If you notice an abrupt change in the volume or sound of your tinnitus, you may be experiencing something called a tinnitus spike.
Understanding, preventing, and treating tinnitus spikes.
A tinnitus spike is a sudden, dramatic, and unpredictable change in your usual tinnitus volume, tone, or frequency. Spike may be physically painful, emotionally devastating, or both. Tinnitus spikes, however, are temporary, lasting between 1-3 days.
What does a tinnitus spike feel like?
Imagine that you have had your tinnitus for a few months. After such a long time, your brain decides that the sound is nothing more than a false alarm. It has already slightly reduced your perception of the noise. Almost without realizing it, your awareness of the ringing in your ears has decreased. And, your emotional reaction to it has lessened.
Then, without warning, the sound turns into a blaring, screeching sound that threatens to pierce your eardrums. You clap your hands over your ears and grimace in pain and surprise. You assume the worse; this is a permanent change. And this change? This is too loud. This is not bearable.
The horror of a spike is twofold. First, the increase in volume is potentially life-altering, and you’ve already learned there was no cure for your condition. You have nowhere to turn to, and now you feel you have no one else to blame but yourself.
You believe you must have brought this change on by being careless with your music volume, consuming too much alcohol, or otherwise engaging in some unhealthy activity. Desperate for any “new” cure or help, you spend hours googling the word “tinnitus.” Eventually, you end up in a tinnitus forum. Here, you read countless soul-crushing stories. You scroll through the history of individual users who plead for solutions, beg for mercy, and finally never log back on. Here, in the forums, hope dies.
But it is called a tinnitus spike for a reason.
How long does a tinnitus spike last?
Every tinnitus spike will dissipate and eventually disappear. Even the meanest, loudest flare-ups will soon start to lose their edge and fade away.
How long does a spike last? Many spikes are short. The shortest ones are gone with a few minutes or a couple of hours. A much lower percentage may last several weeks.
Your average tinnitus spike? Plan on spending 1 to 3 days dealing with it.
Spikes typically follow a pattern.
- A swift, brutal onset.
- Period of maximum intensity.
- A noticeable fading and reduction in volume.
- Complete cessation.
What causes a tinnitus flare-ups?
When a tinnitus spike hits, there’s an incredible temptation to track down its cause. But, of course, there is nothing wrong with this approach; just don’t end your search by blaming yourself.
Unfortunately (like tinnitus itself), there are almost innumerable potential causes for a tinnitus flare-up. Therefore, success in your endeavor will require much mindfulness and no small amount of journaling and logging.
I recommend you begin your search by examining these four potential triggers.
- Poor sleep quality or sleep deprivation.
- Exposure to a particular sound or a loud noise.
- A recent increase in anxiety regarding work or personal issues.
- Your diet.
Along with not blaming yourself, it is essential to understand there appears to be some aspect of randomness associated with tinnitus spikes.
Random may not be the perfect word here–there may indeed be a cause–but it may take up too much time and energy for you to ever narrow it down to one thing.
At the end of a long and fruitless search, it’s okay to think of it as nothing more than time and chance. So feel free at that point to move on.
How do calm a tinnitus spike?
First, it’s always important to remember your doctor can help you with your tinnitus. If tinnitus is having a negative effect on your life, or is severely affecting your mood, get immediate medical attention.
Next, develop a few ways to cope with the temporary increase in tinnitus intensity.
- Try some distraction techniques, like doing household chores while listening to an audiobook at a volume just above noise of the tinnitus.
- Follow along with a beginner’s yoga class on Youtube. Maintaining an uncomfortable position while trying to follow the instructor can work miracles on your perception of the noise.
- Spend 15 minutes listening to the sound of your tinnitus. More on that in my book, The 15 Minute Challenge.
And, finally, simply wait it out. Waiting out a tinnitus spike may be difficult, but I have a surprise for you. Spikes are good for your eventual recovery from tinnitus.
After a tinnitus spike you will both return to your normal tinnitus levels and be pleased to realize that your emotional response has softened to it.
You progress with tinnitus habituation often takes large leaps ahead during a tinnitus spike. These leaps come from the fact that even during short spikes, you habituate to the increased intensity. When your tinnitus returns to normal, that normal will feel much easier to live with.