Worsening of My Tinnitus, Why?

Hello everyone,

My tinnitus has gotten worse over the past few days and I don't really know why. I haven't gone to any place with loud noises or anything.

I did recently buy a new headphone with noise cancelling on it (it's funny because I bought it because I thought it would be better for my tinnitus), so does anyone know if this can worsen tinnitus?

Secondly, I've caught a cold so I've been using nasal spray. Can this make the situation worse?

Thirdly, these week are my finals so maybe it's just stress?

And one last question, I also have a crack in my ears every time I swallow. Does anyone know if this has anything to do with tinnitus, or what it is? It think it started at approximately the same time as my tinnitus did...

I hope you can help me out, thank you in advance!

Cheers,
Eric

 

@EricB96 ,
Eric it could be your cold or extra stress but could be using headphones also.
For now I would stop using headphones and off load any stress and try steam inhalation to clear your tubes.
Also have your ears checked for wax etc if it does not settle .
Love glynis

 

Thanks Glynis for your quick reply!
Before I bought the headphones I used the Apple-earbuds all the time and my tinnitus didn't get as bad as it is now. So is it really the noise cancelling?

 

@EricB96 ,
For people who's tinnitus was due to loud noise exposure then using headphones or earphones can spike tinnitus for some people even on the lowest setting.
I would limit the time with them just for now to help your ears settle from a cold virus,stress and sound.
When its settled down try the headset again but keep it on the lowest setting and see how you go as some people are fine with them but not everyone.
Love glynis

 

Thanks Glynis, your help is really appreciated!

 

Many people on this forum advise against using any headphones ever again, even at low volume. I also saw a number of threads where people state that it seems to them that noise cancelling headphones had worsened their T.
Check out the original post as well as all of the replies on
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/thread...fter-using-noise-cancelling-headphones.10403/
(keep in mind, some of those people must have had their problems caused by the sounds they tried to mask using their noise cancelling headphones, and not by the headphones themselves)
and
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/thread...nes-—-do-they-pose-a-risk-for-tinnitus.20958/
You can find more of those stories if you look at
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/search/2014454/?page=3&q=noise+cancelling&o=relevance

 

Having a cold can absolutely impact tinnitus.

 

When you swallow, your Eustachian tubes open briefly. I also get cracks in my ears, but it is much worse in my right ear which is my tinnitus ear. So, you could have a Eustachian tube issue, and that can cause tinnitus. However, hearing a little sound when the tubes open is not uncommon, maybe you are just noticing something that you never noticed before because tinnitus has made you more sensitive to such things.

I'll agree that having a cold can make tinnitus worse (temporarily). It's happened to me twice in two months.

 

Stress, headphones, cold/infections....plenty of reasons to increase tinnitus. Eliminate these 3 elements and your ears could get getter. With tinnitus you never know, but those 3 elements for sure can annoy the tinnitus.

 

Thank you all so much!

 

Noise cancelling headphones are worse than standard headphones because youre actually hitting your eardrums with 2 waveforms (that are summed as one of course, but thats beside the point).

One waveform is the audio you're actually wanting to listen to, whether it be music or speech, the other is a polarity-flipped waveform of the real world audio that's happening outside your head. The polarity flip actually "cancels" the outside world sound, but you're still hearing it, you're just not PERCEIVING it.

I take a common sense approach to headphones, and I am not talking about earbuds. I don't crank them, and I listen for only short periods of time (30-60 seconds). I only use them to check what my work sounds like on them (as opposed to my normal speakers) for a "sanity check". Used in this way, I have never noticed them to have an effect on my T. I would never, EVER use them for something like half an hour to an hour with decent volume while doing something like working out, that is just asking for trouble.

 

Has your T gone back to baseline?