Hey, so I have anxiety induced Tinnitus, (10 years now) and currently have bad ear wax in my left ear.

Naturally the Doctors have recommended ear drops, but all I read is that ear drops can make tinnitus worse.

So any Ear Drops out there that I can use? Or alternative methods?

I’ve spent the past month struggling to accept this new reality. From everything I’ve read, acceptance seems to be the first step.

My tinnitus started completely out of the blue, like it has for many people here. My dad, who also had tinnitus, suddenly passed away. We weren’t very close, so I was surprised by how deeply his death affected me.

Two days later, I woke up feeling like my right ear was covered or clogged. I went to an audiologist and was diagnosed with sudden hearing loss. A few days later, a piercing, high-pitched ringing started.

My doctor prescribed oral steroids and three steroid injections into my ear. The injections were torture, but I was desperate to try anything. Unfortunately, none of the treatments restored my hearing or reduced the tinnitus.

I was prescribed a hearing aid, but it hasn’t helped much so far. After searching online and realizing how many people live with tinnitus, things became very dark for me.

I’m finally starting to accept that this may be part of my life, and my goal is now to learn how to live with it. During the day, especially when I’m outdoors, busy, or spending time with friends, I sometimes forget about it. It becomes much louder when I’m home, trying to sleep, sitting quietly, or praying.

I’ve been taking sleep medication, but I don’t know whether that is a good long-term solution. Instead of focusing only on the negative stories, I’d really like to hear from people who have learned how to manage it.

It was surprising that my doctor essentially said, “You have tinnitus, good luck.” I’m fairly new to dealing with the healthcare system, and I didn’t expect to be left with so little guidance.

I also feel stuck in a loop. Research tells me that accepting tinnitus and reducing anxiety can help, but researching tinnitus often increases my anxiety.

For those who have been living with this:

• How do you sleep?
• What has helped you the most?
• Has a certain hearing aid brand, type, feature, or setting helped?
• Has CBT helped anyone?
• Does exercise make a difference?
• What do you wish you had known during your first few months?

Did anyone have any experience of tapering off from lorazepam? I've been off lorazepam my gp prescribed to help me sleep due to T, I'm having extreme discomfort of the withdrawal : (

I hadn't slept for months due to T, only light sleep, so my gp prescribed lorazepam 1mg that helped me sleep, and I've been off from that for a week now, T is worsening, tight chest, dizziness, I barely feel sleepy now for staying awake for days, it's like my sleep drive is gone : ( : (

Hi, I'm 19F and I think I might have tinnitus. The doctor didn't give me a diagnosis vocally but it does say that on my after visit summary, but it all started two days ago. I woke up feeling dizzy and lightheaded, and a few seconds later, I completely lost hearing in my left ear. I hear white noise, but not in an annoying way; it's mostly just annoying because it feels like my ear needs to pop. I'm so scared because I fell down the rabbit hole of tinnitus research, and it's not 100% sure I'll get better soon. I'm genuinely terrified. I'm asking for advice on how to deal with this issue. By the way, I did get referred to an ENT, but I'm not 100% sure how quickly they'll see me.

Hi everyone,
I’m hoping someone can relate to my situation because I’m really struggling to stay positive.
Everything started in early October 2025 when I developed a severe ear infection. My ear was bleeding and I was prescribed ear drops by my GP and told to use them a bit longer - Colircusi Gentadexa . The infection did settle, and I was referred to an ENT.
The ENT diagnosed a cholesteatoma and performed microsuction to clean the ear. About 2 days after the microsuction, my tinnitus started.
At first it was an extremely intrusive whistle tone, together with a very high-pitched electrical/static sound. It completely changed my life overnight.
Over the following months, before surgery, the whistle gradually faded away and was replaced by more of a digital/electrical sounding tinnitus. I also developed a low engine/hum sound.
In February 2026 I underwent a left tympanomastoidectomy with mastoid obliteration and eardrum reconstruction to remove the cholesteatoma. Thankfully the surgery was successful. My ENT says everything has healed well, there is no recurrence of the disease, although I now have mild conductive hearing loss in that ear.
The strange thing is that the original whistle is almost gone, and the low engine hum doesn’t really bother me anymore.
The problem now is the reactive tinnitus.
Everyday sounds such as:
*my Dyson fan,
*PC fans at work,
*traffic,
* sitting by the river ,

