Not Doing Well — Near the End

Hi,

I don't know what to do anymore? I've had tinnitus for many years, caused by head injury. Now it's chronic and I have pulsatile as well. I feel pulsatile is often worse then just tinnitus.

I've had many test. All my tests shows nothing. It's SPIKING to the point I cant sleep so I take different prescribed pills to sleep. But even my sleep is torture for I wake up within an hour hear the SPIKING I want to die and fight it off the best I can and go back to sleep.

Then thru the day it's spiking and I'm drugged out at the same time from the pills I took to sleep and the pills I have to take when it's spiking in the day and it's getting harder to get anything done.

Then I fear as my sleep approaches and what I'm in for all over again or maybe even worse this time around, I'm gonna really end my suffering once and for all.

This is a vicious cycle that's only getting worse. I don't see any relief in sight.

I don't know how people here can say it will get better thru time? When I'm getting worse thru time? I had a doctor just tell me there's NO cure and just except this and manage it. I know no one here can help me either.

I'm just here in case I'm at the end and I'm one more person who lost their battle with tinnitus. Maybe the health community will finally take us serious and find a cure for all suffering.

God bless

Friend

 

If you got whiplash with your head injury, then have you researched whiplash tinnitus. Some problems from head injury, such as whiplash can be somewhat corrected. A head injury could cause mouth and dental problem, TMJ, bite, and more that does not help tinnitus. I don't know, but maybe other issues that could be at least a little corrected will help with your tinnitus. Not sure if you had seen several different types of specialists outside of those that treated your head injury to help. My Tinnitus is a high pitched 10. My whole head is painful, my neck hurts bad, but I'm trying to address other issues such as mouth and jaw issues to see if a difference can be made.

 

No I was blindsided by a cowardly attack. Im trying cranial therapy and see a chiropractor too.

Ive tried neurofeedback. I want to buy my own neurofeedback devise. Any ideas on what I can get that works at home?

Thank you for caring.

 

Clonazepam can help with the tinnitus. Please have your doctor prescribe it to you. I thought I was at the end too and it helped greatly. There is a good chance your T is spiking as a result of the anxiety you have over what is happening to you. You need to try that before thinking of doing anything drastic.

 

I don't know much about neurofeedback, but there's some here that do. For their experiences with that, place neurofeedback into the search at the top of this site's homepage. Then after clinking on a thread about this subject, look for more related threads to clink on at the bottom of the page that you are on. Then you can take some thoughts and ideas from others and do a general research search on google or whatever site that you use.

 

@friend how loud is yours?

 

I agree with @RB2014. I was and still struggling with a similar situation. I was prescribed Clonazepam and it's helped out so much with my anxiety before I started to get ready for bed. I also take a Ambien in middle of night to help fall back asleep. Do you have a masking tune you like or listen to while getting ready for bed? Find a good one that helps you relax. I know it's easier said than done. My favorites are rain with frogs and crickets. I wish you strength in moving forward and taking one day at a time. I was also blind sided by a drunk clown and broke my jaw. I personally don't know the cause of my tinnitus. But it came out of nowhere and loud and intrusive in my life. Feel free to message me if you want to talk about anything.

- E with T

 

how much did it help you and also once you were off it?

 

With Clonazepam you can have crazy loud T and you just don't care. It changes your reaction to T. It also helps lower the volume if it is at extreme levels - Jet engine loudness. I have been there. Your anxiety can take T to levels that are unbearable if you let it. They use Clonazepam to treat people that have to be in the em room. You can literally cut off your hand, take Clonazepam and think that things will really be ok, until it wears off.

Eventually I got better and tapered off of it very slowly in half doses. I have been fine ever since. It can be addictive, but it never affected me as it has other people. Its still better than the alternative, even if you have to do it for 6 months to get better.

 

@friend ,
Don't give in to Tinnitus your stronger than you think !
See your doctor and maybe try a low dose of Nortryptaline or clonazepam.
Tinnitus is tough going but we are here around the clock to support you.
Love glynis

 

@friend
If the prescribed sleeping drugs have unfavorable effect during the day, have you tried natural alternatives such as Melatonin or other herbal supplements? There are Lemon Balm, Valerian, Hops, Catnips, Passion Flower, Chamomile, Lavender, Kava, etc. You can do google search or check Amazon.com for each of them to know how people review these products, and see if you can take them as a supplement. Check out this site on using natural herbs for helping to sleep or to calm the nerves.

http://www.christopherhobbs.com/lib...ealth/herbs-and-natural-remedies-for-insomnia /

To help sleep, you can also try some masking nature sounds. If you haven't done masking, here are some suggestions:

1) Mask at bed time by using a sound pillow or sound machine with pillow speakers. There are good sound machine & pillow therapy systems like this one: https://www.amazon.com/Sound-Oasis-...d-Oasis-Therapy-System-Speakers/dp/B00MH5HKTA

2) If you need masking on the go, try load an ipod with nature sounds or music using itune. If you have a smart phone, you can download free APPs for soothing or T-masking sounds. Use wisdom in the use of headphones or earbuds as extended use or excessive volume may hurt your ears. Try set the volume slightly below that of your tinnitus.

3) With PC & speakers, you can try these excellent masking sounds to see which one masks best:

TT's excellent audio player: https://www.tinnitustalk.com/audioplayer/

or this online sound library, particularly the self-mix nature sounds: https://mynoise.net

or download free sound generator ‘aire freshener’: http://www.peterhirschberg.com/mysoftware.html

or click play to mix these sounds with this simple sound generator: http://asoftmurmur.com/

or search youtube with words like 'tinnitus masking sounds', 'white noise', 'rain sound' etc.

