View Full Version : So it seems like the tinnitus I've had for 2 weeks is yet another symptom of anxiety
I was already anxious when I noticed my ears ringing 2 weeks ago, and my first thought was the typical health anxiety thought of "omg what if this never goes away". And so it didn't.
I have gone through the two week process of having a total emotional breakdown and seeking advice from multiple doctors, ignoring all reassurance and convincing myself I'm developing some terrible illness.
I am now, after some reflection and some very interesting discussions with top of the field doctors in auditory medicine, ready to accept that just like the bout IBS I had, just like the benign muscle twitches I had, just like the eye twitches we get... This is another case of my brain being it's worst enemy and turning what was a normal brief moment of tinnitus that all humans experience, into a constant and worsening experience.
I just want to hear if any of you guys have had similar experiences with anxiety induced tinnitus and managed to kick the problem completely. That's not to say that you can't, if you listen closely in a quiet room, hear nothing at all - because it seems no human can do that, we all hear something.
But have you been able to go back to how you were before your tinnitus episode started, where you were unaware of it 99% of the time just like all those people out there who would never describe themselves as having tinnitus do?
My only fear is I have burnt this process into my brain already and that it'll never stop latching onto the make-believe sound in my head :(
actualWeeaboo
02-10-17, 12:09
Ahoy there~ ♡＼(￣▽￣)／♡
I've actually been getting a LOT of tinnitus lately and I don't think I notice it 'til it changes a little bit (like, noise will suddenly sound more dulled, or the high-pitched noise suddenly sounds more amplified) and these shifts have been happening more frequently lately, likely due to my current bouts of anxiety.
Even now, if I focus on it, I can notice it, despite not noticing it before. Ahahaha, I didn't even realise until now. In saying that, I'm always wearing headphones, and perhaps constantly watching streams and playing games blocks it out somehow. I do admit though, when it does dull/amplify, it gives me a brief anxious shock due to the sudden change. I really hope you can manage to shake this, friend.
As far as I know, tinnitus is just something extremely common, that doesn't really have any dangerous repercussions. It's just... annoying, huh? {{ (>_<) }} I've had friends and family who've lived with it terribly for a very long time, and they've told me how frustrating it is when it's particularly bad.
Does distracting yourself with music or anything help?
Sorry if all that's not too helpful, but take care~
You're a-okay and I hope you get some relief soon!~ ( ´ ∀ `)ノ～ ♡
Ahoy there~ ♡＼(￣▽￣)／♡
I've actually been getting a LOT of tinnitus lately and I don't think I notice it 'til it changes a little bit (like, noise will suddenly sound more dulled, or the high-pitched noise suddenly sounds more amplified) and these shifts have been happening more frequently lately, likely due to my current bouts of anxiety.
Even now, if I focus on it, I can notice it, despite not noticing it before. Ahahaha, I didn't even realise until now. In saying that, I'm always wearing headphones, and perhaps constantly watching streams and playing games blocks it out somehow. I do admit though, when it does dull/amplify, it gives me a brief anxious shock due to the sudden change. I really hope you can manage to shake this, friend.
As far as I know, tinnitus is just something extremely common, that doesn't really have any dangerous repercussions. It's just... annoying, huh? {{ (>_<) }} I've had friends and family who've lived with it terribly for a very long time, and they've told me how frustrating it is when it's particularly bad.
Does distracting yourself with music or anything help?
Sorry if all that's not too helpful, but take care~
You're a-okay and I hope you get some relief soon!~ ( ´ ∀ `)ノ～ ♡
Heya!
Well being a doctor I have the benefit and probably unfortunate ability to contact specialists wherever and whenever for advice on these things without waiting for a referral. That means I can get good info, but I also tend to get obsessive asking everyone and everyone.
In the end I feel like I know where I stand.
1) Everyone has tinnitus. Put anyone in a quiet room and ask them to listen for a sound in "their head" or ears, they will hear it
2) Some things make tinnitus more obvious, this could be pressure changes like on a plane or due to a cold etc. or actual disease. 99.9999999% of the time, it's just the former, and it's temporary - that's the brief ring we hear from time to time that passes in a few seconds
3) When we have anxiety we are prone to focus in on that sound and obsess over it, what it means, whether it will go etc. That means that instead of letting it fade away, it stays, and in fact gets worse as we constantly scan for it.
4) The more you scan for it and treat the tinnitus like a threat, the more your brain and even the muscles of your ears prime themselves to be super sensitive first to sounds like the tinnitus, the to sound altogether - then you get even more annoying problems!
The solution? Well first of all see an ENT and make sure you have no actual disease, but after that it's the standard stuff for us health anxiety lot: stop worrying about it, stop thinking about it, wake up one day in a few weeks/months time and realise oh year... it's gone. And I'm still alive :yesyes:
Are you on any medications? I had to stop Zoloft and Wellbutrin because they caused tinnitus for me.
Are you on any medications? I had to stop Zoloft and Wellbutrin because they caused tinnitus for me.
No it seems like I have no actual cause for tinnitus other than my anxiety making me super aware of the tinnitus that exists in all of us over the age of 25 anyway.
I guess I just have to rewire my brain away from it... Sounds familiar right? It's like the cause for so many of our HA problems :(
jessygirl77
27-10-17, 03:52
This post is literally exactly what I'm going through now !!!
