I Feel SO Tormented, Help Needed Please

If ANYONE can please help or advise

First time posting here, and in a great level of distress. Like the heart in Edgar Allen Poe's "The Tell Take Heart," this ringing in my ears is tormenting me and terrifying. No joke!

My left ear has been clogged and hyperacustic 24/7 for about 3 years, with a low, manageable level of ringing tinnitus that I found was easy to ignore. Back then, an audiology exam came back fine.

2 months ago I started having "panicky" symptoms...several trips to the ER...they told me I had panic attacks (although I beg to differ and am still searching for a medical cause- I distinctly feel NEW pain in my left ear, and I can hear my heartbeat in my left ear). They gave me Ativan. Seeing a psychiatrist also, just in case it actually is panic.

I've been using ativan almost daily for about 3 weeks...never more than 2mg a day, sometimes 1mg sometimes .5mg... but sometimes none at all. Most days, yes I do use it.

NOW....about a week ago, around 4 am I woke up, feeling fine, and I distinctly noticed a ringing in my RIGHT ear. It didn't wake me up, because I actually felt it begin after I had already woken up. THIS ringing is really bothering me. Almost changing my life. I also feel some pain come and go as well deep in my ear.

I told a neurologist everything that was going on....he signed me up for MRI, EEG, and some lab tests (b12, copper, diabetes stuff, etc). I have an audiology exam this Friday, so they'll compare results to the one I had three years ago.

With my psychiatrist, he suggested I go on Zoloft (an SSRI)...which I've learned can cause tinnitus in and of itself. So now I'm afraid of even trying antidepressants out of fear my tinnitus will get worse than already is.

-What's a tinnitus sufferer to do when someone is suggesting an SSRI?
-I don't know specifically what the MRI will be for but I'm assuming my brain...do I need to let the neurologist know "hey I need you to pay close attention to my ears in this MRI"?
- I CANT SLEEP any suggestions? All I hear is my right ear ringing and occasionally (now) I'll notice the left. I've been popping a benadryl here and there, and if I MUST, I'll take ativan. Sleep used to be something normal for me, now, it's the hardest thing ever.
-any other suggestions?

This whole mess is really, truly affecting my quality of life. Thank you for reading.

 

Dear DanMan1982, Not many of us here in this forum are doctors, but I think MariaH that posted right above me gave you some good advice about the Zoloft and other stuff. Maybe hold off on it (Zoloft) just for the time being. I use that phrase tormenting also because the T stinks pretty bad most of the time. When you can't sleep it just makes the T which is already bad enough, worse. Try to hang in there my friend and get the MRI and other lab tests and see what the results are. In the meantime, this is easier said than done, but try to stay as busy and occupied as you can. God Bless...... Rich

 

Your T is very new. It is understandable that you are panicky about it and most likely you are functioning in the fight or flight mode of the limbic nerve system. In this mode, you are easily sensitized to every strange or seemingly threatening sensation and things look much worse than they are. Don't worry. Better days will come. Try your best to stay more positive and relax. As Mariah says, try to surrender to the sound, to face it instead of running from it. It will take time to do this. This is a mindfulness approach that Dr. Hubbard talks about using it for himself during his initial struggle with T, He and many others including myself have posted success stories. T is not an end game. It takes time and patience plus some strategies to get better. Here are some links and success stories which may help you. Try to read as many success stories as you can to give you some hope that you will be there too given time. Take care & God bless.

Tinnitus Talk advice for newer sufferers with tips and masking sounds plus the link to a Sleep thread: (do try masking for sleep first before using meds)

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/panic/

Dr Hubbard's success story how he uses mindfulness & exposure technique:
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/how-cbt-helped-me-live-again-dr-hubbards-story.4608/

The most read success story 'Back to Silence' and a simple effective technique by IWLM:
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/back-to-silence.7172/page-11#post-106266

My success story if you have the time to read it:
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/thread...w-i-recovered-from-tinnitus-hyperacusis.3148/

 

my advice is to go through your fear and anxiety cold turkey ... they can not stay forever and will come in waves ... you have to find your inner strength first ... change diet, go out, do stuff ... the more you stay isolated and worry the louder the T will be experienced ... don`t jumpt to SSRi ... please ... hang in there, you`ll be fine!

 

Hi Dan, so sorry to hear you're suffering from these new tinnitus sounds.

Were the panic attacks due to the new pain and heartbeat sound in your left ear? Is there anything else in your life which might be causing the attacks and the increased tinnitus?

I can only speak from experience, but my advice would be NOT to take the antidepressants. You are at an early stage of this new level of tinnitus. I know its excruciating, scary and exhausting, but please try to hang in there a little longer. See how it goes. I know it feels like this has been going on forever, but in the grand scheme of things, it hasn't... and there is still a very good chance that things will improve on their own. If you decide to take antidepressants, you will be entering a whole other world. Some say it has helped them get through dark times, but for me, it has only made my tinnitus much, much worse.

