Tinnitus for 5 Months from Testing My Hearing with Pure Tones on My Headphones and Speakers

Hello all!

I think I was so stupid to get this.

I was testing my ears on February 2020 just to see how high I could still hear pure tones, I was having some difficulties hearing above 12kHz but I am only 27 years old. So I was turning the volume up, both on headphones and on speakers. I think I abused my ears doing this and I eventually damaged my hearing. I was feeling some weird feelings on my ears after doing this (it is like a discomfort when hearing sounds). I ignored it and I went to sleep.

Next day I woke up to some ringing in ears (just what you'd get after a concert or a loud night club). I ignored it and I thought it would go away by its own, because it happened to me before many times and it didn't last more than 24 hours. Unfortunately, the ringing didn't go away this time and remained for weeks and I thought I'd stay positive and maybe I would need more time to recover from this (yes I never knew tinnitus can be permanent, nobody told me about it before) so time was going by and the tinnitus is still there, I started to stress about it, all what I could hear is just these high frequency sine waves I was playing when I was testing my ears.

Now it has been 5 months already, I feel so devastated, I can't stop thinking of tinnitus, it really has affected my life. I hear it all the time, it is loud enough to be heard everywhere, I can't sleep sometimes because of it. I can't cope with regret, I just wish I didn't do this stupid test :'(

I went to my ENT. He told me my ears are fine and the noise I hear is nothing, it is just in my mind and try to not focus on it. I tried to, but I just can't :'(

 

HI @Martinf

I thought I had heard all the ridiculous things that ENT doctors say to tinnitus patients but I suppose not. Your ENT doctor takes the cake for saying your tinnitus is just in the mind and it's nothing. Your tinnitus is real and it's not something that you're imagining but you know that already.

You have noise induced tinnitus and it wasn't caused by stress as mentioned on your Avatar. Stress can make tinnitus worse but the fact you've previously experienced tinnitus multiple times and it went away, suggests to me you have NIT brought on by experimenting with audio tones through headphones. Please click on the links below and take your time and read my articles thoroughly without skimming. They are based on Noise induced tinnitus and I think you'll find them helpful.

Please do not use headphones even at low volume and try to avoid quiet rooms and surroundings especially at night. Place a sound machine by your bedside and play nature sounds at low level more about this is explained in my articles.

Hope you start to feel better soon.
All the best

Michael

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/new-to-tinnitus-what-to-do.12558/
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/hyperacusis-as-i-see-it.19174/
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/tinnitus-a-personal-view.18668/
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/the-habituation-process.20767/
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/acquiring-a-positive-mindset.23969/
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/tinnitus-and-the-negative-mindset.23705/

 

Thank you Michael, I actually read some of your posts before thinking of joining the forum. Thanks for all the effort. I remember my tinnitus was very faint the first 2 weeks, at that time I was taking care of my ears as much as I can, however it has worsened so bad, I believe the stress aggravated it. I was always hoping I would wake up one day and it will be not there. The fact that this didn't happen and that it is the same now for months, made me feel so miserable. I just couldn't accept that I am gonna live with this forever now, I hate myself so bad for the day I thought of testing my ears. I never thought it could go this bad!

I wanna also say that my tinnitus is a somatic tinnitus, head movements, opening mouth wide, yawning, grinding teeth... All of this make my tinnitus louder and more "audible"

Also my tinnitus is louder on the ear that hears better, which is weird. Thank you!

 

@Martinf

Noise induced tinnitus usually improves with time and this can take up to 18 months or longer. Please read my articles thoroughly and can't impress upon you enough how important this is. If you have a printer I advise you to print them and refer to them often to help reinforce positive thinking. Talk to your doctor about how you feel as a light medication in the form of antidepressant can help reduce stress. If possible, get a referral to an Audiologist that specialises in noise induced tinnitus and hyperacusis for counselling.

