Anyone with OCD and tinnitus experience? Or the fear of having tinnitus?

Ever since I started sleeping in my student room I hear different sounds in my head/ left ear. I did nit sleep there for some time and it dtarted right that first night. I looked up what it could be and I remembered thst I once listened to a podcast of a woman with tinnitus. Now I an so afraid I have that, and permanent. I am getting mad because if these sounds. They change throughout the day from pitch and are at their worst at night. I also have tmj and I have found that there is a correlation between the two. I kind of know that it could be my OCD because it started getting really bad when I started focussing on it and looked up the condition. But I still fear it is permanent. The gp said it could last two to three weeks and the cause is sometimes uknown other then listening to loud music etc. But I still have it! I don’t know if I can handle this my entire life.. The OCD is bad enough

@guiltyocd Yeah it happen to me aslo

So you hear that noise all the time? Or you just hear it focusing on the fan?

@tmp92087 Just when focusing on the fan, or fan sounds in general which are basically everywhere. My psychiatrist explained that it’s not a hallucination because it’s coming from an actual stimuli. I just added an intrusive thought to it and now feel I “hear” it different than I really do. Because when I’m not anxious I don’t even think twice about it.

@Drepet123 He explained it like when people hear what sounds like inaudible whispers when the faucet runs, or they think they hear their name called in a crowd. Things we all do and don’t think twice about, but now my ocd has made me hyper aware of it.

@Drepet123 But I also will randomly hear it as wel even in the absence of the fan, when I start to over think of it. He said this too is from OCD. It’s like getting a sound “stuck”

@Drepet123 What did he or she recommend to get unstuck? Just keep telling yourself this is your OCD, or so what if I'm hearing this?

@tmp92087 To stop fighting it. To allow it to be, and stop giving it so much thought or power. It feels gross in the beginning and you won’t get immediate results, but it’s part of that fake it til you make it. Then eventually it refades to the background again. It will pass. Trust me. I thought I was going insane because I had like a goose noise stuck in my head once, I then felt like I could “hear” it everywhere. But realized it’s because I was so afraid and so hyper aware that I was looking for it everywhere. A chair squeak, my mind would then say “there it is again” or compelste silence and I’d think I may have faintly heard it. The mind is a powerful thing. I went to my psych and was sure he was going to tell my I was experiencing psychosis or something, to which he then told me all the things I’ve outlined above and just how normal these things are.

@Drepet123 Are you still experiencing the hearing of the fan?

@tmp92087 Yeah because fans are virtually everywhere. Grocery stores, home, car, etc. but the thing is, it slowly is getting better because I stop fixating on it. It takes time, but it will pass once you get the anxiety and fear under control.

@Drepet123 How are you now ?? With this

@Drepet123 I HAVE THIS exact same problem especially with thinking I can hear it everywhere ! Any advice to get over it would be so appreciated

Exactly. Mine was the same, I googled things, someone told me what they thought something sounded like, and I felt like I could “still hear it” when the reality was it was just a thought that I was then tying to external stimuli. We OCD folks get stuck sounds, think of it like a song. When you get a song stuck in your head you sing it over and over and can almost “hear it” but you know you can’t. It doesn’t scare you though because we’ve not attached that fear to it. It’s the same with sounds both internal or external. We’re just hyperaware and our ears and brain react. It’s very normal, trust me I’ve searched all over the web and have seen 2 psychiatrists now about it haha, the problem is we with OCD take normal sensations or thoughts etc and fixate to the point that they feel scary to us. When the reality is it may have been something that you didn’t even think twice about, prior to it becoming your current obsession.

@Drepet123 It's so weird. I can hear it all the time. Even in loud environments. And the more scare I am, the louder it gets. But if I'm occupied, I dont hear it. Or I have fixated on something else, I didn't hear it.

