Benzos and Tinnitus: Help or Hindrance?

Hi @Lisa88: That new sound may or may not be caused by your taper. It may be caused by your anxiety re. starting the taper. Hang in there, mask as much as you need to right now and see how it goes. The new pitch may go away in a couple days.

 

Thanks so much @LadyDi
You always have the most wonderful and comforting words.
Going to try to think positive. xo

 

Lisa---I have to tell you I heard some different sounds when I started tapering down off my dose ...I'm still tapering. But I have to say my sounds have varied so I wouldn't worry about it. I actually had a very light day T wise today even while the Lorazapam was WAY out of my system. Thought it would be a bad day cause I played a 4 hour wedding gig yesterday and had to do some teaching today but it was gentle, almost a hiss. It probably won't last but I will enjoy it for the time being. Are you a musician too?

 

Thanks, @SoulStation
Yes, I am a jazz musician.
Hoping this t will fade and pass.
Got to keep the hope alive.

 

Me Too...! That's awesome ...

 

I been in Clonazepam for 2 weeks.t They help me with the sound for at least 24 hours. i what to taper off bc i need to get used to the loud t and like all of you i what a drug free life but I'm scared that i made it worse by taking this med.
thank you all
God bless

 

T for 9 months now. 4 months in started using .5mg lorazepam daily which cut my sounds in half and helped me sleep. Mistakenly, I stayed on it. Now 5 months later I am trying to taper. Tried liquid taper, and sounds got louder. Tried valium crossover taper, and new sounds appeared.
It is believed that most t fades substantially during the first 12-18 months.
If i stay on the benzo, I risk missing that "natural" fade before plasticity sets in.
If I come off the benzo, I risk my sounds getting louder and adding new sounds.
Feel like I am between a rock and a hard place. What should I do?

 

Lisa I don't want to sound too negative or discouraging but there is no such a thing as "natural" fade of t.

For some maybe, but it's not a general or normal trend at all therefore you should stop confusing yourself.

Take care!

 

Eighty percent of sudden onset t substantially fades within the first 12 to 18 months, a leading doctor and t researcher told me. Plus it is in a lot of literature if you search. Friends who started onset around my time have had their t fade. Volume reduction, not habituation, which can take a while.

 

Thanks @Markku
I do need to come off.
Just need to take the risk.

 

Wish I could talk to more people with my situation and timing of Benzos. I know our reactions are all different. But would be good to know if they completed the taper towards the end of the first year, that any worsened t did eventually go down again.

 

@Lisa88 there is the Ashton manual for valium tapering. I see you've already tried that.

http://www.benzo.org.uk/manual/bzsched.htm

Don't really know if it works, but it is a well known and somewhat respected method.
I wonder why you are trying so hard to taper.
Drug-free life is OK and all, but getting more anxious about a taper on top of your existing anxiety is a bit unecessary.
Try to deal with one problem, take your time, then deal with the next problem.

 

Thanks. Yes, have read through that manual.
I am 9 months in, and want to give my t a chance to fade naturally within the first year or so, as it is reported to do for eighty percent of sudden onset t cases. Feel like I am missing the boat, especially as a taper is slow, and the side effects is ... you guessed it ... t. Grrr.

 

I cant speak for everyone but my rapid taper from Xanax was, without doubt, the cause of my T. Im pretty sure it has to do with too little GABA and too much gultamate. The vestibular system gets overrun by gultamate during the lengthy withdrawal process. This acts like a "trip trap" and starts the T process in motion for some. Taper SLOWLY. This will reduce the possibilty of protracted withdrawal which can include protracted T.

 

Thanks @My T Sucks
Now instead of just researching natural ways to raise gaba, going to also research natural ways to decrease glutamate

 

Does anyone knows anything about clonazepam?

 

Clonazepam is a good medication to help you get your anxiety under control in the short term. I would suggest seeing if you can get a good anti-anxiety/anti-depressant to start with (I take lexapro) and supplement that with clonazepam for a couple weeks. Then, once the lexapro kicks in for example, stop taking the clonazepam. I would stay away from the clonazepam for anything longer than a month or 6 weeks or so. I'm not a doctor though. It just builds dependence easily and getting off of it can be difficult then.

 

I'm kind of in the same boat you're in, only I've been on .5 clonazepam now for over a year at the insistence of my pyschiatrist (I got a new one). Now I'm upping my lexapro dosage and I'm going to try cutting the clonazepam slooooowly again.

 

Hi! I'm new here. I woke up with ringing on my right ear one Sunday morning, June 8 of this year to be exact. I tried my best to cope but it was always on my mind, always searching for it, if it's still there or not. I thought I was coping quite well because I can still sleep although it was always on my mind. Then on the night of July 21, after taking a shower and blow drying my hair. As I put my head on the pillow, I heard a high pitch ringing on my left ear too. It really scared me, thinking that now both my ears are ringing, because of the loud blow dryer and it really freaked me out. Since then, I haven't been able to sleep. It's as if something switched on and now I have insomnia and anxiety. I went to the doctor, I was prescribed to take .5mg of Ativan in the morning and .5mg-1mg at night to help me sleep. Started taking it only at night on July 25. To count the days, I've been on it for 17 days because there were days when I tried my best to sleep even without it. After the blowdrying incident, I checked my left ear and I didn't hear any ringing, I guess I was just paranoid that night. But now, after 17 days on ativan, I hear ringing on my left ear too! Now, I don't want to take ativan anymore. Can I just abruptly stop taking ativan? Anyone taking supplements to help you sleep? I'm starting to feel anxious now just thinking how will I be able to sleep tonight. Melatonin doesn't work for me, valerian doesn't work either. I will really appreciate if anyone of you will reply. Thanks in advance.

