At a Crossroads Four Months In — Tinnitus from Stress, Noise or Medication (Mebendazole)

Hi, I’m new here. Please excuse any typos and be gentle. I’m struggling hard.

I’ve had tinnitus since early January 2024 (so about four months).

I’m still not sure of the cause; it could be stress-related, noise-related (I have a young daughter who does shout), or medication (Mebendazole).

Either way, like many, I am severely struggling with anxiety and sleep. Sometimes I sleep 2 hours a night, but 3.5 - 4 hours is typical. Very occasionally I sleep 6 hours, and sometimes just a few minutes.

I have had acupuncture, osteopathy, various healing therapies, seeing a therapist, etc.
Nothing is really comprehensively working, though some herbals have had an impact on me (L-Theanine, Passionflower).

I am terrified, having read all the horror stories about antidepressants and benzos.

I do have Lorazepam and Diazepam prescribed, as well as Mirtazepine and Cymbalta. I am too scared to take any of them.

I occasionally take 1 mg of Lorazepam for sleep, but honestly, I’m trying not to.

I’m also on low-dose HRT for possible perimenopause, but it seems to be doing not much.

Any advice from those who know more? I want to stay here for my daughter, but life is a daily endurance, and my anxiety is completely overwhelming.

 

What is your dose of Mirtazapine? Lower doses, like 3 mg to 15 mg, are better for sleep. That could be safer and more effective than Lorazepam. With Mirtazapine, weight gain is a common concern. It will probably become less effective in the long run, and it can be very difficult to wean off of.

I have a 0.5 mg prescription of Lorazepam and take it rarely because it can build tolerance and dependency so quickly; there's a rebound effect when coming down from the drug, and weaning off can be very difficult. I never take it for sleep unless it's really early morning. I normally took Zolpidem if I couldn't get back to sleep. I recently switched to Quviviq for sleep, but it's too early to say if it's going to work for me on its own. So far, not so much.

Cymbalta might be worth trying, but I wonder why you were prescribed that SNRI instead of an SSRI antidepressant unless you were having some sort of pain issue.

 

I also struggled with sleep around the four-month mark. I didn't want to take anything since there's a report out there of nearly everything making tinnitus worse. But out of desperation, I started taking a very low dose (~3.5-5 mg) of Mirtazapine each night. It knocked me out, and getting more sleep seemed to both make tinnitus more manageable and maybe even improve it a bit. And while you may become habituated to it, I don't think it's as addictive as Lorazepam.

Hang in there. I'm about four months ahead of you, and it does get easier.

 

Thank you. I want to believe there’s hope. I’m genuinely terrified of side effects - so much fear.

Thank you for the reply. How is Quivivq going for you? Is it helping? Are there any side effects?

I’ve had a horrible reaction to just one pill of Citalopram SSRI in the past, so I'm desperately trying to find something not resembling that for anxiety/sleep. Hence the Cymbalta or Mirtazapine. But I’m so scared even to try them. I’ve tried to go the natural/herbal route, but I’m in constant debilitating anxiety. That makes making decisions so much harder.

Do you have any other herbal suggestions?

I’ve got L-Theanine, Melatonin, Passionflower, Magnesium, etc.

 

Quviviq isn't going well for me. I've been on the max dose for ten nights now. I had some decent nights of broken sleep on it, where I might have gotten 6 hours of sleep. The last two nights, I only slept about 2 hours before waking up and having trouble sleeping again. I started feeling anxious, and I took Zolpidem after a while to get some more sleep. I have had some very mild headache pain that I think began since going to the 50 mg dose of Quviviq. Some people have nausea, sleep paralysis, grogginess, or mood changes. I'm getting a refill and will try to stick with it a while longer because some people reported it worked better for them after a few weeks, so I want to give it a chance. It's not looking promising to this point.

I tried quite a few different supplements, and I never had a good look at any of them. I still take small ~1.25 mg doses of Melatonin some nights, which I'm not convinced does anything for me. I've taken L-Theanine, Magnesium glycinate and bisglycinate, Valerian Root, and others, but I didn't seem to get any benefit.

I had a bad experience with a couple of SSRIs also - it gave me stomach pain. Plus, after eight weeks, I still didn't feel a change in anxiety, so I weaned off quickly, only to still have stomach pains. Low-dose Mirtazapine can be good for sleep, but weight gain is a commonly reported issue, and I've read some horror stories from some users on Tinnitus Talk. Cymbalta is one I would consider for anxiety.