Tinnitus Since Last Week... From a Movie

Good Morning/Afternoon, All.

I was really debating posting here, but I'm getting to the end of my rope and everyone here seems kind and supportive, so here goes. Just for some background, I'm a 25 year old male and married (no kids).

Last Saturday, my wife and I were laying around the house enjoying a nice slow morning when I mentioned that we should go see a movie. She lost her job a few months ago and had been feeling depressed, so I wanted to take her out to cheer her up. Hearing good reviews about it, we decided to go see a 2 PM showing of Dunkirk at a local theater. Sometimes, we like to go into movies knowing little about them, so we didn't quite know what to expect. Note that prior to this, I haven't had any hearing trouble at all outside of the occasional ringing after a concert that subsides within a few hours.

Anyway, we get to the theater and the movie starts. It seems a little uncomfortably loud at first, but nothing too bad. Then, a scene with these loud German planes (and I mean LOUD) happens. I noticed a stuffy feeling in my left ear and though "well, that's kind of weird", but I was sure it would go away. Unfortunately, it did not. After the movie, I started to notice that I also had sensitivity to high-pitched sounds as well. I went to see my doctor on Monday afternoon, who prescribed me some Prednisone that I've heard so much about now. I started taking it on Tuesday morning.

Starting around Wednesday/Thursday, I also began noticing a very high-pitched sound, that sounded like the back of an old CRT TV. This has been the most maddening part of this whole ordeal. Prior to that, I was sleeping fine and only a little distressed. But this noise is so loud and intrusive that I can't even drown it out with most white noise or a loud fan on my room.

A full week later and my left ear is still ringing and fells clogged. It keeps popping every time I swallow, but still feels full. I get the occasional ear pain as well.

I just feel scared and defeated. It was supposed to be a relaxing weekend for me and my wife, but turned out to be the start of my personal hell. I just don't know what to do. I try to take my mind off of it, but it's still there. I've broken down in tears multiple times a day since the ringing started and I know that I'm causing my wife more distress. My productivity has plummited at work and I had to miss a day and a half because if it.

Sorry for the messiness of the post everyone. My brain feels like it's in a fog right now. I just keep going back to that moment and how it would have all been different if we had done literally anything else but go see Dunkirk.

I guess I just have a lot to get off my chest. Thank you to anyone who read all the way through.

God bless.

 

Welcome to the forum. Don't despair nor panic. Your reaction is quite normal and typical of many members here when hit with intrusive tinnitus initially. Most of us have been where you are and so you have our empathy. Have you seen an ENT yet to check out the ears. Since you have ear pain and popping, you may have ETD or TTTS. Anyway, your T is quite new and your ears quite unstable right now. New T can morph into different symptoms such as changing pitch, tones, switching ear, ear fullness etc., etc. These usually cause alarm and more fear to the victims. Generally it may take 6 months or more for the ears to become more stable. But your T is so new, don't rule out it may fade or disappear. If the ringing is quite irritable, try any degree of masking to help out. Try read up many success stories to get some hope for the future that you will be well again. Give it some time and apply some strategies you learn from others. You can get better. A few years back I was hit suddenly with ultra high pitch T and severe hyperacusis (you may have some degree of it), and I was in a mess initially too. But today I live a normal, productive and absolutely enjoyable life. I wrote my success story and shared some helpful strategies. Here is the link if you are interested to check it out. Take care. God bless.

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

 

Based on my own personal experience and the experiences I read about on this forum, I believe that chances are you will get better. The bad news is that it might take 3-6-12-24 months for it to get away. In the worst case scenario, if you are not cured, your T ought to fade. What you are hearing now is most likely NOT what you will be stuck with in the long run.

Check out the studies listed in the thread below
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/spontaneous-recovery-stats-over-70-recover-3-studies.21441

There is hope, but you will need to be patient.

Meanwhile, you may want to avoid moderate noises like that of a vacuum cleaner or a blender.

 

Thank you so much for your reply. I'll take a look through the success stories. I made the mistake if gravitating to the stories of doom and depression to start with and have been in a dark place. Thank you for the reassurance.

 

Thank you so much for taking the time to reply to my post. That definitely means a lot. So far, since the ringing has started, I haven't noticed any changes in pitch or volume (other than sometimes being able to drown it out and other times not).

I guess I'm panicking a little more remembering all of the other loud things I was exposed to this week. I made the mistake of mowing some small sections of my yard later that same Saturday with an electric mower. I just hope that I didn't ruin my chances of recovery....

I've invested in some earplugs since then though and have been trying to take care. Thank you again for your reply.

 

Tinnitus sucks

Felt suicidal at first but I'm slowly accepting that it is there. Doesn't make much sense that our brains create this nonsense signal. 100% scary

 

For the next year or two, you might want to pay someone else to do your mowing. Ear plugs are not always effective - search this site for numerous examples...

Don't let that get to you. If you don't see any reduction in volume in the first 3-6 months, then it would be somewhat concerning, but even then there would still be some hope.

You might have postponed your recovery.

