Is Clonazepam Making My Hyperacusis and Tinnitus Worse?

Agreed. My doc was super helpful in that regard. Sleep aids etc..and she did search for another ENT but he was just as ignorant..spoke loudly, slammed cupboard doors and garbage can lid. So 5 mths later I see a second audiologist who knows the ENT who was slamming things as he used to work in that hospital with them. she said he was probably testing me to.see if I would react to his noise making!! like wth kind of games are these docs playing lol..she said that wasn't usual for hia bedside manor to be cold..anyways I failed his test if so, because I am very polite and didn't say anything. ...however I was too scared to do an audiogram and he wasn't happy about thay...So anyways I then file for disability and on his chart he wrote "psychogenic?" regarding my hyperacusis...

My GP makes sure that every referral to a specialist includes my anxiety disorder...even my Neurologist brought it up within 2 mins of appointment...I.know anxiety plays a role in my illnesses. .but not a cause. .imo..

 

@DutchGuy The best TRT clinician near you, is Bart Lauwers..He comes highly recommended. .send him an email and see what he can do for you.

http://www.insentis.be

Another place closer to.you is

http://www.intoears.nl/diensten/tinnitus-en-hyperacusis

I know money is an issue but email them.and see and maybe even down the road. I would go to Bart

 

Thank you!

 

These cities where the clinincs are close to eachother in distance.

Intoears is in the south of Netherlands
Insentis is in the north of Belgium

I have friend living in the south, maybe I can crash there.

 

That's helpful! but i would pick Bart, in the south..undoubtedly..

 

@DutchGuy

apparently there are more nearby and excellent as well.

http://www.propersona.nl/upload/De_Riethorst.pdf

 

Bart even has his own site, he also had T and H.
http://oorsuizen.wordpress.com

I think I will order and try the pink noise CD first.
Doing TRT is maybe too much for me now

The pink noise CD comes with guidelines on how to use it.

http://www.hyperacusis.net/hyperacusis/helpful+products/default.asp (I´m also a member there)

I went to my GP.
Next week I´m going to see my ENT!
My GP has 3 patients with hyperacusis in his dossier!
Glad he knows what it is. No meds yet, first the ENT.
Maybe later a some hospital shrink can prescribes meds for my anxiety.

GP always has been reserved with prescribing meds,
first the ENT has to rule out some things.

 

I will print some things from the links you gave me and give it and discuss about it with my ENT.

BTW I saw the post on the FB group about me.

Again, thank you Lynn!

 

np

I know how you feel so just wanted to help!

 

I looked into Intoears (NL) and its TRT. Physiotherapy is the only thing (aside of acupuncture) that does help thus far.
TRT is unfortunately out of my payment options (1500 euro).

 

You're Dutch?

 

I heard about a new therapy hearing care stores (audiciens) are giving:
It's called Seiyo therapy

It's for tinnitus as well for hyperacusis.

It's a sound therapy with sound generators
The duration is 12 weeks

costs: 900 euro

I also can't afford TRT, so this might be a good alternative

http://www.tinnitusconsult.nl/site/seiyo-anti-tinnitus-programma

http://www.hoorbegrip.nl/82-actueel/82-uitbreiding-team

I don't which of the 2 is the 900 euro tratment

I'm trying to find out which of the two links above is the 900 euro therapy

I just sent a mail to tinnitusconsult

 

Yes, and getting help for tinnitus in NL is very bad. Only Adelante.nl (Hoensbroek) seems up for the job.
They do CBT but that does not involve any drugs or physical therapy. Besides, Hoensbroek is also unpayable for me.
Intoears recommended noise maskers, but my T reacted to sound until last week. For the money that TRT is asking, I can do a lot of physiotherapy.

There are 3 things important when having T:

1. Correct diagnose. This fails very very badly in NL. I visited Rotterdam Erasmus and they NEVER looked at my jaw or neck. When I said I had improvement from physiotherapy they laughed at me. Only inspected my "perfect" audiogram and send me home. I went 6 times to Belgian Hospitals. Gent was definately the best audiologist, she knew about TMJ / Neck involvement. Antwerp UZA was better suited for noise induced T, which I don't have.

2. Treatment. They all say there is no treament, just roll over and die. Or wait 50 years and its maybe gone, or maybe not. There IS treatment if they know what it is. If its noise, they can do HBT, if it is somatic, physiotherapy and or the use of a bite splint can be used. No single ENT knows about a bite splint that can reduce T.

