Tinnitus Spike from Car Stereo?

Hey all,

I've been experiencing tinnitus since late September of last year and it's been a wild ride so far. I panicked for much of the first two weeks and overtime eventually began to actually habituate to the sound, which was admittedly very easy to mask.

On New Years Day about a week ago, I decided to go snowboarding with some friends. I sat in the back in my friend's car, and at one point he turned the volume up very high (I don't think it was all the way up but it was pretty close). I told him to turn it down after about fifteen seconds but I didn't even cover my ears in that whole time.

My ears felt stuffy and strange for about six days afterwards (they feel pretty normal again now) but I'm left with a louder version of my old tinnitus with some new tones that appear when I try to mask it. I suffer from hyperacusis and reactive tinnitus that was definitely getting a lot better until this happened. It's still not incredibly bad, but it's definitely worse than before - do you all think this is something that will go back down again to what I had previously in a few weeks? I'm so upset with myself for allowing my ears to be exposed to such a major sound level.

I should add that my ears did not ring violently after the noise exposure (the sudden kind that lasts 5-10 seconds) and still have not done so, to my surprise. Dunno if that helps at all or not.

 

I have been wondering a similar thing myself.

My Tinnitus also increased after an incident with a radio, although it was a slightly different circumstance. In my case I was trying to listen to an AM/FM radio too close to a computer and experiencing a wide range of really high-frequency interference. I had the earphones in my ears while trying to move the radio around - for no more than two or three minutes on that one occasion time - but ever since then, my ears (and right ear in particular) have been ringing more loudly than ever before.

So I was wondering if it was the high-frequency interference which my substantially louder Tinnitus is now trying to match?

Anyway, I wish I could be of more help to you jellyrajah. This truly is a beast of a condition.

 

@jellyrajah @Mike82

My first summer vacation with T I made the brilliant decision to rent a van and drive the family 800+ miles on an overnight trip to Cedar Point; totally wired on coffee and mad as heck at the traffic on I-80 (and no sleep). I had no idea what was happening to my T (the van and the road were really loud). Needless to say I sent my T into the ionosphere; I was extremely upset and mad at myself (with a screaming in my head nothing short of foreboding).

It came back down after two days (of hell); I made sure I got some really good sleep and just chilled (no anxiety, just chill) and it came back down. Never will I do that again!

Yours should return to base line if you get some good rest and bring your anxiety back down to earth.

Mark