 

Okay, thank you for all of your input. I've been panicking about mowing my lawn afterward. The sound of the mower was comforting for me at the time, but I didn't know the extent of what had happened then. Thankfully it was electric and not gas, so it wasn't as loud. I just wish that I hadn't done it.

 

Agreed. In just this week I've felt suicidal at times because of it. I've just had to keep reminding myself that it gets better and that (judging by the responses here) I won't feel this way forever.

 

I've had tinnitus for half a year and im in a much, much better place now than the first couple of months. Have the volume gone down? Sometimes I think it has gone down greatly and other times I think its the same as it was in early march. But the main thing is that I'm not bothered by it to the same extent as in the begining. I was like you, I didn't see how on earth I could manage to live like this since I always enjoyed silence (even slept with foam earplugs every night for years). But over time it got better. Sometimes it got worse again but for the last couple of months my tinnitus only bothers me a couple of times a day, compared to most of the time half a year ago.

Some things that have helped me and might help you.

* Don't google too much, I did this in the start and it made me into a nervous wreck and the sounds got much worse since I when you read so much about T you will only think about T.

* This is a great forum, but reading too much here also brings attention to tinnitus since thats pretty much the only thing being talked about here (which is rightly so, since everyone can need support).

* Try to use distractions in the night if you are able to. I used a fan in the start but recently I got a sound machine with many different sounds. I prefer listening to rain/storm sounds at a low volume to keep my hearing occupied and not focusing on my internal beeping. Some ppl like white sound but I cant stand the sound of that and it only makes me worse.

* If you really can't sleep you should go to your doctor and explain the situation. I got benzos in the start since I slept 2-3 hours a day for a week and started to question my own sanity. But these medications is not good to take too long since you can become addicted. Didn't help that I enjoyed how I felt while taking them and started upping the dosages on my own. I'm now on a medication named Seroquel for sleeping and depression. They dont give you the good/chill feeling like benzos will and you dont get addicted to them. But they do make you sleepy.

* Just in general think that it will get better over time. The volume might not go down, you never know, but you will start to think less and less about it. Before you know it you can sitt in a rather silent room and not think about it, and then you wont hear it. I do this often latley. But then I suddenly realize that I didnt hear my tinnitus for awhile and it comes back in normal form.

- Edit, also forgot to add

Try to not read tinnitus horror stories. Some people are really unlucky and it it really bad and can hardly cope with their life still after many years. But this is a minority, lots of people have tinnitus and most of them will get better given enough time.

I can also say that I have not thinked much about loud sounds, what can damage my hearing etc since I'm 99% sure that it werent loud sounds that fucked me up but trauma to my eardrum after a botched attempt of syringing my ears. If you got damaged from a lound sound I understand that you might be afraid of it, but im fairly sure that any sound below 85 can't damage our ears.

 

in the beginning my buzzing was much louder and in both ears I felt my ears clogged and sensitive to sharp sounds like you. After a while the clogging of the ear went down to the nose. And then it passed. The buzzing left one ear and stood on the right. But I heard 2 sounds, on the left only one and on the right 2. The sound I heard in the 2 ears came out and this one I believed was due to the loud sound. The other one I believe is my atm. But it took well over 1 month to get out of the loud noise

 

Same here...

 

If you don't read tinnitus horror stories, you will not learn from the mistakes of others' and you will have a chance of ending up with the same result. If you absolutely want to avoid your T increasing in volume until your T becomes debilitating, if you would do anything to ensure this doesn't happen to you, you will want to read the horror stories and change your behaviour accordingly.

 

Wanted to share a quick update. I'm going to see an actual WANT on Thursday. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get in any earlier with any of the other local ENT's. I'm almost to my last dose of Prednisone, but my ear still feels clogged and I still get occasional pain.

It's also worth mentioning that I have TMJ and my jaw and neck have been pretty tense since last Saturday. On Sunday, I also noticed a new ringing in my right ear, which I had thought was unaffected. Trying desperately to do everything I can to ensure recovery.

 

Hey! I am experiencing the same symptoms as you, and I have done some extensive research about it, that might be useful for you! It could be that the loud sounds led to some kind of acoustic shock (not necessarily trauma) putting the tensor tympani muscle out of whack.

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/thread...tween-tmj-tinnitus-etd-and-hyperacusis.26218/

 

Thank you for the reply, @Suzerman. I have actually been lead to believe the same thing since this post. My condition has actually worsened since the onset to where even my wife's normal speaking voice and the rattling of a paper bag cause me discomfort and the "clogged" feeling. It took a nose dive when I started getting more paranoid of regular sounds. I've been getting easily startled by sounds that I don't expect, despite how quiet they may be. Sometimes, it can be the same sound that I've heard before, but the startle factor seems to cause my symptoms to worsen. I believe that it may be some kind of Acoustic Shock Disorder. I'm on an SSRI right now (Lexapro) that does not seem to be helping (in fact, I think it may have made things worse!). Please let me know if you've found any advice on dealing with this! I'm still on the hunt for a way to lessen my symptoms myself!

 

I watched the SAME MOVIE and this happened to me 5 days ago.

There is one part in the movie where a spitfire gets hit and it is way too loud.

I am just hoping it goes away soon