Unknown Cause of Tinnitus — Scared I Have Brain Cancer

I (33F) started experiencing loud ringing in my ear one night during a period of high stress and lack of sleep. It scared me, but I hoped it would go away. This was in mid-July (so almost a month ago).

Now the ringing alternates between the left and right ear throughout the day. Sometimes, I don't hear it until I start to think about it.

I'm terrified that this is a sign of brain cancer. I can't figure out any other cause for it. I'm not exposed to loud sounds, and my hearing seems to be like it was before.

The only thing I can think of is that I had been in the ER due to anxiety that day, and they gave me Zyprexa (Olanzapine) to calm down. I looked online, and it seems like Zyprexa is actually used to treat tinnitus. I doubt it would have given me tinnitus. It started the same night, though.

 

Tinnitus can start for many different reasons - you only have to see the number of 'Unknowns' within members' profiles on here to see that you are certainly not alone in not knowing where your tinnitus has come from.

I have been through many profiles and case studies, and rarely is something like brain cancer the cause.

You mention you were in ER for anxiety, but stress is also known to bring on tinnitus too. Could it have been brought on by stress?

Have you spoken to your doctor in terms of your concerns, and asked for a scan just to put your mind at ease?

 

Thank you for this. I honestly thought it might be stress, but when I googled it, I read that stress can't cause it and that it can only exacerbate it.

 

There are people in the medical profession who believe stress can bring on tinnitus. It isn't really known between noise, stress, medication and 'other'.

Stress can increase tinnitus but there are many whose profile shows the onset of tinnitus after a lot of stress - which can wreak havoc on the body.

In my analysis, tinnitus brought on by stress has the highest success rate of reduction of symptoms than brought on by other causes, so there's that.

I would say get things checked with an ENT for peace of mind.

 

Thank you so much. I'll ask for a referral to an ENT. The tinnitus has added to my stress to the point that I wanted to go to the ER to demand a brain MRI, lol. I'll try to work on reducing my stress until I get my referral.

 

The ENT can request for the MRI scan. I think if it was a brain tumor you'd have other symptoms as well. My tinnitus came after a month of no sleep and a lot of stress as well.

 

Brain cancer is extremely unlikely to be the cause, you are definitely catastrophizing so best to stay calm and speak to professionals. You have almost nothing to fear in that aspect. Almost nobody's tinnitus on Tinnitus Talk is caused by brain cancer.

 

My tinnitus came on during a highly stressful period in my life. My father had died. My mom was experiencing a walking emotional shut-down, and my sister a walking nervous breakdown. I became something of the family caretaker and burnt out. The tinnitus came on suddenly within the course of a week. Only in retrospect did I realize that I had been hearing the faintest of "crickets" when walking across the seaside path through the marsh. I would say stress was the KEY factor in developing catastrophic tinnitus and hyperacusis. Things did improve during the last 10 years after Ayurveda, acupuncture, Klonopin, Celexa, meditation, white noise maskers, sound machines all around the house, hypnosis, craniosacral therapy and more. So yes, for me at least, stress was the straw that broke the camel's back.

These days tinnitus is mostly severe following acoustic trauma of fire alarm exposure this past October. Waiting with anticipation for Dr. Shore's device. And I will probably return to India for a 6 week course of Panchakarma which greatly helped when I did it before the COVID-19 epidemic.