Take care
Michael

 

For the first 3 months my tinnitus was very fluctuating, sometimes it is intense, sometimes it is faint. I had good days and bad days but I was adapting and living normal thinking it will go on its own eventually. For the last 2 months my tinnitus has become so bad that I couldn't ignore it even for a second, it is loud enough to be heard anywhere. It is a hellish intense high pitch tone/hiss that I hear and feel at the same time. I feel somebody is torturing me with electricity in my head. The sensation is awful. My hyperacusis improved, but my ears feel weird and I don't like hearing any sound. I never took antidepressants or any drug in my life. I have always been healthy. My ears occasionally hurt since the onset of my tinnitus, I hear clicking/crackle sounds in my ears all the time.

No doctor has been able to help me, even by little. I really don't find anything enjoyable in life anymore. The fact that I am going to have to live with this my whole life and I am only 27 (knowing there's a good chance it will get worse when I get older) make me lose my mind. It has been 5 months now and I still can't accept what has happened to me. I wish I could sleep and never wake up again. I play a 8 kHz sine wave on my phone at 10% volume for my family members who are over 55 years old, they all can hear it clearly and I struggle to hear it at 80% volume...

I am sorry for the negative post, I feel devastated

 

Why so negative? You're young. There will be good treatments coming up in your lifetime.

 

Good evening, I hope you're doing well... I'm sorry, I was feeling suicidal, the sound I hear really made me tired. Luckily today my tinnitus stopped for about 20 minutes or so and got replaced with a clock tickling + some water sound. It was such a major relief for me! I was thinking my tinnitus is gone and the clock I'm hearing is actually a sound of a clock in my house that I couldn't hear before because of my tinnitus LOL. Now my tinnitus is back to the hellish high pitch/hiss but at least I am feeling a bit better.

I don't know what caused the tinnitus to stop and change for sometime but before this has happened, I was hearing my heartbeat very loud in both ears and I was feeling my eardrum shaking with every beat. I hope I will get rid of my tinnitus for good and I wish everyone else suffering from tinnitus the same. I can't see myself living with this forever.

 

Hang tough and the days will pass. The T may get better, or change, and you will change. Just keep hanging in there.

 

I feel like this is a good sign. From what I understand, fact that your T is changing at all means that it could continue to change. I’m also 27 so I can sympathize with the panicking over whether or not this is going to be my life from here on out. But like the user above me said, we’re still young. Hopefully we’ll see some type of effective treatment pop up in our lifetime. Hang in there, buddy.

 

I have been having 8 kHz tone/hiss tinnitus for 5 months.

Recently, my tinnitus started to fade until it was 100% gone yesterday. I had a full day of pure silence.

Today I woke up to a new 12 kHz tone/hiss. It was only 10% when I woke up and it kept increasing gradually throughout the day. Now it is at the same intensity as the old tinnitus but just higher pitch.

However, this new tinnitus is easily modulated by moving my ears with my fingers, for example pulling my earlobe or pushing the Tragus inside the ear canal etc... any ear movement would modulate the volume and pitch of the tinnitus at the same time. I want to say also that this new tinnitus is mostly located in ears and not in my head. It is more audible/clear sound and I feel like I have a speaker in front of me playing the tinnitus.

Could this be ETD? My ears are clicking/crackling all the time recently.

 

I strongly encourage you to be patient, and, if necessary, see a psychiatrist, as I was forced to do, because I made a mistake like you. I will tell my story to give you hope and, I think, helpful advice.

When I first stupidly hurt my ears on June 28, 2020, I was losing my mind with regret. Like an imbecile, I didn't put on my ear protection as I walked into a shooting range, and another guy shot off three rounds right next to me. I was completely devastated with feelings of stupidity, regret and desperation. I had ear ringing, sensitivity to noise, a feeling of clogging, and a strange feeling of a subtle needle and numbness in my ears. I was in utter disbelief that one mistake could destroy my life. However, people here and on another site encouraged me to be patient, as the healing process can take months. It was hard to believe them -- but as I explain below, they were right.

