Tinnitus Was Stable for Years, Now Getting Worse

I joined the military right out of high school and the first time I went to the shooting range during Basic Combat Training, my earplugs weren't inserted properly and I ended up with severe hearing loss that lasted about 16 hours. As far as I can tell, that was probably what caused my tinnitus, although I also spent much of high school listening to my mp3 player cranked up to the maximum volume, and as a kid I regularly had ear infections that ruptured my eardrums. For the first couple of years there didn't seem to be any permanent effect of this incident, but in 2012 I started experiencing episodes of tinnitus accompanied by temporary hearing loss (usually lasting a couple of hours). This was happening about once every 3-4 days for a period of several months.

I saw a hearing specialist at the time because I was concerned that I might be going deaf, but I wasn't having an episode at the time of the tests and my hearing came back completely normal. I also found out later that I have auditory processing disorder, which confused the situation since I can't always tell when I'm having trouble hearing something versus having trouble processing/understanding it.

The hearing specialist told me that I have a minor birth defect where my Eustachian tubes are smaller than normal. He said that my hearing problems were probably pressure-related (I think the term is baro-challenge-induced ETD but he didn't refer to it as that) and that popping my ears when it happens should fix it. However, that usually does nothing for me unless I'm actually in an airplane or high altitude, and altitude-related tinnitus feels different to me than what I normally get. Since nothing seemed to work and I was afraid the hearing loss might eventually not go away, I started looking into ASL around this time--figured I might as well be prepared for that possibility and it's useful to know regardless.

After that few months the episodes accompanied by hearing loss stopped, but I continued to get brief periods of tinnitus every so often after that. Usually this was a "burst" of very loud tinnitus that lasted several seconds, followed by about 10-20 minutes of very mild tinnitus that gradually faded and disappeared. Because this happened rarely and was so mild, I wasn't concerned--I figured that my ears had healed somewhat and the worst was over. For about a decade things seemed to stabilize and remain at that level, although I have noticed that during the past 2 years my tinnitus episodes have been growing more and more frequent.

Last night around 10 PM I had the worst tinnitus episode I have ever experienced, accompanied by severe hearing loss. The tinnitus was very loud and destroyed my ability to focus on anything else or to sleep, and the hearing loss made everything sound muffled and echo-y, and all but the quietest noises were painful to my ears. I finally got to sleep around 5:30 AM, at which point my symptoms were unchanged. When I woke up around 10:30 AM the tinnitus was very faint but still there, and the hearing loss was still the same. Over the course of the day my hearing has slowly returned to mostly normal, but everything still sounds a bit "off". It has been over 21 hours since the episode started; previously my record was 4 hours.

I think the cause may have been a combination of severe wind that hit suddenly yesterday, and some mild congestion in my throat that I've been having for a couple weeks, probably allergy-related. But I've experienced both of those things plenty of times without any hearing-related issues (I do get migraines triggered by changes in weather, but this episode didn't come with a migraine).

Anyway, sorry for the long post. I joined the forum because this hit out of the blue and I was panicking a bit. ^^; Mostly I want to hear from people who have had similar experiences and any advice on how to deal with (or prevent them) these more serious episodes if they happen again? I compose music for a living which makes this really stressful; I have several disabilities and I'm used to coping with things like that, but this is the one most likely to affect my livelihood.

 

Welcome to the forum.

Your symptoms seem to be related to hearing loss at intervals. Members here have recommended trying wearing hearing aids. You may want to try it. Usually they allow you to try it out without paying for it. I know hearing loss can trigger loud tinnitus. My right ear has hearing loss in the high frequency, so I have an ultra high pitch tinnitus from it. The left ear suddenly went deaf 2 years ago and a new and loud jet-engine like tinnitus appeared suddenly. So hearing loss can induce or trigger tinnitus.

It is important to remain calm and hopeful that things will improve over time. Negative and emotional response to the tinnitus tends to set off the limbic nerves, causing you to react in fight or flight mode to the tinnitus and then making it much worse. If tinnitus bothers you, try masking it and take some calming supplements. Take Melatonin if you continue to have sleep issue.

Hang in there. Take care. God bless.