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Did I get tinnitus by shoving chewing gum into my ears?
Ear, Nose & Throat (ENT) | Last Active: Jan 22 9:04am | Replies (10)Comment receiving replies
@coffeeandtv I don't think anxiety plays any role in causing tinnitus. Anxiety does not affect the auditory nerve, which recent research has implicated. A common cause appears to be noise exposure and/or hearing loss. Tinnitus isn't really a matter of noise sensitivity, which is termed hyperacusis. The two may or may not occur together. Hyperacusis is not caused by anxiety either. I have been told numerous times that the brain senses a void and fills it.
Do you have tinnitus?
Replies to "@coffeeandtv I don't think anxiety plays any role in causing tinnitus. Anxiety does not affect the..."
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But isn't hypercusis almost always accompanied by tinnitus. (i.e. Not everyone who has tinnitus has hypercusis. But everyone who has hypercusis has tinnitus)?
When I got tinnitus after this chewing gum incident, it seemed to be a reactive tinnitus. Staying in noisy places made the ringing worse, but staying in a quiet environment calmed it down.
The void theory is something I'm struggling to grasp. Just because there is a void, why does the brain have to fill it? In most cases of age-related hearing loss, people are just unable to perceive sounds they were able to hear. It comes across as silence to them.