Tinnitus Gets Worse from Background Noise

My tinnitus gets much worse with background noise such as the TV or the photo copier humming in work. It backs right down in silence. It seems to make it buzz and get louder. Any ideas on this or how to manage it?

To clarify, the background noise seems to make it buzz and get louder.

Thanks in advance.

 

Sounds like you have reactive tinnitus...
Nobody is quite sure why some tinnitus stays the same and why some react to sound...this should be an important clue for the scientists to work with.
As long as it goes back to silence you are in good shape, but deffinitelly protect your ears in loud enviroinments..
I would avoid concerts or cinema for a while if I was in your shoes.
This could be your early warning of sorts, as it is possible that one day it may not go back down to quiet anymore.

 

Same problem for me. Even a fan running especially at night makes it spike.... i cannot use white noise generator or stuff like that. It makes it worse.
Don't know why...
But i have to say that it has improved during the last months. Background noise dosen't affect the T as much as it used to do. But very lourd noises (like engine, fire alarm) make it worse for a while (minutes to hours).
Your T is young, i hope you'll get better.

 

Can anyone advise me on this please?

My tinnitus has dropped down to a hiss in quiet environments. I can now sleep in a quiet room without masking, I can work in silence, I can read in silence. I can still hear the tinnitus in a quiet room but it is at a level of about 1/10 and doesn’t really bother me.

As soon as I experience normal background noise like the tv, a fan, using a computer etc it starts to induce a high pitch into my tinnitus. If I go somewhere reasonably noisy (but not loud) like a restaurant my tinnitus becomes super high pitched and the volume of it goes through the roof.

As soon as I go back to complete silence the high pitch and the volume drop right off and it’s a low level hiss again.

To illustrate this further, if I walk along a quiet road I can barely hear my tinnitus, as soon as a car passes it spikes up a loud high-pitched eeeeeeeee which passes again immediately as soon as the car is gone.

This is the same with a fan in work, the fan doesn’t mask my tinnitus, it actually causes a new loud high pitched tinnitus until I turn it off then it’s a hiss again.

I don’t think this is hyperacusis as the the louder noises cause me no pain whatsoever they just completely turn up the pitch and volume on my tinnitus. What are people’s thoughts please?

 

Hey @Shelly75 , i kind of have/had the same thing. During the first 1-2 months i often heard kind of a ringing/beep in other noises such as a airconditioner at work or my car on the highway. But the strange thingnis it wasn‘t my T that got louder, because if i plugged my ears i couldn‘t hear the beep/ringing. My T is always really low, i need to be in a silent room to hear it.

That all has subsided more or less, now the only time i still kind of hear it is if there is heavy rain or a waterfall or a loud river. But when i turn away from the noise or plug my ears the sound is away immediately.

So no idea what it is, but i think it will get better over time.

 

As a 2 time acoustic trauma T sufferer, My advice would be this:
Protect you ears from any further noise trauma, and just wait it out. Your ears need time to heal, and it will take time.
My guess is within 6 months this will all be behind you and your ears will be fine.
My first acoustic trauma 13 years ago (from a exposure to a lawn tractor that had a bad muffler) too almost 2 years to fade to zero, this time it (concert) it has been 23 months and it has faded 90%
Both of these were screaming loud T.
Yours is very new and quite mild, so IMO yours should fade in 6-12 months.

 

Thank you all for your replies, very appreciated