What Caused My Tinnitus — Loud City Noises? Headphones? Painkillers?

Hello everyone,

I'm just looking for a little help here. The story is the first time I had tinnitus was when I was 11 years old. I'm not sure why it started, but I just remember a few weeks after a trip to Six Flags Great America, my ears started ringing non-stop. It was especially noticeable during the nighttime, and I had trouble sleeping for months. As many of you know here, tinnitus can be debilitating; you can imagine how truly distressing it was for a child to get it. I went to multiple ENTS, and they couldn't do anything but give me melatonin to help with my sleep. A few months later, my tinnitus disappeared, and I had no more problems with it.

Fast forward eight years, and I'm now in my sophomore year of college. I started developing chronic migraines and took Ibuprofen plus Sumatriptan every once in a while to alleviate my headaches. After a river rafting trip, I noticed that I got some water stuck in my ear. I went to an ENT, and she said that the water in my ear had made my ear wax expand, and she did a simple extraction and sent me on my way. I started getting tinnitus a few hours after my ear wax removal. After eight years, it came back again. I was so annoyed and distressed. However, I could only hear it when I was trying to sleep and not throughout the day. My health has been on the decline over the summer, but I wanted to finish my sophomore year of college, so I moved to New York and started school. My tinnitus disappeared after a few days, and everything was fine. I continued having migraines and went to urgent care, where the nurse gave me a big shot of painkiller meds. My migraines disappeared, but a few days later, my tinnitus started again. This time it was weird; the sound was unlike anything I ever heard. It was very low volume and extremely high pitched, almost like cicadas in the summer. The worst thing is my tinnitus came back a few days before my 20th birthday. I had such a bad panic attack last night; I couldn't fall back asleep. I was crying and had trouble breathing. My panic attack was so bad it woke up my roommate.

I'm unsure what triggered this onset of tinnitus; Is it because I'm in the city, so I'm constantly exposed to loud noises, wearing headphones at medium volume, or painkillers? I did a test with an audiologist, and he determined that my eardrums look fine and I don't have signs of hearing loss. In your experience, can a few loud bursts of noise and migraine medication trigger tinnitus? If so, is it usually permanent, or is it temporary? I've heard a saying that the classic onset of tinnitus is that you get it a few times, and it's temporary, and then after that, when you get it, it's permanent. Either way, I stopped wearing headphones and taking painkillers.

I'm sorry this is such a long post; I just wanted to share my experience here. My grandpa also has tinnitus, and I'm so disappointed that when I started looking for tinnitus treatments eight years later, there is still no cure and so few options. In my personal life, I was dealing with a lot already and came out of a very, very dark period in my life. I just turned 20, and my biggest wish is for both my loved ones and me to experience peace and happiness for once in our lives and me. I am hoping that this case will soon pass and I'll be okay again. Hoping you can share some empathy and not start judging me. Just looking for some help, and if you ever find it in your heart, some nice wishes or prayers would be so greatly appreciated.

 

Hi @Lan2021!

Tinnitus can appear out of the blue for no apparent reason as it did when you were 11 years old. By the same token, it can completely disappear without leaving any traces of itself behind which was fortunate. The fact you were very young leads me to believe this helped, as your auditory system was able to make a full recovery from whatever caused the tinnitus.

Your second bout of tinnitus came eight years later and this time, there are clues as to what might have brought it on. Migraines are linked to causing tinnitus and some medications too. Ibuprofen for example which you have mentioned taking, although this may depend on how often you took it? I don't know much about Sumatriptan, other than it is used to help with migraine relief.

After your river trip you had earwax removed at ENT and then developed tinnitus. Please note the following: whenever earwax is removed by microsuction, ear irrigation or manual removal by curette, eardrops/olive oil should be applied to each ear 3x a day for 7 to 10 days before having the wax removed. Failure to do this, there is the risk of developing tinnitus. A person with tinnitus who has earwax removed, without first following the procedure mentioned, there is a risk the tinnitus will be made worse.

One of the most common causes of tinnitus is the regular use of headphones, earbuds or headsets. People are often not aware they are listening to audio at too high a volume and for long durations. My advice is to stop using any type of headphones even at low volume.

You have a lot going on around you at the moment including stress which is closely linked to tinnitus. Tinnitus can cause stress and stress can make tinnitus worse. It can become a vicious cycle so stress needs to be managed. Please go to my started threads and read the following posts: Tinnitus and the Negative Mindset, Acquiring a Positive Mindset, Can Tinnitus Counselling help? The Habituation Process, How to Habituate to Tinnitus, Will My Tinnitus Get Worse? Hyperacusis, As I See It.

Please click on the links below and read the posts.

All the best,
Michael

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