@tmp92087 Exactly. That’s how I was too. And that’s not how true hallucinations work. They don’t just come and go when you decide no to think of them. That is however how thoughts and fixating works. It’s like a leaking faucet. The moment someone points it out, it becomes deafeningly loud. But if no one points it out you don’t notice it. Same with an itch. You don’t think twice about it Until it’s brought to your attention. That’s how these sound things work too. It will pass. I’m telling you, and myself that as it seems we are going through similar things. The fact that we question it shows just how intact our minds actually are.

@Drepet123 When I've asked others if they can hear stuff in compete silence, and they say yes. Like blood rushing or other sounds. That makes me wonder too.. if some head noise is normal If paying attention in silence?! But you are saying our brains always making up these sounds?

@tmp92087 I think there are some noises that are normal yes. But what I am saying, and what I’ve been told by psychiatrist, is that if a thought and fear are what first pre-exist the symptom (so the stuck sound in this case) then it is the thought and fear that are creating it. Symptoms of psychosis don’t just come and go as you think of them, it would always be there and you wouldn’t even question it. Where as what you’re describing is something you are very aware of, and causes you fear. Which only makes it seem more persistent and stronger. If you had days upon days of happiness I can Guarantee it would be gone until you stopped and thought “oh, remember that sound thing I was thinking about the other day” and then boom it would be back. Which proves it’s a product of the mind and fear, whereas a mental illness or auditory hallucination doesn’t just work that way. So I am thinking that you are also expericing like I am with the awareness of a thought, a real sound (at one point or another) that then becomes stuck and we look for everywhere. It will pass. You just have to allow it to by trying to shift your focus. Even when it’s hard and when your mind tries to pull you back. It will take time, but it will pass. Soon you’ll notice an hour or two will go by and it will be gone. Then it will come back. Then a day or two will go by without it. Then it may come back. Then a week may pass. But the point is it will pass and take time but if you follow the process it will work. Anxiety has a way of playing on our fears, and trying to prove them true. It’s why after watching a scary movie as a child we think there’s a monster behind our door or under the bed. That imagination doesnt just disappear as we age, instead it evolves. You’ll beat this

@Drepet123 Yes definitely, I can go a little bit without hearing it and then my mind says, wait I havent been hearing that and then I hear it. Happened this morning. Ugh!!! If you get thoughts that associate with it to try to scare you, do you ever mentally talk to yourself to reframe them? That's my problem. Sometimes I can ignore, not attach any emotion and then refocus but other times my anxiety gets the best of me and keeps telling me "something is wrong or abnormal". Or what pops up alot mentally is, I'll always think about this, or I wish I was put back in time where I wasnt thinking about this, or I wish I was like that person not thinking about this.

@tmp92087 I get that all the time as well. That’s the OCD part of it. Checking is the compulsion, reassurance is part of it too. Now you just have to accept it and understand that it’s normal and we are NOT experiencing anything more. Our mind tends to jump to the worst. Mine always jumps to the “I’m crazy, this is an auditory hallucination” spectrum even when I know rationally that it’s not. We’re experiencing stuff that everyone experiences daily, and just doesn’t give it a second thought. But the beautiful thing is the control to get past it is within your court. It may not feel like it, but it is. But like you said you sometimes bring it on yourself by noticing it’s gone and then bringing it back. That alone is proof that it’s nothing more than anxiety because psychosis etc doesn’t work that way. That’s how mine is too. I’ll feel great and then I bring it back on myself. It’s like we sabotage our happiness because we’ve learned how to be uncomfortable for so long, but then we don’t want that either.

@Drepet123 Thank you so much! This helps me alot!

So you have tinnitus

@Chk168 Yah, I think so too. I only noticed when I upped my dosage of luvox - so I think it might be a side affect. I’m also on buspar, which my dr felt could be the culprit. So, we are going to try lowering that dose first and then if that helps great! If not, we will have to look at the luvox.

The fear or the earringing?

@guiltyocd The ear ringing itself