[cptnapalm]

I've had tinnitus as long as I can remember with the exception of one day: the first time I had my ears cleaned. Earwax compacted to being rock hard was pulled out and I was told that it had probably been building up in my ears for more than a decade. I was 17 at the time. My ear canals are very narrow, there's a lot of hair in my ears, my wax is mushy rather than flaky. Also, I had a lot of ear infections when I was a kid.

That was the one and only day I heard silence and it drove me crazy. I constantly made noises to make sure I wasn't completely deaf. The one thing I remember vividly actively hearing was the turning of a door knob. I could hear all the little individual metallic sounds instead of a single generic crunch.

The next day, the ringing was back and has never left despite further ear cleanings. I am 49 now.

[FollowingTheDao]

The effect of the ear cleaning was probably placebo. Stress and tinnitus go together because tinnitus is associated with glutamate.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6407646/

I have had it since I was a child and I have an anxiety disorder, Klonopin diminishes my tinnitus.