Tinnitus Only in My Right Ear Is Ruining My Life

Hello everyone.

I developed tinnitus in August in my right ear alone a dull pitched low whirring, humming. It has absolutely knocked me for six. This occurred about 3-4 weeks back and I immediately went to visit my GP despite the delays with COVID-19. The GP examined both of my ears and said they were both healthy with zero signs of infection or hearing loss or damage to the ear drums. I was prescribed ear drops to unblock hardened ear wax in my right ear the stronger drops. I did this and after about 3 days the tinnitus stopped. Unfortunately this did not last.

The right ear flared up again with the noises buzzing for most of the day despite the drops and I immediately booked myself in to have both ears micro suctioned since the GP advised this and said I certainly did not have chronic tinnitus.

I had the treatment this morning and the buzzing which has been apparent for the past two days is now here again. Previously it had been coming on only afternoons and evenings but when I awoke from sleep it wasn't present.

I'm desperate for some advice and help as I feel completely lost, the chap this morning said if I still have tinnitus post wax removal to give it 6-7 days before contacting GP for ENT next steps. How soon should the noise disappear post micro suction? I honestly believe if it was wax causing tinnitus it would have instantly stopped and it simply hasn't.

I'm absolutely devastated as I have a 4 month old gorgeous girl to look after with my wife and I cant give them my full concentration with this noise. I've tried white noise, distractions and nothing works. I don't think I can live my life like this.

Additionally today when I sit down or lie down on right or left side or even on back the tinnitus stops on command. When I stand up and walk around it intensifies as loud as before. I am a logical thinker and if my ears are healthy surely there must be an underlining condition with my body position as to why the noises have started? I have contacted a private clinic and awaiting tinnitus consultation chat on October 6th which is such a long wait for my anxiety. I can no longer enjoy anything I do.

I've ordered some supplements I've seen mentioned vitamins to see if they help but I hold out little hope.

I'm hopeful that the tinnitus will eventually fade at the very least or someone can get back to me with answers but there's just no quick solution and its coming up to a month like this on Monday.

What should my expectations now be?

 

Hey Pughma,

I have tinnitus in my right ear too. For 3 months now and it nearly drove me to off myself at first. Now I have been actively working on my anxiety control and I see some slow results. In any case, I do not want to off myself anymore, which is a huge gain

My advice for now is to keep your anxiety under control first and foremost, then you can figure stuff out with your tinnitus (you have very good signs that it stops), going to docs etc. If you keep freaking out you can make matters worse. But simply saying "relax and think positively" is probably not the best advice at this stage. So you need to actively calm the anxiety down.

What helped me:

I got Mirtazapine prescribed for sleep (it's kinda working) - I first tried OTC stuff but that didn't help, it may help you though.
Clonazepam for severe anxiety attacks (I only use 0.5 mg in the morning).

What helps too and I'm exploring now with a herbalist:

- L-theanine and passion flower (use the combo) - 3x daily -> this is a natural stuff and won't harm you, it does calm me down well.
- Ashwagandha - in the morning and before bed -> also a natural stuff with no interactions/side effects.
- I'm trying Saffron too -> you can check this out, there's a thread on Tinnitus Talk, it may help.
- 5-HTP -> haven't tried that yet - but that's my alternative to ADs, but it may have interactions and sides, so needs more research.
- Ginkgo Biloba and Pycnogenol -> not sure it's working for me, but always worth a try.

My long term goal is to ditch ADs and benzos and carry on with the herbal stuff.

@Jazzer has a good meditation technique explained in some of his posts - I advise to check that out.

Obviously, exercising.

Once your anxiety is down, you can access the situation better and maybe save some money. In my panicky days I spent quite a few pounds on private ENT's and a neurologist in London, to only get insulted and sent off with nothing. I tried acupuncture too, but it didn't work for me.

 

Thank you for getting back to me Johan and for the suggestions. I will definitely give them a go.

