Hard to Find Hope

Have had tinnitus for 6 months now. The doctors' original diagnoses of eustachian tube dysfunction - I don't think it's that. My allergies & tube issues settled down, but the tinnitus has remained.

I suspect it has something to do with the awful Cymbalta withdrawal I've been in. It has put so many things in my body out of whack. I get "waves" of withdrawal symptoms, and the tinnitus goes in waves as well. I'll go for a month or longer with no changes really and then suddenly, a new sound, or a sound gets worse or louder or just changes. I've lost count of how many sounds I have now. Various hisses, whines, morse code, low humming, deep bass, high tuning fork type sound, and other tones.

From April to May I was doing pretty well, considering. It seemed like it was calming down. Sounds weren't as loud. I actually thought maybe things were starting to get better. But in the past week, the morse code tones are suddenly there again, and the low hum is an even deeper tone, almost a grumble, and it's louder.

I have a lot of muscle issues from Cymbalta withdrawal (muscle spasms that come in waves...) and I've wondered if my ear muscles are in spasm. I have some symptoms of tensor tympani syndrome I was told in a different section of this forum (but not the symptoms of it that I've read about online).

I see a therapist and he stresses how I need to hang on to hope and I'm finding it hard today. I just don't know if tinnitus like I have it can go away.

He also stresses that anxiety is a choice, and happiness is a choice, and I am struggling with that as well.

 

Hi Hil,

I agree with your therapist, and think you should hang on to hope. While most in medicine aren't often funded for any kind of cure there are plenty of people here that are working on it in their own way, and we're no less educated or capable, in fact I argue we are far more motivated. I'll be damned if I let tinnitus keep me from doing what I want and I have hope.

We've discovered that stress and tinnitus go hand in hand, there's also an anatomical basis for this. The cells covering the neurons that transmit sound are damaged after long period of stress.
Have you considered that the level of anxiety and depressions could be a physical dysfunction in the hormone production which is best examined with a psychiatrist or GP?

I think eating healthy might help you, now I know that sounds stupid but listen. There are some foods you absolutely must avoid if you have tinnitus, especially MSG seems to make it a lot worse for everyone which makes sense since it increases the intercellular concentration of neurotransmitters.
Next there are some cells along the neurons that are supposed to clean up damaged synapses called glial cells, they need a whole lot more than we offer them through our regular diet. Vitamin b-12, D and A (Cod liver oil) supplementation are something you could try.
I'm working on a laser system to replicate the LLLT, if the therapy works in my ears like it has with so many others I'll be building a targeted lightfield laser that can be focused on different areas of the brain. Nobody has ever considered this method before.

There's ever reason to not give up anything. In the meantime reducing stress in novel ways is going to be very helpful, use the tinnitus as an excuse to do new crazy and novel things that make you happy and on the days that's not quite enough we're here for you.

 

T habituation is often marked with setbacks and new T is also known for morphing into different forums, causing symptoms such as change of tones, adding new tones, jumping ears, ear fullness etc. So try your very best to stay positive and to remain calm. Anxiety and stress will only add more unpredictable setbacks as T feeds on anxiety and stress. So try not focus on T as much and as humanly possible as you can. The less you deal with T, the more the brain can learn to ignore T and fade it out.