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Hi chintand, this is some longwinded stuff, so I hope you like random internet dissertations by strangers, I made an account after lurking for ages just to respond to you.

Try to internalize that symptom+(fear+attention)=chronic symptom. Giving something fear and attention just increases stress which winds your nervous system up further, increasing symptoms. You could have a symptom arise from something structural but temporary, it heals but the symptoms persist because you gave it so much fear and attention you rewired your brain to have that symptom or be extremely sensitive to that symptom. The TMS approach can help you unlearn that but it takes time, commitment and persistence.

Í had a period where I had most of the symptoms you describe; baddddd tinnitus like an alarm going off in my head, hyperacusis to the point conversations were unbearable let alone actual loud noises, TMJ/jaw issues to the point where I could only eat soft things and I was just in pain generally, fluttering in the ears constantly and weird feelings of pressure, etc etc.

A joyful concoction of shite.

At this point in my life, around 2 years ago, I was 31 at that point so i am a similar age to you, I wasn't aware of TMS but they surely my symptoms were all tension related, I had a difficult year long breakup going on with a person who really deserved all the best (which made it all tge worse) whilst doing a really tough technical project at uni. All I wanted is for it to go away, but this is the wrong approach, which held me back. Instead, try to focus on giving yourself the space and rest you need to heal, and focus on being okay even with the symptoms. You have them now, and you want to be okay now, so it isn't crazy to try to approach it from that angle.

I did recover, I still have tinnitus, but it's very mild and I have fully habituated (so will you, everybody does you just have an influence on how fast), I can sometimes go a whole day without noticing it and when I do notice it it doesn't bother me anymore. It's like background noise to reality. My jaw still gets tense but not to a problematic degree, and there is no more hyperacusis. All in all yes I have some ear and jaw issues still, but everybody has something like that, it doesn't impede me. I am okay with my tinnitus and hearing loss even despite being a musician, so I think you can learn to be okay with perfect hearing and tinnitus

However, my recovery took much longer than needed because of my approach of NEEDING it to go away, right there, yesterday. It basically didn't resolve to any serious degree until I arranged my life in such a way to take out many of the stressors (finally fully breaking up, moving, exercise a lot, take a 3 month break from uni). When I did that my brain (and thus body) slowly gained the breathing room needed to feel some semblance of being okay even with the symptoms.

And that there is the key, your goal should be to be okay, not to get rid of the symptoms. Paradoxically the symptoms will diminish when you stop caring so much. You exacerbate them by winding yourself up like that, and from that they get so severe you cannot live with them. Do you see the issue there? You have a symptom, sure, it's poop, but with all this fear and attention you rewire your brain to amplify the symptom to an unbearable point. So the issue is not the symptom but your reaction.

I remember a moment where after months of insane suffering with that stuff and being DEADLOCKED on the tinnitus (only feeling somewhat okay when it was a bit less severe, being so dejected when it inevitably returned, over and over again) I finally was able to kind of forget about it for the first time, I was having a beer, playing a game and had put on my masking sound in the background. And I noticed I was able to forget about that dreadful noise, it was somewhat okay for the first time that it was there and even clearly present when i focused on it, because I could in that moment for the first time somewhat easily forget about it again. That became easier and easier over time, which slowly took away tension which slowly took away the hyperacusis and lowered the tinnitus. Now like I said it's just totally not an issue, cruisin'.

Your goal should be to be okay even with hyperacusis and tinnitus and TMJ, because they are manageable but not if you throw them so much attention and fear like you are doing now, the severity of your tinnitus, TMJ and hyperacusis might realistically be 95+% the result of you giving it all that fear and attention. I made my recovery soooo much slower by focusing on going to doctors, , jaw physical therapist, ENT, researching supplements that could help, new treatments that might come out, blablablabla. What you need is a sense of safety, in spite of the the tinnitus and hyperacusis, and this is something you can build up. Think of having a busted knee, yes it hurts, but because you know it's gonna be okay you don't give it so much fear. That way you can forget about it and you can be okay even with the pain. Tinnitus is like that, TMS is like that. It's just that with tinnitus and TMS it's harder to not respond with fear, and it's more diffuse and slower to respond because you have to unlearn the fear response even with the symptoms going strong. But the approach is the same and you can do it, you gotta learn to not take your brains fear response so seriously every time it decides to throw a hissy fit over a symptom.

What I have also learned is that there does not need to be a perfect fit in order for the TMS approach to work for you, TMS is just and idea about how the mind and the body interact that seems correct. Scientifically it has some proponents and some detractors, but it doesn't need to be ironclad to be effective, you don't need a laser fit mechanistic explanation for your exact symptoms. It's a developing field and there are a bunch of ideas and theories floating around, what they have in common is the recognition that the mind and the body are integrated entities and that it is fully possible to have psychosomatic symptoms and that it's also possible to do something about them. I first heard about TMS from my therapist because I had a super stressful period around my graduation with a lot of weird fibromyalgia like symptoms(tingling everywhere, hot cold itchy wet dry itchy aching sensations all over my body, crazy brain fog, vision and balance issues) and I was freaking out i had fibro or MS or Parkinsons(neurologist did not agree). I had those symptoms for half a year or so, and when my therapist suggested the 21 day program here I resisted for a long time. I starting the program a couple times but I wasn't buying in because pain was only a small part of my problems and not so severe ("I really don't have much pain so I don't have TMS so what I have must be horrible neurological condition x"), I finally committed, started really following the program and I reduced those symptoms by 95% in within a week (!!), isn't that crazy? Here i was all this time just enjoying all these nice sensations looking for drugs or doctors to fix me please whilst that solution was available.

After that I was doing better yes, but I still had so so much anxiety and developed chronic muscle tension, mainly in my arms and hands. This got to the point of having a hard time with fine motor control, feeling crazy sore all the time like you've gone to the gym yesterday, tremors in hands, etc. Again this went on for months, anxiety going out of control, this time I was reaaaaaally convinced I had Parkinsons, of course my program supervisor was one of those super rare young Parkinsons cases so yes that helped things massively..... Tried starting the program again for a few days here or there but it wasn't having the same effect as last time so I was like "See, it's not for me this TMS thing, this is muscle tension from something neurological not chronic pain!" And yet, when I finally committed and followed the entire 21 day program, along with committing to progressive muscle relaxation every day, I made huge huge progress. It's been a couple days now since I finished the program and yes it's still here every day but it's severely diminished. First my fear got better(that was was the most helpful in feeling better), then the symptoms got better. I will continue, I guess I will read one of the books and repeat the program. This stuff has a hold on me, sure, but I now have so much evidence my body responds physically to stress like that. Cool.

I saw it way back years ago when I had crazy heart anxiety, once I stopped being scared of my heart/chest/arm symptoms they went away. I saw it with the tinnitus and TMJ, they got so so much better when I stopped responding with fear. I saw it with the fibromyalgia like symptoms, they went away 99% when I stopped responding with fear, and now I am making great progress with the muscle tension by again learning to respond with less fear. I could never believe that stress was causing that, always thought it was the other way around, until I finally dared to believe and then I started getting better. Some chicken and egg bullshit if you ask me. It's all the same, call it what you will, TMS, habituation, anxiety, polyvagal theory, whatever.

You and me, our bodies respond physically to stress, the more we internalize that and respect that, address that stress, instead of doing the whole fear-funloop, the better we get. I suggest you try the 21 day program here, and feel free to respond here or just PM me if you just wanna chat with someone. You're gonna be okay, but you gotta commit and work on it.