I have found that last week it did genuinely stop for several days and wasn't present in the morning. Now it's present at all times which I find so odd.
It's only day 2 of the wax being removed but it really hasn't shown any signs of improvement and I can't get hold of any GPs to see me.

At the moment I wake up every day and it's there which makes me not want to go on, at least last week I had the morning off from it and now it's constant following wax removal which I guess has made me much more anxious. Broke down in tears earlier with my wife and baby.

I have no appetite. How patient should I be in terms of months? I'm lucky I know in the respect my noise is not high pitched but either way it's just so annoying so my main target is to alleviate it and not be bothered by it but I cannot get my head away from thinking of it as bothersome or irritating as I am fully aware of what life was like when I was normal and this is not the way. In the words of the Mandalorian

 

I think GPs will be useless. I had nasty experiences with ENTs too. Your better bet would be with a good audiologist, I guess, someone who understands tinnitus and won't brush you off with 'learn to live with it'.

Terms are all dependent on each particular situation: loudness of the tinnitus and your emotional makeup. It looks like some may take a few weeks, while some take months or years. It´s very individual.

Do protect your ears from now on, so I´d avoid headphones. Also, you have a young child, probably a good idea to wear ear plugs when you are around her.

I never really cried before getting tinnitus, even though I went trough lots of physical pain with various operations. With tinnitus I have had regular nervous breakdowns. So, it´s important to understand that this is normal and let your wife understand that too. In the beginning, my girlfriend was annoyed with me and thought I was not strong, but after I showed her a few documentaries on tinnitus on YouTube, she realised what it is. That will put the strain off the situation.

 

Welcome to the forum. Here we understand your feelings as most of us had been where you are. So we have deep empathy for your sufferings and you are not alone. Tinnitus sufferings tend to be worse at the initial months. Generally people tend to get better from 6 months to a few years. I have ultra high pitched tinnitus and severe hyperacusis on top of it. I also have suffered anxiety and panic disorders for decades plus PTSD prior to tinnitus & hyperacusis. So you can imagine how bad was my mental state when both tinnitus & hyperacusis hit me suddenly. Like most newbies, I was in a mess mentally and physically. Life was very hard and there seems to be no end to the dark tunnel. Bad thoughts haunted me often as the brain saw no way out. So it was a nightmare and hellish experience. I never thought I could recover. But never say never. Today I live a happy, normal, productive and absolutely enjoyable life, travelling all over the world (before the pandemic). Good life can be back.

Don't despair nor panic. Try to read up the success stories to help you. Your tinnitus is very new. New tinnitus tends to be unstable and you may get too scared or frustrated by its unpredictable symptoms. Be ready for some set backs which happen on the road to final recovery or habituation. So don't give up hope easily. Success stories usually provide good strategies. I posted my success story 3 years after my bad tinnitus & hyperacusis started and share some helpful strategies. You can check out the link to the story below to see if they can help you. Hang in there. Take good care. God bless.

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/thread...w-i-recovered-from-tinnitus-hyperacusis.3148/

 

Hello,

I wanted to post as an update, I've had a low tone dishwasher/computer tinnitus sound in my right ear for 5 weeks now. It has been a situation where it's been on and off for a month. Mostly on. It has gotten quieter and I have had microsuction to clean my ears which I was advised to do.

I've had mixed opinions with the GP saying it is not related to ear wax and others saying the hardened ear wax was what caused this to begin with.

The latest GP appointment this Tuesday was awful, they basically said we can't refer you to an ENT unless you have had ringing for 3 months. Annoying as it is.

It has been getting quieter and since last Saturday up until last night it stopped for around 5 days, the longest it's stopped completely thus far.

It is now back again, not mega loud, but I am so annoyed that it's back and feel like there is nowhere to turn. The GP said it's likely that it will just go away over time and in 50% of cases we never know what the cause of it is.

I don't have hearing loss or an infection and it's only in the right ear so where are my answers?

The microsuction chap seemed to think it has nothing to do with wax and you need to see an ENT if it continues.

