Panic Attacks, Scared I’ll Never Habituate

Hi everyone,

I’m going to quite a bit of a rough time, to put it mildly. I am having severe anxiety attacks about my tinnitus, ever since it started. It is now at it’s worst (at least I hope this will remain to be the worst). The attacks are so bad I throw up and almost pass out, the only thing that helps is oxazepam (Serax) and sleeping.

My mom told me a friend of her has got it in both ears after her kid screamed in them (on separate occasions, I hope). She just pushes it to the back of her mind she says, ignores it, and now is fine.

My pastor also has severe tinnitus (can hear it driving with the windows down)after being exposed to illegal fireworks going off when he was out on a walk with his wife. I will go to talk to him when I am stable enough (if I get stable enough) as he has done many things since its onset (even wrote a book, not about tinnitus)

Those stories keep me from doing anything impulsive at the moment. I also let my faulty charger create a hissing sound so I can blame all my tinnitus sounds on it. It helps somewhat.


Any supportive thoughts / prayers are greatly appreciated!

 

The anxiety will get better. Your brain will learn. I was going through panic attacks daily about 7 months ago and now I haven't had panic attack in months. I still have general anxiety at times with palpitations but supplements help calm it when needed. Also eating vitamin and mineral dense foods and getting enough sleep helps a lot, too.

 

Thank you for your reply, Sean.

Would you consider it a possibity that tinnitus can be induced by anxiety/stress? If so, do you think it can lower in volume with long term stress management?

 

How many months have you had tinnitus? Have you been exposed to any moderate noises during this time?

 

I feel you, @Lynny. I also have anxiety A LOT (to the point of vomitting).

The anxiety will fade away! Hugs.

 

I have read others saying their tinnitus was caused by stress. So its a definite possibility. Tinnitus always has a chance to lower within the first year.

 

T definitely flares with stress, and when you can't sleep. While a lot is out of our control, mine got better when I figured out what I could do about it. This includes supplements, like green tea and omega3 that I take. It also includes sensible hearing protection, and just having my earplugs with me when I go out gives me some control. Also, avoid additional noise exposure, like lowering TV volume, and earplugs for vacuum or other activities that are above medium volume and bothersome to the ear.

Be sure to do what you can to get a good night sleep which really helps. Some folks have success with melatonin that I needed a few times.

 

I will pray for you! Do speak with your pastor, he can give you words of encouragement.

Anxiety can make tinnitus worst, so you have to take care of that first.
At bedtime try hot baths with Epsom salts, and take magnesium.
Read Psalm 91. One of my favorites.

Are you taking oxazepam everyday or as needed?

Once

 

i had a slight ringing in december and a low tone since january but this past week (I’m hoping because of the anxiety) it has been going crazy with more tones appearing. I am starting CBT this week, I have been diagnosed with somatic OCD since the onset. My family seems to be convinced it will lessen once I deal with the panic as I’ve panicked about things like this before (going blind, having cancer).

 

Severe anxiety and panic attacks = turning the T volume knob up. It's horrible, but it should improve once you address the attacks.
I experienced a couple of weeks of it around 2 years ago. It was wave after wave of attacks bad for a couple of weeks. It was the worst and I felt like I wasn't really there (depersonalisation). Taking a benzodiazepine is good for a couple of weeks, but any longer and tapering is required according advice I received from my doctor.

Anxiety and stress could possibly set a person up for tinnitus if it is bad enough, but I would say it would take many years. No sure really - everyone is different. I experienced panic attacks and anxiety when I was younger, but didn't get tinnitus then. But once you have tinnitus they are definitely triggers, so you need to work hard on your own well-being. Mindfulness is something you could consider practicing, as is some kind of counselling. There's a very good chance your tinnitus will improve as your anxiety does.

 

Hi,

I’m currently going through a bout of severe panic attacks due to an increase of my tinnitus. I’m so scared and having a lot of suicidal thoughts. I am already with a therapist but I would really like to talk to someone who’s dealt with severe tinnitus as well. Please send me a message if you have time, I would be very grateful for any tips/helpful thoughts.

