What If It's Just the Stress or Anxiety?

[Makrohn]

I´ve had T for 20 years due to an explosion.. This last year I have been under enormous stress with too much going on at once, and I got extreme anxiety/stress/depression this summer. My T has never bothered me as much as during this period.. I experience spikes I never before have experienced. Random beeps in one of my ears, and daily fluctuations.

I really believe stress and anxiety has caused this change. I have also lost some weight, sleep is bad, my hair is falling off more rapidly.

I can only hope it is temporary, and that when I find inner peace again, it will return to baseline.

 

[hans01]

Hi Makrohn, sorry to hear and hope you'll find a solution to your problems soon! Yes I agree with you it's not a hearing issue it's all psychosomatic ... at least that's my conclusion of it.

 

[hans01]

To all people interested, maybe a good idea to read this success story from another T sufferer. I think he's perfectly right on what he's saying : https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/starting-to-think-my-tinnitus-is-mostly-psychosomatic.24128/

 

[Makrohn]

Hi Makrohn, sorry to hear and hope you'll find a solution to your problems soon! Yes I agree with you it's not a hearing issue it's all psychosomatic ... at least that's my conclusion of it.

Thank you my friend!

For now I am still having trouble with this new spike/sound I am experiencing. I really can not find any other reason than stress and anxiety to this new sound... It´s tough trying to habituate to it, and I am giving it far too much attention at the moment.

Since I also have a moderate hearing loss it makes things a little more challenging. Then again, my father and 4 uncles have the same hearing loss as I do and none of them suffer from T.
And while I know that my baseline T is caused by an explosion, all the other tones I am now experiencing could very much be stress or driven by anxiety. I know that I am obsessing about it, and I know that makes it worse.
In addition, I am currently monitoring my diet, all though I have never thought it would make a difference, I can honestly say that since introducing more salt/sugar/wheat to my diet, my T actually has gotten worse, so it might have something to say.

 

[hans01]

Hello and sorry for the delay, I wanted to give some kind of update on my experience ...

This morning my T is very mild, definitely less agressive as it was, this seems to happen more frequently now, especially in the evening, but now also in the morning, but here is what I experience, and it's maybe more complex then I initially thought

• stress, again, this is the major issue for me, what seems to happen is that I have some sort of bruxism when stressed, since one week I do stretching exercises for the jaw which not only removed the bruxism, but also the sleep apneas (at least that's what I think as I feel much better in the morning) I had since two years and horrible headaches and neck pain in the morning
• gut: yes it's also in the gut, I had ibs issues since my birth, and I can definitely hear changes in T or spikes after eating: sugar, spicy foods, eggs, so for now I removed all sugar, even fruits, very few dairy, no eggs, no gluten (very important), and I add some coconut oil which helps a lot for digestion and ibs
• some supplements, magnesium bisglycinate 100mg x3 day, probiotics (Lactobacillus Plantarum LP299V) which did wonders for my overal well being, ascorbic acid (vit C) in the morning, and tons of raw vegetables (shakers)
• it's also psychosomatic, when you feel better, it's still there but less hard when you feel better
• getting enough sleep, so going to bed early is important!
• 1h of walking each day at noon to get some real sunlight
• avoid vit b6, for me this one is a serious problem

I'm not saying it's finished yet, but I start to see important fluctuations, so maybe a good sign. I'm going to add some yoga exercises as well in the next days to see what happens.

 

[Makrohn]

Thank you for the update @hans01 I am very happy to hear that you are experiencing some progress

I am currently doing a little better, and I am also experiencing that things are getting somewhat better.
I find it hard to follow a proper diet, and I really really think I would benefit from not eating gluten since I do have some mild IBS issues. I am very careful when it comes to sugar and salt, but I have to increase my levels of vegetables and maybe I would try some probiotics, I´ve heard many good things about them.

Please keep us updated on your progress, and I will be doing the same once I get to it 100%

 

[hans01]

Please keep us updated on your progress, and I will be doing the same once I get to it 100%

Will do for sure! good luck to you too!

And I agree it's not easy to follow, so what I do now, I do my best, that's all I can do, and we'll see, but I feel the non sugar diet is quite interesting.

 

[Makrohn]

Just a note @hans01

I deliberately ate some fast food (McDonalds) and some gingerbread today to see if I could make anything of it. My T is pretty much the same, all though I do sense a slightly difference, but I do experience increased anxiety/stress atm. I will use this week to try make some sort of plan that makes it easy to follow and at the same time motivating.

