Tinnitus on 15 Years

Hello. My name is Eva and I am 15 years old.

Since the past few months I have a constant ringing in my ears which I notice it more at quiet places or before I go to sleep.

The problem with my ears generally started in the Summer when I was flying back home with the plane. I was really sick back then and when the plane started to land, my ears clogged. This was something temporary and it didn't cause further problems.

But on September.I was under the weather again and my ears clogged again causing also ear inflammation and poor hearing. That's when I started having tinnitus in both my ears. I went to the doctor three times.

At first, he told me it would pass and they were just clogged as they were when I visited him in the Summer.

After a week, he prescribed me medication since the problem continued.

The third time,I didn't have ear inflammation any longer and my tinnitus had receded. Then he used ottovent to pop my ears because there was still some fluid inside. My ears cleared but after a couple of weeks my tinnitus returned so I visited the doctor again and did an audiogram and everything was normal and he said that it was probably because of anxiety because of school and stuff... He also told me to do a blood test to see if there is some other factor that is causing them, but they also turned out fine.

And I'm asking you for your advise because I don't know how to procede next. My doctor mentioned anxiety but if that was the cause of it, why didn't it bother me before because I was quite an anxious person, especially 1-2 years ago.

Is it because I use headphones a lot? Should I do some extra tests? Is it normal that I have tinnitus at this age?

Thank you in advance.

 

You are a thoughtful young lady to come here and pose the questions you have. Because your ears are showing some sign of injury, I strongly encourage you to discontinue headphone usage. I am a music junkie and have paid for it I believe being much older than you.
Your first step is to protect your ears in hope your tinnitus will fade.
Do you have acute sound sensitivity i.e. hyperacusis?

The reason your anxiety didn’t manifest your tinnitus earlier is because the level of injury to your hearing apparatus wasn’t as severe earlier. Tinnitus generally…or at least can come about when anxiety, i.e. heightened stress hormones intersect with a physiological event such as your plane ride inducing pressure further aggregating an infection or illness . This perfect storm can alter how your brain processes your hearing signal and can create tinnitus. I hope this makes sense. Anxiety + illness + previous injury to hearing due to sound exposure can = tinnitus. This scenario is often reported here. A consistent theme in fact.

 

Thank you for your quick answer. No, I don't have sound sensitivity or at least I haven't noticed any change in my hearing except for the tinnitus. I will stop using headphones as you suggested. Is there a chance that my tinnitus will be fully healed?

 

Hi eva

I had tinnitus when I was child. Later as a teenager it came back. I don't remember too much but my Mum told me that it was bothering me enoughto see a GP. I think I got used to it and forgot about it for a few years. I would say it was a mild pure tone which wasn't very bad. It was twenty years later that mine suddenly changed to being really loud. As a young person I never thought about protecting my hearing. I never thought my tinnitus could change as it was quiet and stable for years. I wish now that I had protected my hearing. Noisy jobs took it's toll over the years. So I would say to you as a young person, please protect your hearing to prevent it from getting worse. Hopefully it will settle down and as long as you look after your hearing and be careful with those headphones, loud places, etc, you will hopefully be fine. I wish someone could have told me back then, what could happen to me. Now life is so tough. The volume of my tinnitus and the noises I hear are insane. Make sure the ENT and GP give you proper treatment, be careful around noise and I hope things will be OK for you. Take care.

 

Good on you for drinking the non headphone usage koolaid. I know many on this forum don't subscribe...or a few don't to Michael's mantra on this, but I do because those with injured ears have special needs. Like rehab from a sport injury. If you try to perform normally with an injured body, you will set yourself up to greater injury and snowball down the slippery slope.

My response to the question each of ask ourselves is two fold:
1. Always choose hopefulness over fear in the absence of knowing. Why? Because you don't have any data to suggest you won't recover and some do.

2. To put yourself on the best path, do everything in the context of hearing the best you can to address your injury to set you up for success. Evaluate your lifestyle. Don't try to run a marathon on a strained knee. Injured ears have special needs so protect them as they hopefully heal.

A more concrete response to your question based upon probabilities is....your tinnitus and H will likely improve. The statistics are biased in this regard because many don't change their lifestyle to accommodate their hearing injury. Do the same thing over and over again?...definition of insanity...don't expect a different outcome. The trajectory of hearing is based upon genetics + environment. You have control...somewhat...over your environment. Your T may not go away for example but change to a more tolerable level which you can live more comfortably with. Then...as you live your life, a team of scientists who meanwhile are working as I write this are working on therapies to vanquish this insidious disorder and hopefully in 5-10 years a bonafide protocol will become available which will eliminate if not further reduce tinnitus for those afflicted.

Hope that makes sense.

 

Stophiss makes good point. Research is going on and hopefully a treatment or cure will come. You are young so likely to benefit from some future treatment. I'm getting older but still hope there will be a treatment in my lifetime.

 

@Tweaker It is true that they don't tell you much about protecting your ears. I personally didn't know about tinnitus before this year because no one had told me that something like this could happen to me.
I also hope that you will get better.

@stophiss I totally agree with what you've said. I will try to be more protective with my ears and hope for a better outcome. I truly hope that scientist will find a treatment soon. Thanks again.

 

You sound like a thoughtful and wonderful young lady. Youth is on your side Eva. A cure will come for you and meanwhile your young immune system should work in your favor provided you give your ears the best environment.
You are absolutely right. None of us had an owner's manual for our body and virtually all of us would have shown more discretion about our ears had we known more. Many believe...certainly I...thought some hearing loss was a function of age which is almost expected and OK. What we didn't know about was the ridiculous condition known as tinnitus and hyperacusis.
Be well and have fun.