Pristiq (Desvenlafaxine) Induced Tinnitus — Is It Permanent?

Hello,

I have been depressed for a long time and I always advocated against medications for depression. I tried Prozac once and took 3 pills and had the worst central headache of my life. I have had a difficult time with my life and I am not happy about where I have ended up and I was advised by my aunt who said her antidepressant helped her, and I thought I should give it a try.

My doctor prescribed me Pristiq. After I told them I was extremely sensitive to SSRI and that I " Can not handle SSRIs" I told her many times how sensitive I was to any drug. So she prescribed me 50 mg of Pristiq. I took 25 mg for a week and then started to take 50 mg. I have no Idea why that dumb B**** couldn't just listen to me, and instead just settle with 25 mg for my whole bout of extreme depression. I should have stopped after the first week.

I took Pristiq for 1 month, and I stopped smoking weed, something I used to love to do when I was free or with friends since I don't drink much. I was going to give it a try for 1 month to see how I feel. During that month I started to run about 4 miles every three days (something I usually do to relieve my depression and clear my mind.

I finally told myself I was stopping Pristiq after 1 month because I could not take the side affects. I would only sleep 4 hours, then feel extremely tired, but this loud ringing noise kept me away and I didn't know what it was. I stopped taking the drug and the second day off the drug I went on a run during withdrawal and I noticed I was extremely uncoordinated and dizzy every time I would move my eyes. I believe endured ototoxicity during the few weeks that I was on Pristiq after being dizzy while coming off and the ringing was intense.

After 6 months of desperately trying to make the ringing go away taking Fish oil, and vitamins. the Tinnitus is still burrowed deep in my brain and it is like a dentist drill constantly ringing in my central brain. It is the worst thing that could have possibly happened when I took the anti depressant. And I never even Liked to take Tylenol or even Aspirin. synthetic drugs never felt good in my body and they always made me feel sick. Which is why I am so angry I allowed myself to become weak in my depression and take an antidepressant. I am very angry my doctor gave me a higher dose, but I am even more angry that it damaged my hair cells in my ear, because I have no idea if this ringing will ever stop. Everyday I desperate, angry, and depressed even more than before.

Every time I lay may head down I jerk it back up because I can not get the ringing out of my brain. I am tired and angry. I can not live my life with tinnitus. I want to bang my head against a brick away until I'm unconscious if it means I can make the ringing stop.

I don't want to say that the tinnitus is permanent but I am fearing after 6 months of constant ringing and the same high pitched ring and everything along with Pristiq being an ototoxic drug and me having very sensitive system and fragile hair cells in my inner ear I don;t know what to do I NEED THE RINGING TO STOP. I should have never taken that drug. I have tried I am almost hopeless. I just hope its not permanent, because I was already depressed and struggling and now I have 10x the depression and anxiety with this burrowing high pitched ringing deep in my brain, that I can not seem to get rid of. Please help.

 

I would try and de stress, and I feel the stress in your message - some time in nature or the garden, avoid the internet and long messages, they can cause stress you know, and we should remember a deep breath before messaging, we forget to sometimes - so a little less screen time with sensible brightness might help a lot - plenty of household jobs, and stop to appreciate what you've done to keep the mind from worrying so things can re balance.

Sometimes when I'm meditating I will focus on the tinnitus. A 'single point concentration' stops the worrying and helps accepting it, and then lowers it 'for me' - anyway good luck...

 

Thanks one-light for you reply,

I am stressed. I have been stressed for 6 months straight. I still go out into nature and walk and try my best to destress. Before I took the terrible antidepressant I would relax, but that was before I had an extremely loud high pitched ringing constantly in side my brain. Stress didn't cause the tinnitus, it was the antidepressant that I unfortunately took for 1 month, and it's been 6 months since I last took the drug. I don't know why the tinnitus is still ringing or how I can get rid of it. I can not meditate or even read a book with out the tinnitus being the main focus. I have ADHD and I have anxiety 10x worse than before I took the antidepressant. I can't find people who took an antidepressant and stopped and their tinnitus lasted 6 months and it went away. I only see stories of people whose tinnitus stopped after 1-2 weeks of discontinuing an antidepressant that their tinnitus went away, or they have had it for years after stopping the drug. I am scared, angry, and feel hopeless at time. I never should have taken it, because although I am stressed and panicking, Pristiq caused this in my body and my mind doesn't even feel like me most of the time, it's being hijacked by the high pitched ringing and it won't let me be free to listen to the calmness of my pillow at night. I am still trying everyday to make it go away, and I hope to God he helps me get rid of this.