 

I wouldn't attribute that to the ativan. It isn't uncommon for tinnitus to "centralize" after a few days or weeks. Mine was like that years ago, before I ever even used an anti-anxiety drug. A few days of loud ringing in the left, and then a "centralization" of the sound into my head (or both ears if you will, it really depends on your perception).

 

Why is that, that T starts in one ear and then manifests in the head?
Seems for many people going that way.
Is it the anxiety, the hypermonitoring or is it a normal process in the auditory contex/brain?

 

Well, that's a matter of some debate. If you follow the bayesian model of the brain, what's basically happening is your brain is plastically reorganizing the auditory system to account for the new "status quo" of your ears. If one is damaged, the brain reorganizes it's auditory processing to reflect the new lack of input from one ear. The brain sincerely likes to maintain a state of balance between the sensory organs, so it then "thinks" tinnitus is originating from both ears. That is a gross oversimplification and summary of what is really happening, but in my opinion that's is what is going on.

 

I really don't know but it seems that, that's what happened to me

 

@Hudson , I may start a new thread on this, but is there a timeline for this plasticity to take place, and has it been proved? Maybe a general plasticity timeline has been proved, and that is enough for timeline of t?
Reason I ask leads me to my next question: Why do they give a 1 year mark for t to fade? Not necessarily fade away, but for the volume to substantially reduce. So many doctors have said that eighty percent of sudden onset t cases substantially fade within the first year. Are there published medical statistics on this? Or plastic imaging of any kind in the brain available to prove this? Why not 6 months? Why not 18 months. i.e. when is it too late, on average, for this to happen?

 

As @Hudson pointed out, if one ear is damaged, the brain tries to generate an equilibrium between the inputs of both ears.
Remember, ears are not there just for hearing. Hearing (the auditory system to be exact) is extremely essential in affecting vestibular function, which in turn affects vision, balance, digestion and a bunch of other stuff. Therefore, you NEED that brain plasticity to happen, you need the equilibrium. The habituation is optional.
There is no time frame for that to take place. It just happens over time and everyone's mileage may vary.
The brain is a complex and complicated yet primitive organ. It takes its time but it will try to get the job done, even if that causes discomfort to the person that happens to move it around

 

Was just reading a book excerpt on tinnitus and plasticity.
They are still looking into different brain responses and time frames for different causes of tinnitus, i.e. stress vs acoustic trauma vs gradual hearing loss. Not quite sure still while that year marker is put on by most doctors re tinnitus fading or not.

 

@Hudson @jazz @Steve @Markku or any of the research gurus on this site re above timeframe?

 

@Lisa88 Well, I'm no research guru, but will try my best to answer.

Most researchers cite one year as the dividing line between acute and chronic tinnitus. I've never read that different tinnitus etiologies might effect brain plasticity and subsequent chronicity. And, so, your finding is very interesting! What book/article are you reading? Some types of tinnitus--e.g., resulting from middle ear pathologies like ETD--will be attenuated or even cured upon surgery.

Oh, sorry. I just reread your post and saw I didn't answer it correctly. I see you're also talking about age-related tinnitus or presbycusis compared with other tinnitus etiologies. Unfortunately, I've never read about brain plasticity and this type of tinnitus. But I presume there's a point where the hair loss (and perhaps a stress trigger) becomes too great for the auditory cortex to ignore and thus it starts the "filling in" mechanism, which some researchers believe causes the tinnitus sounds.

From my reading, chronic tinnitus becomes less amenable to treatment--in part--because more brain areas become involved over time. The maladaptive plasticity that starts in the brain stem (DCN), inferior colliculus, and auditory cortex recruits other areas and more connections are formed among brain areas. Brain imaging studies, such fMRI, look at this inter connectivity.

Because of increasing connectivity, neuromodulation techniques--especially rTMS--become less effective the longer a person has tinnitus. I need to find my research on this, but I believe this technique begins to loose efficacy after one year and is not efficacious after four years. But researchers are currently developing new protocols--utilizing more brain areas--as a method to counteract the maladaptive plasticity that tinnitus creates in our brain, which increases over time.

That said, habituation may occur at any time with chronic tinnitus--even after many years. The noise may go away completely--unless you seek it--or it may no longer become an issue. This is because tinnitus awareness and tinnitus disturbance occupy different--though somewhat overlapping--brain networks. This is what Dr. Hubbard, among others, talk about when they discuss habituation. Your brain still has the tinnitus--but it no longer affects you.

That said, I've been impressed with Retigabine's ability to attenuate chronic tinnitus. That thread has caused me to revise my formerly less-than-optimistic belief that chronic tinnitus cannot be cured. Perhaps, it can be cured by potassium channel modulators like Retigabine and Autifony's new drug. Of course, "cured" may really be "maintenance." But that's fine too. Taking a pill or two a day--with acceptable side effects--is a small sacrifice to be noise free.

 

Hi @jazz
Thanks for that!
The link I was reading was co authored by Dr. Steven Cheung of UCSF on the chapter Cortical Plasticity and Tinnitus. Not sure if this will link in google books. Will have a go at the bottom of this post. Or maybe google if that doesn't work.
Bits missing, but sounds like they are still determining plasticity for different causes of tinnitus as they may vary. i.e. hearing loss vs. injury or stress etc.
Yes, understand that habituation can vary and take quite a while in some cases.
I guess the part I am most interested in is the t "substantially fading in the first year" which seems more like volume fading than habituation. Habituation as I understand it is volume still the same if you look for it. Wish I could find statistics of this year marker or imaging results that indicate that after this first year anniversary, the average t sufferer has little chance of it actually fading, but still high chance of habituation.
Thanks for your input. All very very helpful.
http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=...ge&q=how long plasticity and tinnitus&f=false