Can extreme anxiety/panic attacks cause tinnitus?
Hi all,
I'll preface this by making clear I'm not 100% sure if I've got tinnitus. In the phase of trying to figure everything out so please bear with me. TLDR at the very end.
The last couple of months i have been in a pretty bad place anxiety wise, had regular panic attacks, etc. Three days ago I suffered a panic attack that went on for what felt like a couple of hours. It was pretty bad. A few hours after I calmed down I noticed a “ringing” in my head that I didn't pay much attention to at the time. Well, it's been three days, and it's still here. It's like a static noise that is constant, not TOO overwhelming (if I have the TV on, for instance, i can sort of ignore it) but still quite bad.
Now, I was under the impression that tinnitus:
Is ringing in the ears (left/right or both). Mine is inside my head, if that makes sense. I don't really feel it on either ear, but rather my brain.
Is noise induced. In my case, the ringing is 100% NOT noise induced. I haven't listened to music in ages, and I don't live/work in a noisy environment. I know it can also be medication induced but again, I do not take any sort of medication. So the only logical explanation is that the constant state of anxiety/panic I was in caused this ringing. Is this possible? Can anxiety cause tinnitus?
I have no idea whether I should see an ENT, GP, or just give it time... I don't want to sound desperate but the anxiety of NOT knowing what I'm dealing with here is making everything worse. I would really appreciate any sort of advice or help. Thank you.
TLDR: Had a massive panic attack and noticed ringing in my head a few hours later. It's been three days and it hasn't gone away. Is this tinnitus, and if so what should I do about it?