Anyone Without Anxiety Here?

Is there anyone here that just suffers from T and not anxiety?

I think that I might be on my own here. I can not believe how many people with tinnitus suffer from anxiety, what is the conection?

Do you ACTUALLY suffer from REAL tinnitus or are you just freaking out? Is most of it just in your anxious mind? Maybe a light ringing and you loose it, you think that it's a big deal because you have heard scary stories then get a panick attack or something?

How much of T is real, and how much is panick and overreaction?

People keep telling me to try not to be anxious over my hearing issues, that is THE standard advise that I get. My reply is that I don't have anxiety, I just have shity ear issues for f//k sake.

And then you get the success stories from people with a history of anxiety. Like did you overcome T or just your anxiety? You say that you had bad T and H but that could have just been the anxiety talking (making something out of nothing) and not your tinnitus.

I am very skeptical to believe any kind of success story handed out by those idividuals that blow things out of proportion and freak out to begin with. I mean, sure it's real to them, but really, is it? It could just be the mental illness talking and not really tinnitus. As soon as someone tells me that they have overcome tinnitus and that they have a history of anxiety I write it off completely. Am I wrong?

Any opinions on this ?

Ps-absolutely nothing against anyone with anxiety here, it's just another health issue, no big deal! I hope that no one takes offense to my post, that is definately not My intention.

 

Anxiety follows tinnitus. I think generally anxious and OCD people have it worst with tinnitus. Tinnitus exacerbates those features and the vicious circle is ready. You work on your anxiety/OCD and your tinnitus becomes less an issue as a by product.

I think you are being rude. What does it matter? In the end, isn't the only real thing we all want for tinnitus to be a sound that doesn't distress us?

 

The connection is actually quite simple. Hearing is a defensive sense, and what you hear travels through your limbic system before your higher senses even get their boots on, therefore your body hears a threatening sound and goes into fight-fright-flight before you've even had time to pull your pants back up. Its not you, its the operating system. One of the principles of TRT is the belief that this process can be disrupted i.e the system can be reprogrammed. While that's what they think anyway. I don't have a better idea unfortunately, and I'm not fully prepared to say they're wrong.

 

Hi Telis,
I don't have anxiety issues regarding my tinnitus or Menieres or breathing problems.

This is due to having them a long time and knowing everything about them.
This gives me peace and reassurance that I know I will be ok .

Having a lovely doctor and asthma team and consultant helps also.

I am quite a relaxed happy person and think that helps me.
I know when I need to put myself first and take time out to get better .
Christmas as been lovely but breathing problems got in the way this year so I enjoyed it all still at my own pace.

Tinnitus and the unwanted emotions can be tough and even I got into a state of depression and anxiety when my illnesses and tinnitus came into my life but I battled through the storms and came out stronger...lots of love glynis

 

Rude? Ya ok, well whatever, I put it as politely as I could, sorry if you took offense.

Why???! I was treated for anxiety regarding tinnitus at 180 per hour, I don't know, maybe there is a different approach for people that do not suffer from anxiety? I mean, maybe you don't give a shit and it doesn't matter to you but I'm sure that it does to others that are in my shoes. When you ask for help and you are told one thing over and over that does not apply to you, yeah it's an issues. Get your head out of your ass, it all matters.

 

i don't have any anxiety at all - my T came a minute after I had a very loud noise exposure (firearms) and stayed there and is still pretty much the same but a notch softer 2 months in . At first I though that it will vanish on its own so I did not care much even though I could hear it loud an clear in quiet places but after a few weeks of no changes and hearing deterioration ..its still there - hearing got much better recently though.
My ENT gave me some prendisone but it was a bit late..anxiety was never mentioned he said my brain is trying to recreate the sounds associated with the hair cells that were "shot" (!)..

