Looking for advice

My tinnitius started 3 days after starting on Paxil. A few days later I saw anENT and he found a large amount of wax in my left ear, the only one that rings. I stayed on the paxil for two weeks and the ringing did not stop. I have since stopped the Paxil 4 days ago. I am having terrible withdrawal side effects which I expected, I am not new to SSRIs so I know what to expect. The question I have is during the last 3days I have had some hours of no ringing the ear. It always returns in the morning. I am doing my best to try to accept the sounds but must admit I am not doing a good job, I listen intently for the ringing to return and it does. is it possible my tinnitius can be temporary and can go away or at least get much better when all the Paxil is out of my system?

 

I'm not sure but I suspect you are supposed to taper off ssri's rather than stop cold turkey. It might take a short while for the side effects to cease so try to weather the storm until this happens. Regardless of whether your tinnitus is temporary you have to stop intentionally listening for it as you are just making yourself more anxious. My guess is that once you are over the paxil your tinnitus will disappear but you will only delay any improvement if you remain on high alert. There is plenty of evidence that the brain goes into a flight or fight panic mode when tinnitus appears so you want to get past this as soon as you can to give yourself the best chance. So don't listen for it, don't listen to loud music etc... and try to be calm and confident.

 

Thank you for your reply. Do you have idea why now when it stops ringing in my one ear it will start ringing in my head instead and the ear goes quiet?

 

Kevin there are a lot of things that even the professionals don't know about tinnitus. From my own experience my tinnitus has done some strange things and I believe that the auditory system tries to reset itself. In my case my tinnitus is due to Meniere's and the disease has destroyed many of the tiny hair cells in my bad ear which is why I believe it has been unable to reset itself. I think you should take what is happening to you as a good sign so try to be positive that once you are over the effects of paxil hopefully your tinnitus disappears.

 

That's good advice from Magpie. And hey, don't "Listen intently."

 

perhaps get some masking with music or nature sound so you won't have to focus on only that T ringing. You can even sleep with the masking sound with repeat function on so when you wake up you have other sounds already there and it helps you from focusing on T.