Tinnitus from Nowhere — Or from Using a Gaming Headset for a Couple of Hours Every Night?

Hi, I've been experiencing tinnitus for over two weeks now and it came completely out the blue one day! I've not been exposed to any loud noises in a long time. The only likely cause is from a couple hours of wearing a gaming headset each night?!

My doctor told me I have glue ear but I can hear fine, pop my ears very easily and can actually blow air into them internally (I had a bad case of glue ear 5 years ago, so I know what it's like!). Zero chance of seeing an ENT doctor in the UK for months and it's really bothering me now!

It's a fairly high pitch and there a lot of the time but had a few hours at a time where it goes altogether and comes back (especially if I think about it, which I can't help but do!)

Any advice or wise words would be gratefully received.

 

Hi Ben,

Exposure to loud noise is one of the most common causes of tinnitus. It is typically caused by listening to audio through headphones, earbuds or headsets at too high a volume without realizing it or using them for too long a period without giving the ears sufficient rest. Other forms of exposure to loud noise will cause it too.

From what you describe I believe you have noise induced tinnitus, caused by your headset and respectively disagree with your GP that your symptoms are caused by glue ear.

I have a few suggestions of what you should now do. Please do not see a private ENT doctor, because you will get the best help and long term aftercare for tinnitus under the NHS that no private treatment can match in the UK, that I assure you.

There is a good reason a referral to ENT under the NHS can take up to six months. The ear is a very delicate organ and unless you are experiencing deafness, dizziness, balance problems or acute pain in the ears, doctors prefer to leave the ears alone, to give them a chance to naturally recover. More about this is explained in my posts:
New to Tinnitus, What to Do? Tinnitus, A Personal View, in the links below that I advise you to read.

Go back to your doctor and say the following words and be polite as possible: "Doctor, please can you refer me to ENT, to be examined as I believe I have tinnitus and I'm having a lot of difficulty coping with it". That is all you need to say. Don't say it with an attitude or demand anything.

I advise you not to listen to audio through headphones, earbuds, AirPods, headsets, noise cancelling or bone conduction headphones, even at low volume, as you risk the tinnitus getting worse.

Try to avoid quiet rooms and surroundings especially at night by using low level sound enrichment. Place a sound machine by your bedside and set it to play throughout the night until morning. Keep the sounds slightly lower than the tinnitus, they must not mask it. More information about this is in the links below.

All the best,
Michael

New to Tinnitus, What to Do? | Tinnitus Talk Support Forum
Tinnitus, A Personal View | Tinnitus Talk Support Forum

 

Thanks Michael, I will certainly be going back to my GP in a couple weeks. I'm flying away on holiday in a couple days which I'm now nervous about but way too late to cancel or delay!

Strangely it seems to settle in the evenings and not yet found silence at night time an issue. It's actually more in the day when general noise or in the car it seems to spike. Two young and loud children don't do it much good! Haha.

 

Hi Ben,

This is the reason ENT doctors advise patients to leave the ears alone and wait and see what happens. It is important not to sleep in a quiet room, so use sound enrichment using a sound machine as advised in my posts. Your tinnitus is likely to calm down so you may not need to go to ENT. See how you feel when you return from holiday.

If the tinnitus reduces to a level where you hardly notice it or completely goes away. Please don't be fooled by this because it's still there in the background at a very low level. I advise that you don't use headphones, earbuds or headsets again even at low volume, as you risk the tinnitus returning with a vengeance that you won't believe is possible.

When you time, go to my started threads and read my post: Will My Tinnitus Get Worse?

Enjoy your holiday and wish you a safe travel.

Michael

 

So is it fairly normal to have periods of tinnitus going and coming like I do? I have been praying that was a sign it might actually be slowly going.

I will certainly read your articles properly today when I get the opportunity so thank you for those.

Anxiety is through the roof now so can't imagine that's helping anything either!

 

Been well over 2 months now and not much has changed. Not worn headphones since and been taking Magnesium and B12 vitamins daily. My tinnitus seems to fluctuate daily and can't work out anything that's triggering it on the bad days. Some days I have silence for hours on end and get hopeful it's slowly clearing up but then I get 2/3 bad days where it rings almost non-stop! The fluctuations are mirrored in my mood which isn't helping me.

I'm telling myself my ears will heal but is there actually any hope of full recovery at this point?

 

Hey @Ben5627, I also have daily fluctuating tinnitus in my right ear. When mine first onset 3 months ago, I had like 3 bad days out of 4. Now I'm at slightly less than half bad days. It's slow going, but I feel I'm getting better. If you like, I can tell you what all I've been doing to try to push it in the right direction when I get some free time.

 

I would really appreciate it if you did! I often feel like I'm getting more good days then bad... then I get a few bad in a row (on a third bad in a row atm). Thanks!

 

Hey @Ben5627, sure thing. I'll give you a rundown of the tings I've been up to and some rationale for each in case it matches your situation.

I've had a low-level tinnitus for years, probably, but never knew it was tinnitus. I had a sudden onset of a really loud tinnitus in my right ear only starting the end of March this year. I didn't understand at the time why I had an onset, but, looking back now, I had months of high work-place stress an anxiety just prior to onset, so I think that was the tipping point for me.

My tinnitus has several characteristics. One, I can modulate it by moving my neck around and also when I chew. Two, it fluctuates by the day--by and large, whatever I wake up to is what I get for the whole day, some days it's a loud, high-pitched hiss, some days it's silent. It's pretty random, I don't know what I get for a day until I wake up.

