As you probably recognize, sustained periods of stress aren’t healthy for the body. When you endure acute stress, everything from extreme muscle aches to headaches can be the result. But did you realize stress can also lead to tinnitus, a ringing, buzzing, or clicking in the ears?
Tinnitus can be triggered by various different health factors, including stress, sinus infections, or loud noises. Let’s have a look at several potential causes of that annoying noise in your ears.
How to Distinguish Unhealthy Stress
How does stress relate to tinnitus? We generally don’t think about the negative impact stress can have on our bodies or how it can result in frustrating, painful, or even severe medical conditions. Neglecting stress is a bad idea.
Healthy Stress
Stress that lasts a few minutes, or even several hours, can actually be helpful in getting necessary tasks completed. If you’re facing a deadline and need to focus on finishing a project, stress can be an ally by giving the boost of energy needed to finish the job.
There is a difference, however, between healthy, short-term stress and unhealthy, destructive stress. Healthy stress helps you reach a goal without harming your body. Unhealthy stress is hazardous for your body.
Unhealthy Stress
Normally, an irrational fear is the source of unhealthy stress. Unhealthy stress is produced when an individual remains in a heightened state of anxiety for a long period of time.
In dangerous conditions, the fight or flight response is a natural reaction but it also is associates with unhealthy stress. Harmful physical symptoms happen when somebody stays in a hyper-stressful situation for prolonged periods.
Worrying
Worrying is an extremely universal cause of unhealthy stress. We may exaggerate the importance of a situation or a relationship with another person. We might tell ourselves we ruined a chance at a promotion because of something we said. When you worry in this way your intrusive thoughts can really run away from you.
Unhealthy Stress And Intrusive Thoughts
We may worry about what we couldn’t get completed today and stress over what we need to get done tomorrow. Obsession, perpetual internal dialog, and even panic attacks are a common part of this type of stress. If we don’t take some positive steps to deal with this stress it will continue to wear down our body.
Pain and muscle tension on the upper body are common effects of unhealthy stress. Impacted areas may include the jaw, neck, head, or shoulders.
Jaw Tension And Anger
Have you ever read a book where the author talks about a character as being so angry his jaw clenched in rage? Jaw tension is a prevalent symptom of stress, worry, anger, and intrusive thoughts.
Pressure can be put on the fragile bones of the eardrum and inner ear by sustained tension. Eventually, this strain can produce ringing in your ears.
Sinus Infections And Ear Strain
From sore throats to stuffy noses, sinus infections bring about lots of unwelcome symptoms.
Sinus infections cause sinus pressure, headaches, and ear pressure. These problems can lead to ringing, buzzing, and clicking in the ears.
A stuffy nose often spreads to the ears during a sinus infection. Blockage in the ears and severe pressure on the eardrum will develop because of the accumulated earwax this produces. And with this comes ringing in the ears.
You may not need to visit a hearing professional if the ringing is being caused by a sinus infection, as the symptoms could go away by themselves. But you should definitely make an appointment with us if the ringing continues for more than a few days.
Prolonged Exposure to Loud Noises
The occasional music performance is probably not going to cause lasting ear-ringing. However, you may be putting stress on the fragile parts of your ear if you routinely expose yourself to extremely loud sound.
Ringing, clicking, or buzzing can be the outcome when the eardrum and inner ears are put under the enormous strain of repeated exposure to intense noises.
Above and beyond ringing in the ears, temporary or even lasting hearing loss can be the outcome of repeated exposure to loud sounds. Listening to music at a sensible volume and wearing ear protection when needed is essential for hearing health.
Protecting Your Hearing
Tinnitus isn’t something you should neglect whichever one of these is the cause. It’s best to get your ears tested by a hearing professional regularly. If you suspect the ringing in your ears has a significant underlying medical cause, you should get them checked for your peace of mind.