[mopenstein]

Mine came on when I was about 12 years old and I'm convinced it was brought on by severe anxiety.

At the time my life had changed dramatically. My parents split. Moved to an area adjacent to government housing projects, through which I had to travel everyday to school, and I was, by virtue of unfortunately being wrong color, beaten daily by gangs of hooligans. I ended up sneaking through a slightly wooded area like a South American guerilla until they caught me there.

I couldn't handle it as I was already a sensitive kid and, the parent I ended up with, the other having gone to jail, was compassionless due to their own horrific upbringing. So I had no way of coping which led to total breakdowns and anxiety attacks.

Tinnitus reared it's ugly head soon after which further exacerbated the anxiety.

But the correlation is all speculation on my part because my parent only took me to the doctor a year or so later after much complaining. And only for the tinnitus, not the crippling anxiety.

[manoDev]

Stress -> jaw clenching -> tinnitus.