Why Do Some Tinnitus Sounds Hurt?

My head and ears are full of tinnitus, why do some of the higher pitched tinnitus noises hurt me? My right ear beeps LOUD and HIGH, I actually feel it!! its as if someone were spraying compressed air into my ear. I also get these kind of scraping/squeaking noises behind my eyes, I can feel these as well, they give headaches.

I can listen to some of my tinnitus tones with comfort, even some of the really loud ones, but then others create this physical pain. Why is this? Anyone have any idea?

 

Hi Telis,
I know how you feel my sound hurts also.
Do you have any sinus problems that can cause pain by the bridge of your nose and feels like eye pain also and headaches ?....lots of love glynis

 

No I'm all clear that way. I can feel the noise. It's exactly like listening to something loud enough and high pitched enough to hurt your ears/head. I understand this is a phantom sound but it FEELS real. I know for sure that my right ear is tensing in response to this loud beeping, I can feel the muscles lock up inside. It's as if my ear goes into protection mode. Same with my head, the sound hurts, I believe the sound is creating tension headaches.

The sounds behind my eyes are also linked to side to side eye movement.

I'm waiting to see a specialist, just thought I would see if anyone else experienced this kind of thing, and how they dealt with it. I've never tried pain meds, maybe this would help.

 

Hi Telis,
Hope your appointment comes soon.
I'm just glad I have hearing aids with masker setting as just takes the edge off my sound but still tough going.
My sound is like my gas oven on full and I can not locate sound so it's hard when out in busy places .....lots of love glynis

 

I get that sometimes too. At first I thought it was my cochlea deteriorating but then I started getting the same thing in my deaf ear. My best guess now is that it is some sort of nerve or chemical over activity. If you're getting pain behind your eyes you could be having migraines.

 

@Telis hi. I get those same feelings too. The noise actually hurts. I can be masking it and I can still feel it. It's awful. I'm seeing another specialist tomorrow at Hopkins. I'll keep you posted. Please do the same.

 

@Telis you should give LLLT a try it really helps with H if it's a clear inner ear / nerve injury due to acoustic trauma

 

Mine is barotrauma, ototoxic dugs, then noise. And yeah I have really bad H. Feel like I'm screwed, the T is all over my brain and in my ears. I think the H is definitely the most bothersome although tough to know. The H gets really bad so does my T. It's like they are one in the same.

 

I had bad H due to firearms shooting - large caliber rifles etc.. But LLLT helped

 

@Telis so my appointment at Hopkins was so so... The doctor wasn't the typical doctor that just says learn to live with it bye... So that was refreshing in a way. She said the pain is a result of the damage to the ear. Its persistence is due to the phantom limb pain idea where the brain continues to associate pain from that damaged area. She also said sometimes migraines are more prominent in people with tinnitus. She said to try to follow a diet for migraine sufferers. I'm curious on how many tinnitus sufferers also get frequent headaches.

 

@Ears Hurt

Typical doctor, it sounds like she's guessed on all 3 issues here without anything to back it up, but because it can't be immediately disproved she can claim causality where there is none.

Firstly how does she know your pain comes from damage? Did she see this damage? Nerve damage can't be seen so she guessed there.

Then the phantom pain thing is a total hypothesis nothing more.

Then there's the migraines. I sincerely doubt a huge survey has been done on tinnitus sufferers to see whether they get more migraines, so she's pulled that one from where the sun doesn't shine also. Very unprofessional of her and all in the name of sounding knowledgeable. Personally I don't get migraines, so I must be an anomaly.

 

What is she going to do for you?

Personally, I wish someone would just tell me that they don't know what is wrong but they are going to do everything they can to find out. Instead, they make up something so they can send me on my way.

Her theory doesn't explain why the T hurts my deaf from birth ear.

 

Doctors are pretty much useless. I don't think anyone really knows enough about the ear and we are still in the dark ages for treatment.

 

I agree. Are they going to run any tests on you?