 

Haha! And I thought THAT was bad.. good thing I couldn’t see into the future or I might’ve offed myself right then and there

 

Hi Lynny,

I'm sorry you're having such a hard time. I got T back in 2015 and I must say it was rather mild at the time. My T coincidentally began shortly after my first panic attack. According to my ENT there is a strong correlation between anxiety, depression and T/H (I have both, eh).

Although the T never has caused me much anxiety, various other things did. At the onset of my anxiety disorder it was so bad that I was in the fight-or-flight mode everyday for six months (heart palpitations, severe anxiety, and horrible sleep). For me going to school was the culprit. It got so out of hand that at some point I started to feel physical pain due to the great amount of stress and anxiety (mostly severe stomach aches). It led me to believe me that I was actually ill at the time as I could not eat properly and was constantly nauseous, and out of distress I asked my GP to thoroughly test me only to find out that when the summer vacation began, the physical pain subsided. I had to go through some painful tests (a procedure where they had to jam a tube with a camera down my throat to see what was causing me so much pain). My GP has never trusted me ever since, and all my future ailments have been subconsciously ascribed to my anxiety disorder by her (including my severe neuralgia, T, and H).

I'm going to be completely honest with you, the anxiety still plays a big part in my life. However, it did get MUCH better over the years. What I do regret the most is that I did not start cognitive behavioral therapy years ago. Obviously, it is not a magic cure and it takes a lot of time and effort, but it has helped me tremendously. Moreover, I noticed that exposure has helped my particular case a lot (worst thing ever, but in order to pass some courses at uni I had to do the things I hate the most haha). I still struggle with many things (haven't left the country since), but that is also, in large part, due to my severe H.

Stressful periods always amplify my T (such as exams, or presentations), but in my experience that was only temporary. I'm glad you're talking to a therapist, I advise you, however, to find a therapist that 'fits' you (if that is not already the case). A therapist that genuinely understands you and wants to help you, and more importantly someone who you have a good connection with. This can go a long way in your recovery.

Last but not least, I can imagine that others have mentioned this but December 2018 is still pretty early. I think in your case it is crucial to break the cycle of anxiety (I know this may seem impossible as T gives you anxiety and the anxiety in turn amplifies the T), but I believe you can do it. Have faith in yourself.

There's a book that has helped me a lot and I think it will help you too. I am a man of science (I study biomedical science with neuroscience as a major), and this book has explained to me how I can beat fear and worry with the aid of neuroscience. It is not a substitute for your sessions with a therapist, but I believe it will definitely complement your sessions as it explains in depth how anxiety works on a biological level and gives you the tools to utilize (neuro)science to control it (yay science!).

The book:
Rewire Your Anxious Brain: How to Use the Neuroscience of Fear to End Anxiety, Panic, and Worry by Catherine M. Pittman, and Elizabeth M. Karle.

Take care and don't give up. Life will only get better if you truly believe, and do everything within your power to make it better! Wish you all the best. ~ Laby

 

Lynny,
We need to know a bit more about your mental health history.

Yes, tinnitus can tip the scale and induce anxiety attacks. But many that struggle with tinnitus the most...there are many with loud tinnitus that live relatively ordinary lives...but those that struggle the most many times have a history of mental illness, either anxiety, depression, bi-polar disorder, high functioning autism...a plethora of mental disorders.

Please know, many have anxiety attacks without tinnitus. I didn't contract tinnitus until much later in life. I had anxiety attacks and didn't even know what they were initially well before I ever had tinnitus. I had perfectly good hearing pretty much my whole life and I am much older than you. Myself and family members however suffered with anxiety which is genetic on my mother's side. So many of my family members have anxiety disorder and anxiety attacks. But we are pretty much all good now. There is hope through understanding and acceptance, medication and behavior modification.

So, please know, your inability to cope with your tinnitus is 'mostly' related to your mental health. And yes, chicken versus egg, your tinnitus can spiral you down to the depths of despair when you have already precarious mental health.