Many of the members here have gone through 'hell' with T and have dark thoughts like you. So we understand your struggle. There are many things you can try if you are talking ending it all, including those drugs some members find helpful in the Treatment forum, like Trobalt, Keppra, CBD oil, etc., etc. But often we don't need to go to the last resort. Members have found many different ways helping them. Go read up the success stories and you will learn many ideas how to get better. Many years back I have had both ultra high pitch T and severe hyperacusis. Both T & H turned me into a mess physically and mentally, with relentless anxiety and panic attacks daily, with depression and sleeplessness, and of course with the inevitable dark thought of ending it all when the future looked so dark full of suffering. I got to the point of researching on youtube on people who actually had near-death experience from suicide and their video stories painting a horror picture on the other side changed my mind. From that I decided to stay put and fight the battle with T heaven or hell. I studied people's success stories and their strategies. I wanted to have success like them by copying success, whatever and however. I used them as my guiding lights. It works.

Today, I live a normal, productive and absolutely enjoyable life, even with my T spiking. T has lost its tyranny and is now a paper tiger. I wrote my success stories and share some strategies I learned from others and some of my own. Here is my story if you like to read it. Don't despair. Better days will come. Believe it. Take good care. God bless.

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

 

Hi my name is Christi I also have tinnitus. I was on clonazepam. It clam my tinnitus way down. Now they are ringing in both since I haven't had my anxiety medicine which is clonazepam. My psychologist doesn't believe me when I tell her my anxiety medication was helping me with my tinnitus. The tinnitus here lately has been over well meaning. I don't know what else to do can y'all me please I had Tinnitus for over four years

 

From previous employment I can tell you that you will have a much better chance of giving a prescription of choice from a doctor who graduated from a public state university than from a private university or college. They may ask for an urine study first.

 

All I can tell you, is to hang in there. I have felt that I was at the end of my rope, many..many times too

Life is very difficult and having tinnitus makes it harder....

Possibly get some therapy or speak to someone, that can comfort you. It's hard fighting tinnitus alone, I do it each day and it is very difficult. No one understands, just how much pain we carry inside each day.

Don't ever give up, I know it's hard but the good days still exist....just remain strong buddy.

I carry a full plate each day and it's hard..I cannot lie

Just hang in there and check back with this board and give us an update on your situation...I care..as does this board and we want you to do well

 

Hi Friend,

Why are you letting it win? Why are you scared of it?

Have you tried to look into meditation? Yoga? Tai chi? Walking?

Meditate, not medicate.

 

Show her this study.

 

At times 10

 

Thank you for caring. I pray for your good health.

God bless you

 

You must be an idiot. Why am I letting it win? I do nothing but fight this 24/7 so far still here fighting.

Scared? No angry with sleep deprivation and everything else that comes with this dibilatimg sound, and a lot of money spent. Why are you here with put downs?

 

@friend seriously try clonazepam. It will lower your T and help you get through this dark time. You shouldn't end your life. I've often thought about how close they are to treatment and I want to wait. For myself. For my son.

 

When they write "Clonazepam is effective in treating tinnitus" are they talking about temporary relief, or will the relief be there only for as long as one is taking clonazepam?

 

Never mind. I found the full text of the study.
"We also compared the baseline values before the start of the
first drug and after the 2 weeks of washout. There was no
difference in tinnitus pitch, awareness (duration), annoyance,
and THI scores, but dB SL loudness of the clonazepam-
first group remained relatively decreased even after the washout
period (p=0.029): before any medication 5 dB SL (median, range;
1-10), after 3 weeks of clonazepam 2 dB SL, and after 2 weeks
of washout 3 dB SL."

It looks like one has to continue taking clonazepam for life. Then again, perhaps the loudness had stabilized at 3 dB.
"a longer duration of tinnitus in the pretreatment period was associated with a greater reduction in dB SL loudness; a lower THI score in the pretreatment period
was associated with a greater decrease in tinnitus duration per
day; and lower initial tinnitus dB SL loudness and higher
annoyance scores were associated with a greater improvement in
annoyance VAS and THI scores"

Unfortunately, clonazepam is not a good drug to be taking long term:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clonazepam#Tolerance_and_withdrawal
"One-third of individuals treated with benzodiazepines for longer than four weeks develop a dependence on the drug and experience a withdrawal syndrome upon dose reduction. High dosage and long-term use increase the risk and severity of dependence and withdrawal symptoms. Withdrawal seizures and psychosis can occur in severe cases of withdrawal, and anxiety and insomnia can occur in less severe cases of withdrawal. A gradual reduction in dosage reduces the severity of the benzodiazepine withdrawal syndrome. Due to the risks of tolerance and withdrawal seizures, clonazepam is generally not recommended for the long-term management of epilepsies. Increasing the dose can overcome the effects of tolerance, but tolerance to the higher dose may occur and adverse effects may intensify."

It is my understanding that T keeps changing for the first X months, and then whatever level you end up with, you might get stuck with for life. Perhaps it is a good idea to take clonazepam as a way to get stuck with T that is less loud?!

And then there is this
http://www.ehealthme.com/ds/clonazepam/tinnitus/
That site also shows that there are people out there who take this drug for longer than 10 years.
It might be a good drug for the author of this thread to experiment with...

 

Don't let tinnitus win. You have been through so much already, your strong. You can do this.

For me, different things work: acupuncture, massage, head massage, meditation, finding your frequency and listening to notched white noise, eating well...more fruits and vegetables, less junk food. I have done moderate walking and cycling and that helps me.

There is still lots to do, don't give up!