3. Psychological treatment. Having T is both hell, and sometimes very very painfull. I still can't believe that everyone is so unbelievably bad trained on T, as millions have it. Finding someone who has proper skills in CBT is a pain.

The urls that you have sent me show 2 things. 1 that they are treating the ear instead of the brain. I'm not saying this cannot work, but what I'm saying is that you treat the ear, when somebody is a jaw clencher, jaw clenching will not dissapear. Both companies use Seiyo, which is based around wearing maskers. These maskers CAN make tinnitus worse, or may have your T react to it. Besides, the claims on their site sound to good to be true, in 12 weeks a lot of lowering, or almost dissapearance? Then almost all T sufferers here on the site would have taken a loan and invested in it.

Steps I'm going to do in the next weeks:

-More physical therapy (Fitness / osteopathy / chiropractor / acupunture) and of course my weekly physio.
-Information on Yoga
-Discuss the drugs that were suggested by Dr. De Ridder with my own GP


Please inform me on the progress with Tinnitusconsult.

 

Maybe a dentist can look at at your jaw or jaw surgeon (kaakchirurg).
I'm also a jaw clencher btw (especially when I'm stressed)
since I was a teenager.
Next week I'm going to to see the dentist so I will ask her.
I also have neck problems! Often it feels like a brick, when I move my head up and down it's cracking.

Maybe my T and H might have several causes,
but I think my main cause is noise exposure over years +
one day after bad syringing (unoiled ear) I developed T.

Going to a physio is a good idea btw!
Yoga is a good advice too.

I keep you updated! I already contacted you.

btw I hear noise generators might worsen T. in the beginning, but only temporarily
maybe you should ask this question here on this platform.

 

I have a very good dental surgeon, one of the few that are interested in TMJ problems.
Jaw clenching is a difficult problem to treat, look on bruxism on Google. I have the traditional plastic oclusional bite splint. If jaw problems continue, I'm going back to him to ask for some drugs to try out.
There are other splints, but hard to get hold of them @carlover knows a lot about it.

Do you show a (lot) of dips on the audiogram?

 

@Codaz

Interesting to read that you've gone through most of the steps I've gone through. I live near Amsterdam and although I have tinnitus for seven years now, it got really worse and spread to my other ear about a year ago. I went to several ENTs and Erasmus' "Tinnitus department", what a joke. All said the same thing: "sorry we can't do anything for you, it is not treatable". All denied the fact that tinnitus could be caused by TMD or other somatic disorders. At the Erasmus the ENT literally said the following phrase: "the articles supporting tinnitus caused by TMD are wrong and they do not use large enough control groups". I even said I think I have a trigeminal nerve hyperactivity because a lot of my symptoms (described bellow) indicate that, they just shrugged their shoulder "Yeah, coulde be, I can't help you with that."

@Codaz & Other members

Anywho, enough complaining. Quick summary regarding my case: I obtained tinnitus 7 years ago by minor acute hearing damage. The 6 kHz tonal (pure tone) tinnitus never bothered me. I started weightlifitng & fitness 5 years ago and went from training 2-3x a week to 7-8x a week several months before my tinnitus intesified. I woke up with a sudden screeching noise (ruis) not tonale anymore and I clocked it at 13 kHz. Several days later it spread to the back of my head and my right ear, it still fluctuates badly. Two weeks later I got numerous other symptoms the main ones being:

-Burning sensation at the back of my head (several minutes a day)
-Throbbing sound in my ear (upon sleeping or facial massage)
-Ear pressure (several minutes every hour)
-Facial & jaw pressure (several minutes every hour)
-Globus sensation (several hours every day)
-Warmth/cold sensation in ears (several minutes every day)
-Neck– and upper back pain (several minutes every hour)
-Throat ache (several hours a week)
-Pain & menthol sensation in lungs (several hours every day)
-Random muscle twitches (numerous times a day, especially facial area)
-Very sensitive teeth (especially cold water is a killer)

I quickly noticed that massaging the back of my head made my tinnitus far less intense, also because I am a medicinal chemistry student I have access to scientific literature regarding tinnitus. Based on my findings, I went to the following specialists: Jaw specialist, TMD specialist, massage specialist, chiropractor, 4x ENTs, osteopath, physiotherapist, orthodontist, manual therapist & neurologist. I had an MRI, CT, tympanogram and ABR. Unfortunately nothing really helped so far, and no clear diagnosis has been made. I also went to Hilversum to apply for the new Neuromodulation therapy, however this therapy is not particulary meant for non-tonal tinnitus (meaning pure tone) nor tinnitus above 10 kHz. It has promising overall results however, maybe it could help someone here.

