ETD/Labyrinthitis/Wellbutrin Success Story

Hello all,

This will be my only post on this forum but I wanted to give you a success story.

A little over a month ago I started taking Wellbutrin 150MG. About 5 days in I had very bad tinnitus, probably 7/10, lost tons of sleep and had trouble focusing. Of course, based on internet searches, I was certain this was permanent. I stopped taking the drug, after my doctor approving I could quit cold turkey since I had only been on for 5 days, and 80% of the tinnitus went away after 2 days.

A week after stopping the Wellbutrin, I noticed I had positional vertigo and that the tinnitus was coming back slightly. The doctor (correctly) diagnosed me with Eustachian tube dysfunction because of presence of fluid behind middle ear and prescribed me Flonase. I started using Flonase by angling it towards my eustachian tubes. The tinnitus and dizziness would come and go, but overall I had success. About 5 days after that I got sick with a head cold which made everything worse again. Days after most of my head cold symptoms subsided, I started to have a different type of dizziness (non vertigo) and tinnitus that wouldn't go away. Different doctor then (correctly) diagnosed me with labyrinthitis caused by the head cold. It's now 2 weeks later and my tinnitus is 95% gone (occasionally comes back for an hour as a 1 or 2/10 intensity) and dizziness is 90% gone and I'm improving every day.

Here are things to know/things that helped me.

1. Have faith and prayer. Recognize that you can't overcome your problems alone. Tony Evans has great sermons on this on YouTube you can look up.
2. Recognize that many tinnitus cases are temporary and that permanent tinnitus is usually caused by severe rare illnesses, major damage from incredibly loud noises (gun fire next to ear or long term exposure), or by a select case of drugs.

If you read these forums or others, you would think that every drug listed by the ATA (which is nearly every dug in existence) will give you permanent tinnitus. This is nonsense. Think about how many people take Motrin every day. If Motrin caused as much permanent tinnitus as the ATA suggests, then you would hear much more about it. What is actually happening is that A) their tinnitus already existed and they are just noticing a temporary increase in it, B) their tinnitus is most likely caused by an ear infection or other existing condition, C) the drug did create tinnitus but it is temporary and not permanent.

My mother has permanent tinnitus, but she was incorrectly prescribed too many antiobiotics by several different doctors over a period of 6 months for various ailments and this led to a CDiff infection which nearly killed her. I know stories of people taking extremely ototoxic antibiotics and having full recovery from tinnitus after being on it for months. Yes, people can get permanent tinnitus from one pill of just about any drug. Is it common? No. Is it uncommon? No. Is it rare? No. Is it so extremely rare that the chances of it happening to you is something to not worry about? Yes.

Google "Motrin blindness" or 'Tylenol heart attack". These drugs have caused those ailments in people. Every drug has severe side effects, but if you think you're the small handful of people who have that ailment from the drug, especially if you took it for less than a week, you probably are not.

That being said, do look at the ATA ototoxicity list and be careful taking antiobiotics. But don't freak out because some innocuous drug is listed on there; nearly every drug is.

3. Be educated and stop reading horror stories. Be educated to know things that help. Read success stories for this. Don't read horror stories because the chances of you having permanent long term tinnitus is incredibly low. Think about how many people taking Wellbutrin. I spent days researching the internet and found maybe 200-300 posts about tinnitus from Wellbutrin. The FDA only has a few hundred reports of it. That's an incredibly low percentage and many of those people had full recovery from their tinnitus. If you truly have permanent tinnitus, you will know in a few months and guess what? My mother has constant lawnmowers in her ear and she lives a fruitful and productive life. She reads, watches TV, listens to music. Your body is incredible at habituating to different things that happen to it.

I am not trying to make light of anyone with permanent tinnitus. I have just seen so many posts from people who have acute tinnitus and assume it is chronic. If you are on antibiotics or have had exposure to loud noise, yes, your tinnitus might be chronic. If you have not, then stop worrying. Worrying isn't going to fix your tinnitus. Get educated on what might be causing it so you can help your doctors correctly identify the issue and fix it (if possible). If not, know that tons of Americans live with some form of tinnitus and live their lives largely unaffected by it day by day. I didn't even know my mother had it until years after her antibiotics caused it, because she's learned not to focus on it or complain about it.

God bless, thanks to the users who have posted great success stories and tips.

 

I was three days in and I complained to the doc, and she said to keep taking it for a month. I went 4 weeks on 150mg and now I'm 4.5 months in with significant improvements, but I would say it has slowed down considerably since the 90 day mark. ATA's list is not that great because they have a very liberal definition of ototoxic. With that said, I still refer to that list and then to anecdotal experiences before I try any other medications. Granted, fear is the main driver after I lost complete faith in psychiatrists (I have PSSD as well), but ultimately, you're right, there are a lot of horror stories and each person will be different. I hope I'm not in the "lucky" few that have gotten permanent tinnitus from Wellbutrin, and if I am, I will have to learn to cope with it. Again though, you're absolutely correct in that most people won't face any sort of "permanent damage" from medications.

Great post and thank you for sharing a positive story. It is posts like yours that kept me sane enough to survive through these last several months.

 

I was on prednisone on and off for months, my ears were so full about two weeks ago (not sure why), but since then my hearing has been completely butchered I had an audiogram which came back normal... but when I listen to music it’s terrible. I certainly hope this is something that can be reversed. Never took antibiotics either. Sigh. I’m really glad you’re okay now ♥️

 

That’s great that your tinnitus has faded and that you were smart enough to realize what the problem was and to get off the meds immediately - you probably saved yourself a lot of damage and maybe even narrowly averted permanent tinnitus.

But I gotta say - from my experience your way off on most of what you said.

You seem to think you have all the answers and are an expert after 2 weeks of mild tinnitus and a few days of research- summing everything up in a few paragraphs like that’s all there is to it.

“It’s either A, B, or C”.
Really??? That simple eh?

I thought the brain was complex beyond comprehension- but it seems you got it all figured out.

Thank god someone does.

And now that you have already had tinnitus once from Ototoxicity-
start taking Motrin and let me know how that works out for you.

Anyway- I am glad your feeling better and I do realize your intentions are nothing but good.
Now get the hell out of here- and i don’t wanna see you back here again.
Good luck and best wishes.

 

You've probably left this forum for good but I found this very encouraging, as I had a recent tinnitus spike after accidentally overdosing on my Wellbutrin. I have been taking 150mg for many years but I wanted to taper so I cut my pill in half. This, I think, bypassed the extended release and dumped it into my system all at once. I'm talking to my doctor on Thursday about getting a new prescription and tapering for real, under medical supervision.

Maybe there is still hope!

 

Mila9828, did your hyperacusis ever improve? I also developed mine a few days after ear irrigation.