Tinnitus: Symptom or Cause

Is tinnitus a symptom or a cause? It is both. That is why I refer to it often as a condition. It is not a disease. Although it can be just as debilitating.

Tinnitus is a symptom because it is an indicator that something is wrong in one or a combination of the following parts of the body:

• Brain (possibly due to TBI) - Something is short-circuiting the auditory center of the brain. 
• Cochlea - The cilia (tiny hair-like electrical transmitters) are damaged or destroyed, due to sudden loud noise exposure or long-term exposure to a certain noise that creates "a cowpath" of destroyed cilia. 
• Vestibular nerve - The cable running from the cochlea to the auditory center of the brain is damaged. 
• The heart - High blood pressure can cause a certain kind of tinnitus called pulsatile tinnitus. The sound pulses with the heart. 

Tinnitus is also a cause. It can cause secondary conditions and socialization issues for the tinnitus sufferer:

• Chronic depression
• Insomnia
• Immune system issues

Tinnitus is the stimuli and the secondary conditions are the response. The louder the tinnitus, the more prominent the secondary conditions become.  The reverse is also true. Therefore, tinnitus is a direct cause of the secondary conditions.

As an analogy, tinnitus is the fuel of the fire. The fire represents the secondary condition. When more fuel is added the fire grows larger. If the fuel is gone, the fire goes out. In the case of chronic severe tinnitus, the fuel is never completely gone. It is always burning to a greater or lesser degree twenty four hours a day. Therefore, the secondary conditions can flare up at any time that the tinnitus flares up.

A problem exists when the generally accepted perception of tinnitus is as though it is merely a symptom. Under that mindset, tinnitus can become under treated and underestimated as a debilitating disability.