I found a study indicating that Clonazepam could reduce tinnitus temporary or permanent so I have confinced my doctor to prescribe me the drug. I've been taking it for exactly 20 days now (0.5 mg before sleep) and so far it has not really made my tinnitus less intense. On the other hand, I've started trigger point therapy in the form of dry needling and that is in fact starting to change my tinnitus a bit. I know it's the therapy and not the drug because my tinnitus is signficantly different and sometimes less intense directly after the therapy and stays that way for several hours to days. Maybe something to look into. Within a month I will start TMD therapy, meaning I will start wearing a night splint just in case and next year I will start orthomanual therapy. Even if you do not have bruxism the splint can still help relaxe you're jaw muscles. I'll keep you guys updated. Hopefully, my story will help someone here.

 

@Wes

Thanks for the info. I'm wearing a splint already and considering the dry needling as well. Tell me more about the neuromodulation in Hilversum please? Also, I still do weekly neck and jaw physiotherapy / manual therapy. Progress is really really slow but progressively. Every 3 or 4 weeks a little improvement / lower T. Tonal changes, less or more headaches, less or more facial pain. My physiotherapy team said "your body is out of balance at this moment, since we are still working on it, so you can expect pain, changes and weird sudden things". Most of them passed away luckily.
Wearing the splint is indeed vital for TMJ / TMD / CMD recovery and improvement.

There is more that can relax the jaw, dental surgeon recommended carbamazepine to me. I discussed it with Dr. De Ridder via e-mail and he suggested Deanxit / Rivotril (Clonzepam) to me. But, and this is a big one, I discussed Clonazepam with several psychologists and psychiatrists and they said it's addiction rate is quite high. So because I'm seeying slow improvement with physiotherapy, I will not (yet) take clonazepam. However, I do consider every option possible. At this stage my tinnitus is very much coming from the neck. presses on the occipital muscles and trapezius muscles intensifies it 200%. So that's my next stop. Work on those. Plus I might work extra on my C1 / C2 / C3 vertebra's. I'm no expert but from what I've seen the last 6 months at physiotherapy is that they are (some more than the other) blocked. Maybe all due to wrong posture because of stress/anxiety....

 

clonazepam makes T and H as withdrawal symptom.
When is in your blood dos not make T or H worse after looses your blood this symptoms occur
and can last for very long time after cut off.
Never try to cut off benzos abruptly only with very slow tapering because you will freak
T will be worse you will get extreme anxiety etc..

If you have sudden start of T and H the gold standard treatment is steroids
(methylprednisolone / dexamethazone)

 

I hope my ativan withdrawal gave me worse H and this devil will go away.

 

I'm still tapering off Clonazepam. I am now down to taking 1/8 of a 0.5mg tablet and my T is normal. During the first few weeks of using it, my T was practically non-existent. But I've spent most of the rest of the year tapering off the drug to avoid the withdrawal symptoms.

 

I rather have more intense T than more anxiety. Anxiety is a beast. In my opinion you can mask T most of the time (if it does not react to sounds) but anxiety, oh man. It makes me super sick, nauseous, my hands shake, I don't eat anymore when having bad anxiety, my heart rate goes much up, dry mouth, bad sleep, pain in my stomach.

Anxiety is really bad, sometimes so bad that I lost some memory, and wanted to puke but nothing came out of my mouth. I had big anxiety last new years eve. Man, that was bad....
I didn´t even have the courage to see my own friends when my anxiety was so bad. I was so nervous that any public event made me sick. When having T, I just can go to events, I can eat, I can go to school, but anxiety wrecks you also physically. Being tired all the time, almost likea continuous flu.

So if benzodiazepines give you more anxiety in the end, I rather avoid them at all cost. Strange enough they prescribe benzo´s to treat anxiety... They are only a temporary solution in my opinion.

 

My T started when I was already on Klonopin although I don't believe it caused it and I switched to Valium and there was no change still. I don't think benzos reduce T per se, but they can improve anxiety and sleep which in turn can lower your T.

I had anxiety issues before my T started; now my anxiety is actually lower with T and that is because my focus has shifted away from it. T doesn't frigthen or stress me out - it's just annoying and I try to ignore it. Going on 4 weeks now with it and every 2-3 days it drops 80%. Loud today though!