Are the signs looking good for me that my tinnitus is apparently capable of stopping and isn't massively loud or high pitched? I literally have no barometer and I've been pulled in so many directions now, I just feel like giving up and rolling with what happens.

Every time I think it's gone, the most frustrating and depressing thing is sitting there awaiting its eventual return. I had progress for a week and today I feel like I've been kicked in the teeth.

I really can't go on like this, I have a 5 month old daughter and wife who need me and I want to give them 110% and my normal self.

Sleeping has also been tough as when the tinnitus did stop, I could hear my heartbeat in my ears. I think I'm just a mess with it all and so fed up, I know there are worse cases but I just want it gone full stop.

Has anybody encountered anything like this and had something positive happen? I'm 35 and have a long way to go, I am only 5.5 weeks in but it is a low tone and capable of stopping it seems.

Steve

 

I would advise you stop getting microsuction. Many on here have developed tinnitus or worse tinnitus because of it.

Also, stop going to this GP and go to an ENT. GPs don't know anything about tinnitus or ear issues compared to an ENT. Your basically wasting your money with this GP and should be going to an ENT. The 50% statistic seems like bullshit too.

If the tinnitus has been fluctuating, I have a feeling over time if will completely go away or go to a level that is so low that it no longer bothers you.

 

@Johan001 I am planning the same track. I have Clonazepam but want to back off of it. I have taken Ashwagandha in the past, not sure if it helped.

What L-theanine and passion flower (use the combo) have you had success with?

I have taken Ginkgo Biloba, not sure it did any good.

 

Hi KWC, I use Solgar (UK brand) 150 mg. Now switched to 300 mg. I have a whole new programme that I'm exploring with the herbalist. Including lots of magnesium before sleep. Hard to say yet if it works, I had quite a rough 2 weeks with possible benzo withdrawal related suicidal ideation.

 

Hello,

I just wanted to post an update for some support as I'm getting very depressed with this awful journey I've been on. I have had tinnitus for 6 weeks now in the right ear only.

The facts, no ear infection, no hearing loss, no pain, low tone in pitch, it wasn't as a result of ear wax build up which was removed under GP advice via micro suction (awful mixed advice) It is quieter now but constant every day this week which is alarming me as the previous weeks it stopped for 5 days straight (yay a new record!)

The GP recently last week told me that 50% of time they never know why tinnitus can begin and unless its a constant for 3 months we wont do any ENT referrals and I expect it to get better over time. Basically they washed there hands of me and told me to go away and deal with it and hope it continues to improve.

I should never have told the GP when I went last week that it was getting quieter and had stopped for a longer period of time. I understand there's no cure out there but at the very least i just wanted to feel properly supported and checked out and I've been sent away with nothing and information from tinnitus U.K websites several times feeling like an annoying fly.

I feel lost, my wife is suffering as I'm grumpy all the time as I just want it to go away, I've tried being super positive as generally I am in life but its short lived as I find this so annoying, I go into quiet place (I know this is a mistake, like the loo just to check if I'm still hearing it.

Night time I am now able to watch the tv as its quieter than it was say 3-4 weeks back but realistically what are my expectations?

I have read so many online facts such as if its not gone completely after 3 months chances are you have developed chronic tinnitus. Others sources say it normally improves between 6-12 months time.

My tinnitus is on the low tone side and I appreciate I'm luckier than most but it doesn't make it any less traumatic for me.

I want to have hope but I don't know what I'm supposed to do, ride it out for 6 weeks until I hit 3 months.

Yes it has improved and sometimes even stopped (not since Thursday last week though now)
It sounds like mine is always far away in the background if that makes sense and my right ear has felt hot for feels like ages. The GP was not concerned by that at all.

I just feel so lost, I have everything to live for a 5 month old baby girl and my lovely wife (her mum) I find this so frustrating as its happened at what should be such a special time and for me its ruining it, I'm healthy, able to do my sport etc I am sleep deprived and falling to sleep is tough but you cannot be a new daddy and not expect to have troubled sleep. They say stress and lack of sleep causes it, but I am skeptical that being fresh and revived would suddenly switch this mind torture off.

