Tinnitus Has Faded, Other Symptoms Persist (Internal Tremors, Sound Sensitivity, Eye Floaters)

A bit of backstory, two and a half months ago I developed tinnitus because of stress and anxiety. Shortly after, my ears became very sensitive. I also have noticed more eye floaters, and I wake up shaking with internal tremors every night.

My sensitivity isn't constant, but it feels like my ears spasm when I hear certain noises like plates clanking. This has gotten better but lately it seems to be getting worse. The strange thing is my tinnitus seems to be fading. I have been waking up and can barely hear it for about a week.

I'm wondering if my other symptoms will subside too. I really think this is all from anxiety and stress so hopefully if I can work on that the ear sensitivity will fade as well.

Any support, advice or insight is really appreciated.

 

Welcome to the forum. Your description seems to point to some element of hyperacusis. I have hyperacusis besides tinnitus. It was tough as most sounds appeared way too loud and yes, I couldn't stand the sounds of dish washing with plates clicking and cracking causing spasm to the ears. Luckily, this type of hyperacusis that comes after tinnitus is likely to fade over time. My hyperacusis faded after a year or so. So it is one comforting thought and so try your best to take it easy. Take care. God bless.

 

Sounds like TTTS. This normally takes a year or two to go away. Hyperacusis also normally improves after about a year and is eventually gone.

I don't know anything about the prognosis for eye floaters.

 

The symptoms that you describe leads me to believe you are experiencing hyperacusis. This is often a result of being exposed to loud noise. Are you a regular user of headphones or wear a headset for computer games or listen to loud music? Any of these activities over time can cause tinnitus and hyperacusis. If you care to reply to my questions I can hopefully give you some advice that may help you.

I wish you well.

Michael

 

Thanks for the replies. Yes in the past I've worn headphones pretty regularly and maybe that was the cause. I've sometimes used them for gaming as well, but there was no specific incident of acoustic shock in recent memory.

 

I have this too and I think it is related to my tinnitus somehow because those tremors affect it (it becomes a lot more high pitched when I have them).

I am glad to hear your tinnitus is fading. Mine is still exactly the same after more than 2 years.

 

I can’t speak for the other issues, but I also have T and many eye floaters. Last year I got a sudden onset of floaters around the same time my T spiked permanently. However the floaters went away when I was less stressed and more focused on life. Given this, I would guess that your other symptoms will go away soon if your tinnitus has faded. Just try to lower your stress and think about/do others things to distract yourself.

 

Thanks Bill. I'll try and take it easy. Do you have any recommendations for things that help during recovery? I've seen a lot of different advice like pink noise.

 

Not really. Back when I had it, I felt a twitch each time I and people I would talk to would pause our speech. I couldn't see any patterns about what made it worse or better. It just gradually got better over time (it took about two years before it was gone for good).

 

Michael,

I really appreciate it. I have used headphones in the past that may have been too loud but never anything too crazy. To give you a better idea of what I'm experiencing, I am able to go outdoors, to grocery stores etc. I can listen to music at lower volume without too much difficulty. Things seem to get better throughout the day especially if I can keep my mind occupied.

 

HI @Will_brew

Thank you for the additional information. Do you still listen to music through headphones and I mean regularly? Although you have said that you've listen to music loud but never crazy, that is all it takes. Many people that listen to music through headphones, earbuds, Airpods and Headset will often listen at volume levels that are too loud without realizing it.

Your oversensitivity to sound may not be caused by headphones, and that's the reason I have asked how often do you use them? If it's every day or every other day and for long durations, I think there's the possibility headphones are the cause of the tinnitus. Oversensitivity to sound is almost always the result of exposure to loud noise. Some people go clubbing, attend concerts or work in noisy environments - these are just some of the activities that can also cause noise induced tinnitus

Although you find your symptoms troublesome at the moment, thankfully they don't seem too severe - I may be wrong but that's the impression I get from reading your post. I suggest that you click on the links below and read my articles. Pay particular attention to: New to tinnitus what to do. Hyperacusis, As I see it and Tinnitus, A Personal View. I have included other posts that you might find helpful.

