What in the World Is This? An Atypical Case of Hyperacusis

Hi all,

I am new here; I want to first pay my respects to those of you who have been suffering for years. Anyways, given how rare these problems are, I was hoping that I could connect with someone else's story.

Exactly 10 weeks ago, I developed dizziness. By dizziness, I mean chronic imbalance. No episodes, and only noticeable with movement. But it was quite bad in the sense that you can't chalk it up to an anxious afternoon or whatever - and completely constant. It also wasn't affected by noise levels or anything; again, no episodal aspect. At the beginning, I developed tinnitus and very, very minor hyperacusis in both ears. At this point, the hyperacusis was so minor that I only noticed it when talking on the phone. Since I had bad dizziness, I didn't even bother taking it seriously. Didn't google it or worry about it, etc.

Anyways, the weeks go by and the imbalance slowly improves. To this day, it is probably 90% improved from when it was at its worst. Unfortunately, the hyperacusis got much worse. Right now, it is so bad that I sit with my ears plugged; even the sound of my keyboard makes me anxious. Every little noise angers me and causes intense panic. I frequently wake up in the night (with ear plugs in) shaking and clammy just because the ceiling fan made a tiny noise.

However, there is minimal raw pain. Upon exposure, typically I get loud tinnitus and a super emotionally distraught feeling. It is not uncommon for a headache to develop. I also get fullness in the ears and sort of a popping feeling. This has me very concerned. I should also mention that I have completely normal hearing.

Moreover, in retrospect, there were moments weeks ago where I was REALLY irritated around noise. I just chalked it up to generalized anxiety, but now that I have a more severe version, it completely makes sense that I was experiencing a minor form of it and not realizing it.

I am seeing an ENT, but I don't get a sense that she really takes my hyperacusis seriously. I guess my main question is the following: Has anyone's path started this way? i.e. it was initially chronic (non-sound-induced) dizziness? I have a systemic autoimmune disease and am currently trying predisone; I am not very optimistic that it's just inflammation.