’t hear anything. If it hadn’t been for this specific episode I would probably have lived unknown of any hearing loss until a hearing test was done after getting tinnitus a year ago.

My ENT believes my hearing loss is genetic/inherited as there are lots of hearing issues on my father’s side of the family. He thinks my tinnitus is caused by stress/depression but that the hearing loss isn’t making things any better.

 

Hi @hopefuldede, thank you for your response The only reason I think this could possibly be my situation with the higher frequency hearing loss in my right ear is that there is a distinct volume difference in the hearing ability starting at those frequencies. My right ear cannot hear anything at the level the left ear can. Also, when my tinnitus came on in my right ear from the ear infection, it was a high hiss (still is) and registers around those frequencies. Do I know for sure? No, but I will be seeing an audiologist so she may do more extensive testing to rule out damage to the right ear.

Thank you also for sharing the story about the woman with tinnitus who went on to have a child. How is she doing with her tinnitus? It’s my reactivity that scares me the most, along with stress when it comes to embarking on that journey again. Afraid of that all making this much worse.

 

Oh yes, it definitely can improve. I don’t know if my noise has actually improved or my brain has been able to just ignore it better. My anxiety about it used to be awful too but I’ve been able to be okay with it more often. It doesn’t throw me into a panic anymore.

No hearing loss that I’m aware of. I’ve had 2 hearing tests and been working with an audiologist for my hearing aids (which I haven’t been using much and haven’t found too helpful yet). I did think at one point that I could have higher frequency loss because the reactivity was specific to high pitch, but I don’t know.

 

I'm new to tinnitus; going on to my 4th week. It's noise induced resulting in high pitched 6.5 kHz ringing in right ear.

For me the following things help so far:

Showers. Being outside and busy. Inside talking with people. Inside with two types of background noise. Watching TV and playing guitar or bass unplugged. I use a small ceramic heater set on fan only for background noise while sleeping and pretty much most of the time I'm in my bedroom. I watch TV or use a laptop with that ceramic fan on too.

Staying busy and/or staying distracted by the above-mentioned. Not sure if this information is useful or helpful to you. I hope the best for you and everyone else here.

 

The early weeks and months of onset of tinnitus is scary for most people. With time, I'm hopeful things will improve for you. I was a mess at the start in 2010 and then managed pretty well for a few years until recently for various reasons, like COVID-19 which worsened things for me.

As you had an ear infection and virus, it wouldn't do any harm to try some anti-inflammatories such as Turmeric, Ginger and Alpha-Lipoic Acid. Also, I have found Plantago to be useful for middle ear congestion and ear pain.

I also have multiple high pitched sounds that fluctuate and are very loud. My head sounds like an electrical storm most of the time. I found a local tinnitus support group was helpful and I still keep in touch with the group. Wish you all the best.

 

@NiMo, how do people know the pitch of their tinnitus?

 

You approximately match the frequency of your tinnitus with an external tone generator, like with this tool: https://www.szynalski.com/tone-generator/

It's all subjective and guesswork what feels most close to your tinnitus pitch. And not all kinds of tinnitus can be matched like this obviously since there are so many tinnitus sounds out there...

 

Agree.

 

I am wondering the same... I am only two months in.

I have quite a lot of changes, which I track anxiously (always telling myself that it still gets better). I have quieter sounds/hissing in the mornings. Up from 5 pm it gets really loud. I currently wish for the hissing sounds to stay - I would be able to cope with that (also, like you said, something I never thought I'd write)...