Yet Another Tinnitus Sufferer — Can't Pinpoint Any Other Cause Other Than Noise

Hi Guys,

I am 38-year-old male based in the Netherlands. I first heard very mild tinnitus in February 2021 on a snowy day, when playing with kids outside, however, in 2 days, it was gone.

Then after two weeks, I was at a get together, and all of a sudden, I felt a sharp pain in my right ear, and I felt voices were a bit loud. I thought OK!, I stepped away, and next day it was all OK again.

Then again after a week, I was at friend's place setting up his Hi-Fi system and I would say that we played some songs for few seconds here and there to check the quality of speakers and again I felt a sharp pain in my right ear and it also got red. In the night I felt a mild tone in the right ear again in night in the quiet room. I don't remember if it was same as the three weeks earlier, so I scheduled an appointment with GP and she said that there is quite some wax and that should be an issue. They did water irrigation and indeed some wax was removed. Thereafter, they said to wait for 2 weeks. Nothing really changed except some aural fullness in each ear (on and off); I had the same mild tone for the two weeks. I then visited an ENT, luckily got the appointment instantly, they checked my hearing and the doctor said that, well now I have read this on the forum from many others as well, that I have a perfect hearing. In fact he said, I have an hearing of an 18-year-old. He said, it will go away, when he cant say. Don't worry!

However, a week thereafter, things started in my left ear too, and now it has been six months, with hiss, sometimes high, sometimes low that I feel in my head in fact more than in my ears. The tone from where it all started sometimes is not there for days, and then comes again and goes missing again. Sometimes I feel few days are good, very mild. Sometimes it is very bad, meaning very high electrical hiss, almost seems like cutting through head, headaches, etc. When it is hissing in head, I don't much feel in ears until I put that side of the face on the pillow and then I feel it kind of transferred from the head to the ear and the other ear feels OK and if I turn the other side, it is again on the other side in a few seconds. Strange?

I don't know what to expect in future, sometimes I get optimistic and sometimes very negative. I tried dentist, I don't think it is TMJ, but I tried the mouth guard, but I don't think it makes any difference, it is the same cycle. I have taken a couple of physical therapy sessions for neck, however, that also didn't help. I am also quite confused, how being at a get together can cause such ear pain to begin with. I am an audiophile, but I rarely listen on headphones, may be when I was young and pre-pandemic times (on evening walks - but not very loud for sure all the time) but even then not for whole day, etc. So, however, I am not able to point it to a cause, other than Noise.

I have read so many posts in last 5 months on this portal. It really keeps me going with all the success stories. And some of you, I have been following on a daily basis, for instance, @Vassili , @Michael Leigh, @Christiaan, @Bill Bauer, @aura, @jjflyman, @Greg Sacramento and many more... I have taken many precautions by reading posts of you guys. Thanks a ton. Looking forward to sharing my journey with you guys!

 

Also, my neck/jaw movements change the pitch and loudness of sounds but I understand that is in quite a high number of cases. So I am not sure what should be the next step forward?

 

Protect your ears! That’s all I got.

 

I am much newer to this than you are. But from what I can gather, you're still in the early phases. A lot of the people for whom it passes, do not stick around on the forums I bet. Best of luck to you!

 

That's quite a story there @transient18. What I can say so far is a bit in line with what others already have mentioned: it can get better with time, as it has been the case for many of us here on Tinnitus Talk.

Just to give you an example: I initially had about 5 or 6 sounds right after I had my worsening. And boy, what were these things LOUD. Over time, it slowly reduced to 2 sounds, basically. And even those remaining sounds are significantly reduced. It can happen randomly, but it can also be a matter of trying different things, like in my case (experimenting with Psilocybin truffels, BDNF rich food, exercise, notched therapy, etc.). This is definitely not a sure thing for everybody, but it has helped greatly in my case. So, anyway, there's still hope for you that your tinnitus may become manageable again if you give it some time. Keep the faith, fellow Nederlander

 

@Christiaan - thanks fellow Nederlander. So how long did it take for your sounds to die down? The high electrical hiss in my head is really annoying... I just don’t know if I will ever get used to it. I do see that having good time such as with friends, or after a walk, it dies down for a while. Not sure what’s happening...

 

Oomph, tough question @transient18. It took me about a month before I noticed an improvement. It's really a gradual process in my case.

If I were to compare my tinnitus on a month-by-month basis, I would probably have said that the difference is noticeable, but fairly moderate. But if I compare my tinnitus in December last year to what it is now, I sure as hell can tell the difference. It's really a difference of wanting to stick your head in a gas oven vs. being annoyed by tinnitus while reading a book. So, even though my tinnitus is still pretty annoying at times, it is slowly becoming more bearable and that's all what counts.

Oh damn, you have the high pitched sound too? Yeah, it's definitely difficult to deal with, but I can say in my case that it has slowly reduced from the very intrusive ''circular saw'' level to a ''present hiss in quiet room'' level.

I honestly do not know the exact mechanism why going for walks or other social stuff helps in reducing tinnitus, but some research papers indicate that cortisol (high when feeling distressed) vs. oxytocin & dopamine levels (high when feeling relaxed, joyful) seem to be part of the puzzle in how intrusive tinnitus can be at certain times.