Ear Fullness and Pain

Urg!

I've been recovering from TMS for about 2 years now. I've had it all!! Back pain, tension headaches, tinnitus, golfer's elbow, tennis elbow, rotator cuff pain, piriformis pain, sciatica, neck and shoulder pain, angina, food allergies, IBS, prostatitis and pelvic pain syndrome, anxiety. I think that's every equivalent I've ever read about!! It's a bit mad when you write them all out in one go.

I've recovered from them all, mostly. There's usually one of them at a time lingering about on a low irritating level and sometimes it feels like Whack A Mole.

At Christmas I got an ear infection and my ear was badly blocked for ten days. After a course of antibiotics there was no more obvious sign of a problem yet the ear popping, fullness and intermittent pain have stuck around. With my history of severe TMS I rationally can only consider this to be a new, wonderful equivalent for the brain to latch on to. Something that niggles at the back of mind that it might actually be a real physical / medical condition. The fact that it can be in both ears and that my scalene muscles in my neck are switched on all the time is a further indication.

I haven't read a whole pile online about these symptoms and was wondering if anyone else has had experience of these as TMS equivalents. The two people I've spoken to who are professional and well versed in TMS both tell me it's very very common. I guess I'm looking for the reassurance that it is TMS so that I can get stuck into the all important acceptance of it being TMS.

I could write quite the book on all the stressors in my life and recent past history and my perfection, over developed responsibility traits! Maybe I should.....

 

@banjoman

I've suffered from ear infections my entire life. I've had tubes in twice for drainage when I was young. I get the popping, clicking, pain sensations every now and then, mostly when I have a sinus infection. That fullness you feel is probably just some residual inflammation in your eustachion tubes. It will go away. I had a brutal throat and sinus infection while getting married in 2012. I never once thought about sinus pressure while flying. Where I would fly back to, due to heavy winds, it wasn't uncommon for planes to wait until the last minute, and accelerate into the decent.

This one instance, the pilot dropped about 10,000ft in a matter of minutes. Due to some congestion I had, my ears just blocked up. The pressure from the congestion and not having time to adjust with the decent caused me to literally go deaf in both ears, and I clutched my head and cried because it felt like my skull was going to explode. Then tremors kicked in, and I was thrashing in my seat trying to hear. All of a sudden BANG!!! Then another BANG!!! Both tubes cleared violently and I blacked out. The force from one of the releases caused me to perforate my right eardrum. Everything sounded like a pop or echo for the better part of 4 months. I was absolutely miserable the entire time I was healing, but it eventually cleared itself up and now I can hear just fine again. I guess the silver lining was I could ascend and descend the huge hills near our house without even having to clear my ear due to the hole in the drum. It was actually kind of convenient.

Long story short, it may be a 2-3weeks until you notice the fullness clearing up. It always does. Just don't dwell on it.

P.S.: never fly with a nasty sinus infection without afrin, a bottle of water, chewing gum and a whole lotta milka.

 

Hey @banjoman, I have experienced many of your symptoms, including IBS, prostatitis, pelvic pain syndrome and tinnitus for 5 years+. Lately my ear fullness/tinnitus/crackling ears is really bothering me. Did you end up moving passed it?

 

could you post how you overcame all those other symptoms cause I’d like to hear that success right there

 

I really feel you as I suffered ear pains in my past years, it's really hard. But still, I manage to be okay. Cheers to us!

 

Hey @Sunrise yes the ear thing cleared up. It's always the same stuff for me in different guises - fear of abandonment. When TMS flares up, and it does it a lot in different ways, I do a number of things:

Listen to Sarno a lot
Listen to podcasts on TMS recovery
Listen to Steve Ozanich and his Wall of Victory youtube videos
Look for the inner conflict, where am I enraged? It's not usually the obvious stuff, it's the icky, shameful stuff that's uncomfortable to acknowledge.
I track back the previous few days to see where I've been triggered
I do some vagus nerve activation stuff
I repeat Sarno's 12 daily reminders
I put my hand on my heart and tell my inner child that he's ok and that I'm here and I'm in charge and in control of the situation
I try to up soothing - time on my own, chocolate, a movie, video games
Increase physical activity - cycle (I hate walking, it's too boring!!), hard gardening, gym
I listen to all the speakers who remind me NOT TO PANIC and to not FEAR the pain/symptom
I try to be true to myself. This is hard because I grew up learning that I had to disavow my own feelings and needs
I find a compassionate person to listen to me without offering advice. This allows me to activate my compassionate brain. This is very important
I re read Steve O's message to me - "stop trying to heal. There's nothing physically wrong so there's nothing to heal"
Compassion, compassion, compassion.
If I can get to where I can cry (big sobby chest cries) that's the best!!

 

Are you still on the forum? What about Eustachian Tubes that dont heal after a ear and sinus infection 4 months ago? Massive pain,clicking and popping into eardrum, pain behind ear, fullness and pressure?

 

Are you still on the forum? What about Eustachian Tubes that dont heal after a ear and sinus infection 4 months ago? Massive pain,clicking and popping into eardrum, pain behind ear, fullness and pressure?

 

hi! I learned that ear fullness is a common symptom of migraine -- I used to have it and haven't had it since becoming symptom free. Feel good!!!

 

Hi,
Are you still here? I have been suffering with this since february after a ear infection. Is it a structal problem?

 

Did you solve this?

 

I’ve suffered from TMS for 30 years. Primarily lower back, but also tinnitus, migraine, and ear popping, fullness, and pain for 10. Two years ago a friend told me of Sarno. I’ve been studying this ever since to try and cure my back pain. I’m about 80% improved with my back and, go figure, 80% improved w the migraines and ears too. I think there’s a definite connection between ears and TMS. My wife took me to the ER a few years ago thinking I was having a stroke bc my vestibular balance was screwed up and I was literally walking sideways into walls like a drunk. The ER diagnosed vestibular migraine, a migraine that impacts the ears and causes these symptoms. The more I looked into Sarno and started to accept TMS as the culprit, the fewer the migraines and the fewer the ear symptoms, convincing me of this connection. Hope that helps.

 

I’m so glad you’re better! I’ve learned so much about migraine on this journey..Ear fullness is a common migraine symptom, and to my knowledge, vestibular migraine is migraine in the brain stem (which controls balance) not the ears. I’m also feeling great. Dana

 

This is marvelous Dana. Wonderful that you are better. What a lonely journey it can be, trial and error, until arriving to an understanding of TMS and experiencing signs of healing. I’m grateful to a friend who cared enough to point me to TMS. It’s been such a source of hope.

 

Starting to make these connections is the key to recovery. You now have the opportunity to enhance your long-term mental and physical health by expanding this understanding well beyond your current experience!

Many of us have come to believe that our primitive survival-at-all-costs brain mechanism (which we still call TMS in honor of Dr. Sarno) is at the root of most, if not, possibly, all chronic conditions. I think that the role of inflammation, which is a natural product of our response to stress, is becoming more clear in these conditions.

It doesn't matter if the source of the stress is exterior (job, relationship, current affairs) or interior (emotional repression, trauma). The mechanism of our stress response is the same. When you think about it, it's been well-known for decades that exposure to constant stress over long periods of time is bad for our health.

The solution is obvious. Implementing the solution is - well, on an individual level it is NOT easy. At a societal or world-wide level, it's damn-near impossible.