Sorry this is long, I just feel like I have no options left to be rid of it, I'm impatient I know but I honestly am really trying, mindfulness is not for me as if something irritates me that's it, only being around people helps mask it and not possible working from home which I was loving until this started in August like a horrid bolt from the blue. I know there are worse things in life but to me right now its consuming me and destroying me from the inside out, feeling unsupported medically doesn't help. If there's no cure and that's it fine I will accept it and try to live a reduced quality life since I've known bliss (life without this irritancy) but I know that I've not been properly investigated, never done a hearing test but I don't see how that could help as hearing seems fine?

If only a surgery existed to fully investigate peoples brains and stop them sending these signals its just awful

Steve

 

All of us want our tinnitus to go away.

It can get worse. Not better.

What do you expect any of us can do for you? Tinnitus f*cking sucks!

 

I hope you find peace. I'm giving it till the end of the year and then I'm done. Maybe some of you can live like this but I cannot.

 

Man, the doom and gloom in this thread is real...
Stop overthinking it.

Go through the basic checks, if they cannot find a thing, so be it. It won't matter what the cause was, it won't change the fact that you have it.

Me? Get this... I got it from chilling in a chair watching TV on a Wednesday evening two months ago.
Why? No f*ing clue.
Then it went to both ears. Why? Again no f*ing clue.
There is no point in thinking it has a logical cause, because this condition is one big mystery.

That's also the reason you cannot believe the internet telling you it becomes permanent after X amount of months/years.

I spoke to my neighbour about it, said he had it as well, guess what... it went away after 1,5 years.
Reason? His best guess was visiting the pool on a vacation.

Aunt of mine had it for 2 weeks, gone the same way it came, without reason.

My grandpa had it all his youth, he said he doesn't have it anymore, why did it go away for him? Nobody can tell...

Just soldier on, don't let this minor problem ruin you life (or the ones whom you love in that regard).

In the end, it will almost always get better, you either get used to it, or it will settle and tune down.

 

Hi Steve,
To me, your symptoms don’t sound like an inner ear problem, more like a problem with your middle ear muscles.
I have experienced this too - a humming, low pitch buzz that comes and goes.
True tinnitus, the kind that results from damage to the inner ear will rarely completely stop and start.
I do suggest you Google ‘Tonic Tensor Tympani Syndrome’ and ‘Middle Ear Myoclonus’.
These conditions are not typically recognised by ENTs and as soon as you mention tinnitus, their eyes glaze over and tell you nothing can be done.
Some treatments for TTTS and MEM are muscle relaxants and even surgery as a worse case solution.
Something for you to explore.
you can even search in this forum and there are threads on MEM and TTTS.

 

Hi Samantha,

thanks very much for your reply I will definitely start researching along those lines and I'm inclined to agree that you're right as I really don't appear to have the classic form of tinnitus. Lately it's a case of coming up to 6 months with whatever this 'white rabbit object' symptom is and it is always worse first thing in morning and generally just before bedtime.

I managed to get an MRI scan on NHS and a hearing test came back fine twice. Awaiting results of the scan and assuming there is nothing grisly like the tumour I don't massively know who to approach NHS wise thereafter.

I think my situation has gotten slightly quieter since beginning but is still very annoying and random. It seems to have settled down into a very quiet tinny noise that doesn't stop now really except daytime with other distracting sounds about. I often wonder if sometimes it's because I'm really tired or get broken sleep regularly now with the little one.

I know in my heart something has caused it but not convinced I will ever fully get to bottom of it which is the most frustrating thing for me especially as you rightly say it may not even be tinnitus which makes me very hard to diagnose for people in this moment.

I hope you will have a lovely 2021.

Steve

 

Did you ever find out the issue? I have the same problem.

