Alcohol and Its Effect on Tinnitus

Yes, withdrawal symptoms make you more sensitive, it will pass. Did you get any sleeping aid ?

 

I empathise with you, my whole adult life has always included alcohol, i´m not saying i have a problem far from it, but my family friends inlaws and outlaws have always included alcohol no matter what we´re celebrating and it has always been a very big part of my life. Alcohol like you say attacks the nervous system we all know that, but if it helps you to get through just one more day then why not??? like you i don´t know how much longer i can hold on to this hideous T life, and i´m not being a drama queen, i´m just being realistic, if it doesn´t start to calm down or at least go low... well say no more, wishing you well along your journey, much happiness and peace sent to you from me.

 

Louise contact me, i think we could help each other, you´ve had T longer than me, and i have so many questions?

 

Carol, i was a drinker before tinnitus and when i got mild tinnitus a year ago, never affected it, now it has increased from noise i am clutching at straws it see if it is stopping the spike going back down, but i know im in this mess because of the car bonnet slamming.

If alcohol helps you then i say go for it, it helped me a great deal the first few months when i first got tinnitus, i helped me sleep and kept me calm.

It can be a great coping tool short term , keeping you going mentally, until you get used to this noise. Last thing i say is if you were a drinker before tinnitus then don't think when you do drink alcohol you are making your tinnitus worse because me personally never saw a difference in my tinnitus.

Your reaction is normal, everyone felt like that in the beginning, but as time goes by you will start to feel better, hang in there.

 

Personally I don't feel it makes much actual difference to my T levels either, it's more psychological.

Alcohol can be a useful tool to temporarily control the anxiety, but of course the next day it increases your anxiety response and can make you worse, wanting more of it and easing you into a cycle of dependance. Not that far away from benzos in principal.

I've experimented with being alcohol free for a couple of months, as I said no level change but I think I feel way less bothered or anxious about the T.

@carol kane It can work as a much needed crutch, but it can also get in the way and stop you from getting out and doing the things you enjoy in life, moving back to trying to live as normal as possible - with certain restrictions of course.

 

Thank you guys for the great advice, i would hate to give up alcohol completely as i have always enjoyed my fun times and girlie evenings, but i can see that it might become a crutch for me and i wouldn´t want that, so maybe just now and again would be ok. If i could just ask about this habituation people talk about all the time, when does that start? i´m new in so i suppose that will take months and months?

 

Hi everyone, as many of you know I had a increase in tinnitus last October, it changed so much I couldn't sleep, so I relied on beer to get to sleep at night, it worked so well I drinked every night for 3 months up until year news eve. I knew I was drinking to much so I made a new years resolution to stop drinking, last night it took forever to go to sleep. Now am having horrible alcohol withdrawal, I am annoyed now that I have to find the willpower to stop drinking, deal with horrible withdrawal....and deal with this horrible tinnitus.

I am thinking to myself what is the point of giving up alcohol, going through withdrawal, if I have tinnitus that I can't cope with anyway? Beer helped me sleep, keep calm in the evening, it helped a lot, I made the new years resolution to quit because I was drinking to much but it is the only thing that has helped me cope with my tinnitus, I don't know if I will be able to quit if my head is screeching, I don't know what to do?

 

Mick1987,

I stopped drinking about 2 years ago now. It wasn't doing me any good. When I originally started partying a lot, it was definitely due to anxiety surrounding my tinnitus. I eventually stopped because I felt that it wasn't making things any better for me. I got tired of waking up shaking every day, barely making it through work until I was able to get home and have a beer. It's a pretty miserable way to live if you ask me. When I stopped, interestingly enough, I wasn't bothered by tinnitus at the time. If you go to a doc to help you detox from drinking, they'll write you a prescription for lorazepam (a benzodiazepine) to help you through. The pills work wonders for getting rid of your withdrawals, but as you know, you can become dependent on benzos as well.

