As you most likely know, sustained periods of stress aren’t healthy for the body. When you endure chronic stress, everything from extreme muscle aches to headaches can be the outcome. But did you recognize stress can also trigger tinnitus, a ringing, buzzing, or clicking in the ears?
Stress isn’t the only thing that can cause tinnitus, it can also be brought about by a sinus infection, loud noises, and other variables. Let’s take a look at a few potential causes of that annoying ringing in your ears.
How to Recognize Unhealthy Stress
You may be asking yourself how stress lends to tinnitus. It’s often easy to take for granted how serious the medical impact of stress can be on our bodies. Ignoring stress isn’t a good idea.
Healthy Stress
Stress that lasts a few minutes, or even several hours, can actually play an important role in accomplishing demanding tasks. If you’re dealing with a deadline and need to focus on completing a project, stress can be an ally by supplying the boost of energy needed to get the job done.
There is a difference, though, between healthy, short-term stress and unhealthy, harmful stress. The ability to complete goals can be helped by healthy stress while unhealthy stress can physically harm you.
Unhealthy Stress
Unhealthy stress is a consequence of the fear of something that, more often than not, never in fact happens. Unhealthy stress is created when an individual remains in a heightened state of anxiety for an extended period of time.
Unhealthy stress is associates with our “fight or flight” response, a normal reaction that helps keep us safe in dangerous conditions. Harmful physical symptoms happen when someone remains in a hyper-stressful circumstance for prolonged periods.
Worrying
Unhealthy stress is commonly the result of worrying. The importance of a relationship or situation can often be exaggerated. We may have ourselves convinced that we said or did something to ruin our chances at a promotion. When you worry in this way your invasive thoughts can really get away from you.
Unhealthy Stress And Intrusive Thoughts
We may think that we are falling behind and failing to complete our daily routine. We might obsess, lecture ourselves, or even panic. Inevitably, our unhealthy stress wears on our bodies if we don’t do something to curb these thoughts.
Usually, unhealthy stress affects the upper part of the body by creating muscle tension and pain. The shoulders, neck, head, and jaw are areas that can be impacted.
Anger And Jaw Tension
Have you ever heard someone depict their anger as jaw clenching? Jaw tension is a prevalent symptom of stress, anger, worry, and intrusive thoughts.
Pressure can be put on the fragile bones of the inner ear and eardrum by sustained tension. Eventually, this strain can lead to ringing in your ears.
Sinus Infections And Ear Strain
From sore throats to stuffy noses, sinus infections bring lots of unwelcome symptoms.
Sinus infections produce headaches, sinus pressure, and pressure in the ears. These problems can produce buzzing, clicking, or ringing in the ears.
A stuffy nose frequently spreads to the ears when you have a sinus infection. Blockage in the ears and extreme pressure on the eardrum will develop because of the excessive earwax this causes. And with this comes ringing in the ears.
If the ringing is brought on by a sinus infection it will most likely go away on its own and you won’t have to see a hearing specialist. But you should absolutely schedule an appointment with us if the ringing lasts for more than a few days.
Extended Exposure to Loud Noises
The occasional music concert is probably not going to cause long-term ear-ringing. If you routinely expose your ears to intense sounds, however, you may be putting stress on the tender parts of your ears.
Ringing, clicking, or buzzing can be the consequence when the eardrum and inner ears are put under the incredible strain of continual exposure to loud noises.
Above and beyond tinnitus, temporary or even lasting hearing loss can be the consequence of continued exposure to loud noises. It’s important to protect your ears from the elements and listen to music at a sensible volume level.
Safeguarding Your Ears
Whether caused by stress, muscle tension, an illness, or loud noises, tinnitus shouldn’t be ignored. It’s best to have your ears tested by a hearing professional on a regular basis. For your peace of mind, you should get checked, particularly if you suspect that your tinnitus is being caused by a serious underlying medical problem.