 

@Nikkiag007 Hi, no, unfortunately I am no closer to finding out what this issue is or why it began. My MRI came back and all I got was a letter to say, you will be delighted to hear that everything is fine and then that was the end of the care I received there.

Very frustrating as they didn't even acknowledge the fact I had this constant problem which was bothering me.

May I ask you how long you have been suffering with your issues or how it began? I hope you will find some progress soon

I'm waiting on NHS again for a re referral but understandably with COVID-19 that will take a millennia but all I got from the lady over the phone was they have access to sorts of coping therapies etc.

It's very frustrating as I'm just battling on at home by myself with less natural distractions trying my best to ignore the sound, it has got quieter.

My expectation and hope is maybe it won't go but my methods and ways of living with it and working with it will improve. Sleeping wise it winds me up less which is progress. If I'm tired, I hear the sound but too tired to care, sometimes I think it's much worse as I pay it far too much attention. Thinking about it brings it to my conscious state of mind and then you get fixated. The brain is a crazy, wonderful, yet stubborn thing.

Kind regards,
Steve

 

It looks like your case, even if it is tinnitus, is quite mild by some members' standard who may have to deal with multi-tonal or pulsatile tinnitus 7/24 and may also have hyperacusis to deal with it. So try to think positively that in your case, it is quite likely you will habituate to it even if it may not disappear. Giving your body enough time to absorb in the ringing sensation, and trying to not provide more stressful fuel to the tinnitus tyrant will help your body to slowly get used to it and habituate to it.

I have ultra high pitch tinnitus and hyperacusis over 10 years ago. I was in a mess initially, wondering how I could live with life so unlivable for the rest of my life. But until December 10 last year, I was living a normal, happy, productive and enjoyable life, having habituated to my tinnitus and hyperacusis was long gone. I provide the link to my success story below so hopefully you can learn some helpful strategies to cope with tinnitus.

But on December 10, 2020, I was hit with a sudden sensorineural hearing loss on my left ear. Besides profound hearing loss, the ear also develop a new loud, rumbling, roaring humming tinnitus and the hyperacusis is back to make the ringing super loud and reactive. So now I have a bass in my left ear and a soprano on my right. My 2 ears now feel fullness and pressured and plugged up all the time. But I have been maintaining a positive attitude that, despite my left ear may go deaf, I will live life normal again if not months but in a year or 2. I also apply all the strategies I have learned and listed in my success story. So far I had been able to deal with this new challenge without panic nor depression and sleeplessness like the first time. Sometimes, life not being perfect, we will get hit with some curve balls in life that come from no where. I guess we need to learn to let go some imperfections in life and move on.

I learn this from watching this show by David Letterman in a 1996 show with William Shatner (Star Trek Captain Kirk). Both of them actually suffer from tinnitus, with Letterman admitting he even had 2 tones in his tinnitus, whereas Shatner had it real bad together with Spock, his big-ear alien star, when an explosive went off unexpectedly too close to them on a Star Trek show. Shatner became a ATA spokesperson for a while too. I learn from them to take it a little easier on myself and on life, so life can be lived easier. It has helped by changing my thinking on my tinnitus as I slowly learn to do nothing for my tinnitus. Here are some links hopefully they can help you in some ways. All the best to you. God bless.

David Letterman & William Shatner show:

David Letterman with William Shatner - March,...

Doing nothing for tinnitus works best for this guy (and me too):
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/doing-nothing-worked-for-me.4778/

My own success story:
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/thread...w-i-recovered-from-tinnitus-hyperacusis.3148/

 

Hi everyone, I am intrigued by some of your amazing progress and success stories. I have now had my tinnitus for the best part of 7 months (right ear only). No hearing loss or diagnosis unfortunately provided by anyone.

If I look back 6 months, it used to regularly start and stop but now it is a permanent albeit very quiet noise I only tend to hear in silent rooms. Central heating masks it coupled with certain TV volumes, I also struggle to hear it outside now which is progress to an extent.

