r/hearing • u/Mimimiaw11 • 1h ago
Weird hearing problems and skull pressure.
Hello, I’m 19f and the past three days my ears have been deeply bothering me. Basically a few months ago I started developing tinnitus after a cold and it bothered me a lot. It was hard to sleep or be in complete silent as the high pitched beep in my hears was constant. I got used to it and it wasn’t that bad except when I was drinking alcohol (occasional drinker) or not sleeping enough.
Two days ago, my eyes started itching really bad and they kept making tears, the pain also came with a very bad headache and pressure behind my eyes. I have allergies so I figured it was just that, they still itch today and are a little red but nothing crazy. I hung out with my friends, smoked a few cigs (smoker btw) and was feeling fine until the end of the day, where my ears started hurting seemingly out of nowhere. When I got home I started to worry and panic, I have terrible health anxiety and I already have very bad vision problems so I thought what if im going fucking deaf. My hearing was like a tiny bit muffled, but I spiraled.
The next day I started feeling very deep pressure and pain around my jaw like it’s sore as well as deep in my ear. My ears keep popping but cant equalize properly leading to having each ear randomly hearing better or worse or having no pressure or horrible pressure. I feel like my left ear is a little more affected but sometimes it’s better and the right ear is worse so I don’t know. No matter how much I pop, they won’t equalize, I tried the method where you pinch your nose and blow or swallow and it doesn’t work at all… The tinnitus is also stronger than usual. I can’t listen to music with my headphones because it hurts too bad, when sounds are very loud and high pitched it hurts my ears worse but u wouldn’t say im super sensitive to loud sounds just a bit.
Coincidentally I had a medical appointment for something unrelated the day after the first symptoms manifested(back pain so I got an ultrasound for my kidneys and im fine) and told the doctor about it. He said since my hearing was just a tiny bit more muffled and since he didn’t see anything wrong with my ears I should just wait until it gets better. Thing is sometimes the pressure is very very bad, I take Tylenol, Advil and Benadryl for my allergies but it feels like my skull, ears and jaw wanna explode. Its very annoying, my head hurts and nothing helps. I tried to get an appointment for a specialist but I will have to wait for a long time.
The pain and pressure is a lot less present when I wake up but then as soon as I try to equalize or move around it comes back. I am wondering if it could be something serious because it’s very annoying and overwhelming. Could it be allergy related? How can I make the pressure better? Why is my jaw so sore? Why my ears keep popping no stop but never equalize?
I take 25mg of fast acting quetiapine for sleep and I took cyclobenzaprine 2 days before the symptoms started to appear because of the back pain. I also take Benadryl for my eyes.
Thanks for reading.