Patulous eustachian tube, ear problems?

Hi

I have had a problem with my ears and hearing since I was young. Occasionally it has bothered me a lot but i think as I had it since I was young I just accepted it as somehow normal.

I have just found out it is called patulous eustachian tube, which basically means the tubes stay open more than they should. This leads to hearing your own voice, sounds being too loud, sounding strange and boxey. But the main thing for me is the constant changes in pressure in my ears. When I yawn, talk, sing, or even open my mouth they seem to pop out, but not pop completely. Then they feel like they have bubbles in them and everything is loud. I then have to sniff and 'suck the back in', which is what I consider 'normal'. This is very common from what i have read of others with the same problem. When it is bad it is constant sniffing, trying to balance both ears, equalising etc. It also can feel like deep itchiness in the ears which is impossible to relieve. It is incredibly frustrating, as I am a musician and it really makes things difficult.

I am just wondering if this could be TMS? I mean its a recognised physical condition, but it seems stress makes it worse for most, maybe they just notice it more? Almost everyone I found online like me has had it since they were kids.

I am just wondering if it is a bit silly to treat this as TMS, as I feel it is holding me back so much and may need some physical treatment.

Anyone else suffer from this?

 

I suffer from the very same since 2011, I have my ups and downs and doctors could find anything conclusive as for me ears. What I've noticed is that it worsens when my neck muscles are tight. I consider it part of TMS along with my other symptoms.

 

Hi Fernando

Sorry to here you have had the same problem. I am sure mine also gets worse when I am stressed, which is most of the time due to all these physical problems too!!

I am following this guys advice as people seem to be getting help. Its worth a try :

 

I’m in the same boat. I’m assuming it’s TMS and also trying the method in the video.

 

Hi! Were you able to resolve your symptoms, uf so, what was your journey?

 

Hi there, I just posted the following reply on another thread and I thought I would share this with you. I hope some of this helps. I am fairly sure PET is caused by TMS. From the research I looked into ENTs tend to think this condition is idiopathic and can be aggravated by stress. No one really knows what causes it and so I believe it's probably TMS.

I've been reading this thread and I see that some of you suffer from Patulous Eustachian Tube (PET). PET is different from eustachian tube dysfunction. In PET, the eustachian tube does not close properly. It is supposed to open when one swallows or yawns, and then it closes immediately--but in PET the tube doesn't do this and so it remains open, and one may experience a feeling of fullness in the ear, tinnitus, and autophony (the abnormal hearing of one's own voice, breathing or swallowing). The characteristic feature of PET is improvement when you lower your head down to your lap.

I've had PET on/off for about five years now, but I put it down to allergies. However, recently I realised that each time I could hear my own voice inside my head, echoing loudly and driving me insane, all I had to do was lower my head onto my lap for a moment and everything just disappeared. Mind you, once you bring your head back up the autophony may come back immediately, but sometimes it just goes away and it leaves you in peace. Lying down also makes it go away, but it may return once you get back up. In any case, this is the hallmark symptom of PET, and I found this out by researching all the articles I could find on this condition.

Anyway, it only dawned on me recently that PET may be yet another form of TMS. After five years of this PET thing I started to feel better (I guess I was too busy worrying about other TMS issues I have, which total to about 24 different conditions thus far), and so I never paid much attention to PET. But a few weeks back I went through some horrible anxiety/depression and worrying about some new conditions that came up, and I noticed that once I was able to relax, knowing the conditions were not as bad as I thought, I lost my fear, and PET came back to haunt me with a vengeance. I guess my brain had to find something to terrify me

So it seems to me that once I overcome one thing, another rears its ugly head, and then I get rid of that thing, and yet another thing will happen. It just never seems to stop. I'm disappointed that PET is back to drive me insane, but I hope that I will eventually be able to get rid of it.

 

Hi Syl,

Im sorry that you suffering. I suffering too. I dont know if its PET, I think it is ETD but not sure. I have bad tmj pain and after a sinus and ear infection I suffering bad with ear symptoms. I want them to be TMS but Im not sure. Nothing helps. Hope you feeling better.

 

Hi there. The hallmark symptom of PET is when you hear your voice and/or breathing inside your head (this is called autophony), but if you bring your head down to your lap for a few moments and then sit back up the autophony disappears (at least for a short while). The other way to get relief is by lying down. So when you have a nap or lie down reading a book or something, usually the autophony disappears. So this is the big difference between PET and ETD. If you get the autophony symptom and it clears when you put your head toward your lap then chances are you have PET.

 

Hello there,

I just watched the video you posted of Matthew Baker re his cure for PET. Your last post was in 2017 so I'm wondering whether you're still around the TMS forum and if so, whether you tried Matthew Baker's exercise to get rid of PET. Would love to hear if you tried it and if you got any benefit from it. I suffer from PET and would love to hear from anyone out there who found a cure or at least some results for the better.

Thank you,
Syl