The first thing I did was to take a leave of absence from work. I did this because my doctor told me to eliminate as many stressors in my life as I could, and work was a huge source of stress. This allowed me to focus on healing.

Second was to cut out caffeine and alcohol completely (I don't smoke anything, but if I did, I would have cut that out too). I heard that these can exacerbate tinnitus, so I eliminated them pronto.

Third was to see a dentist. I did this because I was wondering about how my chewing modulates my tinnitus. My dentist found out that I had overactive right jaw muscles. She told me how to massage them down to a normal size. Since she suspected I clench my jaw subconsciously and also in my sleep, she fitted me with a mouth guard. This helped reduce my right jaw muscles and this eliminated one source of tinnitus I had experienced in the beginning--a really squeally, multi-toned, aggressive pitchy sound. So I'm glad I don't experience that one any longer.

Fourth was to see a chiropractor, since I was curious as to why my neck modulates my tinnitus. My chiropractor found multiple issues with my spine and found that my neck muscles were completely tense since I carried my head forward due to slouching. She's been adjusting my back for weeks now, and now my posture is much better and my neck muscles are far less tense. I feel this contributed to reducing the frequency of bad days I was having. At some point along the way when my posture started getting better and my neck muscles relaxed, I started getting good days more frequently.

Fifth was to see a psychiatrist about medication. I was seriously depressed and experiencing a huge amount of anxiety because of my tinnitus, and I finally gave in and sought medication to stabilize my mood. The medication was a game-changer. It completely stabilized my mood, steered me from suicidal ideation, and allowed me to sleep more hours (I was getting like 2-4 hours a night before meds).

Sixth was to enroll in a group therapy class that teaches cognitive behavioral therapy. I did this because I heard CBT was often used to "treat" tinnitus. This was a game-changer. I can't tell you how much this helped. I didn't realize how many cognitive distortions (that is, unhelpful thoughts) I was subjecting myself to. The biggest coping mechanism I learned was radical acceptance. This is to truly accept that which you cannot control. It helped me truly accept my tinnitus, and this changed my attitude from one of suffering to one of annoyance but acceptance. This probably had the single largest effect of all of these. It changed my perspective, and thus my anxiety.

Seventh was to take supplements. I'm not sure how much impact this has, but I figured it couldn't hurt. I take B12, D, Omega 3, Turmeric, Zinc, Calcium, Magnesium lactate, Boswellia complex, multivitamins covering a variety of other vitamins, NAC, and TPP (you can search this forum about these last two, there are a couple of long threads on each).

Eighth was to get a CPAP machine. I have sleep apnea, and I put off getting a CPAP for too long, mostly out of laziness. But sleep apnea is a stressor, so I finally got a CPAP. This helped me further improve my sleep. I now get about 5 1/2 - 7 hours a sleep a night, but the quality is also much better. My deep sleep and REM sleep is much greater than before intervention.

Ninth was to do sound therapy and exposure therapy. For sound therapy, I chose to listen to nature sounds (fountains, rivers, rain, or crickets, depending on what I was in the mood to hear) in every room I was in, and all night while I slept. For exposure therapy, I subjected myself to outside noises in small but increasing doses. I started with walks around the neighborhood. Then visiting parks for a bit. Then visiting small downtown areas for a bit. Then visiting cafes. Then outdoor restaurants. I didn't mention this up top, but I also have reactivity in both ears. I feel that these therapies has helped my tinnitus a bit and helped my reactivity by a whole lot. Before, if I visited a downtown, it would sound like a million loud wind chimes all around me. Now, my reactivity barely picks up. I can go to a restaurant and enjoy a meal without fretting.

Tenth was eating healthy. Not sure if this has a direct effect on my tinnitus, but I wanted to eliminate diet as a factor. Biggest changes I made was to eat greens/vegetables before every meal, even breakfast and to avoid as many processed foods as I could (so no white bread, white rice, puffed cereal, junk food).

Eleventh was exercise, lots of it. An ENT who specializes in tinnitus told me that the number 1 thing for me to focus on other than good sleep is lots of cardio. So, I do elliptical for 40 minutes 5 times a week, and I do modest weights twice a week. This really helps a ton with just about everything, including sleep. The ENT was right, I feel this further increased the number of good days I have.

Other things I'm trying: neuro-feedback (aka bio feedback) because I have brain wave disregulation, so I thought it couldn't hurt. Some hypnotherapy to help reduce my anxiety (I'm an anxious person in general even pre-tinnitus). And I'm doing somatic therapy with a therapist to help with processing some childhood trauma that I have. And I'll be seeing an osteopath tomorrow to see if she can find any disfunction for me to consider.

Phew, I bet I forgot some stuff I did along the way, but those are the major things I did that brings me up to the present. As I mentioned, I used to get 3 bad days out of 4. Now I'm at, like 6 bad days out of 14. Also, another thing that's been happening recently is I'm noticing some bad days turn good. This happened today in fact. I started with a loud hiss, then it suddenly evaporated. (I very rarely have a good day that turns bad).

Well, I hope that helps you in any way. Feel free to ask me any questions, I bet I wasn't entirely clear on some of those.

 

Thank you. There's some really useful information in there that I will take on board and try as many of those as possible! I hope your healing continues and hopefully mine will to as I try these!

 

Sure thing @Ben5627, I hope you make good progress!