Weird Tinnitus Observations — Changes in Environment/Sound

Hi This is a short account of something I noticed today.

I returned back home after some years traveling and my parents home is an oasis of silence. It`s is deprived of sounds except for this little clock that ticks in the background. No cars, no city not even wildlife. Pure silence.

So when I wake up I hear silence with a low ringing in the background (much lower than i`m used to) ... than I get up and move around and start noticing suddenly quit a loud humming in the background. Like buzzing in the head. I thought it was because of the plane noise that was still echoing in my head (though I wear earplugs during 12 hour flight) ... this humming was really strong last night accompanied with low ringing, almost faint. Usually I hear my ringing even over massive Bangkok traffic noise. But than just now the fridge started to hum and suddenly I notice the humming in the head is gone and the ringing is more pronounced ... The humming subsizes when there is noise or when I talk to my parents, the ringing never goes though it changes in volume.

I just needed to share this cause it`s just totally blowing me away how subjective these sounds appear to change and morph ... I don`t know what is the reason though it seems the more sound dperived the lower the T sound is and the higher ringing goes down in volume ... the more noise the humming goes away and the higher the ringing is louder.

Also had this idea when environment is sound deprived the attention of the hearing consciousness goes to the inner body and when there is sound it shifts to outside of the body.

Is the humming just the blood? It doesn`t sound rithmic it`s just a constant full deep head buzz/hum.

Thanks for reading and if you can share something would be awesome.

edit; the fridge stopped and I hear the deeper hum again! crazy

 

@nills

Interesting thread...

My T acts more or less as you describe. When I wake up in the morning (my T is only a very faint hiss) but during the day it increase in volume especially around noisy environments (although it 'reacts' far less than during the early days of my T (probably because of habituation, settled down etc...). During the day when it is noisy the hiss changes or get accompanied by a ringing and sometimes some other sounds in my left ear (again not always anymore but regulary, in general my T is in my head only) I know that the most T sufferers dislike silent environments (I did in the beginning as well) However, I noticed that when I go to quite environments my T goes down in volume to almost nothing (as if it doesn't has the need to compete with environmental sounds!?!). I do not longer use sound enrichments etc... in quite places like the bedroom knowing that my T will fade into the background after a while.

What still puzzles me is what kind of T damage I do have compared to others with constant T. Which part of my auditory system is damaged in which way? My T is due to prolonged headphone uses (no blast volume but the time during the day (up to 10 hours sometimes) and obviously something has been screwed up, but what compared to others!
I wonder whether other people who blame or believe headphone uses caused their T have more or less the same sympthoms (my own little study, maybe we come up to something , sorry to hijack your thread)

 

@nills , I think you just found your cure - pure silence. Still there is hifu if the humming is bothering you that much.

 

I find that my tinnitus also lowers in volume in silent environments. It's almost like there is no competition of other sounds, so it seems a lot more peaceful. I don't understand this too well, however I am grateful for it.

 

You know Nills loud sound can create a lot of stress in the brain as well Maybe you just need some rest.

 

Thanks for the contribution guys. I had another idea, maybe when there is more sound all these neuron gates ae opend more and thus the T gates are opened more? So we percieve it is being louder due to the fact that all these gates are simultanously increased by sound input? But that is just a bit wishfull understanding of a complex matter

atleast there is a general experience that should be interesting to scientists if they would put their minds to it.

@dan yep, HIFU is still on the list, let`s hope am101 and Autifony beat me to the descicion, i`m quit hopeful still for them. And if they don`t work atleast the hope makes the T a bit more baerable.

 

you mean emo stress or like blood pumping stress ... ? havn`t worked in 2 months and have enough cash to float round for a while, don`t think i`m suffering from any general `life` stress at the moment. But maybe you have some nice theory about it?

T is my only stress

 

No I meant actual noise such as city noise etc. Although I guess a person with T is used tot living with noise But busy life can affect one anyway.

 

So happy you started this thread Nills as I experience this also,its weird but first thing in the morning its the usual hissing sound but the more noise im around it always morphs into an electrical current sound.It could be a hissing sound and a bit of a humming sound but the second im near anything noisy it always just morphs into this electrical current sound,its very strange.

 

yes true, I lived in bangkok for the last month, pretty busy there,but here so quit ... it`s so nice to be in peaceful place.

 

I find when I wake up, almost before I am truly awake, my ears are quiet. Then slowly as I fully awake the t and h set in. I have even had experiences where I've gone to bathroom in middle of night and had no h..it's odd.

anyways my t is always better in silence but I suspect that may have something to do with my h and tts. Also food really aggravates my t.

 

@Street Spirit Yes, I to find that some mornings T is so silent and than after waking up suddenly it sets in . pretty strange. I also had moments that it is so loud it wakes me up and I even hear it in my dreams. in the last 5 years I had 1 time that I woke up and it was gone ... just silence, I stayed in bed and just melted into the silence listening to the birds and the wind ... after 15 minutes it appeared agin. That was only once it happend.

 

15 mins of silence is significant. How wonderful that must of been it is odd though. ..

 

Hi

Are you sure its the food that aggravates your T and not the chewing itself?

