Not Sure If Allergies or Ototoxic

[JohnBFlorida]

I got my T in June, actually just around summer solstice, I have bad allergies, but also had to take paxil for 6 months due to bad anxiety developed from a bad car accident I was in. My family doctor does not think it's permanent he did see big build up of fluid in my ears. The Crackle all the and I had hard time getting them to clear, going to see ent end of month. Any tips for relief?

 

[billie48]

I got my T in June, actually just around summer solstice, I have bad allergies, but also had to take paxil for 6 months due to bad anxiety developed from a bad car accident I was in. My family doctor does not think it's permanent he did see big build up of fluid in my ears. The Crackle all the and I had hard time getting them to clear, going to see ent end of month. Any tips for relief?

Sometimes it can be difficult to pin point the exact cause. Besides allergies and drug reaction, there are many other causes which can trigger or aggravate tinnitus including ear or Eustachian tube infection, ear drum injury, fluid build-up feeling pressured, TMJ, high blood pressure or blood circulation problem, loud noise exposure or acoustic trauma, neck muscle problems, hearing loss, Meniere's, barotrauma from flight, grief for the loss of love ones, untreated sleep apnea, elevated stress, anxiety & panic disorder, etc. If you can be sure of the cause and the doctor(s) can heal it for you, all the better. Sometimes, the cause, such as side effect of ototoxic drugs, can be found and the drugs stopped, but T will continue for some people while others will see improvement. T is hard to figure out. For relief, you can try masking it to start with. There are many treatments out there, such as CBT, TRT, mindfulness meditation etc. But masking is free and can be done quickly. Have you done masking yet?

 

[JohnBFlorida]

Well other than some white noise I have not tried anything else, do you have any good recommendations to try and mask the T? I have read about all the causes, I know my ears are clogged, I am hoping that at least if I can get the fluid out even if it doesn't cure it the sound may dissipate a little.

 

[billie48]

Try these if you haven't yet:

1) Mask at bed time so you can sleep better. Find whatever sounds/music that are soothing to you. You can use a sound machine or sound pillow for this, or a computer with speakers.

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.

3) If you have computer and speakers, you can try these excellent masking sounds too:

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

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

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

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