Tinnitus Symptoms

Tinnitus symptoms

        Tinnitus is a very sneaky condition. It can disguise itself as part of a million other diseases. Therefore, you must be very attuned to your body's rhythm to be able to distinguish tinnitus symptoms from other sounds present inside you.

       While it is true that tinnitus symptoms can be easily mistaken for something else, the illness is usually (in approximately 90% of the cases) associated with hearing loss. If you suffer from any form of hearing impairment, you might want to be on the lookout for the signs of tinnitus.

       From its multitude of signs, the following tinnitus symptoms are the more common: modifications in the acuity of your hearing, sudden sounds present in your ear, nausea, dizziness, headache, pain in your ears or the impression of having an imaginary plug inside your ear canal, blocking it and dampening the noise.

       When talking about tinnitus symptoms, the most obvious and important are the unexpected and weird sounds in your ears. These sounds come in different aspects, depending on the gravity of your illness. Sometimes, all you can hear is a whistle, a tinkle, maybe a hum. Other times, it escalates to a sizzle, hissing, cicadas or a jet stream. In some cases, it is even a pulsation.

       In the more early phases of the disease, tinnitus symptoms can appear and disappear rapidly, but soon the sounds perceived by you become permanent. However, both the permanent and the passing sounds are to be taken into consideration and certainly have to be mentioned when consulting a medical doctor.

       What you also have to take into account when trying to distinguish tinnitus symptoms from other kinds, is previous cases in your family. This is not a strictly hereditary disease, nor have any studies confirmed or infirmed this affirmation, but it was noticed that hearing loss, which is associated with tinnitus, sometimes runs in the family.

       It is important to note that tinnitus lessens or worsens in certain conditions. You have to keep in mind that once surrounded by high stress factors, the whistle in your ears (the most common sign of this illness) will become almost a piercing sound, distracting you from your daily routine and, in consequence, increasing the stress. That leads straight back into the apparition or intensification of the symptoms, creating a vicious circle that is very hard to escape.

Other symptoms

       Some people, though certainly not a majority, have even more severe and annoying symptoms. If you have a sensitivity towards sounds, be them really loud or almost too soft to be heard, then you suffer from a hyperacusis disorder. This can also be a sign of tinnitus.

       You can also watch carefully for troubles in your sleep patterns. Tinnitus is best known as a "night disease", meaning that its symptoms lessen during the day and worsen during the night period. That is logical, because in day time, the strange noises in your ear (whistles, ringing) do not take precedence to routine sounds (the horn of a car, the coffee maker, the voices of the people around you). During the night, as the noises around you quiet down to a mere simmer, the ones in your inner ear start to appear. This causes disturbance in your sleep, which can lead to stress and onto the vicious circle mentioned above.

       One other tinnitus symptom, though rarer, is the fact that you can hear your own heartbeat thumping in your ears. This can appear naturally as a result of intense physical effort, but only for a limited amount of time. If it exceeds that, or, even worse, if it is permanent, it is a sign of tinnitus.