It’s well known that stress, particularly for extended stretches, can be very hazardous for your body. Stress can cause significant muscle pain and headaches. But tinnitus, a clicking, buzzing, or ringing in the ears can also be the outcome.
Stress isn’t the only thing that can cause tinnitus, it can also be caused by a sinus infection, loud noises, and other variables. Let’s have a look at a few potential causes of that aggravating noise in your ears.
How to Distinguish Unhealthy Stress
How does stress relate to tinnitus? It’s often easy to ignore how serious the medical impact of stress can be on our bodies. Disregarding stress is a bad idea.
Healthy Stress
Temporary stress can actually be a really motivating factor with regards to accomplishing duties. Stress can provide a boost of energy and adrenalin to accomplish tasks and projects that really need to get done.
But short term, healthy stress and long term, harmful stress are two very different things. The ability to accomplish goals can be helped by healthy stress while unhealthy stress can physically harm you.
Unhealthy Stress
Unhealthy stress is caused by the fear of something that, more often than not, never actually occurs. Unhealthy stress is created when a person stays in a heightened state of anxiety for an extended period of time.
Unhealthy stress relates to our “fight or flight” response, a normal reaction that helps keep us protected in dangerous situations. Harmful physical symptoms occur when someone stays in a hyper-stressful situation for extended periods.
Worrying
Worrying is a very common cause of unhealthy stress. The importance of an interaction or situation can often be exaggerated. We may tell ourselves we ruined a chance at a promotion because of something we said. When you worry like this your invasive thoughts can really get away from you.
Invasive Thoughts And Unhealthy Stress
We might worry about what we couldn’t get completed today and stress over what we have to get done tomorrow. Obsession, perpetual internal dialog, and even panic are a common part of this kind of stress. Inevitably, our unhealthy stress wears on our bodies if we don’t do something to curtail these thoughts.
Usually, unhealthy stress affects the upper part of the body by producing pain and muscle tension. The head, neck shoulders, and jaw are areas that can be impacted.
Jaw Tension And Anger
Have you ever heard someone depict their anger as jaw clenching? Stress, worry, anger, and invasive thoughts often come with jaw tension.
Pressure can be put on the fragile bones of the inner ear and eardrum by sustained tension. Over time, this strain can produce ringing in your ears.
Sinus Infections And Ear Strain
Sinus infections bring many unfavorable symptoms, from a soar throat to a stuffy nose.
Sinus infections produce sinus pressure, headaches, and pressure in the ears. A buzzing, clicking and ringing can be the result.
During a sinus infection, your nasal congestion frequently spreads to your ears. Blockage in the ears and extreme pressure on the eardrum will develop because of the accumulated earwax this causes. And with this comes ringing in the ears.
If the ringing is caused by a sinus infection it will most likely go away on its own and you won’t need to see a hearing professional. But you should absolutely schedule an appointment with us if the ringing lasts for more than a few days.
Prolonged Exposure to Loud Noises
Long-term ringing in the ears will most likely not manifest as a result of the occasional concert. However, you may be putting stress on the delicate parts of your ear if you frequently expose yourself to intense sound.
When you expose your ears to loud noises regularly, your eardrums and the bones of the inner ears are strained, which can result in ringing, buzzing, or clicking.
Above and beyond ringing in the ears, temporary or even permanent hearing loss can be the consequence of continued exposure to loud noises. It’s essential to protect your hearing from the elements and listen to music at a sensible volume level.
Protecting Your Hearing
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 the smartest thing you can do. If you think the ringing in your ears has a serious hidden medical cause, you should have them examined for your peace of mind.