Anxiety and Tinnitus

Hey guys. I'm a 19 year old college student living at home. My ringing started a little less than two weeks ago, but to understand my situation I'm going to explain the past month:

Early December I was going through a lot of stress because I was paranoid about my digestive system. I spent two weeks obsessively using the bathroom and using Metamucil under my doctor's recommendation to "regulate myself." After two weeks of that I had a panic attack unlike any other I've experienced. Good news is, once the attack happened, my digestive system problems were magically gone and I was on to a new topic of anxiety: my heart. Convinced that my panic attack was a sign of an upcoming heart attack I went to the ER a few days later and continued to experience debilitating anxiety for about a week. One night while obsessively thinking about my heart and holding my chest trying to fall asleep (my routine by that point) I noticed a ringing in my left ear. I am a rock musician so ringing in my ears is nothing new to me, so I shook it off. This was strange though because I hadn't played music or even listened to much music in at least a month by that time. I had been a hermit due to anxiety and experienced no loud noises. I will note that I had just started Zoloft and had taken Ativan along with pain relievers in small dosages on a few occasions in the weeks prior. Well now it's been about two weeks and the ringing has not stopped. I have stopped my Zoloft and avoided medicine at all costs in hopes that it would subside. Luckily my health anxiety has cleared up and I am healthy as ever according to the tests the doctors have run, but this ringing has been a struggle. Would love to hear some opinions!

 

Welcome and I do hope your T will fade slowly now that your anxiety issue about your health is resolved. Anxiety and stress are known to cause or aggravate T. So the less anxious and stressful you are, the less T can hurt you. Try to relax and be positive. You can get better. Many people have gotten better after some time and by following some good strategies. Read them up to give you some confidence that you will be well again. In the mean time, you should get masking going so you are not too anxious with the ringing. Here are some suggestions. Take care & God bless.

TT tips for new T sufferers: https://www.tinnitustalk.com/panic/

TT audio player: https://www.tinnitustalk.com/audioplayer/

free masking aire freshener:
http://www.peterhirschberg.com/mysoftware.html

soothing rain generator:
http://mynoise.net/NoiseMachines/rainNoiseGenerator.php

 

This totally sounds like my case....
weird!