Hey Everybody! I am Florence and I am 28 years old. I think I have hearing loss. For the last few months, there is ringing in my ears. I have heard that tinnitus is the early sign of hearing loss. I can’t concentrate on anything. My office works are going down. I am very much anxious about my problem.When I asked my friend about this, she told me that tinnitus will go by itself and no special treatments are required. I waited for one month. Till now, the ringing in my ears remains the same. I took some anti-anxiety drugs which help to reduce tinnitus. But, no use was there. Now I feel some hearing loss. I don’t know whether it is because of my over anxiety. Will I go deaf? I am planning to consult a hearing aid audiologist in Vaughan. A benign tumor that grows between the inner ear and the brain also show the symptoms of ringing in the ear. I became very scared after knowing this. Can tinnitus go away? Is there anything to be taken serious of tinnitus?
I looked at the site. My impression is they are more sales oriented than service oriented. The tinnitus section is deceptive. Its purpose is to sell hearing aids.
Tinnitus can be treated within days of occurrence with drugs that are sometimes effective. It is done by an ENT and not an Audiologist. Audiologist are medical support and not medical diagnosticians that can prescribe.
That said; hearing aids often reduce or eliminate tinnitus. It isn’t a guaranteed solution. Stress can make it worse. Some are able to ignore it most of the time. I have gone from extreme tinnitus to little or no. Aids helped do that.
I fear you will be getting more of a sales pitch than an honest evaluation. They will try to sell you their most expensive aid and use fear to promote the sale. They even may say that mental problems result from non treatment. That is far from normal results.
I believe that Ken is giving solid advice. IMHO, you should see an ENT as your first step not an Audiologist.
PVC is exactly right.
There are also common things that trigger or make it worse. Personally I find that aspirin or excessive amounts of sugar can make my ears “sing”.
Also regarding that tumor, look up “medical student syndrome”
Welcome florencetthompson. First of all, for your privacy, I would strongly recommend changing your username.
As far as I know…tinnitus is still an unknown tricky thing. Some can “ignore” it. Some have success with notch therapy. Some have success with masking. Further to Coroplast…some have mentioned salt too (too much or too little). But there doesn’t yet appear to be any settled science on why it happens and how to treat it.
Did you experience anything really loud in the last few months?
Yea,I can’t even sleep properly…
Thank you for your advice.
You need to see a medical practitioner and also have your hearing checked. First diagnosis - then you will find out what treatment is best.
Hi Florence,
I’m going to echo the opinion that you should see an ENT. From what I’ve read, this issue has has a sudden onset and has caused you considerable anxiety. You have suffered and so has your work. Minus a solid diagnosis, you’ve searched the Internet, or others sources, and have seen to full breadth of possible issues. This hasn’t helped things. Your hearing change has affected your quality of life and should be properly diagnosed.
I find that knowing what’s wrong is always far superior to not knowing.
Don’t give up that nothing works. I have found that a drug “Clonazepam” low dose does help lower my T during the days and I take one at bedtime to help me sleep. There are ways to help lower your T. Many people reported that their T went down after changing their diet. Cut back on processed meats, sugared drinks, sweets, candies, sodium/salt. Also Stress feeds on T so it is important to reduce your stress levels. Music relaxation soundtracks do help, like white, pink, ocean waves, raindrops sounds. My T gets too loud at times and I don’t let it interfere with my daily tasks.
Talk to your doctor, see an ENT certainly to rule out anything serious, but the chances of you having a tumor are very rare. Audiologists are first line for management of tinnitus.
I know we’re into using imaging to rule out everything nowadays, but it seems like if history is consistent with tinnitus (noise exposure, some high frequency hearing loss) and no unilateral signs/symptoms that the odds of it being anything serious are pretty close to nil. Should an audiologist be able to make the call if seeing an ENT is warranted?
I don’t refer for bilateral tinnitus if there are no other red flags.
As per the original question, yes tinnitus can go away on its own. Given the anxious tone of the initial post, though, I think a bit of outside help is in order. In Toronto, I’d recommend calling the Canadian Hearing Society. They have some great audiologists at that clinic, and I know some of them manage tinnitus.
I’m having my first real bout with tinnitus, which I think was actually brought on by Celexa, the drug that I take in concert with another anti-depression drug to help both depression and anxiety. Apparently people with Meniere’s can have reactions to Celexa. Have been having earaches for a few months, but after years of no Meniere’s symptoms other than my hearing loss, it didn’t really occur to me that the earaches might be a return of the Meniere’s.
I am not thrilled at the notion of having to stop the Celexa, but I’m not sure that piling more drugs on top of it is the way to go.
(This also isn’t really what I thought tinnitus would sound like–mine sounds exactly like one of the tones in an audiology test. )
In reference to the original question: it depends. You really need to be evaluated by an audiologist and possibly ENT if he/she deems a referral necessary. If this came about suddenly, ask your PCP for a referral to an ENT who will then have you see an audiologist for a hearing eval. What other symptoms are you experiencing? You say you think you have hearing loss. Was this sudden? Was it brought about by any other recent health changes or new medications? Are you experiencing any dizziness? Seeing a specialist will narrow down the cause and hopefully help eliminate some of your anxiety. Keep in mind that anxiety about tinnitus causes tinnitus to become worse, which then creates more anxiety–thus, a loop begins. Until you have a definitive diagnosis, don’t allow yourself to assume the worst. Tinnitus is almost never the result of anything life-threatening. Take a few deep breaths. Go see someone to figure this thing out. There are plenty of us out there who can help. Tinnitus can be managed.
Mine is ~1375 Hz tone, not quite pure. Tinnitus comes in all sorts of different sounds though. What did you think it would sound like?
Well, “ringing” made me think it would sound like church bells or a phone or something. 
Mine is mostly a hiss that resolves to a tone of around 8-ish khz maybe a little lower tone now…I’m not sure. More in the left than the right but noticeable both sides anyway. Sometimes I get sounds appearing at a lower frequency for a brief time and then goes away.
There was a site somewhere that had simulations of what people get for it and there were some that throbbed rhythmically and other awful sounds. At least mine’s just one general sound.
I’m a weirdo. I like my tinnitus. It sounds like a hot summer’s night. I have cicadas, crickets, peepers, and katydids all singing along. It comforts me.