Minor Tinnitus from TBI — Further Exacerbated by Alprazolam (Xanax) Withdrawal?!

Hello everyone. I am a newcomer to the forums. I decided to sign up after I've had a distressing increase in a sudden tinnitus originally caused by a TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury) I had 3 months ago. It was hardly noticeable, if not there at all some days, during my TBI recovery. I was prescribed Alprazolam (Xanax) 3x a day for 3 months for an increase in Neuropsychiatric problems due to the aforementioned TBI.

I've come off it about a week ago... It's been about 5 days give or take, and holy moly... I have never had tinnitus before this. It was hardly noticeable with my recent brain trauma - but it got so much worse recently after my decision to avoid the use of benzodiazepines (I was aware of the serious problems associated with their dependence).

Yet, here I am! This is rough. I am having a few of the benzo withdrawal symptoms, but the worst by FAR is the tinnitus. It's pretty loud - loud enough to hear it over music I listen to. It's very troubling. I do have co-morbid GAD and ADHD, which makes it more noticeable, I think. I'm here to inquire to the community: Will it get better?!

I had cold turkeyed the Alprazolam. I was on moderate dose to my understanding, and I was only on it for 3 months - and I did not take it everyday.

This is really hard to cope with. I want to believe it will get better, hell, I have to! It's so ANNOYING!

My question is, who has experience with this? Should I start a taper even though I feel mostly "ok"? Has the benzo withdrawal made this my new baseline? Before it was hardly noticeable, if at all some days. Now it's CONSTANTLY ringing. What are y'alls experience? I could live with if I had some sense that it would get better with time.

God, what a terrible thing to have, this tinnitus!

 

Unfortunately I can't provide a reassuring parallel to this, as I have no prior experience with withdrawal induced spikes (tinnitus was caused by ear infection and acoustic trauma. Spikes are triggered by any further acoustic trauma). But I am familiar with the high incidence of problems others have encountered by coming off of benzodiazepines and SSRIs without taper.

Anyway, to start with, despite my own lack of experience here, what I can confidently tell you, is that newly onset (acute) tinnitus generally has a high success rate for improvement, and in a lot of cases, can see full remission. So based on timing alone, you're in with a good chance of recovery.

With regards to the best possible course of action, now that your ultimatum is to: continue to go cold turkey, or, retake the Xanax and begin tapering.

Well, seeing as it's been only five days, if it were me, I would probably take it again and then begin a proper taper down the line.

That said, I think the optimum here would be to see your regular doctor first (ASAP), and ask their advice on the situation before you do anything.

If you can't get a face to face appointment, then try to get a telephone appointment. Because timing right now is what matters. That is to say, the longer you're doing one thing when you should be doing the other, the worse the problem will become.

In short: a doctor's advice right now is going to be worth a five page thread of advice from us on this forum, but you need to speak to them soon (ideally today).

Whatever happens, the tinnitus is probably going to stick around for a while (which is going to be rough), but assuming you follow the medically recommended course of action for your circumstance, it should begin to subside over time.

 

I would immediately reinstate with the Valium equivalent and taper down slowly over two to three months.

 

I think this is good advice. Diazepam has a long half life and would allow a smoother taper. 0.5 mg Alprazolam is about 7-8 mg of Diazepam. Given that @HarperQ has been off for a while, maybe 10 mg a day for a couple of weeks could do the trick before slowly tapering over a month or so.