Newbie... Tinnitus Got Worse

Hi there,

I had mild tinnitus in my left ear for a couple of years from Feb 2013, but it didn't really bother me...it did for a little while but it wasn't so intrusive and i habituated quickly. My wife has been ill the past couple of years and this has caused me a massive amount of stress and anxiety. In early November, we were having a row (well I was shouting) and all of a sudden it felt like something popped in my head and my tinnitus got a lot worse (serves me right for shouting I suppose). Now it just there all the time; there is a loud hissing, and a buzzing noise too. I actually find it intrusive even when out in a shopping centre...On top of all this, my marriage is breaking up now, I am jobless and have to find a place to live soon. I am quite socially isolated and I am now really depressed with it. I have been prescribed anti-depressants but I am a bit frightened of them to be honest and know that I am not doing enough to try to habituate but it's just so difficult right now.

Has anybody any advice or had a similar experience with their tinnitus? Have anti-depressants helped anyone with tinnitus?

Thanks for any advice.

S

 

Welcome to the forum. Yes, tinnitus can be caused by a period of high stress, anxiety or deep grief. While T can be caused by so many reasons, extreme emotions can make us vulnerable to T. Anti-depressants, like any drug out there, can work differently for different people. I have used Prozac during my darkest time for depression and for my relentless panic attacks. I didn't have adverse side effects from it, but it doesn't mean it fits everyone. It is best to work closely with your trusted doctor(s) on the use of drugs, even in the phasing out process. Sometimes for some people including myself, the use of meds are necessary as will power or strategies alone couldn't help the deteriorating health conditions. But do use caution when using meds that it is best for temporary purpose and monitored by your doctor(s). Here is my success story where I did need meds to survive for months due to severe T & H (but I phased them out slowly later), and I listed also many important strategies to help me get better:

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/thread...w-i-recovered-from-tinnitus-hyperacusis.3148/

Be patient. Your T is still relatively new. Try to be positive and hopeful so you can keep anxiety and stress level under control, as these are bad for T. Being more positive and accepting is the best approach when T is new. Your ears & T may take some time to settle down, and your body needs time to adjust to and accept the the 'new normal' to learn to flow with it. Resisting something we can't control much will generate fierce emotional storm to the body, and the emotional pains are manifested in anxiety, panic, depression, sleeplessness & lack of energy or enthusiasm. If possible, newer sufferers should try to adjust, adapt and to accept the new normal, whatever the case is, especially if it is beyond your control, while at the same time applying some effective strategies learned from the forum so you can get better and better as time goes on.

In the following post, you can see how a doctor with T will learn to accept the new normal and adjust. The good doctor is now in the Doctors' Corner offering advice. Hopefully, when we learn to accept the new normal, the stress and anxiety level will go down, and then T will be easier to handle.
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/curing-tinnitus.4136/page-5#post-40854

In the mean time, if T is causing too much anxiety and you don't want to use meds to control it, then masking is a good way to help the situation. I used to mask all day just to prevent panic attacks from hearing my ultra high pitch loud dog whistle T. Try these if you haven't yet:
1) Mask at bed time so you can sleep better. Find whatever sounds/music that soothe you. You can use a sound machine or sound pillow for this.
2) If you need masking on the go, try load an ipad with nature sounds or music, or use smart phone.
3) If you have computer and speakers, you can try these excellent masking sounds:

TT's own audio player:
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/audioplayer/
If you need more masking sounds, here is free ‘aire freshener’:
http://www.peterhirschberg.com/mysoftware.html
Rain sounds are soothing indeed. You can make your own rain sounds with this rain generator:
http://mynoise.net/NoiseMachines/rainNoiseGenerator.php

You can also search youtube by typing in the masking sounds you like, such as 'rain', ‘white noise’, ‘tinnitus masking sounds’ etc. and you should get a good list of sounds to choose from.

 

Thanks so much for the reply billie48! Lots of good advice there...yeah i'm pretty sure that it was high stress over the past couple of years that has caused my tinnitus. My wife was diagnosed bipolar a couple of years back, was hospitalized and unleashed a mountain of lies on me going back years that nearly killed me with shock. I have been struggling ever since and so has she...we should have broken up then, but I couldn't abandon her in hospital as she is in a foreign country with no close friends nor family. I don't know if she is having a bipolar episode now, or if she just wants to leave me, but she is not communicating with me, and hates my guts, even though we were getting on well and had a great holiday recently (the exact same thing happened in 2007 - she was depressed and took it out on me, leaving me for 7 months, and only coming back when she was homeless. Of course she didn't tell me about the guys she was sleeping with in between...I would have broken up with her then if she had). I did develop tinnitus in November and was all over the place emotionally...I think this may have been too much for her to bear. She was really worried about me and blamed herself...I think her self-defense mechanism kicks in and then she just wants to get away and protect herself. I'm just trying to get through the next few weeks, so that I can find a new place to live, get a separation, and manage my depression/tinnitus. Christ, talk about a perfect storm...I know if I can get through this though then nothing will beat me
I went to bed last night and for the first time instead of trying to mask the tinnitus or do anything else, I said screw it, and just faced it down. I slept very well surprisingly. It's really horrible though - one ear is a whistling noise, the other is like a dentist drill, and then there is just a general hissing noise too. I sincerely hope that one day I wake up and it's just disappeared or that I just get so used to it that i don't even notice it.