My Tinnitus Sound Changes During the Day — Tinnitus Made Worse by Zoloft (Sertraline)

Hi all.

Thank you for this forum. I have already read a lot about tinnitus but still I don't understand mine...

I am 31 years old. I had my first long term experience with tinnitus 12 years ago from loud music. In the beginning I was scared but after some weeks I got habituated and years later it went away or I didn't give it any attention (I really don't know which).

However, I visited a psychologist for 3 years due to anxiety (not related to tinnitus). I tried several times an antidepressant called Escitalopram which helped me a lot but as soon as I was doing better I quit. This year in January my Psychiatrist suggested to try Zoloft because he thought it will help better. After three doses of 25mg I woke up with a loud high pitch ringing in my right ear. The first several weeks were hell. I was suicidal and couldn't do anything. I then decided to take Escitalopram 3 weeks ago. I think it helped me with the depression and a bit with the anxiety. No impact on tinnitus so far.

But here come my concerns.

1) My tinnitus changes a lot during the day, not only the loudness. When I wake up, I do not have a high pitch sound in my right ear but a sound like a fax machine in the middle of my head. During the day, I get a high pitch tone, then it changes again to another tone, then again... Until I go to sleep and wake up the next day with only the "fax". The tone changes also when I am just sitting on the sofa and do nothing...

2) in the past I had a fleeting tinnitus let's say once every half a year for some seconds. Now I get it almost each day but on my good ear (left). First it is so loud that I can hear it over traffic for some seconds then it gets quieter and stays like that for several hours until it fades away. What is that? Should I be concerned that it can stay one day?

My ENT believes that the cause is somatic and not from Zoloft because while I took Zoloft I grinded my teeth heavily and also during the day. I do not have a hearing loss.

Is it normal for somatic tinnitus to change that much and is it a good sign that it can get quieter or even fade away?

I am scared that the opposite will happen and it will get louder and louder :-(

Please apologize for the long story and my English. And thank you in advance for your help.

 

I get buzzing and hissing noises momentarily sometimes, as well as the tinnitus or two, and sometimes I hardly hear it — it all depends whether I've been overdoing it online. Maybe you can learn some meditation methods... I have one where I will rest and close my eyes and focus on one image for 10 seconds then another — image of a beach, vase of flowers, a smile etc, this helps to calm the mind. Good luck...

 

That’s just my experience, but for many years now I’ve experienced these random, very loud bouts of tinnitus in one ear, not always the same, that last anywhere from a few seconds to a few minutes. I don’t know why they happen but I get them a few times a month. Could be because I’ve always had tinnitus from mild hearing loss and it sometimes flares up?

Then I sometimes get this even louder tinnitus, again only in one ear and not always the same, that comes with... I don’t know if I’d call it ear fullness or temporary hearing loss — the tinnitus gets so loud that external noises sound muffled? Anyway, these I get 2-3 times a year and they can last a few hours. I used to just put on headphones and listen to pink noise until it went away (now I couldn’t do that because of my recent noise sensitivity).

While it’s scary when it happens, I try to stay calm and remind myself that it has always went away (so far — as opposed to this new, weird, constantly changing somatic tinnitus). My audiologist didn’t seem to think there was cause for concern. She said that sometimes the brain just does these “sound checks” but stays stuck for a little while in the “sound check” process. Obviously, anxiety can make it worse / make it last longer so just try to stay calm when that happens. :/

 

Zoloft is known to cause tinnitus. Lexapro is too which is what you were taking before. It varies by person. It should go away after a while if you get off it.