 

She is setting me up with cognitive behavioral therapy and the insomnia clinic. I've already had the MRI, MRA, cat scan and such. They aren't really sure if mine is related to tmj or noise damage. I do have my right tmj disk being crushed by the condyle.

 

Telis

I understand how you feel. I get pain in my left ear if I'm on my cell phone talking too long, even though I hold it at an angle away from my ear, so as to not put sound directly into my ear. It stops a little while after I get off the phone. Have to communicate with people, what can we do? it is what it is.


Good Luck, I hope this gets better for you soon.


Louie

Quietatnight

 

I strongly suspect its because they are. I had been thinking H was a different mechanism, but part of the problem with that idea is pinning down an inclusive definition of H. I'm leaning more now to the idea that high frequency H comes from the loss of some of the reception channels, leaving a gap in the sound presented to the brain with the resultant interpretation sending messages that are screwed up and even sometimes find their way onto non-sound pathways. For a while there I was feeling percussive sounds being transmitted across my jaw as a tactile wave. Sound is just energy interpreted, and nerves that have damage are capable of anything (except of course their normal function).

 

@Telis
My ears do not hurt. But T is torture in itself.
I hope it will get better for you. I am also wondering if a diet change could help.
But somehow how I have the assumption, the auditory system is unaffected by anything.
Whatever I do, T does what it wants.
Stay strong.

 

I too am coming around to this. The randomness of spikes and settling seems to have as much to do with phases of the moon as it does rationing salt grains.

 

For me it is sleep. But it is not the length or quality of sleep. It is more like sleep is a switch for high or low T. AFAIK this is for many. You could wake up with monster T or with mild T - and for me it stays like this the whole day. I don't know what is the reason for one or the other. Maybe it is related to REM sleep, maybe related to dreams, maybe to what you eat before sleeping and how long before. I have no idea. I also think it is due to weather conditions and air pressure.

Or maybe T just does what it wants.

 

Yeah, sleep does seem to dictate the day ahead a lot of the time.

 

Interesting. How has your change of mind affected your view of the possible existence of muscular tinnitus? Can it be either reception channel central loss or a hyperactive middle ear, can it be both?

 

Who told you it was a phantom sound?

Is eye movement sensitivity a sign of dehiscence?

 

Interesting you should say that. One of the patients from the first Silverstein hyperacusis seminar talks about the operation on his deaf ear that was sound sensitive and how he ''felt it in the center of the head'' or something.

So what are you saying, you've tried a headphones and only applied sound to your deaf ear and you still get sound sensitivity?

 

If a sound is very loud or high pitched, I can feel it in my deaf ear. I have had hearing tests where they test my deaf ear and when it gets loud enough I can feel the sound. I should add that I feel the sound in my ear, not in my head.

 

@Cityjohn did you see this post? Interesting!

 

You can feel it in your ear when they tested you only on that deaf ear in a sound booth or you can feel it in your ear in everyday situations?

 

Both. It has to be really loud before I can feel it in my deaf ear. I can't feel regular sounds in it.

 

Well, what you describe in your situation seems more low frequency, and my symptoms seem to fall more on the high-freq side. That said, I really don't know the answer, partly because no-one does, or cares to. I'm sort of on the fence really because the whole thing is such a moving feast. I often veer from one to the other, as my symptoms are just so changeable. One thing though, I've started pigging out on magnesium lately , while still taking Clonazepam, and the tinnitus component of my problem has quietened down somewhat. M & C have distinct actions that are both neurologic and muscular so I'm left wondering which system I may be working on. I haven't left the Muscle spasm camp, because I see it as a true reversible cause, but I just don't know anymore.

 

Before I was on Xanax my T would hurt my eardrums too. I think it is because the sound was so loud and so high the brain perceived it as pain. As a sort of warning: "Get away from there". Maybe such a high loud sound from outside would trigger the same response. I tried but I can't hear the frequency of my T when it's not coming from inside my head.