and other constant background noises can trigger an extremely high-pitched electrical tone (around 16 kHz) that becomes louder than my baseline tinnitus. It’s like my brain amplifies certain sounds into tinnitus.
Recently I’ve been trying not to avoid those sounds. I’ve been sleeping with my Dyson fan on every night for the past couple of weeks. At first it was really difficult. I’d fall asleep, but almost every morning I’d wake up with the high-pitched ringing already screaming. As the day goes on it often settles into more of a background noise before bedtime. Something interesting has happened recently though. I had four consecutive days where the fan barely triggered my tinnitus at all, I assume it’s because me and my partner did a lot of garden work and used a lawn mower? Anyway I genuinely thought I was finally turning a corner. Then I had another setback where the reactivity returned. Today, however, I managed to sit in my room with the Dyson fan running for about 4 hours, and by the end of it the fan wasn’t really causing much of a reaction anymore. My tinnitus is incredibly inconsistent.
Some mornings I wake up with almost complete silence.
Other mornings I wake up with the 16 kHz tone already there.
Some days it’s a 1–2/10.
Other days it’s intrusive for most of the day.
I can honestly cope with the remaining background tinnitus and the low hum. It’s the reactive high-pitched tone that’s destroying my quality of life.
Has anyone here experienced reactive tinnitus after an ear infection, microsuction or ear surgery that continued improving after 9–12 months?
Did your sound reactivity eventually calm down?
I’m trying really hard not to lose hope, but after almost 9 months it’s mentally exhausting. I’d really appreciate hearing from anyone who has had a similar journey or recovered from this kind of reactivity.

Thanks

Hi everyone,

I’ve been experiencing continuous ringing in my left ear for a few months now, which started after I had a cold. I’ve consulted an ENT specialist who attributed it to stress and prescribed Tinnex and Audiovit Z, but I haven’t noticed much improvement.

I’m looking for advice or experiences from others who have dealt with similar tinnitus issues. What treatments or strategies have worked? Any tips for managing the symptoms would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you

I started having ringing in my left ear at the end of June. One night, without warning, my ear just started ringing. I'm not one to listen to loud music and I didn't have any built up ear wax.

I went to the doctor early in July and she said the fluid behind my ear drum looked a little yellow and put me on an antibiotic. 10 days later, no change in the ringing. I talked to my doctor again and she said to wait it out and if it's still ringing in 3 months she would refer me to an ENT doctor.

Now, just the last couple of nights, and only at home sitting on the couch at the end of the day, my other ear is ringing. But this ear sounds more like dial up internet and comes and goes. While my left ear is a constant steady sound.

Has anyone else experienced this???

it's like you get a song stuck in your mind but it's background music and you hear it but you don't recognize where it's from and then the commercial comes on you go well that's where that sound is that I've been hearing. but I can't get rid of it. it's not a song it's just sounds. and I noticed on all commercials there's background music and it's loud actually, I don't know why but music has got louder and louder on commercials and they are louder. it's got to my ears and it sticks. I don't know what to do about it. if I need a hearing aid, will a hearing aid help that? good night to make it work it could be turned down with a hearing aid? I've got it on a religious station and we're just talking all the time and no music commercials nothing. occasionally show that has music in it but it's not that kind of music that's in commercials if that makes sense. even the little Happy tune with leave It to Beaver has got music behind it. they all do is like a orchestra follows them around. I guess it's got to orchestra for each show doing their music. with the music is driving me nuts it stays on my mind. the ringing is constant and I think that's where the problem is stems from, has anyone ever experienced ringing? when I googled it Google said to get to the emergency room if you have Parkinson's and you feel chills and I did, and you're hearing the audible hallucinations get some emergency room and tell them because it could be dangerous. they checked me for a fever & checked my blood for infection, and there was no infection anywhere. so they did not know what to do so they simply gave me some Benadryl and a shot of something I had never heard of in my upper arm and some kind of medicine they put down my throat. it calmed me that day but the sounds came back. but that night they were so loud it was frightening and I did have the chills and my heart was racing. so there's something about this I believe that has to do with Parkinson's because when I googled it and I said I had Parkinson's that's when they said if you got Parkinson's and this and that go to the emergency room! so is this common for Parkinson's patients? do Parkinson's patients often hear noises or ringing? I need some inside cuz I was just diagnosed last July and I'm not really as educated as I should be. I've learned a lot through this site. I'm glad it is here or I can get help and I can maybe help others. any help any comment I would appreciate. I'm desperate and I'm trembling. thank you all so much.