A benzo likely saved me from doing something bad to myself. When I contracted tinnitus I too like countless here had suicidal ideation...and weird thing is, few love life as much as me because I have always made having fun the centerpiece of my life.., but panic attacks as you know drive a person literally out their mind. There is no darker place.

You need medication for your anxiety attacks, when you feel one coming on. Work with your therapist on this. Tell him/her what you are feeling.

Eventually, the hope is you will break your chronic cycle of anxiety attacks which will likely lead to a softening of your tinnitus.

My guess and only that is you have struggled with either anxiety or depression since you were a little kid. This I personally believe also contributed to you getting tinnitus at the level you have but moreover, it makes it very difficult for you to accept and live with tinnitus. Because with anxiety as you know, you can't be yourself.

1. Address anxiety through medication first
2. Address all the factors that make you stressed out in your life. Aside from tinnitus, figure out what makes you anxious and put together a game plan. Many things in life make people nervous and they basically are cumulative to our overall stress level.
3. Keep a healthy diet with limited alcohol.
4. Exercise, exercise, exercise....get as fit as you have ever been
5. Your tinnitus should reduce and you will get back to who you really are and not this prisoner to anxiety and tinnitus.

I know because I have been there. (Please know anxiety and depression are genetic and you have to work within the framework of who you are)

 

Join us in constantly complaining that possible treatments that are in trials are taking too long. We really need to stink up this site with this.

Audion Therapeutics and Frequency Therapeutics are the companies that have the hair cell regeneration drugs.

They take 3 months to test it out but each trial is lasting 1 year. That's at least twice as long if not more that they really need. They delay, with Frequency Therapeutics, comes from the FDA review process.

 

Question is... How do you get the FDA to fast track a med like FX-322? How does a fire get lit underneath this behemoth of an approval process which isn't incentivized to hurry up and liability at the core as a disincentive to accelerate the process? Is it even feasible for them to shortcut the approval process? Are there examples of this happening?

If anybody who understands this process and has actually witnessed the FDA stepping their approval process up due to public outcry, please post an example if you would. Pretty common knowledge that tinnitus is pervasive and a real problem among soldiers in particular coming back from war.

 

I have NO idea....

yeah I think there was some woman with some rare disease that got early access to a drug that saved her life. I cannot remember her name, the drug or what, but Trump was touting it.

 

Problem with that correlation to tinnitus, is the provable case of life and death. Yes, those of us with chronic tinnitus know that suicide with tinnitus is a problem...no bigger problem for example is the suicide rate among returning soldiers which is unfathomably high...no doubt tinnitus a big part of it. The public has to be cynical about the approval process. The community complains about the mental health crisis in this country...no doubt tinnitus being a big contributor and yet nothing gets done about it. But this is sadly the same for all mental health conditions including the deranged people...mostly men that get their hands on guns and hurt people they don't even know.

Tinnitus...and part of the frustration I believe you have and many is...those that don't have it, don't understand what a health threat it is...because people every day talk about taking their lives due to this loud sound in their head.

How to get that to correlate to somebody dying with cancer or convulsing on table with Parkinson's is a difficult extrapolation. I believe therein lies the problem with getting the medical community to step up and respond.

 

Well, the thing is, the FDA can accelerate whatever they want. There is no law that says every phase of a trial has to take 1 year. There is a lot of wiggle room there. There is also no law that says each phase has to have an A and a B part. Also, I believe that they can do open phase 3's where they offer the drugs to the public but as part of their trials. There is so much that can be done here. If phase 2A goes well and there's strong data then we should be able to get this, within 2 years, just my honest opinion.

 

Hi @Labyrinthine -- First of all, I want to mention (again) how much I appreciate your posts. To me, they show the hallmarks of a flexible mind, and an insightful person. -- Regarding anxiety, I'm of the belief that a lot (to most) of so called "mental" disorders (including anxiety) are likely the result of some kind of organic cause, instead of some sort of "psychological" cause. But even when there is a psychological component, there's almost always a significant organic contributing factor(s) which can make it worse, such as nutritional deficiencies, lack of balance in one's life, etc. This is even true for severe cases of mental disorders such as schizophrenia. Niacin supplementation alone has done wonders for some people with schizophrenia. Here's a link to a book on it...