However, what bothers me and gets me down the most is even though it's very quiet noise it has a pulsing quality to it and I'm trying to be brave and go into silent rooms but I don't just want to sit there and listen to it as it still makes me super anxious and if I'm tired I will sleep but it takes up so much of my mind.

I don't know how to get out of this routine of checking it all the time I'm somewhere quiet. Since Christmas I haven't had to work too hard to find it's always there. The point is it still bothers me whenever I go to a quiet room and I know you mention time is a great healer but my brain doesn't seem to be getting used to it at all, it feels like a constant circle and if it was a static pitch would be half the battle for me but its a very quiet irritating tinny noise I just cannot get used to.

Majority of the day I don't hear it with central heating and I play my radio or if I go running or tennis (lockdown now in Britain sadly).

I just feel like I'm caught between what best approach is, I feel like my brain just can't put it to background in a quiet room so is there anything I can do to help tell my brain it's not an important sound and please put it in background. More and more things seem to help mask it now but now I'm hyper aware of what those natural maskers are which sucks. Nothing seems to help in total silence but I can't completely avoid this full stop.

I've read from some people to completely mask and avoid it throughout your day but others who say to embrace those silent rooms as this way you get more used to it?

I just feel in complete limbo everyday and wondered if you had any tips or why it seems to be taking me so long to find any moments of progress now? I feel I've come some way but now feel it won't get to improve to any further level and I literally want a 10-20% further improvement to be happy again once and for all and stop even thinking or talking about this stupid sound.

Kind regards,
Steve

 

You lucky bastard! Enjoy the mild tinnitus! It could be so much worse!

Stop checking for it. Why aren't you using background sounds? Have a waterfall sound or something else play in the background. Don't mask the tinnitus but make the living space enriched with sound other than your tinnitus.

 

@Pughma84, I see you are still active but have not posted for a good while. How are things going with you?

 

Does it still go away when you lie down? There are periods of days or weeks where lying down on my right side shifts my tinnitus completely from my left side (where it always is) to my right side, then if I roll over to my left side it shifts from the right side back to the left. This happens over the course of 1-2 minutes and tipped me off that my tinnitus was somatosensory and musculoskeletal in nature. I've been using that information to systematically treat it with fairly great results.

This might sound silly, but I suggest meditation to deal with hearing it and moving on. I use the Headspace app (unrelated to tinnitus) and a big focus of their guided meditation is being able to have a thought pop up, acknowledge it, and move on.

I've found that I can essentially do something similar with my tinnitus now. I'll suddenly notice it (whether it's constant or randomly a little louder), acknowledge that I've heard it and it's there, and then I'll move on back to what I was doing. It's so simple it sounds stupid, but the mind is a powerful thing and if you want to not focus on it your brain can do that, but it requires training.

 

Hello all and thank you for writing to me. That’s really kind. Unfortunately, no, it has never fully gone away. I’ve noticed that the lying down thing now is pretty irrelevant as it’s now been over a year and sleeping on sides doesn’t appear to change things too much except possibly the loudness from time to time. It’s still the right hand side where it’s only present and completely masked by things such as shower, extractor fans, humming devices, engines and heavy traffic passing by. Not ideal as you can imagine.

The thing I’ve been struggling with recently is being outside in nature. When I hear the humming of my tinnitus whilst outside in my favourite places it’s so hard to cope with. A peaceful mountain lake for example is still beautiful but no longer peaceful in my head. So I believe I still need to get to your stage @anonymoose whereby the brain can switch it off more easily with thoughts and distractions. This can happen for me and it’s better in noisy places but where there’s total silence and all you have is the tinnitus you can hear, I feel that I won’t ever be able to improve my approach here if that makes sense unless my techniques improve a lot as there’s not a lot of other sounds to focus on in complete blissfully peace places. I keep trying everyday to improve but it’s not been an easy ride. Saying that, I will acknowledge that largely I am coping mentally better with its presence until I visit loved family places of solitude that I consider to be affected by the noise.

Kind regards,
Steve