When I stopped taking the meds (I had no other choice) and after months of walking several hours a day, eating the healthiest food I could find, cleaning up all the mess in my house, my life and my head, things started to improve. About 4 months after popping my last pill, the tinnitus started to reduce. Slowly, VERY slowly, but surely. Today, more than 1.5 years later, I have 2-3 sounds in my left ear and one faint sound in my right. It used to be 4 (very loud!) sounds in my left and 2 in my right. It was like an orchestra of injured crickets.

Hang in there Dan!! You're stronger than you think. When in bed, try to ''give in''... try to surrender to the noise... if we can sleep on a noisy plan or in a car, we can sleep with tinnitus, especially if you have faith that it'll get better. t's usually the stress and worry that keeps us awake. I realise that this might sound impossible, but it took me over a year to realise that it isn't. I still have difficult days, but when it gets too much, I take my dog out for a walk, have a looong shower, make myself a good meal and watch a comedy. I'm not saying this always works, but it definitely doesn't make me feel worse... plus it gets rid of at least 3 hours of a difficult day.

Give your body time. And get/stay healthy! No matter how difficult: try to get out there and walk, work out, eat well, get as much rest as possible, watch endless episodes of your favourite show with a blanket and tea on the sofa, do all the things you love... and try to be a little selfish. Because the chances are that you've had too much on your plate these past few months/years.

Take care,
Maria

 

Posters are giving you great advice. My anxiety was high and I lost a lot of sleep with the onset of T. I also had some mild depression. Please know IT TRULY DOES get better. I had some very loud T with the onset that I would definitively state was severe. It was very difficult for me to concentrate, sleep or have any sense of a quality day. @billie48 comment about mindfulness is a good suggestion. It worked well for me in terms of changing how I reacted to T. I have since lowered my stress, got off Xanax and no longer have headaches or blue days of depression. Please hang in there, weather the storm and you will be feeling much better soon!

 

Thanks for everyone's replies and tips. This is such a distressing time in my life and I appreciate any help I can get. I will keep you all updated, as I have various appointments in just the next two weeks (MRI, hearing test, etc.)

Every day has been, quite literally and not being over-dramatic, a struggle. Must go on.

 

Mine started 7 weeks ago and I'm going cold turkey in all... I have Xanax but I have not taking them cause I am afraid it will make habituation harder and it might take longer.. At least how I see it... The T has lowered I think or maybe is my reaction that make it seem that way.. I don't know... But good days will come... In still struggling but in learning to cope and you will too... Hang in there ...

 

I started Zoloft in February 2014, 4 weeks later I developed a noise in my left ear (used to be my heathy ear until then), and even though I stopped meds soon after the noise never stopped.
I'm not saying that every person will experience the same but I'm just sharing what happened to me.

 

Thanks Rina and valeri. And thx for letting me know about your experience with zoloft.

I bought a Marpac (sp?) white noise machine, and I have jon kabat zinns book on mindfulness that I plan to put to practice.

I was in church today... (I'm catholic, so our churches tend to be very quiet and solemn). And of course, all I could hear was THE NOISE.

 

So mri and EEG came back fine, and wow...today tinnitus got worse. How can this be. As distressing as it already was, it's even more distressing

And I can't sleep because of it. My dad is bringing me a Marpac white noise machine, hope it helps.

This is absolutely....horrendous.

 

@DanMan1982 you said you have H for three years, was it bad or mild. I have bad h and it affects my T.. But thats my case yours can be different. Your T is very new so itll take time to adjust in your head. The thing you have to concetrate is accepting that its there and thats how its going to be from now on i know its Easier said than done.. But also anxiety can make it feel a little worse and try not to focus on it too much because it can seem a little louder when you do. Just give it time man im sure youncan pull through

 

Hey Geo,

I don't know what to base my H off of, since my experience is all I know. Higher frequency sounds is what usually hurt it.

Thanks for the support. Yes this is new...but so is my ability to cope with it, which I'm finding tough right now :/

 

Went to the audiologist this morning...

No hearing loss when compared to an exam from several years back.

 

Hi @DanMan1982: How high did your hearing test go? Most go only to about 8000 hz. But tinnitus often is caused by hearing loss above that level. So a standard hearing test doesn't help much when it comes to T.

Not that a more sophisticated hearing test helps much either, since there isnt anything they can do in most cases for tinnitus from high frequency loss.

 

Hey Lady Di,

They did something extra for me in that they added in a "ultra high frequency" test as they called it. I asked when I would hear ultra high frequency in real life, they said hardly ever: some insects make that noise, some electronic-type music, etc. She said most people start losing ultra high frequency in their 30s, but it's never an issue and no one really notices.

For me though, I did well on that specific part of the test.