As you most likely recognize, prolonged periods of stress are not healthy for the body. Stress can cause severe muscle pain and headaches. But did you realize stress can also lead to tinnitus, a ringing, buzzing, or clicking in the ears?
Tinnitus can be caused by various different health factors, including stress, sinus infections, or loud noises. Let’s take a peak at some potential factors.
How to Recognize Unhealthy Stress
How does stress relate to tinnitus? We typically don’t consider the negative influence stress can have on our bodies or how it can cause troublesome, painful, or even serious medical conditions. Neglecting stress isn’t a good idea.
Healthy Stress
Stress that lasts a few minutes, or even several hours, can actually be helpful in accomplishing demanding tasks. Stress can supply a boost of energy and adrenalin to accomplish tasks and projects that really need to be finished.
But short term, healthy stress and chronic, harmful stress are two very different things. Healthy stress helps you accomplish a goal without harming your body. Unhealthy stress is hazardous for your body.
Unhealthy Stress
Usually, an irrational fear is the source of unhealthy stress. When an individual stays in a heightened state of anxiety, the outcome is usually unhealthy stress.
Unhealthy stress is associates with our “fight or flight” response, a natural reaction that helps keep us protected in hazardous conditions. Harmful physical symptoms happen when someone remains in a hyper-stressful circumstance for extended periods.
Worrying
Unhealthy stress is often caused by worrying. We might exaggerate the importance of a situation or an interaction with other people. We might have ourselves convinced that we said or did something to ruin our chances at a promotion. Unreasonable worrying can cause invasive, apparently unmanageable thoughts.
Invasive Thoughts And Unhealthy Stress
We may worry about what we couldn’t accomplish today and stress over what we have to do tomorrow. Obsession, unending internal dialog, and even panic attacks are a common part of this type of stress. If we don’t take a few positive actions 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. The head, neck shoulders, and jaw are areas that can be affected.
Jaw Tension And Anger
Have you ever heard someone depict their anger as jaw clenching? Stress, anger, worry, and invasive thoughts commonly come with jaw tension.
Continuous strain can put pressure on the delicate bones of the inner ear and eardrum. Ringing in the ears can be the consequence.
Ear Strain And Sinus Infections
From sore throats to stuffy noses, sinus infections produce lots of undesired symptoms.
Sinus infections produce headaches, sinus pressure, and ear pressure. A buzzing, clicking and ringing can be the result.
A stuffy nose often spreads to the ears during a sinus infection. Clogging in the ears and severe pressure on the eardrum will build up because of the accumulated earwax this creates. Pressure on the fragile bones of the inner ear can trigger tinnitus symptoms.
You might not need to see a hearing professional if the ringing is the result of a sinus infection, as the symptoms could improve on their own. But you should absolutely make an appointment with us if the ringing lasts for more than a few days.
Extended Exposure to Loud Noises
The occasional music performance probably won’t cause long-term ear-ringing. If you repeatedly expose your ears to intense sounds, however, you could be introducing stress to the tender parts of your ears.
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 produce buzzing, ringing, or clicking.
Above and beyond tinnitus, temporary or even lasting hearing loss can be the outcome of repeated exposure to loud sounds. It’s essential to safeguard your ears from the elements and listen to music at a sensible volume level.
Safeguarding Your Ears
Tinnitus is not something you should ignore regardless of which one of these is causing it. It’s best to have your ears tested by a hearing specialist on a regular basis. If you think the ringing in your ears has a serious underlying medical cause, you should have them examined for your peace of mind.