I'll admit that when my drinking got very bad, I would go for weeks on end drinking every night, and then buy some benzos from a person I knew to help me get through the withdrawals. I did that for a year, denying that I had an alcohol problem.. yet I had to have the pills to help me get over the withdrawals when I stopped. After my dad died and I drank for a solid three months, I decided to stop because I was ashamed of myself. That time, I had no pills. It was a solid seven days of withdrawals before I started feeling better. I'll never touch a drop of alcohol again. I attended meetings for quite a while after I stopped. I might even start going again once I get my anxiety under control.

It's honestly up to you though man. If drinking doesn't bother you much, makes you happy and isn't harming others around you, then weigh the benefits vs the costs. If you're getting into trouble with the law, family members are concerned about you or you're hurting others... perhaps it's time to stop. If you're like me and you live alone, you have the money to drink and no one that is negatively effected by your drinking, and nobody that gives a damn about you, it's pretty easy to keep doing it. I basically just got tired of it. I never got into trouble or anything like that, I just got tired of all the endless shaking. You can message me more about it if you would like.

 

Cheers pal very helpful, I have not got any responsibilities, no kids etc, just a single guy in his twenties who likes a drink. I didn't feel bad drinking, I always had a couple of pints of water before going to bed so I was hangover free the next day. I was happy drinking, I would drink 6 to 8 pints of beer anight, every night for the past 3 months because of this spike, the main reason I wanted to quit because I was worried that I could be affecting my liver, if it wasn't for that worry I would be drinking now, it helps me cope with the anxiety of tinnitus, helps me cope. Quitting alcohol is hard enough anyway for heavy drinkers but quitting alcohol when you rely on it because of horrible tinnitus makes it seem impossible! My dad is a heavy drinker, has been all his life, now in his 60s and works in a manual job about 70 hours aweek, he is fine, but I still worry about my liver, it's not fair, the one thing that keeps me sane and I am trying to quit because I'm worried for my health, damn this increased tinnitus!

 

Um...i put music when i sleep , helps me.......but yeah...drinkin makes it way easy

 

Shame I am worried about my liver, beer makes life so much easier/better.

 

I would be less worried about your liver and more worried about your heart. When the liver is constantly bombarded by breaking down ethanol every day, it can't function as well as it should to break down fats. Fat can then build up quickly in arteries. The number one killer for alcoholics is heart attacks, drunk driving accidents... etc. Cirrhosis of the liver is way down on the list, somewhere near number 6 or 7 for the top killer of alcoholics. The liver is unlike many organs in the body in that it has the ability to repair itself. Cirrhosis starts after years of heavy drinking, after the fat has caused scar tissues to build up around the liver where it can't repair itself. I would be more worried about the other health impacts (neurological included) that drinking has. You have to make the choice yourself though, no one else will do it for you.

 

Why not stop the booze and switch to ambien, remeron, atarax or something else to sleep?

 

Hi Mick, sorry that you are now worried about alcohol damage on top of your t increase, but i too am starting to turn to alcohol to get me through the day and night!!! i find that a couple of vodkas lowers the t and i feel like the old me again for a while anyway. I´m not going over the top with it, i dilute it heavily and just sip on it, but i have never drank alcohol during the day,so i find it alarming that i can´t wait to just get that first one down so that this t fades into the back ground. So i understand why you would drink to help you. I hope i´m not giving myself a new problem by doing this, but at the moment it´s all i´ve got!!!

 

Hi carol, yeah..drinking helped me..helped me sleep..keep me calm, beer is very relaxing. A never wanted to use medication because I didn't really know what how it would affect me, side effects etc, the last time I even took paracetamol for a headache was spring 2012! before I got tinnitus. The problem for me wasn't drinking 6 pints a night, my tolerance is quite high so I never got hangovers the next day, the problem is that it is a very risky longterm solution, I didn't want to wreck my health over years of heavy drinking, also when you do try to quit after awhile, becomes a challenge in it's self, with withdrawal..rightnow iI'm on my 3rd day sober and I feel so spaced out it's scary. But also I know that if I do drink again I will drink the whole year again, I'm unemployed and looking for work when you would rather stay up late drinking isn't helping. But I never say never, if I run into problems again with my tinnitus increasing etc I know I will be straight back to the beer, it is the only thing that has helped me.