My T sounds like a loud constant hiss - air coming from a tire - with some noise reactive high frequency zings from time to time

 

Other side of the coin could be (and I'm also not trying to be rude) that you are in denial regarding your own anxiety. Your ego could be telling you that you are somehow different from the people you are talking about. "I'm not crazy like them, my T is real". For myself, I don't think I suffer from clinical anxiety but I have certainly felt anxious about a great many things. At times my tinnitus has been one of those things. I have sometimes felt that my tinnitus was worse when I was under stress. It for sure isn't constant but fluctuations have come at times other than stressful ones as well. Who knows, maybe I'm in anxiety denial too?

As for the buck eighty you spent on "treatment" I agree it was a waste. I don't think there are any treatments out there that lead to a cure. I think some of the therapies help you with coping with your affliction and/or the mental issues that may be caused by it but I don't think a true cure is out there. I'm for all of them. Whatever helps you get by. Sound therapy, masking, new experimental drugs, homeopathic remedies, weed, hypnosis, whatever gets you through I am for it. At the end of the day though I think either your body will heal itself or it wont. Sort of like a virus I believe all we can do is treat the symptoms.

 

I think this raises interesting questions. I don't really have anxiety or panic about my t, although I did feel anxious for around a month or two. I do find that it ruins most of the activities and interests I used to enjoy. And just the experience of that sound being there all the time - and knowing it will probably still be there 10,20,30 years down the line - causes me to experience depression. It just is unpleasant, there is no way around that for me. I have a tendency toward mild depression anyway, but in the past always fought through it with exercise and interest in learning. Now I just accept that I'll never really feel a proper sense of wellbeing again, and that leads me to put a lot less into looking after myself and developing who I am.

So I haven't really got anxiety, but I certainly haven't beaten tinnitus. Mostly I would say I am habituated, but at the same time I am a shadow of the person I was before. So for me, habituation is not any great saviour. I really admire @glynis because having read her posts I really believe her when she says she fought through and came out stronger. I haven't managed to do that.

Maybe it is a character weakness of mine, although I have fought through illness before, including crippling arthritis that left me barely able to walk for months when I was 27. Something about t definitely changed the game for me, changed the way I feel about myself and the world. It isn't anxiety, but I think it probably is some aspect of my character that responds much worse to this particular affliction than it would to others.

 

Thank you @dboy for your kind words.
I think one good question would be to ask if tinnitus has taken away some of your confidence ( your confidence meant people in general with tinnitus ?)...lots of love glynis

 

I know you did not intend for it to, but I also felt your post was offensive. First, as someone who has suffered from anxiety/obsessive compulsive disorder most of my life I do not consider myself to have a "mental illness". When you use the term mental illness you are comparing anxiety to mental illnesses like bi polar disorder or schizophrenia.

That being said, I was suffering a great deal of anxiety and OCD symptoms from unexplained chest pain for about 11 weeks prior to my tinnitus starting. I do believe my tinnitus was caused by pregnancy and exaggerated by my anxiety. However, I do not believe it is something I am making up in my own head as your post suggests. My tinnitus does directly correlate with my stress though and when I am more stressed the tinnitus tends to increase in volume. I am working on controlling my physical and emotional reactions to my tinnitus since I cannot treat with any medications or supplements due to pregnancy.

From what I've read on various websites, tinnitus causes the fight or flight response in MANY people who suffer from it because it is a foreign sound that your body/brain perceives as a threat which is why anxiety is so common and it seems most people who develop tinnitus suffer some degree of anxiety at some point.

All that being said, if I were to overcome tinnitus either completely or at the very least my emotional reaction to it why wouldn't that be a valued success story? Why would you choose to ignore or discredit the story? Because I "may have made it all up in my head"? I can assure you my tinnitus is not a made up symptom and is very, very real. So, I personally believe regardless of how it is overcome, anytime anyone overcomes tinnitus to where they feel they can live a normal life that story should be posted and definately not discredited because the patient suffers anxiety as well. I don't think anyone's success stories should be written off.

 

It's just a semantics issue but @Telis is quite right.
A chronic anxiety disorder is most certainly a mental illness - and a serious one actually.

