A few days ago I randomly got tinnitus out of nowhere and I didn’t understand what’s up. An hour or so ago I finally understood/learned what’s happening to me and read up on tinnitus and I’m devastated. I’m only over 20 and having this for the rest of my life as it becomes worse is heartbreaking to me. I was already overly sensitive to certain noises and am in love with music but with tinnitus I lost something precious and permanently gained somethimg that I just will need to live with. I’m heartbroken and scared. I know I will learn to accept it within a week as my brain processes this new experience but right now I just feel gutwrenchingly horrible. Especially so when I was already having some other physical and mental health issues that I’m unable to cope with and this adds to the burden. I need some advice on how to live with it and some comfort in knowing of other people going through the same. Thank you. :(
(I don’t live is US if that matters in any way.)
Stress-induced tinnitus is definitely a thing. I once “caught” mine turning itself on one morning as I was waking up. That is, there had been bliss overnight, only for it to pop into existence the moment I started contemplating the day.
My left ear also used to squeak when I was in deep thought / spiralling about stressful things. I would not be surprised if there’s some kind of unconscious control of one of the inner ear muscles going on. I’ve not had the squeak in a while, either because of medication or because I’m aware of what might be the cause.
That said, I also prefer to keep water out of my ears because that triggers tinnitus the other way: water or wax on the eardrum. Which can then perpetuate itself through the stress form once the physical problem sorts itself out.