Can Tinnitus Be Caused by the Death of a Loved One?

I think my tinnitus started after the extreme stress of talking care of mom after she was diagnosed with Cancer. I had several dizzy spells and lots of headaches . Now I am dealing with extremely load buzzing sounds that never give me any peace during the day and keep me up most nights. I am taking melatonin and Nytol sleeping pills to help me try to get sleep. Feel like I am in my own prison and life feels worthless without any quite moments. I do not want Anxiety meds as I don't want to be hooked on them. My life has fallen apart 6months ago when I got Tinnitus. Its impossible to concentrate with this noise. If anyone can suggest any thing it would be appreciated. I am new to forums and not really a sure how it works but I really need some support. Thank you, Teresa

 

Sorry to hear about your mum!
I'm sure that increased stress can cause tinnitus, but that's not to say that yours may not get better as your stress goes down.
Grieving takes time and having tinnitus makes everything worse.
Sorry I can't help much more, it's not an easy situation for you.
Regards!

 

Thank you for reply. I have come to terms with moms death but the tinnitus has become unbearable. I'm not sure I can take this noise much More.

 

Hi @Teresa1958
I feel the same way, no more quiet moments. I know what you mean about concentrating. My T seems so loud at times. How loud can it go? I've heard other people say they have it too and I always think, they don't have it like me.
I can relate to your comments.

Please consider to consult with doctor about the anxiety medication. I take a low dose of anti-dep pills. Not sure if that's the same thing. Anyway, the loss of family members, I have experienced that too. My ENT doctor tells me it’s about stress, if so how come when I wake up in the morning, the T is right with me. I'd think I'd be rested from sleeping, low stress, or at least I try to sleep. I wish I slept better. Our lives are not worthless, we'll just get back on track, sleep well, and enjoy things again.

 

Sorry about your mom...that must of been very stressful and difficult.

Yes, I believe stress can cause the body dis-ease and cause a lot of different kinds of symptoms. I would also suggest an antidepressant. Zoloft seems to be good also Remeron.

My cousin died a year and half ago. I had a mental breakdown over it for certain reasons. A month later I had worsened TMJ, TN, T and H.

However around same time I also hit a pothole while on my motorcycle and hurt my head and neck.

I will never know what caused everything to happen a month later, Neuro says pothole and post concussive syndrome..GP says depression from chronic pain and death.of cousin..

Regardless I have lived a very stressful life and know it can wreak havoc on our bodies..so take care and I bet you will see an improvement in your symptoms.

p.s you aren't the first to ask this question.

 

Hi Street Spirit. The extremely load tinnitus started exactly 1 month after loosing mom. I was driving and had this extremely dizzy spell which I thought was a panic attack. After that incident I had several more attacks of dizziness and weakness. That's when this horrible noise starred that is preventing me from enjoying my life now in peace. Hardly any sleep at night and very anxious and tired during the day. Its hard to get out because the noise makes me get some fairly bad headache's. Went to ENT and he said to get a hearing aid and also said "sweatheaart you are depressed." that is the problem. How can a person not feel down with this type of suffering? Waiting for MRI in December to rule out a tumor. I went from as happy person with a good life to someone that doesn't have any energy for family, shopping, cleaning, and work because of this dreadfull noise and this unsteadiness when I walk. Life is so unfair. I have looked after mom throughout her illness and was hoping that I will have some peace now and can get on with life. I can't see myself living with this unbeatable noise if there is no hope . Thanks for listening.

 

Teresa, yes life is unfair.
I cared for others for a long time and finally broke down. Totally exhausted.
Result was vertigo, dizziness, migraines, other symptoms and loud T - on top of my exhaustion.
My wife has now breast cancer and we have two kids (7 and 12).
I have to go on and will go on. Every day is a challenge, but I hope for better times (habituation or a cure).
Please do not give up. Write here and complain. Many have gone through this and we will also do.
Retigabine seems lowering the noise and Autifony is in trial phase 2.
Even if they maybe not cure, lowering the volume would be a huge step and we can habituate.
For the moment, try to get some meds calming you down.
If you have high-pitched T, try listening to crickets. Start sound therapy by listening to nature sounds, audio books, classical music and so on.
We are here to help each other.
Hugs, Martin.

BTW, I also made an MRI. Be sure you have no brain tumor.

 

Sorry about your loss and the suffering with T, Teresa. Yes, I know of one person in my social circle who lost her mother and later got T. It took her by surprise too and she went through some struggle with her T but she is ok now.

Don't worry too much as you see there are many of us here who understand your suffering and your condition. Many do get well and write their success stories. Please visit the Success Stories Forum to read up as many as you can to learn some insights how to cope/live with T and perhaps find hope and comfort that you will be well like them. There are various treatments and strategies which can be helpful too. In the mean time, you should use some medications to cut off the sharp edges of the anxiety and depression coming from T sufferings. Consult with your doctor about them.

Also, if you find it hard to bear the T ringing, do consider using masking to get some relief. You can post a thread to ask members to give you their advice about masking idea. There are plenty of resources now. If you have a smart phone, you should get some APPs on sound generator to create masking sounds. My T is high pitch, so I use nature sounds of rain, wave, waterfall, running water, even shower and faucet sounds. You can even buy some of these nature sound tracks from Amazon. That is what I did and I download these masking sounds to my ipod using itune software. The ipod gives me mobile masking. At work, I told everyone that I have ultra high pitch ringing ears so I need masking with the ear buds. They understand. If they don't, just play a youtube clip of tinnitus to them. LOL. For my work PC, I download a free sound generator software called 'Aire Freshener' from here:
http://www.peterhirschberg.com/mysoftware.html

Masking is a drug free solution to reduce stress from hearing the T sounds continuously. It can be used initially when you are so stressed out and depressed. Once your condition stabilize, you may want to consider the advice of Dr. Hubbard (in the Doctor's Corner) about using CBT techniques to moderate your reaction to the loud T. He himself suffered loud T too and when he got better he wrote his success story here:
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/how-cbt-helped-me-live-again-dr-hubbards-story.4608/

Dr. Nagler is another doctor in the Doctor's Corner to answer your questions. He also had suffered much with T before and so he has lots of insights to help you. You may want to read up Dr. Nagler's 'Letter to a Tinnitus Sufferer' and see if it can help you.
http://www.ata.org/nagler-letter-to-tinnitus-sufferer

Take care Teresa and God bless your recovery.

 

Can Tinnitus Be Caused by the Death of a Loved One?
Yes, it can.
Your tinnitus is only 6 months old, you should try Trobalt (Retigabine), as many TT members are doing with very good results (~90% chance of improvement).

 

Teresa,
Yes, be sure to post here to get the support you need. Your story is somewhat similar to mine. I lost my mother as well. I get the dizziness, lack of balance, lack of energy, and brain fog. I also have been diagnosed with Meneires Disease because of additional symptoms.

Depression certainly can creep up on a person. I went in for some CBT and it helped me develop some strategies to deal with everything. My therapist told me that often the death of a loved one (such as our mothers) does not hit a person until a year or two afterwards. That was the case for me.

Your T will get much better as well.

Hang in there!

 

Hi Teresa, dizziness, unsteadiness while you walk, headaches and loud T..make sure you gets lots of tests done..You could have a vestibular issue going on...maybe beginning of meniere's, even TMJD..do you have any jaw pain when eating? do you clench or grind your teeth?...point is, don't let ENT just assume it's all "depression" ok?

Hang in there! *hugs*