u/ItsHarvinator

I was watching a tinnitus quest YouTube discussion briefly and there seemed a disagreement of where tinnitus comes from.

Do you guys think tinnitus is created by the brain or the ears?

Personally, since tinnitus is the result of auditory damage, I think it starts in the ear and the brain interprets the signal.

Hearing is a sense similar to all our other senses. When you touch something, is the feeling being created by the brain? When you feel pain is the feeling created by the brain?

When you see is the image created by the brain?

Not really. the signal starts at the source, and the brain interprets it. The interpretation may make the signal worse than it actually is but the source is still the cause.

All senses are interpreted by the brain, not created by it. The ears, skin, eyes, etc., detect input and send signals, and the brain turns those signals into what we experience.

So with tinnitus, I think the ear is sending altered or faulty input, and the brain is interpreting that signal as sound.

When I think of tinnitus and try to compare it closely to one of our other senses, I think about vision. Like when you look at something really bright and then look away, and an afterimage is still there.

That afterimage isn’t actually in front of you it’s your visual system still processing the signal even after the stimulus is gone. Is the brain creating it or interpreting it?

That’s kind of how I see tinnitus. It’s like the “afterimage” of hearing.

Why does anxiety or stress make tinnitus worse?

I’m not completely sure, but it seems like it makes everything worse, not just tinnitus. Stress doesn’t necessarily change the original issue it changes how your brain processes and focuses on it.

I have chronic pain from a motorcycle accident a few years ago, and there were times I could barely notice it or even forget about it. But since getting tinnitus, I feel the pain daily again because of the stress it has caused.

So it makes me think it’s not just about the ear or the injury itself, but how the brain is handling all these signals. When you’re stressed or anxious, it’s like your brain is more sensitive to everything tinnitus, pain, all of it.

Please share your thoughts on this.

Please note I may be wrong about the information above it's just my opinion.

I’ve had tinnitus for about 2 months now and I have a tone that seems to go with my heartbeat.

It alternates between an “eee” and a “whoosh.” Like first heartbeat is the eee, second heartbeat is the whoosh, then repeats. So basically 1 2 1 2 1 2.

Sometimes I hear it more in my ear and other times it feels like it’s in my head. My tinnitus is mainly in my left ear.

That’s the best way I can explain it.

Is this considered pulsatile tinnitus? Has anyone experienced something like this?

I recently made another post explaining how I got tinnitus and my other symptoms. It's noise induced.

Sometimes even when my tinnitus is masked by other sounds, I still feel this kind of ear pressure or head pressure where the sound is coming from. Does anyone else experience that? Is it part of somatic tinnnitus?

I know not everyone can mask their tinnitus, and honestly, sometimes I can’t either. Mine fluctuates a lot. Please still share if you experience this.

If your willing to share, please share how you got your tinnitus and how long have you had it? (For example: noise-induced, 2 months). This helps a lot of us understand if the information might apply to us.

Also if you had it in the past and don't anymore let us know.

Hello everyone,

I’m about 9–10 weeks into tinnitus and wanted to see if anyone’s had a similar experience and improved, or has any advice.

It started after I used a Milwaukee M12 right angle impact wrench for under a minute while working on an exhaust. My left ear was closest to it while I was under the car on a creeper. I covered my left ear with my shoulder, the right ear was covered by the creeper pillow. The part that’s been bothering me mentally is I actually looked for earplugs but couldn’t find them, and since it was going to be quick I thought I’d be fine. I didn’t even know tinnitus was a thing at the time. I took auto 101 in college as a hobby and it was never mentioned.

Weirdly, the tinnitus didn’t start until about a week later.

In the first couple weeks I was getting panic attacks from it, which I’ve never had before. That part has improved a bit, but mentally it’s still been really tough. I’ve been feeling pretty down, and focusing at work has been hard. I work in a quiet office in IT, so there’s not much to mask it. Luckily I have been able to push through the day. I'm hoping the quiet is at least helpful for my recovery.

I had just changed careers at the end of last year and finally felt like things were going in the right direction after recovering from a motorcycle accident a few years ago, so this has been a rough setback mentally. I was in the hospital for about as long as I've had tinnitus now from that accident and I can say this has been more difficult for me than that mentally.

I had a hearing test and it came back basically normal, although I know there is likely hidden hearing loss involved.

The tinnitus is mostly in my left ear and the left side of my head. I initially didn't have it in my right ear until about a month later. Now I can hear it in my right ear if I cover it. It feels extremely odd that one side of my head is loud and the other is quiet. At least I have an idea of what it should be like. Oddly a couple times it did shift all the way to my right ear and was quiet in my left. It's unpredictable.

It changes a lot. sometimes it’s a hiss, sometimes crickets, beeps, or sometimes a high-pitched ring, and it can switch pretty quickly, even within the same hour. The volume fluctuates as well. Sometimes it's quieter in a quiet room and sometimes it's loud and sounds louder than my ac.

It’s also very somatic. Even small things like touching my fingers together, or moving my eyes, jaw, or neck can change the sound.

I also get what I think is pulsatile tinnitus fairly often, which seems odd since this started from noise exposure. I wonder if this has something to do with the vertebral artery dissection in my neck from my motorcycle accident. Last time it was checked I was told it looked fine.

Sometimes it’s a pulsing ring, other times more of a pulsing hiss or whoosh. It can line up with my heartbeat, like I’ll hear it on one beat, then not the next, and it keeps alternating. Its not always this way but it often is.

Other symptoms:

-occasional brief ear pain (a few seconds)

-headaches here and there, all over.

-eye soreness, behind the eyes.

-clicking in the ear, especially in the morning. Feels like it goes away some days now.

-some sound sensitivity. not really pain, more like a weird sensation with sudden loud sounds like a zap to my brain.

Loud sounds can spike it sometimes (like my AC if it’s on for a while), but getting away from it usually brings it back down within a few minutes.

Also, when I’m outside the sound seems different, more of a higher frequency, although sometimes nature is enough to mask it. Driving can make that higher-pitched sound more noticeable, so I think there’s some reactivity.

Has anyone experienced similiar tinnitus or symptoms from acoustic truama? Will I have this for the rest of my life? It seems like no can answer that question. I'm 25 and I don't know how long I can continue like this.

Please share any noise induced recovery stories or advise.

I know it's a long post but let me know if there are any details you'd like to know. I've been lurking on this forum since I got tinnitus.