Tinnitus and Stress: How Stress and Silence Affect Tinnitus

Major changes in a patient’s lifestyle trigger symptoms. 2020 was no stranger to this fact, forcing many to change their sleeping patterns, exercise routines, diet, and work and home life. With these changes came a wave of tinnitus and stress. And as a result, many patients report increased Tinnitus (or uncontrollable ringing in the ears) than ever before.

What’s the relationship between Tinnitus and stress?

Tinnitus & Stress

Aside from stress, silence is another tinnitus trigger. And COVID forced many people with tinnitus into silent environments.

Tinnitus & Silence

For a condition that brings a lot of unwanted noise, silence is a major enemy of tinnitus.

The silence makes us more attune to the noises of tinnitus.

Joe Scarbrough, host of Morning Joe and a man with Tinnitus, describes the past year with tinnitus very eloquently:

I’ve played in bands, recorded music, lived with headphones on, and had TV earpieces in for years. Because of that, I’ve had loud ringing in my ears for about a decade. It has become severe over the past year…

The COVID pandemic has been terrible for many with tinnitus. Doctors have told me that many of their patients have experienced more intense ringing over the past year. Part of this may be due to stress. Much of it probably has to do with people being in the quiet of their homes instead of in the office, walking through busy streets, and being surrounded by more ambient noise.

With tinnitus, silence is not golden; it is often a tormentor…

A few weeks back when I was coaching my son’s baseball game, I noticed in the 4th inning that I had not been distracted by ringing all game. After focusing a bit, I realized the tinnitus was still there, but it was being washed from my consciousness by a stream of ambient sounds. If you are always working alone in a home office or generally finding yourself surrounded by relative silence because of the pandemic, this too will soon change.

Does this mean you should drown out your tinnitus with noise whenever you start to hear the ringing?

It’s an approach. But not the right one. That’s like fixing a broken pipe with duct tape. The pipe is still broken.

Treating Tinnitus

Audiologists and Otolaryngologists (Ear, Nose, and Throat doctor) are the best resource for treating tinnitus.

Treatment starts with deep diagnostics of your middle and inner ear to find any abnormalities in your auditory system. Following the diagnostics, doctors use a variety of treatments including:

• Medication
• Ear wax removal
• Amplification or hearing aids
• Using white noise machines or other masking devices
• Tinnitus Retraining Therapy 
• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

Even though we’re Vestibular Audiologists (meaning we primarily deal with the balance portion of the ear), there is a lot of overlap between patients with tinnitus and balance disorders.

For instance, Meniere’s Disease, Vestibular Migraine, and Post-Concussion Dizziness all contain symptoms of tinnitus.

Just like chronic dizziness, tinnitus is an invisible disruption to a person’s daily life. Many people with tinnitus are left feeling hopeless when they are unresponsive to traditional treatments. As vestibular audiologists, we see the challenges patients face with invisible illnesses. It is overwhelming and isolating.

Let us be your resource for finding a solution.

Give us a call at (310) 954-2207 or schedule an appointment here.