 

Wow Hudson, very informative thanks, I didn't know that, I only thought alcohol cleaned the arteries, reduced risk of heart disease, maybe that is only in moderation. Just like smoking, many people think lung cancer is the biggest killer, but it is actually the clogging of arteries causing heart disease, strokes etc, all from the increased adrenaline dumping fat into the blood stream, very interesting thanks.

 

I don't know if I can do this...the withdrawal is making me feel overwhelmed, before i was slightly depressed because of the increased tinnitus, but it is nothing compared to now, I'm on day 4 so I am over the dangerous period, but I feel awful, I have got a constant headache, feel spaced out, feel like I am about to come down with the flu, feel uneasy, sky high anxiety, feel miserable, feel exhausted, having insomnia, when I am sleeping I am getting nightmares and to top it off tinnitus that I am greatly bothered by. I knew is would be a bad withdrawal because I drank 8 beers a night everyday for 3 months straight, other days i would drink 4 beers and a quater bottle of whisky, am thinking now that I shouldn't be dealing with this as well as trying to get used to this tinnitus, all to much to handle. Maybe I should wait before I am coping with this new increase in tinnitus, wait a few more months to adjust to this tinnitus,then once iI am OK with the noise I should try quitting alcohol again. I have just Googled alcohol withdrawal and it takes months for the symptoms to go, and then something called PAWS (post alcohol withdrawal syndrome) where once you are past the alcohol withdrawal you keep getting depression, anxiety, lack of concentration on and off for GET THIS...6 months to 2 years! basically the time it takes for your brain to adjust to working without alcohol, It is to much, with the tinnitus as well...one thing at I time I say! These are the 2 biggest issues in my life, they are both just to big to deal with at the same time!

 

If you're past the dangerous phase, then I think you should continue and battle it out! It's entirely possible that you might be unlucky and experience protracted withdrawal symptoms but you could also get over this very quickly, everyone reacts differently and you can't just assume the worst without trying it first! Protracted withdrawal is probably not as common as you would assume from reading stuff online/on forums - many people make speedy recoveries.

I think if you can manage to overcome the withdrawal and stick to being sober and employ healthier methods to sleep, eg. using something like melatonin, you will probably find your tinnitus begin to improve or at least you will be able to handle it better. It wouldn't be silly to assume that since you've become physically and mentally dependent on alcohol that you might have been experiencing inter-dose withdrawals during the day between drinking sessions leading to increased anxiety, stress and enhanced tinnitus perception.

Keep at it man! Best thing I can recommend is just get as much exercise in as you possibly can. Cardio does amazing things for the mind if you can manage it, it might seem impossible at first but if you can start going on runs or ride a bike, it will help you tremendously in all aspects. Even if you head to the gym and lift some weights, that all helps because of the release of cortisol, you're stress levels will reduce and you'll find that you will be sleeping better, and have way less anxiety. Do what you can manage for now but stay strong buddy! You've come this far, keep going!

 

Thanks mate, slept quite well last night, today I feel a lot better, last night being a Saturday night I almost cracked, told myself if I feel like this tomorrow I will drink again, quite surprised that I feel almost normal today. The good thing about a awful withdrawal is once you get past the horrible stage you won't want to repeat it by drinking again, I think last night the symptoms peaked, I think I'm over the worst of it now.

My tinnitus seemed to be louder with the withdrawal, but I think it was just increased perception of it, sadly it hasn't lowered from not drinking, but like you say I should be able to cope better now I'm not constantly hungover, I think I slept so well because I walked my dog last night, exercise definitely helps with sleep.