 

I suppose it depends on the level of anxiety and how it impedes with your daily ability to function, but as a sufferer of anxiety I do not consider myself to be mentally ill. Regardless, just because I have anxiety dose not mean my tinnitus is made up in my head or that any success story I post would be invalid because of previous issues with anxiety disorders.

 

It certainly does depend on the level of anxiety.
For what its worth, I also find it that almost everyone will experience increased levels of anxiety during their lifetime, be it from family, health, education or work related issues. I bet most people through the centuries have been very anxious about some major academic exam, it would be absurd to label them as mentally ill.
As I said its just semantics.
Sorry to the op for the slight off-topic.

 

Agreed.

 

I do not suffer from chronic anxiety, although there was one panic attack several years ago that came out of the blue while I was walking the dogs one night. I do feel like I'm under a lot of stress, and have been for many years.

Any anxiety I feel now is related to my financial situation. I had to take a hiatus from my audio transcription work because it caused the T to ramp up constantly. I am living off of steadily diminishing savings, not an ideal thing.

 

You are very welcome. That isn't an easy question to answer... really complex in fact. I'm not sure I could do it justice. I suppose my self-image has taken a knock from how I've responded to t. I've let things slide in a way I never would have done before. But I'd rather not get too far into that stuff as it would not be very relevant to the thread, and would probably involve me tying myself in knots trying to explain myself.

 

Anxiety. Rather the opposite: fearlessness bordering on the verge of suicide.
Certainly, in the beginning T scares the shit out of you. Something that you cannot control. Something that demolishes your sense till your very end (in your timeline). But after that, it's all just a painful noise.
Personally, I'd say every veteran with T who's experiencing still anxiety has other issues than just T. Or it's a psychological excuse to sell you something. If they can't fix what you've, they'll just tell you that you've other problems on top like anxiety. And there are lots of meds and treatments for anxiety, ain't there? Bottom line, $$$$$.
No one overcomes severe T. That's like claiming to run a marathon with no legs. Or being happy forever. It simply isn't sound nor logical.

@PaulBe , TRT forgot the source code.

OCD, BPD, schizophrenia, anxiety disorder etc are all mental disorders which can be treated with psychology. There's no offense in that. Whereas T is a physical disorder. Period.

 

i have suffered from anxiety, panic attacks and depression for years, i think maybe it plays a part in my tinnitus. i also have mild hearing loss. and neck issues and tmj.. i think those may play a part also....

 

@Telis

Two years with severe T now and I still don't know if it is only T, a clinical depression, clinical anxiety or if both are caused by T (reactive depression and anxiety). At least it is a mix of depression, anxiety, T and exhaustion.

In the morning hours it feels like a deep depression. During the day, depression goes down and T is 90% the problem. I am working on my anxiety/depression (by trying to live a normal life and by exercising). But I have a high-pitched buzzing head with 2, 3 or 4 sounds. I cannot really tell since all are similar and ultra-high (> 14 or 15 kHz). Only very loud masking sounds can partly them, I even hear T in the shower.

Nevertheless, if someone would take T today from me tomorrow, I don't know if I would be completely free of everything again. I think so, but the depression and anxiety is probably not resolved within a day.

@Telis. I don't know if I have anxiety all the time. But I definitely have high tension (burning face) and depression. This is already hard to live with. Together with the screaming in my head, going through the day is a big challenge.

So if it is anxiety, depression, exhaustion, loud T or high tension. It is all very difficult to live with.

 

I never had anxiety or depression before.
@jeannie: Ever thought about taking an anti-anxiety AD like Lexapro or Zoloft?

 

There are s couple dozen studies over the last couple decades which have all concluded that the conscious response we have towards chronic pain, has some impact on the severity of the pain as well as how brain structures are affected over time by chronic pain.

So, I don't think the argument rational psychologists make is "if we teach you how to think better, your t will go away". It's just a matter of how disabled you are over time, and the degree to which your quality of life is affected.

My personal, anecdotal experience is that my tinnitus is worse (both in terms of distress and pure volume) when I'm otherwise in a state of anxiety, so to the extent I control that, I am able to exert some small control on the tinnitus itself, but that's not really the point. Tinnitus is just one of a long list of things that will be wrong with me before I die; making the best peace I can with that simple idea, helps me stay grounded.