See how you get on perhaps for another two or three weeks. If you haven't made improvement by following some of the advice in my posts: Using sound enrichment and not using headphones. It probably a good idea to see your doctor and asked to be referred to ENT for tests, just to make sure your ears are functioning correctly and you don't have any hearing loss, which can cause tinnitus.

All the best
Michael

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/new-to-tinnitus-what-to-do.12558/
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/tinnitus-a-personal-view.18668/
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/hyperacusis-as-i-see-it.19174/
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/acquiring-a-positive-mindset.23969/
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/tinnitus-and-the-negative-mindset.23705/
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/the-habituation-process.20767/
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/is-positivity-important.23150/

 

Hi Bill

You're a good man, you have spread so much positive advice over this forum from what I have seen since grazing over it from august last year.

I was wondering if you ever had any setbacks with H during your journey? Were there periods where it was more noticeable than other times during your road to H recovery?

 

I have the same symptoms.
Im unsure if my cause was stress or noise trauma, maybe a combination of the two.
I can tell you that 10 months down the road after unloading a lot of external stress and exercise the tremors have stopped and the tinnitus is pretty much gone. The eye floaters kind of subsided, from what i have read they are eventually pushed into the corners of our vision.
The sensitivity also improved over time but has just spiked up again recently after introducing some more stress into my life as well as some potentially dangerous sounds.
I would take a step back and try to relax for a while.

 

Thank you for your kind words.

I've had a huge setback at around 3 months after the onset, when I pressed an old landline phone (its volume stuck at Max) to my bad ear and the person on the other end raised her voice to greet me. That had eliminated all of my recovery and send me back to square one. That spike has lasted well over three months.

Hyperacusis might take a year or two to go away, but it seems to be the norm for it to go away.

 

@Bill Bauer I have reactive hyperacusis I think. If I'm in a quiet room every thing is quiet but as soon as I go around sound it gets loud. What would you recommend I do? I'm avoiding everything . My left ear started out this way and now my right is doing it. There is a sensation of pins and needles in right ear too. Any thoughts?

 

I believe what you have is reactive tinnitus (and not hyperacusis).

I confess that as a result of my tinnitus not being reactive, I haven't been paying a lot of attention to what tends to happen when one's tinnitus is reactive, or what (if anything) can help. You might want to search this forum using that keyword and in addition to reading the relevant threads, send private messages to the people who said they had reactive tinnitus in the hopes that some of them respond and share with you what happened to their tinnitus.

Tinnitus often spreads to the other ear. It happened to me about 9 months after the onset.

This is very unusual.

Perhaps in your case, an ENT could be helpful. Usually they aren't helpful when it comes to tinnitus, but you have other symptoms that they might be able to diagnose and treat...

 

Awesome news, thanks for taking the time to respond. I've read a lot of positive stories from people who have had similar symptoms. Things have already gotten better for me; the symptoms are definitely still there but hyperacusis has gotten way better. I'm noticing floaters less and the ear thumping is making very slow but noticeable improvement, as if I'm reacting a bit less to "sharper" sounds.

As you said, lowering stress has been the key so far, and exercise has been helping also. I'm certain in time this will all pass.

 

How are things going now?

 

I really hope it has passed to the point of not coming back to the forum... but if you do login, let us know how you're doing! I have had the internal tremors too... particularly in the first few months of the onset of my tinnitus (1 year ago). Mine was getting better at first (maybe habituation?) but then it spread to the other ear. Now it's slightly worse, and I'm getting floaters and visual snow for the first time. Tinnitus is more reactive now, when I hear certain sounds/frequencies it seems to be aggravated.

Hearing is fine, vision is 20/20.

Could stress really be causing it all?

Steve