Orthomolecular Treatment for Schizophrenia: Abram Hoffer ...

Regarding anxiety specifically, I started a thread some time ago (link below) that you may find interesting--if you haven't already run across it. There's a lot of good information that can be gleaned if you follow the links, and may give you some new things to consider as you traverse your anxiety journey. Given the persistence I see in your posts, I have to believe you will eventually discover things that will work extremely well for you. And may even significantly reduce your tinnitus.

Three Supplements to Treat Severe Anxiety Symptoms

BTW, you mentioned in another post you tried 30 or so things to help your upper back. I would encourage you to keep trying things, as I think it could be a significant factor in your overall health picture, including contributing to your anxiety. Part of my tinnitus is somatic, and I recently began doing two different exercises that seem to have helped my tinnitus somewhat. One in particular seems to address an area that you're dealing with. These two techniques linked below address the upper back (thoracic) area and the pelvis area. They're both pretty simple and I've come to believe they work extremely well together (synergistically), and may just may help your anxiety and/or tinnitus. I've gotten some pretty incredible results, and this after having tried at least 30 other things in the past, with not nearly as much benefit.

Here's a link to a 5-min. video: -- The Simplest and Most Effective Exercise For Thoracic Extension

Another 5-Min. video: -- Natural Pelvis Reset

EDIT to ADD: -- One of my favorite relaxing drinks is to make some poppy seed tea, with some added turmeric and cinnamon, and sweeten with stevia. I use about 2 oz. of poppy seed, 1/4 tsp of turmeric and cinnamon, and 1/8 tsp of stevia, all in about 1 quart of water. All these amounts can be adjusted to taste or preference. -- Seeds can be reboiled and steeped 2-3 times. To make it even healthier, add 2 oz. of milk thistle seeds, which is great for liver health, and very relaxing as well (I'm out at the moment). -- @Star64

 

Get your hearing checked. Even if you have a mild hearing loss and they say you don't need hearing aids, ask for free trial with them programmed with the noise reduction feature turned off. Sometimes hearing aids can lessen or eliminate the tinnitus you hear when mixed with ambient noise.

 

But your 'honest opinion' has to be buttressed with a strong dose of reality. Of course any governmental agency has purview to change timelines of standard practice. Question is...will they? I explained why they won't.

 

I just went thru what you precisely described in fact. Finest hearing aids money can buy designed for tinnitus made by Oticon. Trial program. Hearing aids made little difference to my high frequency hearing and no difference to my tinnitus.

 

Sorry Lane, but completely disagree. People are genetically predisposed to anxiety, depression, bi-polar disorder, schizophrenia....a long list of psychiatric disorders. Family history is the no. 1 underlying cause of psychiatric disorders. Further there is modeled behavior within families that share similar disorders which is another discussion that reinforces anxious and depressed behavior including OCD aka modeled behavior.

We have talked before about this a bit. I know you are heavily in the 'alternative' homeopathic aka supplement camp of treatment. I am not sorry. I side with the medical community for treatment.

I explained my personal family history which includes brother, sister including grandmother, mother....extended family members aka cousins on my mom's side. This is common.
Genetics steers the ship. Why you can't get a plow horse to win the Kentucky Derby btw no matter how many supplements you feed them.

Will lastly add. I asked my Dr. of Audiology what was the single most responsible reason for tinnitus and hearing loss. She said, heredity...genetics...same with hair loss on top of the head for both men and women.

 

Can you tell me the Oticon model? I would like to know if it had extended frequency bandwidth. Most of hearing aids I tried several years ago only could be programmed up to 8khz. Some only went to 6 kHz. There was a model by Siemens/Signia that could program up to 12 kHz. I found that extra bandwidth to be helpful. You would need an extended audiogram though to test that high and most "free hearing tests" only went to 8 kHz. An audiologist should be able to test that high though. I found I had loss between 8 kHz and 12 kHz which regular aids could not help with. The models that had it were the Siemens 7bx (older), Siemens/Signia 7px (older), and the Signia 7nx (newer). The 3bx/px/nx and 5bx/px/nx models could not be programmed up to 12 kHz. I also heard that Widex makes an extended frequency hearing aid but unsure of the model.

