Wet and Itchy Ears & Tinnitus — OCD and Anxiety Don't Help Matters

I am a 41 year old who has always thought I could hear some noises in my head as long back as I can remember but I also am not completely sure about that.

I noticed at the end of summer that once and awhile I would wake up with my head buzzing after a long night of listening to headphones but for what I could tell, it would go away. There was probably always still some sounds there. I ditched the earbuds and went with some over the ear headphones that I probably listened to too loud. I only used headphones maybe one every couple weeks for a few hours.

The other problem I have been having is over the last year, I've been waking up with my ears/ear soaked in some kind of substance and I was having sores, crusty skin all around in my outer ear and chunks of stuff in the ear canal. A lot of times I wake up with itchy eyes, plugged nose etc. My ears itched like hell for a good year. I had been cleaning them with a good psoriasis soap that seems to keep it at bay for awhile. Sometimes my ears crack and pop when I yawn. Both ears have been affected by this itching, wetness etc. I have also had a history with impacted ear wax and haven't cleaned my ears in almost two years.

Now comes about a week ago and I'm in my bedroom and I can hear this ringing coming from my right ear. Now, I think I've been having ringing from this ear for quite some time but I never paid it a ton of attention. Thought it was just like a frequency or something. Like I said before, I remember always hearing something in my life at least I think. I then realize when I cover my right ear, it makes it worse. That's when I knew it was definitely something with that ear. My left ear doesn't really make a noise when I cover it. My right ears pitch will change dramatically when I yawn, stretch out my neck etc but then settles back in.

The crazy thing is it's probably been like this for awhile and now that I've panicked over it, I can't function very well. I had been sleeping fine with it but now I'm panicking and it's keeping me up all night with the noise and I don't think the noise has really changed in that time. I haven't used headphones in a few months and am not going to. I also have very bad OCD and anxiety with other health issues and it's almost impossible for me not to fixate on it. I do not take any medications.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. I know I'm going to have to go to a doctor first to get more information but I can't until this coming week. I'm just wondering if anyone has had any of these symptoms like wet and itchy ears etc and what something like that could be?

Thanks.

 

You seemed to be on the right track.

Discontinue use of earbuds or headphones.

I also get wet feeling ears at times and I've had tinnitus for over a year. I think some of it is phantom feeling of fluid that isn't actually there.

 

The crazy thing is I heard this one for a while and was still able to mostly ignore it. I was sleeping mostly fine etc.

Now I can't quit hearing it. I have slept for a couple hours tops over the last 3 days.

Oh man this is terrible.

 

Have you tried a low dose of Melatonin? Maybe try 2 mg and see how it goes.

 

Yeah that's nerve damage. "Wet" feeling is purely neurological. As is the itching.

Get it checked out soon though. You don't want it to get any worse.

 

What would cause that? I didn't just have a wet feeling, it was actually wet with marks on my pillow.

 

I should add a few more things to this as it's been awhile and I now have a lot more patterns I have figured out.

I have luckily got back to sleep but I still wake up hearing it all the time. It's so weird as to how your brain works. I probably had this at the same noise level for quite awhile but it never bothered me. As soon as I was aware of it, I haven't been able to kick the sounds.

The wet and itchy ears have gone away for now. I think some of it had to do with getting a new cat and my allergies had to get used to it.

I had a complete breakdown when I typed this back in March. I had to go to ER for some anxiety meds that I never ended up taking and thankfully my Mom came and stayed with me for a couple of weeks. I was in a complete tailspin. What really worked for me was alcohol. I got drunk every night for those couple of weeks as it was the only thing to get me to sleep and I didn't hear it even if I plugged my ears after a few beers. The next morning after drinking, my tinnitus was worse but it was a trade-off. I started to feel slightly better after a couple of weeks and worked on going to bed without the alcohol and after sometime I was finally able to. I still sometimes hear it loud before bed and it keeps me up a bit but not like the complete anxiety ridden, rolling around sweating I was having before.

Now months later I am doing a lot better. My tinnitus completely goes away at times and then comes back and goes etc. Anyone know of a reason why? My tinnitus is also VERY somatic. Head turns, jaw, moving my shoulders, you name it, makes it change noise. I don't really have any problems with it being reactive unless it's some really loud sounds. My tone has kind of changed now to more of a high pitched hiss than a tone but it can switch. I do have some TTTS in one ear when it comes to "tinny" sounding sounds.

I've sold all my headphones and I'm not sure they are all to blame but I'm not messing around with them anymore.

Another thing I will add is the ER doctor looked in my ears and said they look fine and said this happens and didn't have much else to say. I scheduled a hearing test and an ENT and then I cancelled it as I thought it would be a complete waste of time. I've never had muffled hearing or anything like that and my hearing has always seemed really good as I can hear people in loud environments etc. Sure maybe there is some high frequency hearing loss somewhere and maybe there is not but either way there isn't anything that can be done right now about that.

 

Discharge from your ears sounds like some kind of infection or maybe excess ear wax draining while you were lying down. Did you ever have a doctor check your ears?