Alcohol Is Not an Approved Treatment

Yesterday was a bad tinnitus day. No worse than usual but sometimes fighting this beast on a day to day basis takes its toll. I had enough so I decided to drown my sorrows in a few shots of good Canadian whiskey. Those Canadians make the smoothest whiskey on the planet.

A couple shots wound up being a whole 1/5 th and I was feeling no pain.

I still had my tinnitus but just didn't care.

Today I care. The tinnitus is up and I have a hangover and feel like crap.

Oh well, it was good while it lasted and seemed like a great idea at the time. Stupid is as Stupid does.

 

I've heard alcohol does silence T for many people.

I have to admit, I haven't had a drink since my tinnitus but if it does work for, alcoholism could be an option.

 

I agree. When my tinnitus became worse I noticed that it did seem to decrease with even a couple beers and would stay calmer for quite awhile. I drank too much as a result. Now alcohol seems to make it worse.

I would probably be an alcoholic by now if it had continued to lessen my T.

 

You haven't had a drink since 2009? Not because of the T I hope? If T is the reason, you have let it take over your life!

I don't know what your drinking habits used to be though.

 

Drank yesterday, big T spike today. Alc. does that to my T. As does caffeine.

 

Darn, was hoping would take the edge off.

 

Your not stupid, you only wanted to forget it for a while so you had a drink, so what, it´s cruel now you have to pay the piper. For me as soon as i have a drink my T practically disappears, but it will spike when it wears off, but for those 4/5 hrs of a taste of my old life is wonderful!!!! Christmas will be tough for me, because i will have to stay away from the booze or i´ll spend most of the time climbing the walls with spikes!!!

 

i'm what you would call a heavy drinker, when my tinnitus started august 2012 it was only mild but i was devastated about the loss of silence, drank everynight for 6 months straight, didn`t affect my tinnitus at all, have a couple of pints of water straight before bed and i'm practically hang over free the next day.

Spent months sober after a while because i could sleep well and was ok with my tinnitus, never made a difference in volume.
Now it has increased in volume and changed in pitch i am relying on alcohol once again, i thought this spike would be temporary but it has been 7 weeks today, all from slamming shut a car bonnet/hood.

I feel worse than i did at the start, can't believe it sounds so different now.

Make sure you wear earplugs around loud noises!

 

Mick, when you have a drink does your T go low?

 

Hi Carol, no my tinnitus stays the same volume, sometimes when i drink alot it is a little higher when i go to bed, but by morning it is back to normal.
The only thing that has changed my tinnitus is loud noise.

 

Fortunately, alchohol has no effect on my T. I have a couple glasses of merlot every night. I really look forward to it. It's sort of my reward for getting home and time to relax.

 

I also have a glass of wine at night when I get home and yes, it usually does calm my tinnitus. However, I lately have realized I sometimes now will have two glasses, or even three if I am at a party for a long time. Not good.

That's the trouble with regularly using alcohol to de-stress, your consumption can creep up without you noticing. Alcohol is NOT a treatment for tinnitus and I am being much more cautious now.

 

I am in the same camp as Karl. I would even go as far as saying that after a glass of wine (or two), I am reasonably unaware of my tinnitus. The head-noise remains in the background, but I pay it less attention. I do avoid excessive drinking. In large part, this is because I think it's bad for you; but also because I imagine that a hangover would exacerbate tinnitus, or at least reduce my ability to cope with it.

 

Hey whatever it takes my friend, just don't drive...

 

When my tinnitus was as it's worst I tried to have a beer or a glass of wine in the evening to help me relax. It does help me feel more relaxed, even though the sound of my tinnitus seems to increase. But after some alcohol I sleep even worse than usually, so (maybe fortunately) alcohol doesn't really work for me.

 

Alcohol is great in that it gives you the ability to not give a damn about your tinnitus (and it generally makes the world seem like less of a crappy place). The only problem is when you use it regularly to cope. Alcohol never had an effect on my tinnitus at all, even after heavy drinking. I stopped drinking because it wasn't doing me any good and being physically dependent on alcohol is a damn miserable way to live, as it stops being fun.

