The most common tinnitus symptoms are noises from within your ear or inside your head. These sounds are varied, including whistling, hissing, buzzing, roaring, ringing and many other types. In fact, tinnitus is categorized by the different types of sounds that the suffers are hearing. For example, the pulsatile tinnitus is named for the type of tinnitus for which the sufferers hear pulsating sounds. If the sound seem like a repeating single musical note, it is called tonal tinnitus.



The exact type of the sound and the level of the sound that annoys the patients vary from one person to another. It can be experienced in one ear or both, and can be mild for some people but extremely loud and harsh for others. It may occur randomly to some people, but others can be suffering every second of the day. Some people just hear one sound at a time, but others can hear a mix of several different types at the same time. It is not difficult to understand, then, why some people are able to live with it while others are desperately seeking for help.

The symptoms of tinnitus also vary due to the different causes for tinnitus. The most common one is ear disorder or damage to one or more of the five parts of the ear, such as damage to the cochlea, inner ear conditions, blocked ear canal, long exposure to loud noises, and ear infections. It can also be caused by conditions unrelated to ear, such as stress, aging, misuse of drugs, and other diseases.

If your tinnitus is caused by ear-related problems, you may also suffer from ear pain, hearing loss, dizziness or feeling of disoriented. In other cases, there have been more symptoms reported, including sleep disturbances, high blood pressure, irregular heart beat, chest pain, short breathing, fatigues, unpleasant stomach, eating disorders, or even skin and reproductive problems. This is why many sufferers of tinnitus are also suffering the loss of mind peace, as they are afraid that there are more serious underlying problems like brain tumor or heart diseases.

At the emotional side, it is important to understand that tinnitus can cause mental stress, which in turn will worsen the condition of tinnitus. This is a vicious cycle, and the longer you suffer tinnitus the more severe the emotional symptoms (anxiety, depression, bad memory, lack of concentration, phobias, and substance abuse).

Given the so varied tinnitus symptoms and causes, to pinpoint the exact origin of the sound can be quite difficult in some cases and you will usually be required to go through several tests before the doctor can determine the root cause and suggest the right treatment for your specific problem.