Tinnitus problems!
Good day,
I have been having problems with my ears for some time now. About me: I am male and 26 years old.
It all started about half a year ago when I noticed a kind of "crackling" in my left ear from time to time. It always occurred as an echo of loud noises that directly entered my ear. For example, when talking on the phone with my phone on my left ear: when my conversation partner says something, my ear crackles in response to his words. It never happens in silence.
However, it never bothered me much. The crackling was very quiet, and I could avoid it by simply holding the phone to my right ear. So, I didn't think much of it. About a month and a half ago, I noticed it again and out of pure curiosity, I described this issue in a medical forum. The response I received was, "Go see a doctor, it could be an early sign of tinnitus."
That's when I got scared. I am an extreme hypochondriac (really extreme!) and a disease like tinnitus has always frightened me. When I was a child, a friend told me that tinnitus is a disease that drives many people to suicide because they can't bear the sound in their ear anymore.
So, on the same day, I went to an ENT doctor and he looked into my ear and said everything looked fine. The eardrum was just a bit dry, and he plucked a hair growing out of the eardrum from each ear. I asked him about tinnitus, and he said, "That's not tinnitus. Tinnitus would be ringing, not crackling." And I replied, "I don't hear any ringing."
I went home and paid close attention to my hearing in the following days to see if the crackling had improved after removing the two hairs. Suddenly, I started to hear a ringing. A high-pitched, irregular ringing that would sometimes disappear but also reappear. It got worse in the following days, and eventually, it was there all day. I went back to the doctor, and this time he prescribed Gingium tablets to improve blood circulation and said, "This will definitely go away."
My situation worsened when my parents were planning to go on vacation the next day (I still live at home), and I was terrified of being alone for two weeks. What if the ringing gets worse and no one is there? I was depressed in those days and extremely down. I should mention that I have few friends, so I was really alone most of the time during those 2 weeks.
At times, I wondered if the problem might be psychological. How likely is it that a few days after the doctor told me I had tinnitus, I actually started to hear ringing instead of crackling? I also thought maybe it was a stress reaction and related to my fear of being alone without my parents. Maybe I unconsciously talked myself into hearing the ringing to give my parents a reason to cancel their vacation.
Well, my parents eventually went on vacation, and the first week at home was really tough. I was constantly thinking about the ringing, unable to focus on anything else. Since I was on summer break (I am a business student), I had nothing to do all day. However, things got better in the second week. It seemed like the Gingium was working, or maybe it was getting better because my parents were coming back. I don't know.
When my parents returned, I had almost conquered the ringing. It was only faintly noticeable and sometimes completely gone. In the following weeks, it was finally gone, and I was in good spirits again, overcoming my depressive phase.
However, last week after showering, I noticed a ringing in my ears when shaking my head. It was a different sound from the previous weeks, but I ignored it for the time being.
In recent days, I started to notice it more, and realized I also had it during other movements. For example, when bending down. I also had it when hiccuping or yawning. And then my hypochondriac brain started to think all sorts of thoughts. Could it be a tumor pressing on my auditory nerve during these movements? Could it be related to blood pressure? (Although my blood pressure is normal). Heart-related? Or am I on the verge of having a stroke?
I also hear it when lying in bed, every time I turn from one side to the other. I always hear my pulse as a ringing - just for a few seconds. After about 5 seconds, it fades. I googled it (I know, as a hypochondriac, I shouldn't) and the internet says that tinnitus usually has 99% harmless causes. And a brain tumor as a cause is almost impossible.
Yesterday afternoon, I was briefly convinced that the ringing was coming from my jaw. It