I think the tinnitus/anxiety link is probably because abnormal function in serotonin or gaba regulation, can cause either or both conditions.

The better question then, can cognitive practices, mediation, therapy, etc change the brain in a way that reduces the impact or level of distress associated with tinnitus... and I think that's a resounding yes. But, that doesn't mean it's going to cure you, by any means.

 

It certainly has. Thus *unconsciousness* should be a reasonable therapy for T and all kind of severe physical afflictions. Don't you agree?

Psychologists just sell their time/service like we all do. And if they don't have anything in store for you, they simply make it up.
A placebo is a very powerful tool.
The question I ask is: what if cognitive practices, mediation, therapy, etc has no effect on your T?

 

I think you have a point here... I have high anxiety due to tinnitus... I freaked out in the beginning...I am major OCD and I do think my brain made it bigger in the beginning.
My T could not be masked....fact!.....but.....my whole body was focused on it ......my whole nervoussystem went overboard. Nobody could help me and the fear of having this for ever made me suicidle. So yes I completely freaked out to the upmost. I think I got the depression from it also. Being severe OCD does not really help if you want to fix things always right away and T was not to be fixed.

You know I have sensorimotor-OCD which is a story on itself to deal with...I have this for almost a year now, but the moment that my S-OCD is raging my T is almost a non-issue because my brain is focussing 100% on some stupid sensorimotor activity which "normal" people never focus on.

So in that regard I now anxiety is for me the main issue T is present. When i do not feel anxious my T is much lower.,.....or like we say here the perception of it is much lower.

I do think there are different types of T....the ones that just are not anxiety related and like you say are just "bad ears" or "bad brains". With this type of T advice from people with "anxiety T" does not really help.
The degree of suffering I would not know, because we all suffer different. In the beginning my ears did hurt...I even posted here on TT if anybody else had the same symptom that when he/she is in a silent room and T is very loud your ears start to hurt. Well I almost received no replies. Or I got messages saying..."No i just hear eeee or shhhhhhhhhhh, but my ears do not hurt". So I thought I had special T. This hurting of my ear in a silentroom went slowly away but the H is still there...not as bad as in the beginning but it is not gone.

What I do believe is that you CAN have bad T and H and anxiety is fuelling it after the onset. If you do not give it fuel it will run out of gas ....sort of. So those successtories are more common.
I went in total panick mode for 2 years straight monitoring my T 10000x times a day...sticking my fingers in my ears 100x a day to listen to it...which made matter worse...but i could not stop.

Until the depression kicked in......that is total different story....I know the difference between anxiety(disorder) and a depression now.... because I had/have both.

So the suffering if anxiety fuels it or not can still be the same, but TRT is mainly working for the anxiety T (i think).
The T that is always there no matter what you do or how you feel needs perhaps another approach. Perhaps more in regards of chronicpain and using the treatments for that on T.

Was/is my tinnitus real? Hell yeah it is... if I can hear it it is real. Is it fuelled by anxiety and panick.....Hell yeah it is ...that is the total T package for me.... That is my REAL T....which I will hate till the day I die. It does not make your T more real or mine less....it just a different type of T.

Perhaps you do not even have T but something totally different where there is not a name for yet. Sure your T started of mild, but due to meds and other things you did your T became worse, but perhaps it induced something else which effected your hearing in a bad way. Tinnitus is just a word we give for ringing in the ears.
Ringing....my ears do not ring...there is no word for what I hear. I say eeeeeee but I do not know really ....just a sound from hell would be a better description...there are so many tones in my head. But I start learning to ignore them more and more.

Some people take Trobalt, others benzos, others do Mindfullness, acupuncture , massagetherapy etc etc.....we all need to find our own way to get some relieve. What works for one does not mean it works for the other.