 

I'm surprised alcohol abuse isn't rampant among tinnitus sufferers, with all the depression, anxiety, sleep issues. Many people drink when they are stressed out from work, life etc, I think having a drink is understandable when your ears are screaming and you are close to going mad.

 

did not work for me.

 

Beer is the ONLY thing that will lower my T.
Get drunk and its gone.
This never ever happens otherwise.
It's even very low during the hangover....finally a welcome hangover.

 

Lucky you, i love my wine but it sends t crazy so i avoid it now.

 

Worked for me last tuesday went into the west end with a couple of mates visited 9 pubs and at the end I was so out of it that the t became part of the universe i was spinning round in and became a nothing in a world of nothingness

 

Pretty cool, @carlover. Now you just gotta replicate that feeling when sober.

Cheers!

 

Curious to see all the different responses to drinking and T. When I first got it, I abstained for about 6 months and lost a lot of weight. Good for me. I went back to drinking rather heavily, which I've done for most of my life, and found it had little effect on my T. Red wine does seem to make it worse the day after. But white wine and beer seem to make it better. Also, I never get hangovers.

Other things I've noticed: coffee with caffeine is O K. But tea makes my T go crazy. Constipation, if severe, will make my T spike badly. A glass of prune juice once a week keeps that in check. Also, I'm not very affected by loud noises. Sometimes, I'll be having an OK day, and I'll take a one hour nap in the afternoon, and when I wake up, the T is through the roof.

All this makes me think that T is particular to each individual. That may be why it is so hard to treat and find a cure for.

 

Hey Bob R!

Very interesting! You and I have some real similarities, and some total differences! Which goes to your correct point that T is so particular to each individual!! That's why TT is so important! So many different opinions, ideas, treatments, etc... being shared so folks can try different things until something helps/works!!!

Drinking beer & wine does help me "deal" with my T in the evenings, although I know it's not the best long term solution. I have been supplementing that with exercise (surfing & running) and other distractions. Which is helping for sure, but I still like to have my drink or two in the evenings once in awhile to "take the edge off" from my severe T.

 

I no longer drink alcohol because not only do I feel less well in the morning after even a glass of wine (weak liver?) my T gets worse while imbibing beer etc. Same for cannabis.

 

I'm a young guy, i do drink more than i maybe should.. but that's the way of danish young people.

As i see it, alcohol DOES calm and lower your T - A LOT - so much that i sometimes think that it's gone.

As of right now, i've been with a bunch of friends, drank some beers (8+) and literally my T is 0.5/10 right now..

The problem is the hangovers, it seriously spikes your T, at least for me... for around 12-24 hours, which can be very hard to handle when hangover.

Just my experience tho..

My point: Don't drink to calm your T, drink if you like it and be social with some familie or friends. Another thing is, don't avoid alcohol because you're afraid it will spike your T forever... it wont.

Side note: Cannabis is very bad for T suffers, it spikes your T like 100%... very very disturbing.

 

I agree with all of you. Beer and a shot or two help me forget this stupid T. It even tends to lower or so i think.
The next morning i am in hell. The T is relentless and the day is long. I feel like crap.

So i guess i'll just pray and then some .

 

Hello,
I have had T for about three weeks and was abstaining from alcohol because I read it makes it worse. Due to insomnia I finally tried a few shots of whiskey the other night to help me get to sleep. Surprisingly it actually reduced the level of T. I tried it again yesterday and today and holy shit it seems to work. My To level is the quietest its been in weeks.

 

I'm pretty certain alcohol increases mine too, but since I flucuate it's impossible to know. New Year's Day I did have champagne and did not get loud; but I was loud the next day.

In general, alcohol either reduces or increases your noise. But, since alcohol acts on GABA receptors, you would think it should lower everyone's tinnitus temporarily.