Tinnitus for Two Weeks But Two Quiet Nights

The high pitched ringing (7000-8000 hz) started about two weeks ago. It is there day and night. Sometimes it is louder than others, but it is always there. I have had two night when the ringing subsided. One was after attending a high school graduation where the person behind me was blowing an air horn. The other was after drinking a few beers one evening.

Oddly, these symptoms started the same day that my wife asked if I had any ringing in my ears lately. I have had a few very mild episodes at bed time over the years, but none recently. I'm wondering if this could be psychologically induced?

Hoping to find some help here and will surely share any good info that I find.

 

I realize that in this case your t had decreased following you hearing that air horn. But, in the long run, loud noises can only make your t worse (make it louder, or ensure that it becomes permanent). Consider staying away from events where you could be exposed to loud noises, for the next 6-12 months. You may also want to buy earplugs or 3M Peltor ear muffs, to protect your ears.

 

There is both good news and bad news to this situation.

First, some background. Tinnitus has its origins in hearing loss. Whether that hearing loss is direct (through auditory over-exposure) or indirect (through some underlying neurological process that has interfered with the auditory system's proper functioning), it is largely irrelevant and incurable. In your case, because you have had "fleeting tinnitus" over the years (judging upon how your wife asked if you had ringing lately), it is safe to assume that your Tinnitus has been gradually onsetting over time. Sudden onset of Tinnitus can typically be attributed to an underlying exacerbating factor (and psychological can certainly play into a sudden onset); but gradual onset tends to be directly related to hearing loss rather than indirectly related to hearing loss.

So the bad news: your tinnitus, because it has been gradual and long-standing, is most likely permanent and not an episodic encounter. Even if you just recently began to experience a serious flare up (and your new floor is much louder than your fleeting tinnitus ever was), the underlying damage to your hearing has created the space in your neural pathways allowing your brain to misfire and build the phantom sounds.

The good news: you can (and are already showing signs of) tune it out.

Perceiving tinnitus is purely a neurological phenomenon and it can be mastered using cognitive behavioral therapy, or just the passage of time. It takes most people around 6-18 months to naturally habituate and grow accustomed to virtually any constant stimulus. The first 8-12 weeks are the most challenging. The great news about your situation is that you've already had a couple of quiet or "tune down" episodes, showing that the neural elasticity of your brain has begun to kick in early. This is a fairly typical development in weeks 2-4 of habituation, but the fact that you noticed it means that you will hopefully have a prolonged calming effect.

My recommendations to help accelerate this process of habituation are to target the four primary triggers of neuro-mapped "perception" of tinnitus:

1. Sleep: Get plenty of rest, but try not to use benzos for anti-anxiety to help you sleep. If you have to use medication, use calming agents.
   
   
2. Anxiety: Exercise, focusing on cardiovascular; additionally, take a multivitamin. While this won't directly help in any way with the tinnitus, it will help drive down your anxiety through stabilizing supplemental behaviors and nutrition, which in turn, will lower your perception of the tinnitus.
   
   
3. Memory: Indulge in something fun and mentally challenging. Video games, for instance, that emphasize build-orders or sequences, will strengthen your memory and focus centers of your brain and in turn will help you tune out extraneous sounds naturally and instinctively.
   
   
4. Sound: Finally, consider modulation or notched therapy to start attacking the zone of hearing loss. Because you've already targeted a 7000-8000 hz frequency, you should be able to pin-point and neuro-modulate around this space. http://generalfuzz.net/acrn/ is a great resource to start using. Try not to use more than a couple of hours a day, and always keep to a reasonable volume.

Best of luck in accelerating your habituation!