JaneyMac

I am a fifty year old woman. Until last year I had no idea what it meant to suffer tinnitus, despite my father having lived with it for over fifty years as a result of industrial deafness (he never complained and obviously lived his life all the same). Owing to worsening problems with Trichotillomania (hair pulling disorder), my GP referred me to a Psychiatrist. The Psychiatrist convinced me that I had masked depression and prescribed 50mg of Sertraline. I felt my problems were hormonal and surely I would be Peri-menopausal by now? However, desperate to keep the hair on my head, I decided to give the SSRI a try. To be on the safe side, I only took 25mg. I took the solution in isolation. I hadn't eaten or drunk anything in the last hour and it would be another twenty minutes before dinner was ready. Within a short space of time, maybe only twenty seconds or so, I felt an intense pounding pressure in both ears. After six hours, the drug was working at full capacity and I experienced many of the listed side effects, including ringing in the ears which sounded like alarm bells going off. I chose to never take drugs again unless my life depended on it, and eventually, I was back to my old self...except for one thing. I was left with a constant high pitch hissing sound. I am assuming that my blood pressure was affected which in turn damaged some of the fine hairs in the cochlear. So now I have Tinnitus and Trichotillomania. When I returned to the UK last September, I asked my father about his tinnitus. He said that my brain would sort it out. He should know after fifty two years of living with tinnitus.

Member statistics

Location
Melbourne, Australia
Tinnitus Since
03/2017
Cause of Tinnitus
sertraline
Gender
Female
Occupation
Home Duties

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