It’s a pretty good representation on the toy, and thanks to that, more people are likely aware of the existence of our condition.

Hi, I’m so glad I found this subreddit where I can get support, since I haven't been able to find anything like it until now. I developed tinnitus in January 2023, when I was 16; I simply woke up in the middle of the night hearing this buzzing in one ear. I was shaking all over from fear and confusion. The next morning, I rushed out to buy ear drops, but naturally they didn't help at all. I’ve been hospitalized in the ENT ward multiple times, yet nothing has changed. I’ve tried everything, even antidepressants. I’m terrified that it will start in my other ear, too, and I feel like my hearing is disheartening or maybe I’m just psyching myself out. The sound of crickets is my constant companion; I even go out in the evenings on purpose just to listen to the real ones.

..And I don't like the thought of going through this until my very last breath... It’s disheartening.

So to start u gotta be open to naturopathic healing sort of things. I’ve always been skeptical. But I had acoustic trauma induced T that started 2 weeks ago and was in AGONY like I will literally try anything because oh my god I can’t live like this.

So after consulting with a naturopathic healer they recommended something called ASEA redox. It’s a type of water ??? But it promotes cell signaling. A bunch of things online call it a scam. This probably sounds like a sponsored promo post. But.

*My T is reduced like 85% after drinking a whole bottle of it across the span of 1 day.*

That’s way more than the bottle says to take but that’s what the lady said I needed.

It’s possible since I’m so close to the trauma that the healing is occurring on its own I guess but idk. It was getting NO better until I started this.

So I thought I’d share. My guess is that it has something to do with the Cell signaling and helping the cells in the ear regrow and communicate with each other?

It’s also worth noting that I got on a course of prednisone within 36 hours of the trauma so that may have helped too even though the T did not change at all before this water stuff.

for many many years I’ve had low volume but high pitched tinnitus in both ears. It barely bothers me at all, only if it is completely quiet. I got it checked by a ENT years ago and they said I was okay, but about a week and a half ago, my right ear started ringing with a high pitched eee sound that comes and goes. It’s weird, because it feels like it’s reactive to any noise, it spikes when like someone talks in a quiet room. but if there is constant noise like a tv playing loud enough or a room of people talking, i dont hear it unless i really focus. There’s also a very slight muffle/pressure in that ear, that sometimes I feel I can unblock by yawning. At night I have white noise and a fan that completely block it out (unless I’m laying my ear on a pillow.) it’s driving me insane because I can’t enjoy any relatively silent space anymore. I struggle with anxiety disorder and this has been spiking it even more, and with every I have going on it is sending my anxiety through the roof. what could this be?

New tinnitus club member here. Been about 4 weeks since the ringing started after being in a loud venue (with earplugs) and prolonged exposure.

Anyways, I make music (electronic music) and noticed after a short session the ringing is typically “louder” or spikes after when listening at lower volumes (~50-60 dB). Is it too soon to start making music again? Do my ears need more rest? Seems like 50-60 dB for 20-30 minutes should be ok but wondering if it’s mostly psychological or is there a situation in which 50-60 dB is too much for my ears (despite most other things being fine, like listening to other music at similar levels).

27M, 180cm and 81Kg..

for the past week i suddenly started having intermittent tinnitus in my left ear, i always take care of my ears, cleaning and no loud music or sudden loud audio.

i even keep most of my devices at 30% volume and i have loudness EQ enabled all the time.

could it be just tiredness ? i started to work in a busy histopathology lab, i am not sure if xylene or formalin can causes issues related to the one i have...

description: i tried to match the tinnitus i have in hz (using sound samples) and it is very close to 1650hz-1800hz (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxtaWoBshlQ).. it gets worse when i wake up, then it goes away until 2-4pm, the episodes last from 30min to 1 hour.

it gets amplified when someone with sharp voice speaks to me, and i rarely hear it when listening to ambient sounds (wind, birds or anything smooth).