 

Just try and keep busy and not to stress about it, and it can fade by being positive - I researched self healing for 4 years, and the positive and negative energy we humans are all made of - I do get on here occasionally to help, so good luck with whatever you decide to do there...

 

How can I be positive? I am struggling with depression and negativity for a long time. That's why I took Pristiq. Taking that drug was the biggest mistake of my life.

The tinnitus feels permanent, my brain feels over active and stressed every second of the day, because the tinnitus is constant and relentless. I've struggled with my mental well-being for years, and now I am so depressed I wake up angry everyday. I am so, so angry. I was never suicidal before tinnitus, but this extremely relentless ring that makes me so miserable makes me want to harm myself.

I just wish I could have not taken Pristiq because it has ruined my life and broken my brain.

 

It's the negative energy created in your system from the anger that's increasing the tinnitus...

 

That could be. But I highly doubt it. I have been having intense pressure headaches today. I can feel and HEAR the hyperactive neurons exhausting my brain. I am exhausted everyday from tinnitus. The anger might be exhausting me more, but I can tell you that I have every right to be angry and if it's making it worse I can not help it. I can not allow the fact that I am an absolute idiot and fell for the "Oh, I'm so depressed, maybe a drug will help me be less depressed". I am 10x more depressed than I have ever been my entire life. All day today I have had pressure headaches and was tortured by the tinnitus. I can not imagine living my life 30 more years like this. Suicidal visions are much more present and vivid than I have ever had, and that make me even more sad and gives me more anxiety because I can see myself dying very vividly and painfully. I made a huge mistake taking that shitty drug and listening to people who said "Antidepressants helped me"

I'm a fucking idiot.

 

I've been helping someone who has tinnitus 'and' hyperacusis - I've been there in that dark hole 'with both issues' before my research - so I'll share this with you as well...
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I see you've had no replies on this... Just caught my eye this when having a quick look on here - it's so important you lose that stress - I researched self healing energy for 4 years recently, we are all 100% positive and negative energy us humans.

So some tips to raise your 'vibes' that's vibrational energy - less meat, more fruit and veggies - careful of any anger on TV avoid that, and screen time, a jigsaw or a book sometimes. Some time in nature, trees are high in quality transferable positive energy as you pass. Stroke the cat or dog, and generally try to keep busy around the house, redoing jobs if you have to keep 'the mind strong' - and body.

And remember to compliment yourself many times daily - and when having a drink 'nice thoughts' of the past hold that beach or happy image in mind for 10 seconds to calm the mind.

If you can do this and improve your well-being and vibes, things will calm down - then you can look into retraining your sound system mind/brain/ears to accept sounds again gently.

Good luck...

And the reason for the edit is I forgot to mention something very important, breathing - because we forget to when tensing up online - so remember to remind yourself before a message, breathe... and when completing reading or writing - and breathe - get those words in your mind so you/we remember to deeply enough...

 

Update:

9 months of constant tinnitus. Waves of intense high pitched ringing experienced daily last 5 seconds, and makes me flinch in fear and mental anguish.

ENT said the antidepressant could have triggered my tinnitus, but hasn't seen a case like mine in 10 years she's been an ENT at the university hospital. Another nail in my coffin.

Doctors will not tell me Pristiq damaged my brain causing tinnitus. Tinnitus is caused by neurotransmitter dysfunction in the DCN and damaged hair cells.

How did I go from perfect hearing, never ringing or buzzing in my head, to trying to take an antidepressant for 24 days and developing tinnitus while on the drug. It's been 9 months now with constant tinnitus that has not changed or gotten better since the first week I noticed it. Jesus please send a meteorite into my head tonight while I toss and turn in misery from tinnitus and the crippling depression and anxiety I face everyday due to the uncontrollable ringing that makes me want to bash my head into a brick wall until I choke to death on my own blood.

 

Ummmm. I don't think your black magic exists, and I'm certain my tinnitus is from damage. I'm also certain that if I hold a positive thought in my head, my tinnitus will not change or go away. It really is hilarious how life is. I go to a docto,r tell her I don't want to take this type of drug, she prescribes me it anyway. I don't think about how it could permanently damage and change me significantly for the rest of my life so I take it for 24 days, develop tinnitus and hate my life 10x more.

I go to ENTs - they have no idea antidepressants can cause tinnitus and are ototoxic. I post on here - and the only person who talks to me is a fairy who thinks positivity will regenerate my brain cells. I ask for any advice from people who have it - get used to it.

