Feels Like Something Is Stuck In Your Ear

Causes

The ear, an organ, comprises a complex system of nerves, muscles, bones, and pressure intricately organized to provide sound and balance information to the brain.

Because of its complexity, diagnosing ear-related problems can be difficult. For example, there can be many causes of this symptom, such as exposure to loud sounds, age, injury to the ear, ear wax build-up, an adverse reaction to medication, high blood pressure, sinus or ear infections, and various other medical causes. Because of the many causes, it’s best to discuss this symptom with your doctor to rule out a medical cause.

Anxiety can cause a plugged ear feeling in several ways. Here are the most common:

1. Anxiety-Activated Stress Response

Anxious behavior, such as worry, activates the stress response, which secretes stress hormones into the bloodstream, where they travel to specific locations to immediately prepare the body for emergency action – to fight or flee. This instinctual survival reaction is often referred to as the Fight or Flight Response [1][2].

Visit the “Stress Response” article for the many ways it affects the body.

Some of the stress response changes include:

• Quickly converts the body’s energy reserves into “fuel” (blood sugar) to instantly boost energy.
• Tightens muscles so the body is more resilient to harm.
• Stimulates the sympathetic nervous system, increasing nervous system activity to be more sensitive and reactive to danger.
• Heightens most of the body’s senses so that we are more sensitive and reactive to danger.
• Reduces hearing so our attention isn’t distracted away from important sensory information.

When in a dangerous situation, the brain works hard to provide only the information it deems important to survival. While all senses are put on high alert, hearing is the least important, so it’s somewhat suppressed.

This suppression is called “auditory exclusion,” also often referred to as the McGurk Effect: what we see overrides what we hear [3][4].

As the degree of stress response increases, hearing decreases. A reduction in hearing can be perceived as pressure, fullness, or something “stuck” in the ear.

Moreover, research has found that stress hormones, such as adrenaline and cortisol, can alter inner ear fluid homeostasis and auditory function [5], changing ear pressure, which can be experienced as pressure, fullness, or something “stuck” in the ear.

An active stress response is a common cause of acute ear-related symptoms, including feeling like something is stuck in the ear.

2. Hyperstimulation

When stress responses occur infrequently, the body recovers relatively quickly from its changes. However, frequently activated stress responses, such as from overly anxious behavior, can prevent the body from completely recovering. Incomplete recovery can leave the body in a state of semi-stress-response-readiness, which we call “stress-response hyperstimulation” since stress hormones are powerful stimulants.

Hyperstimulation is also often referred to as “hyperarousal,” “HPA axis dysfunction,” or “nervous system dysregulation” [6][7][8][9].

Visit our “Hyperstimulation” article for more information about the many ways hyperstimulation can affect how we feel.

Hyperstimulation can cause the changes of an active stress response even though a stress response hasn’t been activated.

Just as an active stress response can cause acute ear-related symptoms, hyperstimulation can cause chronic ear-related symptoms, including feeling like something is stuck in the ear.

But that’s not all. Hyperstimulation can cause this symptom in other ways. For instance, hyperstimulation can cause:

• Nervous System Excitation and Dysregulation: A chronically stimulated nervous system can act erratically and cause all kinds of nervous, sensory, circulatory, vestibular, and somatic system symptoms, such as feeling like something is stuck in the ear.

• Homeostatic Dysregulation: Homeostasis is the body’s ability to automatically maintain a stable internal environment despite changes in the external environment. Hyperstimulation can cause homeostatic dysregulation, leading to internal regulation problems, which can affect the nervous, sensory, circulatory, vestibular, and somatic systems, causing ear-related symptoms, such as feeling like your ear is plugged or blocked.

• Hormone changes: Hormones play a crucial role in homeostasis and many bodily functions, which can affect the nervous, sensory, circulatory, vestibular, and somatic systems. Since stress hormones affect other hormones, hyperstimulation can cause all sorts of nervous, sensory, circulatory, vestibular, and somatic system symptoms, such as feeling like something is stuck in the ear.

• Sleep disruption and fatigue: Hyperstimulation can interfere with sleep and tax the body’s energy resources harder and faster than normal. Sleep disruption and fatigue can also affect the nervous, sensory, circulatory, vestibular, and somatic systems, causing many ear-related symptoms, including this one.

As long as the body is hyperstimulated, it can exhibit chronic ear-related symptoms, including feeling like something is stuck in the ear.

Hyperstimulation is a common cause of this symptom.

Any combination of the above factors can cause ear-related symptoms, including feeling like there is something stuck in or blocking your ear.

I (Jim Folk) experienced this symptom, too, many times and in many different ways during my struggle with anxiety disorder. Sometimes, one ear was affected, and sometimes, both were affected.

I’ve not experienced this symptom since I recovered in 1986.

Other Factors

Other factors can create stress and cause anxiety-like symptoms, as well as aggravate existing anxiety symptoms, including:

• Medication
• Recreational drugs
• Stimulants
• Sleep deprivation
• Fatigue
• Hyper and hypoventilation
• Low blood sugar
• Nutritional deficiencies
• Dehydration
• Hormone changes
• Pain

Select the relevant link for more information.