Tinnitus? Or Obsession w/ the Natural Sound of Silence...

Hello All.

I'm new to this, and I'm afraid. I'm so new that I can't even be sure that's what is going on. My husband thinks the sound I am suddenly hearing is just the "Natural silence" you hear when you're in a quiet room (which I have noticed before and never bothered me) but I can hear it pretty much all the time! It sounds to me like the high pitched humming sound a TV lets off when it's sitting idle, but not off. I first noticed it on Saturday, 1/21; very suddenly. I was cleaning my daughters closet out when my right ear went quiet and started to ring.

This has happened tons of times in my life and within about 2 minutes the sound dissipates and your hearing is fully restored. (you know the old saying, "my ear is ringing, someone is talking about me")

Well this time, the hearing restored and the ringing dissipated, but the "interference" in my right ear remained. It frightened the heck out of me! It too, though seemed to go away over the next few hours, leaving my ear feeling kind of full.

Then, over the next few days, occasionally I would notice the noise, as well as the feeling of fullness, and sometimes even feeling my ear is "wet" when it's not. All of these sensations are intermittent.

Now? Since last Friday it seems like the only time I don't hear it is when I first wake up in the morning. It miraculously, doesn't bother me when I'm sleeping in a silent room. (I fall asleep with TV on, but in the middle o the night if I wake up I listen for it and don't' seem to notice it.) Then, in the morning after waking I check to see if it's there, listen hard for it, and within 2 minutes I hear it again. I work in an office and I hear it all day. I hear it while in the car, I hear it while on the phone. I KNOW I'm focusing on it and therefore causing it to become louder, but its really becoming an obsession. I can't think about anything else.. which is why I turn to the internet for answers, (which is scary as heck because everything I find says it wont go away and I can't imagine living this way for the rest of my life, I'm only 37).

I called an ENT and they can't get me in until March 24th! I was told by my GP that my ear (I don't remember which one) was impacted with ear wax like a year ago, but I was afraid to have him flush it as once before I had a doctor do that and it resulted in Vertigo (which was the worst 3 weeks of my life). The ENT was able to remove ear wax in the past with a suction machine (5 years ago), but of course the ENT can't see me for 2 months. If I go to my GP they will flush my ear, but here is my fear.. that once it's flushed the sound will remain AND I'll have vertigo. (Might as well throw me off a bridge)

I just don't know what to do. My husband wants me to stop talking about it and just ignore it, he still doesn't think anything is wrong. It's not very loud but I just can't stop focusing on it. Any advise would be welcome, and works of comfort desired.

 

Perhaps try masking it so your brain won't have to zoom in on the lone sound of T which it treats as a threat for the time being. Try to get busy to distract from paying attention to T. The brain will slowly learn that T is not a threat and so will learn to fade it out.

When tinnitus is new or at a new irritating level, and the ringing is causing much anxiety and panic, it is advisable to get masking going so you won’t be so anxious and fearful. Stress and anxiety are toxic to T. So try masking if you haven’t done so. I used to mask all day just to prevent panic attacks from hearing my ultra high pitch loud dog whistle T. Try these if you haven't yet:

1) Mask at bed time so you can sleep better. Find whatever sounds/music that are soothing to you. You can use a sound machine or sound pillow for this, or a computer with speakers.

2) If you need masking on the go, try load an ipod with nature sounds or music using itune. If you have a smart phone, you can download free APPs for soothing or T-masking sounds.

3) If you have computer and speakers, you can try these excellent masking sounds too:

TT's audio player: https://www.tinnitustalk.com/audioplayer/

or this online sound library, particularly the self-mix nature sounds: http://mynoise.net/

or download free sound generator ‘aire freshener’: http://www.peterhirschberg.com/mysoftware.html

or search youtube with words like 'tinnitus masking sounds', 'white noise', 'rain sound' etc.

Masking will help the brain to get used to the ringing without caving into a mental black hole. Try to set the masking sound slightly below the T so your brain can learn to accept T as being there but not over-reacting to it. Take care. God bless.