Where in my life does happiness ever arrive? When I finally put a .45 into my brain stem?

 

Hello crazy woman. My tinnitus hasn't faded since onset and it's been a year and two months. I will be the most negative person I can be to myself and others due to the constant agony I am in everyday, I unfortunately, thanks to my idiot doctor, have permanent tinnitus. Since it's been a year, it is not going away, it is permanent. I want to make others suffer mentally and physically.

All I wanted was to not feel sorry for myself and sad all the fcvking time. I was alone and no one would help me. I tried to take an antidepressant and now I have severe tinnitus that will make me k!ll myself. I hate the fact that you tell me positivity will make my tinnitus go away, when it won't undo the damage the antidepressant did to my brain. I have 3.5 years left until I pull the trigger on myself and it's already been 1 year. If God exists, he will remove tinnitus from my life completely as I was before taking the antidepressant. But God is cruel and I'm sure he wants to punish me for being a horrible person, so I will more than likely be suffering for 3 more years until he sends me to hell where I will be tortured some more, but hopefully the screams of sinners drown out the ringing in the center of my brainstem.

I hate that family medicine doctor with a passion and I hope she gets tinnitus as bad as mine from trying to improve her quality of life, but ultimately diminishes her quality of life so much so that she k!kills herself just like me.

 

1 year update.

For anyone who reads this, the tinnitus caused by taking Pristiq for 24 days has made me spiral down into depression and anger everyday. I hate my life more than ever. I can't do anything I want to because my attitude is so severely impacted from the moment I wake up until I go to sleep because I can not stop thinking and hearing the ringing sound in the center of my brain.

When I flex my neck and push my tongue against the roof of my mouth, the tinnitus get very loud. It feels like it is in my brainstem. Which makes sense since the antidepressant affects the serotonin process which is in the brainstem. It fried my brainstem and made it dysfunctional. Or i have high frequency hearing loss from 24 days of taking 50 mg Pristiq. I don't know what exactly is dysfunctional other than my brain's connections are wrong and causing the tinnitus.

Imagine a person who doesn't take Advil be stupid enough and sad enough to take an antidepressant, which have no proof of helping depression more than the placebo, for a SHORT AMOUNT OF TIME, 24 days. And me wanting desperately to feel happy, I took it and all it did was give me severe tinnitus. How am I not supposed to kill myself now. I hate my fucking brain, and that stupid fvcking cvnt doctor.

 

Yes antidepressants are horrible with a lot of side effects. Both when you take it and after you try to stop it.

You were really careless when you started taking it. I read that clinically speaking, SSRIs don’t treat depression well. Their data were twisted by the pharmaceutical companies to get approval. They work like placebo.

Do you have ringing in 1 or 2 ears? How loud is it? Do you work? Study? How old are you? Any other health conditions?

I really feel like you are very suicidal and frustrated and angry.

You need to figure out a way to move forward from here.

 

You think I was careless when I took it? When my careless doctor prescribed it. How am I supposed to know what it makes me feel like. I spent months researching stories of Pristiq and the general consensus was that it helped people 7/10 times, and i didn't hear horror stories other than one or two. For a decade I avoided antidepressants, but I was alone and sad all the time. I couldn't bring myself to be happy, no matter how hard I tried, or how much exercise I did, I still felt horrible, probably because I have severe depression that tells me I can accomplish nothing in my life that's worth living for.

I have ringing in both ears, meaning 2 ears, I would say it's loud, I can't watch a YouTube video on half volume with my laptop on my lap without hearing the tinnitus and I have to try to ignore it before I start to panic and become angry, and one day soon I'm going to snap. I'm snapping right now. This has happened from 3 weeks of taking the drug and I stopped taking it. It's deep inside my brain, it's central and feels like it is dysfunction in my brainstem, since that is the area where these chemicals are produced.

For a personal note to you CC_16, you calling me careless is extremely rude. You have no idea how much I hate taking medication. I don't take Advil. I was at the weakest part of my life and mind, and had no one to talk to and felt desperate and well obviously careless as you said, like the rude little bitch you are.

Yes I work. I finally got a job I really enjoy that I was lucky enough to obtain, after years of bouncing around shitty hard labor jobs, I finally have a livable wage that pays me to work only 8 hours a day. Now tinnitus has made me hardly able to focus on work or my life goals especially when I work from home in silence.

I'm 26. I have no health conditions. I'm extremely healthy, I eat very healthy foods and I have always exercised, and love to snowboard, play tennis, and even rung long distance of 5 miles or more. My 27th birthday is a month away, and I am holding back every ounce of force that I have to make it to that, because I need to set things in order before I kill myself.

