Was Doing Fine... Now Brain Tinnitus?! I'm Scared.

Hi

So... I've been on the path of habituation for a while. And it's been going to the right direction, overall. After a year from my trigger, acoustic trauma, I was finally starting to dream that I'd be able to travel and live relatively normal life. I'd still have ringing in my both ears, but I would be able to habituate to it slowly.

I have anxiety disorder and it can get really bad. On last Friday I found out my apartment is infested with clothes moths. I freaked out and having a bug phobia didn't help. For five days I'd just clean, clean and clean obsessively, being in this crazy state of mind. It just blew out of its proportions completely and I'd get severe anxiety attacks.

Now I am scared I may have hurt my ears, bad. I'd be vacuuming obsessively - every inch of the house and closets, clothes etc. And as we all know, vacuum cleaners are loud. Most of the time I'd at least have my Bose QC35 noise-cancelling headphones on, but are those enough? Even worse, I'd be so frantic that at times I'd forget switching them on.

By Tuesday I realized my T was very loud. Much louder than usual, but thought it was due to stress. Now during the last few days I have noticed this horrible new uninvited guest in my head. There is this overbearing metallic booming noise in my head. It doesn't seem to come from the ears, rather it's centralized, which horrifies me... And it has this rhythmic/pulsatile volume to it, going up and down and changing tones. It's so scary, I don't understand what's happening to me.

Could it be from stress and go away when I get my mental state in balance again? Has any of you encountered something like this? And can vacuuming be so loud that noise-cancelling headphones aren't enough (or not having them switched on for some moments)?

I'm so afraid, guys. This is just too much!
Just crying and not able to take this at all.

 

@NimQ I had mentioned this to you in conversion months ago, that I had this problem. I also mentioned it on the board. My neuro calls it "sense of alarm reaction". It's just caused by a over burden of stress, anxiety and extreme fatigue. It's the brain trying to process more than one problem at the same time. Examples: tinnitus and neck pain, tinnitus and TMJ or tooth ache, tinnitus and a sick pet.

Get some rest, drink some water during the day and try to take it easy. It will go away.

 

Really try and cut back on any and all stress. I stressed out majorly a number of months ago too about something that was not worth it. What I am trying to say is this. Tinnitus is very related to stress and you have to be so careful not to aggravate it in any way. It will probably settle back down though as the damage was not caused by any medications that you took!

 

Had to take a sedative as I was going in panic just writing this thread... Thank you for the reply. Your answer would make sense and I really hope this would be the case. Haven't really heard a lot experiences about something like this, though.

So was yours centralized as well? How long did it take to go away? I remember your trigger was dental work, so I thought it was because of the noise and/or pressure on the jaw nerves.

 

@NimQ , I've had the sound move into my head several times (and be more disturbing like you described) and it has gone back to my ear. I think yours will do the same. Give it some time to settle down and then you'll look back and see it was just a blip in the road

In the meantime, maybe you can take something in the short term to reduce the anxiety and relax yourself?

 

Thank you @Zinnia for the encouraging words, I will try to think it this way. Mine never went to brain like this. Did heavy stress play a part in your changes or was it random? I will see my therapist tomorrow and will hopefully get some help from that. Also have prescription of Valium/Diazepam, but try to use it very conservatively (had to take one now though as I feel like I'm going crazy with this new T and all the what ifs...).

 

@NimQ Mine was centralized. It was electrical and a booming noise that could be called metallic. If you place the word 'centralized and electrical storm' in search, posts will come up with my name.

Yes, my somatic T was caused by dental. It was like a whiplash with neck and jaw pressure.

Mine lasted a few weeks, but my neuro said that's very rare. Yours should only last a night or two.

The only other thing that can cause this other than what I mentioned is going off a benzo cold turkey (no taper taken).

 

I can't remember exactly but stress probably did influence it because i've had horrible anxiety because of this T (and before T but not as bad.) Seems too like it has happened when the pitch has gone up.

If you're that anxious, i think it's a good idea to take the Valium - very intermittently - like u said conservatively. The benzos are so dangerous but being so worked up is bad for your T and your health. Things are so hard sometimes, i feel your pain.