 

I have considered that plays a part too but I also get spikes with decaf coffee and sugar and alcohol. But chewing definitely has at times made it worse because of my tmj...I generally try to refrain from "chewing" and stick to soft food as much as possible. It's difficult.

 

I have this exact humming phenomena. More at night then the day, sometimes i can get of the sofa and all of a sudden i can hear and feel this vibration and hum, my ears always feel a little full when this happens. Stranger still is that if i put some plugs in my ears or cup my hands over them, the humming goes. It baffles me

 

to mark:i have the EXACT same situation here! exactly ! every single word! just wanted to let you know!!!!

 

I can feel the hum too...Not sure what it is..I just said to my husband the other day, I can FEEL my tinnitus sometimes..

 

It's really strange isn't it. I sometimes hear a resonating sound as well if it's particularly strong. What could it be?

 

I have kind of the same thing, waking up most days in "almost silence", then it growing to electrical buzz later to high pitched electrical noises. Noisy places seem to exacerbate the severity of it, but it happens also if I stay all day at home with low levels of ambient sound.

It also has a daily circadian cycle that I observed is highly predictable: ambient noise or not, the
"buzz" grows slowly from hours 1 to 8 of waking up, and it starts to turn into "high pitched noises" around hour 10-11 of being up, getting at their worst at hour 14-15. The fact that is a steady cycle mostly independent from external sounds (quiet can affect loudness to a point but not preventing the sounds from changing at their due hours) made me think of neurotransmitters with their circadian rhythms.

I've read that serotonin, which is involved in T to a point, has a cycle and in the last hours of day it starts to convert to melatonin. Dopamine also has a cycle and can diminish in last hours of the day too. And also, even more relevant for most of us, GABA/glutamate is a daily cycle too, and it seems that in cases of excitotoxicity as we suffer from, there is a lack of GABA at the end of the day (that is also what happens to people that has racy thoughts when trying to sleep).

This is a link I found about the GABA daily cycle:

http://link.springer.com/article/10.1023/A:1022426519297

 

Hello everyone reading you posts I fit in a little on each but the comment I want to make is
WOW look at all the data and variables here to help with a cure. Everyone is so articulate and knowledgeable!!!

 

Yes, since posting originally, I have been very observant of my tinnitus. Reason being it's been louder, however what I discovered is that there is a definite cycle to it, and I thought it was spikes from food or drink etc..nope, it's on a cycle. Quiet in morning to steadily getting louder through the day. I don't work, and rarely leave my house (aside from being outside) during the day, so it's not a noise thing. Evenings when I eat dinner or have some alcohol, I would think, "yes a spike" but no, without even eating or drinking tinnitus has same high electrical pitch as it does with alcohol (except its not the alcohol) Anyways, I've been taking clonazepam on and off since october, (not with alcohol!)and when I take an extra dose I notice its quiet for two days, so, yes, this I think is related to gaba.....or.....something.

 

Lots of good info. Wish I could understand it all and what's causing all this. Over sensitivity to the ears must be some sort of enabler.

 

OK, scratch that. Alcohol does make my t worse. :/

 

@Street Spirit Alcohol has kind of rebound effect, first it increases GABA, then when the GABA effect starts to fade, there is an increase in the amount of glutamate (which is also what causes hungovers and the reason why symptoms of hungovers are similar to migrains.)

Also, take care with benzos, they diminish the amount of GABA receptors if taken with frecuency, as it happens in "benzo withdrawals" and this can cause louder tinnitus for weeks (or even permanently in some cases if the brain doesn't recover.)

 

Dear God that is the scariest thing I've ever read. (Benzos)

 

OK so do a Very,very slow taper then?? I take it a few times a week..but steadily since October for nerve pain.

 

I'd say if you don't absolutely need them, is better if you slowly stop them. I know about that for experience, some years ago (while I was already a T sufferer) I took benzos for little more than a month to help with anxiety (for reasons other than T.)

Two days after stopping, I got the loudest T of my life, as loud that I could hear it in the streets and only trucks passing by could mask it. I read a lot about benzo withdrawal (that is not even supposed to happen if you take benzos for a few weeks, but T sufferers have overactive brains so...) and if I kept somehow calm was only because I read that withdrawal effects last just for days or weeks (except if you have been taking the benzos for long time, in that case withdrawal can last for years.)

About a week or 10 days or so after, one morning I woke up and my T was reduced again to the previous volume. If I had got stuck with that increase, well, let's just say I wouldn't be around anymore.

But there is people that has got or worsened T because of benzos and took years to recover or never did.

If you decide to taper, I'd suggest you to visit some forums for benzo withdrawal, there was one very good from the UK that will show up on google I think. People doing slow taperings even do things as crushing the pills in water to get very small dosages more reliably.

There are other options for nerve pain management as you possibly know yet. Some of them can increase T too, so do your research and be careful. But I think benzos long term are potentially dangerous for the brain, as many withdrawal sufferers can tell.

 

Well....shit. I don't know what to do now. Maybe I should just stay on them for life.

This has always been my life. Murphys law.

 

I noticed that my t slowly creeps in when its very silent.. when I just walk in to the room after going out for a while .. it takes a minute or two to hear the T ...
Its a constant electric buzz..
Usually worst in mornings. . When I wake up it buzzzzz like fluorescent light. .hizzzzzzzzzzzzzz