Sudden hearing loss and an echo

Like I have full surround sound. It’s pretty good. However when I remove my hearing aids I get really bad tennitis. Very loud noise and very fuzzy noise.

I know this sounds ridiculous, but sometimes after removing my hearing aids it takes awhile for my brain to adjust. Sometimes I can’t determine where the buzzing sound is coming from. My battery operated will buzz after removing if I don’t open the battery door. I didn’t realize this until my husband told me and thought the sound was in my ears…

Tinnitus is very common. It sounds as if your hearing aids are masking your tinnitus. Do you know if your provider programmed to do that?

Yes, she did because the Tinnitus is so loud that I can’t hear much but the noise of the tinnitus makes and with the hearing aids it at least feels like I have some sort of hearing that sounds normal.

Were you given any instructions on stress management? Stress is known to cause tinnitus to escalate. Sodium, alcohol and nicotine have also been mentioned as causative factors. I'm sure there are others. I hope people who have found ways to deal with tinnitus will chime in,

Not really, I don’t drink so that’s not a issue, and I try to limit my sodium intake and I’m trying to quit vaping, but I’m not sure if I can limit the other stresses in my life as my eldest daughter has MS and is a single mother who works 60+ hrs a week and is struggling financially and her MS is very painful. It just breaks my heart to think that she is going through this and is so far away from me, even if she is only 1 hr away from me, I can’t drive anymore because of the nerve damage that I have and she doesn’t drive very far because of the ms pain in her legs. My husband has asked if he can pick her up, but she hasn’t responded to us yet, but we’ll see. So you see stress can only be avoided so much when you have 5 children and one child has a chronic illness.

This information appeared in the publication Psychology Today on December 7, 2023.

Tinnitus Is Psychologically Damaging, New Research Finds | Psychology Today

DEPRESSION
Tinnitus Is Psychologically Damaging, New Research Finds
But a new treatment offers hope.
Posted December 7, 2023 | Reviewed by Michelle Quirk

KEY POINTS
A recent study shows that tinnitus causes psychological damage.
Stress, anxiety, physical effects are principal symptoms.
A new treatment appears to significantly reduce tinnitus, offering hope for sufferers.

Tinnitus. For those who don't have it, even the word may be hard to pronounce. For those who do, tinnitus (usually pronounced TIN-it-us) is a constant presence in every second of their waking life: a ringing, buzzing, or wooshing sound in the ears that doesn't come from external sources. For a large number of Americans, the sound is so loud that it seriously damages their quality of life.

Specifically, a 2023 study has shown that tinnitus can lead to heightened levels of depression, anxiety, and attendant "somatization"—headaches, fatigue, and similar physical symptoms.

But there's good news, too: A recent experimental treatment has succeeded in significantly reducing tinnitus symptoms in persons affected by severe tinnitus.

Let's recap: Everyone has tinnitus, which is at its core the sound produced by our own acoustic and life-support systems. For most people it is so slight as to go unnoticed. Objective tinnitus—measurable by external instruments—is usually a product of the body's circulation and is rare, affecting less than 1 percent of tinnitus sufferers. Subjective tinnitus is heard only by the patient and likely is caused by overactivity within the dorsal cochlear nucleus section of the brain stem, where acoustic and other sensory data are processed. Tinnitus in general is apt to show up and increase with age-related hearing loss.

The complaint, in whatever form, affects 25 million Americans—or almost 15 percent of the population. Of these, 5 million have chronic tinnitus, and 2 million experience the condition so severely that it becomes debilitating and life-changing.

Tinnitus is the number-one disability reported by military veterans, in particular by veterans of combat.

A German study based on analysis of data from 15,000 subjects showed a significant correlation between patients suffering from tinnitus and higher levels of depression, anxiety, and somatic disorders. The study, published in the Journal of Clinical Medicine in February 2023, found that roughly 40 percent of tinnitus sufferers exhibited these higher levels of depression and anxiety versus 27 percent of those not affected by tinnitus. Interestingly, sufferers seeking treatment for tinnitus were among the most affected.

There are no known cures for tinnitus, although therapies exist—some of which, such as the use of cannabinoids like CBD, remain unproven (although CBD might separately alleviate depressive symptoms). Other treatments cover the gamut from ear-wax removal, to white noise generators, to hearing aids, to cognitive behavioral therapy.

But there is new hope for palliation of tinnitus, if not for an outright cure. A study conducted by researchers at the University of Michigan and published in 2023 treated 99 tinnitus sufferers exhibiting physical (somatic) symptoms with therapy that combined acoustic input as well as nondetectable electrical stimulation. The results showed that, in the two groups studied, tinnitus decreased by half, on the order of around 6 decibels.

The dual treatment has not yet been approved for general use, but the researchers involved have expressed the hope that approval will be forthcoming in short order. Stay tuned.

References

Lauren Silva. CBD For Tinnitus: Does It Work? Forbes. September 20, 2023.

Anton Benz. New Tinnitus Therapy Can Quiet Torturous Ringing in the Ears. Scientific American. July 13, 2023.