Also I do not know what loud ringing if i compare it to others. My T on this level now I can perhaps accept, but if this was my first experience with T and I hear what I hear now I would freak out again in the same magnitude, because it is something that does not belong in my body. Sure it is way less loud and I am happy it is not what it was back in 2013,but now I can compare because I do not want that old sound back.
Due to the fact I can compare my T with a previous state I can accept it better....or my brain can do that better
The new lower T is the new standard of live where I perhaps can operate on, ....but do not forget i have S-OCD...so what happend before....one symptom leaves and from one second on the other my T with the lower sound can be the biggest horror story in my life again. It happend before and can happen again.

I do not find your post offending in any way and it is a relevant question you ask regarding anxiety and T & H.
I know there are more people on this board who do not have anxiety and only T bugs them so I hope they can speak their mind also.
Best
Rico

 

Haha, humorous, but I'm going to go with 'no'...

I can't answer this because I've never been in that situation. On the other hand, despite having some success with these practices, I still have some very noticeable, shrill, constant tinnitus. So, I'd say that for me, the mediation angle has had a lot more to do with me learning how to have t without thinking about it constantly, than with changing the t itself.

 

I agree, and your post to me did not come off as offensive.

 

Martin69, yes i have taken different ones in the past way before i got tinnitus, but i go to phyc. tomm. and will probably be put on something.. now that i have T. Im afraid to take any antidepressants, i do take low dose of neurotin for nerve pain...

 

Hi Telis,
I'm among the numbers of having T without anxiety. I work a good deal with individuals who have both T and anxiety. I've been a Psychologist over 30 years and personally dealt with T for some 20 years. It's not uncommon for an individual to develop or become aware of an anxiety disorder due to the stress created by the T. Stress is the great revealer. Stress brings a lot to the surface in our lives that we have often tucked away or didn't know was there.
I apply various mental gymnastics in dealing with my T. The way we are all wired in our CNS, the harder we try to stop something the more our brain will do it! Rather than trying to stop a thought process or attention, try doing something different. Our brain is always moving forward. So, focus on getting your brain, your mind, to Do something not Stop something.
Just some thoughts.

 

I think that I may have come across as someone that has no anxiety at all ever, this maybe is not the case. In the past prior to tinnitus, if I were in a dangerous situation or someone else was put in danger my heart would race, it's not like I was completely calm 100 percent of the time. Also, my job was very high pressure for a lot of years, I felt stressed at certain times, but not anxious. Surely there is a difference. To be honest, if I had anxiety there is no way that I could have been in the career that I chose.

At onset of T my anxiety was high, this is maybe the first time that I felt true undeniable panic. I was actually crippled by it, I was in a state because I didn't know what to do. When I realized there was nothing for me to do, the anxiety went away, there was no real action that I could take so I lost that feeling of panic. Loosing the anxiety was nice but I still suffer in a terrible way.

Whether I think about my ear situation or not, it affects my body. The noise and the ear pain take the energy right out of me no matter what I think about. This is kind of where My interest here stemmed from. For some people it seems their thoughts can change the tinnitus experience for them. Is this because the thoughts are more of a threat than the actual condition to begin with? Is this MAYBE why there seems to be more success stories from those that battled anxiety even before tinnitus? They tackle the anxiety and there really is nothing wrong with them besides some mild ringing that they can hear in silence. And all along it was just their thoughts blowing things way out of porportion? Maybe?

I have been frustrated/infuriated with having this label attached to me (now that I have tinnitus). To be very clear here, it is NOT the label itself, it is the simple fact that I go for help and I am automatically diagnosed with anxiety issues. If I had these issues that's all cool, it would be nothing to be ashamed about, that's for sure. It's just that this one size fits all treatment is not right in my opinion.

Anyway, thanks all for not blasting me here but instead contributing with very open minds.

Telis

 

Anxiety could trigger Tinnitus as well as it has similar characteristics being overractive neural pathway's.
Thus Tinnitus in turn (in theory) could also be a " condition " that triggers anxiety.
When either of those could not somehow be connected it's weird to even try seizure medication.

As that being the most severe neural defecit in terms of an overactive brain.