 

The past few night while in bed I'm starting to hear this rapid lighter saber noise swinging around my head again...I hope it is just the withdrawal temporarily affecting my tinnitus. I heard the sound before when I had drunk alcohol that evening, but last time I heard it was around June/July last year, luckily it is only at night but it is so bizarre... Like a washing machine spinning and Darth vador in my head swinging a light saber around!

 

Here in England if you are young it is the norm to get drunk on the weekends, party's, football matches, pubs on every corner, I liked drinking on the weekends and 1 or 2 times in the week, normal behaviour for a bloke in england, being half Irish makes drinking away of life, did this since leaving school, loved drinking beer with my mates, brothers, dad. But when I got tinnitus I naturally started drinking everyday so I could sleep at night, did this for over a year, of course new year come up and make a promise to myself that I wouldn't drink all year because I thought drinking everyday is a bit much, anyway it's been over a week off the beer and feel bored, tinnitus making me annoyed, I keep wondering why I have even stopped drinking? I'm young, I've got no responsiblities, my dad, brothers drink, mates drink, I am having a rough time with tinnitus like most of you guys and gals, I keep telling myself that I am entitled to drink until I'm at least 30, help me though these next few years etc, anyway I am rambling, do any of you lovely people drink, before and after getting tinnitus?

 

I remember you recently posted that you were an alcoholic Mick. Is'nt that a good reason to not drink? Personally I think in moderation it's fine. If you drink as an escape it only compounds your problems. My brother was alcoholic and he pickled his liver. He also had hep C and he smoked pot and speed every day. He was also addicted to prescription meds. The alcohol was the start of his problems. He made lots of excuses and I think you are doing the same. I'm not trying to be judgemental or whatever and you need to decide what's best but please consider possible consequences.

 

I only ever drank very little in my life. I'm 55. My tinnitus came on when I was a teenager, so no, I didn't drink before my tinnitus. I've had a few drinks in my lifetime, so yes, I've drank after tinnitus came on. So you can see that personally I wouldn't have any idea what effect alcohol would have on tinnitus.

 

I drink maybe one alcoholic beverage per year. I've just never had an interest in it.

 

I drink occasionally and never had a prob. However, in my recent spike, I had about 5 glasses of red wine prior. Then I read that in some cases, tinnitus and red wine are not best buds. Up till today, I don't know if it was the noise or the red wine that caused the spike.

 

I can basically live without alcohol. I did a lot when I was younger. Now 40 I generally not that bothered. And generally makes me sleepy anyway ;D

 

I most likely do not drink on average once a week..With the rare time of just drinking to get drunk..Drinking at one time seemed to help my tinnitus and I drank too much as a result. However drinking seems to cause my T to worsen now so I limit myself to about 1 good mixed drink with a meal.

 

I basically never drink. from time to time I'll maybe have one drink that I'll enjoy and that's it. Maybe every half year or so ..

 

I don't know if im an alcoholic or just a heavy drinker, I didn't drink alone, just my environment I guess. I was surprised that there wasn't many cases similar to mine, this forum is very positive, helpful forum, but other forums I read quite a few depressing posts, people who felt suicidal, on the edge, couldn't mask their tinnitus, medications didn't work, getting 9 and a half minutes sleep a night etc, totally freaked out...but when I asked do they drink?... I got told how bad it is for the body, liver etc....I'm not encouraging drinking, but many people where in hell when their tinnitus started, I had dark thoughts sometimes, but drinking beer made it bearable for me, kept me calm, helped me get more than a few hours sleep...it kept me sane...it was a godsend, it helped me when I was constantly turned away from doctor's being told there is no cure. I'm now 9 days sober and feel OK apart from the constant annoying increased tinnitus, I am surprised every where I go, people even though can't see a way out still never drink? Each to their own I guess!

 

Nick, maybe your tinnitus hasn't actually increased since you're sober now, but maybe your perception of it makes it seem louder.