New Member

Hello all,
My name is Dave and this is my tinnitus story
I have been a musician most all my life, I love music , it is my passion and my first love in my life
Back in the 80's , I played bass in bands and hardly ever wore ear protection.
after a couple of really loud gigs I got the tinnitus, nver heard of it till I went to an ENT specialist
He told me it would most likely not go away and that thought scared the crap out of me.
I Played the bass for a couple of yrs after that but right before I got married, I stopped playing the bass live with a band because I was scared of the tinnitus going to my other ear.

Fast forward a couple of yrs without playing music with a live band, it seemed to leseen,
to the extent that most days I forgot all about it.
I really missed playing music so I took up acoustic guitar, I needed to do something muscial
and have always played a little guitar .

Then about 6 yrs ago, I got it again,
let me say that for most of my life I have delt with anxiety, wasnt really aware that I could be helped by medication or therapy.
well, I was always afraid of water , I never learned how to swim,and that had been a sourse
of anxiety and embarresment for me
I know its silly, but sometimes I take things too seriously .

any ways, I had taken some classes to be safe in the water and it helped my fear
I wanted to get over my fear and practice swiming,
so,, I had a pool built in my back yard.A life time dream to have a pool.

Ok , so this is where it came back,
while the Pool was being build I was have anxiety about the money it took to build it and
anxiety worrying about if Ihad to save someone drowning and maybe drowing myself.
So, after one night of little sleep and a mind full of awful thoughts, I woke up with the ringing
very loud,
I knew in my head and heart that the anxiety brought it back
I saw Drs, and specialists and did numerous tests, but I really did know,
I did this to my self.
The tinnitus got so bad and my anxiety with it that I went to see a Phyciatrist.
He has been a very kind man, he put on on Prozac and Clonazapam
the meds have helped
I have had a couple episodes of depression ,and I let this thing take over my life.
I continue to take the meds ,even though ,at one point I was off them completely
I find that right now in my life , I really dont know what I would ;do without them.

One good thing that has come of this is that I am closer to God and I have had
support from the people who love me
My nightmare continues, but I am certain, that when I retire from my stress filled job,
that I will slowly get better as I have in the past.

My brother , another musician, has had it too but has gone away for him , so I know it can
happen again for me,
Hopefully this site will help me and hopefully I can be of some support as well,

theres more to the story but thats the most of it.
thanks for hearing me out
Dave