 

[hans01]

Thanks Makrohn, I'm very interested in this. I too did deliberately some tests this week, and I must say I regret as my T is spiking so hard since yesterday eve it's almost impossible to deal with.

So what did I change this week and especially yesterday ?

I ate a banana again two days ago (I stopped eating fruits completely before), had some alcohol two days ago, I went to a party from my wife's work yesterday, as my social life since two years is really too low, well, it was cool, there was some music, not too loud but it was definitely there, but most of all, I did eat toasts, drank a few glasses of rosé and white wine, one beer, and also ate a dessert with sugar in it. I'm not sure if it was the music or the alcohol or sugar, but not only my T's are very loud again, my sleep apneas also went up since a few days, so not very positive at all.

My anxiety is of course at a horrible level again, but I think this is mostly related to my T's, each time my T becomes worse it seems my overal well being is worse as it's so hard to deal with.

I'm planning to fast for a few days now just to see how this related to my T, but please post your findings as well, I'm really interested in this. thanks

 

[Makrohn]

I´m sorry to hear your T is spiking again @hans01.

My T is also spiking since yesterday actually, and I was awakened by it this night, something that I never do. In addition, there are new tones, pitches and volume to it. It changes several times within the same hour, it is horrible. And I really do not know what caused this. Since two weeks things has gone from bad, to really bad, and I am terrified that this is a permanent situation. All I can think of causing this is either anxiety or food, because I have not been exposed to loud noises lately, and my hearing is stable. My anxiety has also been better lately, but I have had more of a depression feeling. I am losing my mind not to figure this out, and I feel like things are slipping out of my hands.

I will probably do the same as you do regarding the foods, but at the same time it makes little sense since I have been eating the same as always and never before experienced something like this, even not during my worst periode with anxiety.

 

[hans01]

Hi Makrohn, so sorry to hear this, stay positive, there will be a solution for us, and I agree, anxiety is probably what makes it worse, or depression, but I also tested something I forgot to mention. Two days ago I ate a teaspoon of honey and 5 min later I had some new sounds in left ear, which I'm sure is the honey or sugar in it, so for sure food as well can make it worse.

My doctor said that cortisol, produced in stressful situations can harm our whole body. You can do a blood test like I did lately, but it can spike in just minutes so hard to detect really, and it can trigger so many health issues. She said the best way to cope with it is to do 3 (or more) x 5 min a day heart coherence breathing as this will regenerate things again. I just started it, but we'll see how far we'll come in 2 weeks doing this.

I started fasting this morning, not sure if I'll manage to do more then one day, but my plan is 3-4 days and we'll see how I feel after that and the impact in my T and anxiety.

Good luck to you and stay positive!

 

[Makrohn]

Thank you for your kind words my friend @hans01, I really appreciate it!

Yes, I am trying to stay as positive as I can, but I feel my whole system is affected by it getting worse for no apparent reason. My plan is to start this Monday from scratch when it comes to food/beverages. Hopefully I will see some reduction in the horrible levels I am now experiencing.

I will have my cortisol checked out also, and I do know my levels probably has been very high the last couple of months, so that is why I dont understand this spike now that things are settling down. But for now, this anxiety/stress thing is my only hope, and I have to try to get it under control and not let this turn into a major anxiety/depression thing once more. I will try to do the breathing thing, and I actually did do daily meditating some time ago, maybe it did do me more good than I thought at the time.

I wish you the best of luck, and thank you once again!

 

[hans01]

Good luck Makrohn, please keep us posted.

Yes meditation is very good too, this is what healed for most part a friend's T, but I have a hard time to do it daily, I'll try the breath exercises first with the fasting too. I never did it, so it can't be bad for the whole body to have some rest for a few days, just hope I can deal with it working and doing some small tasks.

For me for sure I have hearing loss doe to playing in loud bands for years, but fun enough I started to have T before I had the hearing loss, it's also possible that it's a multi facet issue hence the reason why it's so hard to find solutions for, so maybe doing several things at once can help (food, stress, ...)

I wish you all the best, stay positive my friend!

 

[hans01]

Small update ... I managed to do 36 hours of fasting, not more, because of terrible headaches, so I had to eat something ... but it calmed the terrible T's from Saturday somewhat, so now I'm back to an acceptable level.

I'm trying to follow a paleo diet to see how this will affect my T, but the biggest issue for me seems to be the sleep apneas which can really reverse all the efforts in one night, so hopefully I'll find a solution for this soon.