To try the Siemens hearing aids, you may have to call different hearing aid dispensers to find one that sells them.

 

Have you ever had a food intolerance and food allergy testing done? I'm noticing food is having an effect on my mood. For instance, lately sugar seems to ramp up my anxiety if I am somewhat anxious.

 

I agree that family history is very important, but then there's the question as to why. Is it because they share the same genetics, or is it because they perhaps lived in a house with high radon levels? Or perhaps some lead pipes? Or has some unknown mold issues? Or eat the same nutritionally deficient diet? Or abuse alcohol or drugs in some manner? Lots of variables when it comes to the element of "family history".

Even when there is a strong genetic component, I believe there are LOTs of things that can ameliorate those genetic effects. As in most things--including tinnitus--there's often (usually?) important contributing factor(s). There also the whole concept of epigenetics, which seems to indicate gene expression is often (almost always?) more important than genetics. Many things can affect genetic expression--often significantly.

And I won't even go into the whole notion of individual and family karmic patterns, and how we can affect those as well for our betterment. I believe we have a LOT more control over our destiny than a lot of people think we do. If some who've come to believe suicide is their only option to escape pain and misery could understand and/or accept that, I think they could get beyond their immediate crises and move forward more effectively.

Hey John, no need to be sorry. I often write contrary to normally accepted "scientific" orientations, and fully anticipate I could easily get various kinds of disagreement. As long as it's respectful--which it usually is in your case--I actually welcome it. So don't ever hesitate to disagree with me. I enjoy open and genial discussions; and if gets less than genial, then I can just go elsewhere. -- No sweat!

 

Only if you believe all family members that live in 10 different houses have the same high radon levels.
Just pushing back what I believe and of course a gentlemen's disagreement. I have a niece who also suffers from anxiety who is a homeopathic doctor for what its worth.

I believe there is room in the world for supplements. I just don't believe they have the same therapeutic capability to treat something as difficult as anxiety or schizophrenia compared to drugs which went through a FDA process with a demonstrated track record of efficacy. Of course you can dabble in the supplement space and many do.

Its good you put forward your personal experiences. What is difficult to prove that anything is either helpful or harmful and there is often a false prophecy about what works and what hinders....like Michael and his headphone wild goose chase he perpetuates here without scientific validation.

New meds are found everyday. You could easily stumble on something that works that has therapeutic value. You could also 'believe' something works and therefore it does by placebo. Or...you could take a natural supplement for 3 months and improve and has nothing to do with a given supplement but rather the body has healed itself naturally and what you were taking just wasn't injurious.

But on the nature versus nurture debate, nature wins...or loses at the end of the day.

Two soldiers go off to war. They share the same front line with mortar attacks and wear the same hearing protection which is inadequate. Due to great stress coupled with 130 dB levels one soldier, same environment...one soldier contracts tinnitus and the other doesn't. Genetics.

 

It sounds like you're 100% certain it would have to be genetics. I think that is often the case, but I could list a number of other variables that could be responsible. Things like this are rarely cut and dried. -- You might appreciate this true story:

A reporter interviews two separate POWs who went through simlilarly harrowing experiences. The reporter asks each the same question: How did you manage to survive your horrific ordeal? One answers that they put their complete trust in God to help him survive. The other one answers he had complete trust in himself to survive. What do you think? Is there much of a difference between each soldier's approach?

Or perhaps more pertinent to this board, is there much difference between somebody who assiduously follows only what science has to offer us to help us with tinnitus / hyperacusis / suicidal ideation, etc. And somebody who decides to depend on themselves, to look at what science has to offer, but also willing to go outside (sometimes seemingly WAY outside) what science has to offer? I think there's the potential for a placebo effect in each approach, but I think the latter approach gives one a MUCH greater chance of success.