 

I've had central T for 6 months that stays central for 2 days then goes back to ears for 2 days and keeps repeating this cycle over and over, it has a very high pitched and very loud electrical buzzing/ringing that sometimes seems like i can actualy feel it.

 

@Screamin Ears I still have this "repeating cycle 0f very high pitched and very loud electrical ringing", but I don't now have the knocking. The knocking is caused from blood pressure, stress and fatigue.

What we have is severe somatic tinnitus. Mine is severe because of muscles of neck and jaw joints - the C joints and MDJ/D, plus other physical neck problems. Expects say that this relates to the DCN and possible relieve has an endless list of possible treatment.

It's said to find some treatments, that may include radiofrequency, PT of suboccipital, trapezius, levator, scapulae and sternocleidomastoid muscles, possible use of a neck brace, possible correction of loss of lordosis and possible correction of TMD.

In the meantime, expects say there's some things that may help a little temporary. Some are heat and ice, light finger touch on entire neck, correct posture, no lifting, careful stretching exercises. To help control the centralized pitch, the playing of pink noise should help a little.

Expects say a mouth guard does help some with TMD as the temporomandibular joint is in straight line to the C1 of cervical spine. The expects also say that use of a mouth guard can cause problems where nerves to the DCN react with those with tinnitus. My bite isn't out of line. I use a tissue on my restricted side folded to a half inch, doubled over with half hanging out of my mouth so that I don't choke. I don't place a lot of pressure on the tissue. I went to a dental pain specialist and this was his advice.

There's so much that could deal with somatic tinnitus, but almost all of it relates to the neck and jaw. The goal is to find treatment that will lower the ringing from 20 to 50 percent. Some do get a complete cure, but in those cases it usually relates to the mouth.

Somatic tinnitus is so complicated and I feel that most of us, including myself know nothing.

 

@NimQ How are you doing now?

 

Actually only now I'm thinking about medications. I have acid reflux and 10 days ago I switched from PPI med to Pepcid (famotidin). Now I've been taking Pepcid every evening before going to bed and increased the dose 3-4 days ago. Anyone know if Pepcid/Famotidin is safe for T? I keep reading that it might have T as a very rare side effect, but there is conflicting info... I wonder if it could play a part in this? I prolly should switch to similar med, ranitidin, just in case. I could not find anything from the correlation of ranitidin and T, though. Anyone else wiser in this matter?

 

Not any better, I'm afraid. Thank you for asking. It's day 4 now with this booming T in my brain... It might have started a day or two earlier, though - I first kept thinking that there is this weird noise coming from AC or radiators, before I realized it was in my head. I'm trying my best to get my nervous system calm down, but it's really hard. Trying to distract myself and not do anything straining, but no improvement yet.

I'm just keeping masking sound on non-stop now (lowest possible volume ofc), as this morning when I woke up and my masking app wasn't on, I just got this overwhelming panic from having to listen this cacophony in my head. Wishing it to go away.

 

Be super careful about medications. It seems whenever I take a medication that is suppose to be fine or in very rare cases causes a reaction on tinnitus, I am usually the person who it happens too.

 

Yeah, I'm not a fan of taking any extra meds... And indeed, it's like the effect on T is just a wild card. That is why I did change from PPIs to H2 antagonist, as the former has some very serious side effects when taking long-term. Yet I do have to treat my acid reflux, as this summer I got my esophagus (mildly) inflamed after prolonged heartburn. I'm mainly managing it by diet etc., but still need something for my night-time reflux.

I will try to change from famotidine to ranitidine starting this evening, since I started famotidine recently and there's no way to tell whether it has aggravated this situation.

 

@Screamin Ears

Screamin Ears My neuro believes that I have occipital neuralgia which resulted from dental trauma. Occipital neuralgia can also be caused by whiplash such as with a car accident or by lifting. It's caused by a pinched nerve in the neck or by tight muscles at the back of the head that entraps the nerves.

He said this will cause electrical somatic tinnitus where there's tinnitus moving from ear to ear and into the head. Treatment is radiofrequency neurotomy or equidural nerve block which he said is very successful.

I know that I also have other problems.

 

@Greg Sacramento, I’m still having the bad electrical zaps. Would radiofrequency neurotomy or an occipital nerve block help? Thanks.