While it was great that people asked me to be patient, I needed more help. The one thing I did on my own was decide to see a psychiatrist. He prescribed me a small dosage of Lorazepam. Believe it or not, until I took that drug, I was insanely thinking about whether I could turn back time, to avoid the one moment when I hurt my ears. I am a very stable 52 year old, with a family, and yet I was in the shower day after day trying to turn back time, like a madman. Can you imagine this? I was up at night blaming myself and feeling truly desperate. However, the medication allowed me to calm down a few weeks. In the two months that have passed thus far, the clogged feeling is less, the ringing is a little bit less, and the strange numbness and needle feelings are almost gone.

I am hopeful for improvement, but there is something more important: if I had to live with how I feel now, I would feel lucky, and embrace life. I did not feel that way before I got on the medication, and was insanely thinking that I could not live my life. The medication allowed me to overcome my desperation and anxiety over this truly disturbing mistake I made hurting my ears.

In other words, it took long months to make some progress here, and I think many here will agree that I still need to wait many more months. I am now at the point where I realize that my mistake is just another mistake along my road that I must accept, learn from, and move on. I can honestly tell you that the some dosage of Lorazepam was very instrumental in allowing me to regain my sanity, and to be patient.

One thing I would strongly suggest is to see a number of ear doctors before doing anything. Hearing ear doctors explain the science was helpful.

For those in despair: Please remember that your life is precious. Destiny has given you this one ride here. Every day is a gift. Think about the many war veterans who still embrace life even after losing limbs. Be strong.

We are all here for each other.

I strongly recommend getting a white noise machine from Amazon. I use that and a crickets sound app on my iPhone. I play both at night in bed, and I fall asleep easily. I have a lot more suggestions, but I am exhausted now and must sleep.

All I can tell you is that you are lucky to be alive, and I want you to please realize that we are here for you.

 

Hi Martin! Any improvements? Having it 100% fade for a day sounds amazing. I hope you continue to see more days like that. I’m a month in and it fluctuates like crazy. Never a silent day.

 

I had 4 days of silence in my right ear 2 weeks ago, I was so positive thinking tinnitus was gone in that ear and will be gone in the left ear soon as well. I went to a quiet room and plug my ears, I heard tinnitus only in my left ear, right ear was dead silent.

Unfortunately it is back on the 5th day, I woke up with it screaming like never before and with extreme hyperacusis, couldn't tolerate a normal 60 dB conversation now. I am just very frustrated, most of the time my tinnitus is crazy loud and can be heard over anything, even in shower, and sometimes it fades to the point that I hear it only in a 35 dB room and sometimes pure silence. I just don't understand what is going on!

 

@Martinf Did you have hyperacusis before?? Or did you just develop it? Do you notice anything you do that might be triggering your tinnitus to be loud? I know noise does with mine... I have different tones and it’s quite annoying. I can’t tell if I’m making progress or not.

 

@Martinf

Hope your having better days. I hope you don't mind but I had to comment here. Your story sounds so similar to mine own experience. High Frequency hearing loss in left ear... but most ringing coming from the right ear. It's weird for sure. Mine started on or around October 26, 2020. I believe it was noise induced because I am a long time headphone user. My ENT basically had the same sentiment. But also added the good news bad news BS. You don't have a tumor... oh but you have tinnitus. You have to live with that one. Kinda harsh but evidently very true.

I have to agree with @Tom 2020. My doctor prescribed me Lorazepam 1mg and it has helped my sleep tremendously. I haven't gone the psychiatrist route yet but I know it can be beneficial. In two short months I've gone from curious... to annoying... to anxious and depressed... to thoughts of suicide... and back to annoyed. I'm older than you at 41 and until this new constant I don't think I ever thought about the word tinnitus. Now as you know it nearly consumes every waking moment.

I pray you are doing better and that one day all of us will receive that peace of mind we miss so much. Until then . May your endurance be multiplied and habitation and healing come quickly.

 

My story of acquiring tinnitus is so similar to yours. Played video on phone for 5 seconds. Ringing and sensitivity began a couple days after.