As you probably know, sustained periods of stress aren’t good for the body. When you suffer from acute stress, everything from headaches to severe muscle aches can be the outcome. But tinnitus, a buzzing, clicking, or ringing in the ears can also be the outcome.
Tinnitus can be triggered by various different health factors, such as stress, sinus infections, or loud sounds. Let’s examine several potential causes of that irritating noise in your ears.
How to Recognize Unhealthy Stress
You might be asking yourself how stress lends to tinnitus. It’s often easy to neglect how extreme the medical impact of stress can be on our bodies. Stress isn’t something you should ignore.
Healthy Stress
Stress that lasts a few minutes, or even a few hours, can actually play an important role in accomplishing demanding tasks. Stress can supply a boost of energy and adrenalin to complete tasks and projects that really need to be finished.
But temporary, healthy stress and long term, unhealthy stress are two completely different things. The ability to accomplish goals can be helped by healthy stress while unhealthy stress can physically harm you.
Unhealthy Stress
Often, an irrational fear is the source of unhealthy stress. When someone stays in a heightened state of anxiety, the outcome is usually unhealthy stress.
In dangerous conditions, the fight or flight response is a natural reaction but it also relates to unhealthy stress. When someone remains in a hyper-stressful state for a long period of time, it can lead to harmful physical symptoms.
Worrying
Unhealthy stress is commonly the result of worrying. We might exaggerate the importance of a situation or an interaction with another person. We may tell ourselves we ruined a chance at a promotion because of something we said. Excessive worrying can lead to intrusive, seemingly unmanageable thoughts.
Unhealthy Stress And Invasive Thoughts
We might think that we are falling behind and failing to complete our day-to-day tasks. We may obsess, talk to ourselves, or even panic. If we don’t take a few positive steps to manage this stress it will continue to wear down our body.
Pain and muscle tension on the upper body are normal effects of unhealthy stress. Affected areas could include the jaw, neck, head, or shoulders.
Anger And Jaw Tension
Have you ever read a book where the writer describes a character as being so angry his jaw clenched in rage? Jaw tension is a common symptom of stress, anger, worry, and intrusive thoughts.
Pressure can be put on the fragile bones of the eardrum and inner ear by continuous tension. Over time, this strain can result in ringing in your ears.
Ear Strain And Sinus Infections
Sinus infections cause lots of undesirable symptoms, from a soar throat to a stuffy nose.
Headaches, sinus pressure, and pressure in the ears are common symptoms of a sinus infection. A ringing, clicking, or buzzing can be the outcome.
Nasal congestion frequently spreads to the ears during the course of a sinus infection. Clogging in the ears and extreme pressure on the eardrum will develop because of the accumulated earwax this causes. Pressure on the little bones of the inner ear can lead to tinnitus symptoms.
You may not need to visit a hearing professional if the ringing is being caused by a sinus infection, as the symptoms may go away by themselves. If the ringing lasts for more than a few days, however, you should make an appointment with a hearing professional.
Extended Exposure to Loud Noises
The intermittent music concert is probably not going to cause lasting ear-ringing. However, you could be putting stress on the fragile parts of your ear if you frequently expose yourself to intense sound.
When you expose your ears to intense noises on a regular basis, your eardrums and the bones of the inner ears are put under a great deal of strain, which can lead to ringing, buzzing, or clicking.
Beyond the occasional ringing in your ears, exposure to intense sounds over a prolonged period of time can lead to temporary or permanent loss of hearing. It’s essential to safeguard your hearing from the elements and listen to music at a reasonable volume level.
Safeguarding Your Ears
Whether caused by stress, muscle tension, an illness, or loud noises, tinnitus shouldn’t be ignored. Having your hearing examined by a hearing specialist frequently is your best bet. For your peace of mind, you should get checked, especially if you suspect that your tinnitus is being caused by a serious underlying medical problem.