This post is literally exactly what I'm going through now !!!
You'll be pleased to know that my tinnitus has almost completely subsided now, 2 months on from when it started.
In my case I noticed that the ringing disappeared in quiet environments but would be stirred up by certain sounds during the day, which is apparently a kind of "hyperacusis", another anxiety related issue.
Whether you have tinnitus or hyperacusis the treatment is the same. First, have the workup with the audiologist and ENT just to make sure there's none of the rare causes and that you don't have hearing loss, if that's all ok then forget about any diagnoses and just accept that it's all an issue with the way your brain is processing sound and that the solution is in your own hands.
1) Everyone over 25 has tinnitus because we all accumulate some small amount of damage to the cells responsible for hearing over time. That damage results in a weakened signal to the brain, and the brain fills that gap with this ringing. With hearing loss due to loud sound exposure etc. that process is obviously exaggerated.
2) If everyone over 25 has tinnitus, why don't they complain about it? And if you're over 25, then you had tinnitus the day before you noticed it. Why didn't you notice it then?
That's where anxiety comes in. For whatever reason you picked up on that sound and your anxiety meant that instead of forgetting about it and letting your brain filter it out as it always has done, you instead told your brain that this noise needs to be constantly monitored and stressed about.
3) Now it's time to get your brain to filter out that sound again. The first thing to do is to stop worrying about it at ALL, stop asking yourself "is it better or worse today", stop checking if it's there, stop wondering if it will ever go away etc. because all those things tell your brain to stop filtering. Only when you can let it go and not let it have an emotional impact on you will your brain filter it again.
The only other essential thing to do right now is to start what's called "noise enrichment". Download an app on your phone that can generate pink noise, this is like white noise but it won't mask your tinnitus (masking it will slow your recovery), it will just make it less intrusive. You need to sleep with headphones that are playing pink sound at a volume just below your tinnitus, as your auditory centres in the brain don't sleep. That means that throughout the night your brain is hearing the tinnitus, as well as a bunch of other random frequencies, so it is less focused on the sound that's troubling you, and more likely to just accept that these sounds are present but not important.
Without that pink noise your brain only hears the tinnitus and fixates on it, making it much harder for it to let it go.
Important things to remember are, do NOT go onto the tinnitus forums, they are full of negativity and a select group of people who for whatever reason are not coping. Look around places like this, or ask people you know, and you'll find that this issue is very common and almost always resolves. Even in severe cases, tinnitus retraining therapy (which is just a formal version of what I mentioned above and some extra fancy sound techniques) has an almost perfect success rate.
The second thing is to accept that recovery is not linear and you will have good days and bad days, often corresponding to how tired and/or stressed you are. Don't let a bad day after a few good days ruin your progress by making you freak out about it, just accept that today you're stressed and it's a bit annoying but in a few days time you'll be back on track.
I've gone from being an emotional wreck with the sound of an aeroplane in my ear to pretty much completely cured after a few weeks of the pink noise therapy and relaxation. Some people get better quicker, some slower, but you'll get better so just keep the faith and before you know it your brain will have lost interest and put that sound back to where it was before: somewhere you can't hear it!
EDIT: Jessy I read your other post, you mention strange feelings in your ears. If you have seen a doctor and they have looked in your ears and are happy, and been to an audiologist who is also happy, then that sensation may still be anxiety related. There is a muscle in your ear called the tensor tympani that connects to the ear drum and the current thought it that just as we get muscle twitches through anxiety, so this muscle can become "over-active" creating those odd feelings in the ear and also creating tinnitus and sometimes hypersensitivity to sound.
Again it's anxiety related and should settle with time.
Anony, this is great advice that can be applied to many aspects of HA in general.
Anony, this is great advice that can be applied to many aspects of HA in general.
I'm disappointed in myself that every time I get some psychosomatic problem, even though I know it's most likely stress related, I still go through a few weeks of completely breaking down thinking it's some terrible illness.
In fact the moment I noticed this ringing, my first thought was "oh god what if it never goes, what if I have something wrong with my ear". If I had just ignored it it would have probably faded away and I never would have had to go through all of this in the first place.
I just never seem to learn my lesson 😞
I'm disappointed in myself that every time I get some psychosomatic problem, even though I know it's most likely stress related, I still go through a few weeks of completely breaking down thinking it's some terrible illness.
In fact the moment I noticed this ringing, my first thought was "oh god what if it never goes, what if I have something wrong with my ear". If I had just ignored it it would have probably faded away and I never would have had to go through all of this in the first place.
I just never seem to learn my lesson 😞
And you're a doctor! What hope is there for the rest of us? :winks:
(I have permanent tinnitus in my left ear from SN hearing loss. Was even worked up for an acoustic neuroma.)
And you're a doctor! What hope is there for the rest of us? :winks:
(I have permanent tinnitus in my left ear from SN hearing loss. Was even worked up for an acoustic neuroma.)
I think doctors are the worst of all! We are often trained to pick up red flags but unless we specialise we are not as good at knowing when those red flags are actually red herrings.
Have you tried TRT? I’m sure that significant hearing loss makes the battle against tinnitus much harder but even so they seem to report really high success rates with TRT.
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