my ears are causing me extreme anxiety....can anyone help

[worrier123]

Iv had abit of a cold the last couple of days with the usual coughs sneezes sore throat etc, 2 days ago I woke up and my left ear was blocked and kept ringing at first I wasn't overly worried as I assumed it would pass, its been 3 days now and it still is blocked and keeps ringing!! I did go to the doctors yesterday and he gave me an ear pray and said it did look slightly red inside. The blocked ear I suppose I can deal with but its this ringing noise I can't stand! Its so loud and sleeping at night is hard, I google that condition titinus where peoples ears just constantly ring and now I'm getting myself really worked up and anxious worrying that I could have this for the rest of my life! And surly having a constant noise like that would make you go crazy?! And to top it all off I'm led in bed now and can't sleep and I noticed my other ear suddenly suck in and is now slightly blocked and keeps popping in a weird way so of course now I'm panicking thinking what if the ringing starts in that ear too,I dont no how you could cope with something like that. I know this probably sounds really silly but I really am worried about this,I just want the ringing to stop! Oh I also had a panick attack in Ikea today cos I kept getting short sharp stabbing pains coming from my heart area so feeling pretty down about that too....fun times all round huh! Thanks for reading x

[jessed03]

This is one of my remaining OCD habits, I hate seeing threads unanswered haha!

As far as Tinnitus goes, it's mostly a case of it being short term. Sometimes things like a virus, or an ear infection can cause it, and it's pretty short lived. When I came off an A.D. one of the symptoms was that ringing. I had it for about 3 months. I had an ear operation once, so that worsened it I'm sure. After about 2 weeks, I actually stopped hearing it. The more I was focusing on stuff outside my body, work, exercise, social things etc, the more I would come home at the end of the day and realize, I'd forgotten about that!

Once again that naughty Google is the source of anxiety, why aren't I suprised. LOL. I'll let you off this one, as I guess you were 'researching' :-P

Putting one of those really gentle ear pieces in at night, just on the tip of the ear, with something like "Sound of rain on the lake" tape's playing gave me a really good night's sleep actually!

It will almost definetly go with the virus, it can also be worsened by anxiety as I found out (though what isn't!). How are you feeling now?