Acupuncture Made My Tinnitus Much Worse — Having C-PTSD Does Not Help Matters

I went for acupuncture based on some success stories I've read online, especially one here where an older woman had 3 procedures and it cured her 10 year long tinnitus.

It's been over 2 weeks. After the 3rd acupuncture I've been totally screwed. The tinnitus volume is off the charts, I don't think it can actually get any more severe. 3 fans on max volume AND listening to music I can still hear it. I never sleep. I'm constantly depressed, anxious and feeling hopeless. I do have C-PTSD already and this does not help, nor does the fact that my medical cannabis, the only thing that treats my PTSD and anxiety, spikes my tinnitus badly. I would say on average I get worse spikes if I say, lie down after work. Lying down always makes it spike worse and I don't have a clue as to why.

So why do I have tinnitus? I have no idea. Niacin tends to help which could mean poor blood flow to my ears, my eardrums don't move. Never been exposed to loud noise or anything like that. I did originally get some ringing 10 days after my 2nd Pfizer COVID-19 shot in May 2021 but I doubt that's related given my sinus surgery in May 2022 corrected it for months. It would've been more likely to have tinnitus sooner after the shots anyway and it's not like the boosters ever caused any spikes.

I do have mild anemia and some low red/white blood count, so maybe this has something to do with my eardrums not moving, I don't really know.

What I do want to know is why acupuncture has ruined my life. My ears are so, so, so bad now. I've heard it can get worse before it gets better but, it's been long enough, it should've already improved some and it only continues to get worse. I've tried every supplement under the sun, only Niacin helps, but only if I flush. Sometimes I don't flush on high doses, sometimes I'll flush on lower doses. But the flush is mandatory.

To anyone who's had tinnitus become worse after acupuncture, how long did it take until it returned to its normal state for you?

I wish I'd never had it done... so bad. But most of all, I wish I could experience last summer again before around mid August. Pure, 100% silence is the most peaceful sound there is, then enjoying the crickets outside in my silent room, it was perfect. I'd gone through so much in 2022 and I felt like I'd finally had my victory, life could only get better. Now, I'm at the lowest point of my entire life. People don't realize how crippling this condition can be, and I can only deal with it for so much longer :/

I'm supposed to get an MRI in a few weeks and if that finds anything, cool. If it doesn't? Well... it better, my life rests in the hands of those results, literally. I can't take it anymore.

 

Man, it is so terrible. So sorry.

When I got my tinnitus (due to self-inflicted acoustic trauma) and started to research treatments, there were as many stories about remedies making things worse instead of improving. I did not take oral steroids I got, canceled an appointment for steroid injections in the ears, cancelled HBOT sessions. I thought about acupuncture but skipped. I tried some low risk supplements but these were obviously pointless. My tinnitus was mild for the first 3-4 weeks, and though it was a shock, I thought it is not going to get worse, and maybe better, so decided against trying things that could worsen it. It did get much worse on its own over the next month or two. But recently it has been improving.

So there is hope I guess.

 

Mine is just getting worse every day. Niacin 1,000 mg helps get it down for a bit but I never had hyperacusis before the acupuncture. Given there has been no clear cause for mine, it's hard to be hopeful. What I'd do to go back 1 year, June and July. By August it was all beginning to fall apart and I've been in a 10 month long depression.

 

The first year of catastrophic hyperacusis and tinnitus were a total roller coaster for me. Dire days. I had a week or two of moderate tinnitus and then it went ballistic.

I've had lots and lots of acupuncture and never had your experience. I often felt calmer and found one acupuncturist whose treatment relieved the intensity of the tinnitus.

So sorry to hear you are going through this. In cases, where I have had acoustic trauma (fire alarm), it took many months to calm down. Spikes can come back down. Hopefully yours will too.

 

My spike seemed to be improving all of last week, I was doing great, and now it is worse than ever. Life does this to me all the time. My tinnitus gets better, then every time, every fucking time, it gets worse than before afterwards. I'm supposed to be 30 in 2 months, and as of right now that's not in my plans. this is just how crippling tinnitus can be. I hate to sound selfish but I think I might have some of the worst tinnitus out of anyone on this entire forum.

 

I have been using white noise devices a lot this past year to cope with a nearly year long spike after exposure to a fire alarm. Things are slowly improving but very inconsistently.

The devices are absurdly expensive but help take the edge off.

I tend to do better outside or engaged in some activity but that’s a high bar at times. Today I’m hanging out in the porch reading a book. Good to feel the sun and breeze even though the tinnitus is loud.

Good luck. I try to envision the bad days as passing and a few better days ahead. I’ve even had pretty good years after a start that was catastrophic; little sleep, loss of weight, inability to eat, panic attacks, heat stroke with just a half hour walk on a sunny day, not being able to drive, going on permanent disability, etc.

Things now are way better than that even on severe days.

 

I am a critic of Acupuncture both ways.

So claims that Acupuncture made my tinnitus worse are not more or less reliable than tinnitus improved my Acupuncture.

The vast bulk of people who try Acupuncture for tinnitus experience no effect either way.

The few successes we see claimed may be placebo, wishful thinking, or just sheer coincidence.

In your case - I doubt whether Acupuncture affected it (this does not mean I am ruling it out). Just one of those horrible coincidences where it got worse for some other reason and coincided with the Acupuncture.

Acupuncture was discredited and dropped by Chinese culture in the 19th century. Forgotten about and dismissed. Chairman Mao brought it back to prove that the Chinese had something to counter Western methods. He never actually used Acupuncture himself, preferring modern conventional medicine.

There are studies showing that Acupuncture has some efficacy for pain reduction but there are methodology flaws and self-reporting on pain levels has been shown to be unreliable.

 

It's definitely no coincidence, it got worse after each Acupuncture session. I wish I had never touched the shit. First night I couldn't believe the spike, but I went for 3 sessions because I read of a success story on this forum, and it ended up ruining my life. Stack every type of tinnitus on top of each other and turn it up to maximum volume and try to imagine living with that, at nearly 30 years old, with no history of drug use that could cause tinnitus or exposure to loud volume. I just developed it for no reason.

Not even my Niacin, the only thing I had left, works anymore. It's worked for 4 months. This is all I had, it was everything I had. I lost my job last week, too... My grandmother died but Walmart doesn't give a fuck and neither did H.R., who said hey, you had 4.5 attendance points, you should've used PPTO. Well I didn't have enough thanks to the team lead not accepting doctor's appointments for days off. My old team lead would grant any time off.

You know what sucks the most? 2 nights ago, Niacin worked great, I took a shower, and for HOURS both my ears were dead silent. Nothing spiked them, I haven't had silence like that since July 2022, after my mild tinnitus was cured post sinus surgery, only to come back worse in August. Way worse. But I thought that was bad... that was 1/10 as bad and I still wanted to die over it.

It's looking grim, guys. 70% chance I'm dead before I turn 30, especially given Christmastime makes me suicidal due to my horribly fucked up traumatic childhood memories of my crazy family.