I am a loner who doesn't talk to people, I enjoyed silence, It was the only thing that would calm me down and silence was my time to relax.

I am going to try to live 3 more years.

This is because of that doctor who prescribed me the medication. I told her, I fucking told her I can't do drugs, I hate that stupid fucking bitch.

 

Sorry if I offended you. I didn’t mean that. I meant that even if that doctor prescribed it to you, you could have refused to take it. You have a choice. There are meds I got prescribed I just never picked up.

I was offered to put on antidepressants but I refused! I said no, I don’t like the side effects, plus I have fully managed my health anxiety. So I never take and will never take antidepressants.

I don’t think you should stop taking them suddenly, either. It needs to be tapered down slowly, over time! If you stop suddenly it will make your tinnitus worse due to withdrawal symptoms. And make your depression worse too due to the unbalanced chemicals in your brain.

Antidepressants are not to be messed with. Once you start, you need to be on them for at least 6 months. Some people take years to get off of them.

Yes, I am a healthcare provider, so I know the side effects more than general public.

As for now, 26 is young, I am 36. It is too late to blame the doctor etc etc, you have to move forward.

I don’t feel like you reached the point of suicide yet, as you are young and no other health conditions.

But I am very concerned with your severe depression, now with tinnitus adding to it, which makes your depression even worse, but you are not taking anything to control it.

Is your tinnitus constant 24/7? Are you having troubling eating/sleeping?

Hug.

 

I just saw how long you have been dealing with tinnitus and the cause. I'm sure yours will fade in a matter of 6 months, But for you to come on here and tell me:

"I don’t feel like you reached the point of suicide yet, as you are young and no other health conditions."

You are out of line and completely rude and wrong to tell me what I feel.

Take your hug back, I would never hug a person as insulting and ridiculous as you. I hope your tinnitus goes away fast and you leave this forum so I never have to read another reply from you again.

 

You really need to move forward from here and be strong, and control your depression and severe anxiety.

Otherwise it is going to keep going downhill.

I am speaking from a clinical perspective.

 

CC, you said that you are a healthcare provider? What does that mean? Are you a doctor? Are you children's hospital? I would say you're neither and lack medical school and knowledge.

You are a troll.

You come on my tinnitus thread and tell me that "I don’t feel like you reached the point of suicide yet, as you are young and no other health conditions."

I went to school with plenty of kids who had happier and more support around them than me who killed themselves while in high school. My good friend died when he was 27 two years ago form suicide. You are obviously not a doctor or even intelligent enough to be one.

Now you tell me what I need to do.

"You really need to move forward from here and be strong, and control your depression and severe anxiety."

The audacity of you telling me to control my depression is hilarious. Be strong? Are you suggesting that I'm weak, and that I need to now be strong? I've been suffering long enough with depression for you to tell me I need to be strong and control it, HAHAHA you have no idea my life or who I am.

CC_16, I'm quoting you so maybe you can realize how dumb you sound.

"I am speaking from a clinical perspective."

On who's behalf? Like the doctor who prescribed me these drugs after I told her not to, but she wanted to profit and sell drugs?

Again, just be clear with what you actually are. I'm waiting. A nurse? A doctor? A Caregiver? A janitor for a hospital?

Because I know you're not a doctor, so shut up and I hope you start to have depression and suicidal thoughts from your tinnitus.

 

Don't beat yourself up for taking antidepressants. Many people take and stop these drugs without it causing tinnitus. Unfortunately we don't know what will happen until we take something which makes it incredibly hard for us.

 

Your case is very severe as it indicates severe depression, anxiety, tinnitus, suicidal ideation.

I am concerned that you will just keep going downhill.

 

Many cases on here have these indications - it is not out-of-the-ordinary on here.

Hopefully @PeanutButter can be more forgiving with himself for wanting to help himself feel better. He is not the only one who relied on experienced professionals to prescribe medication to help in this regard. Hopefully there are things that can help. It is tough but all we can do is try to look up and forward and to persevere.

 

I treat cancer patients.

 

Weird way of saying not a doctor. Could be a dietician, or a radiologist. Who knows? Not you.

 

Does this shit ever stop? I mean why have I had tinnitus for such a long time? I got it from a trash antidepressant (Pristiq) that I never wanted to take and stopped after 3 weeks.

How does the tinnitus continue 24/7 everyday for almost 2 years? What happened? Is it damage to my hair cells? Damage to the dorsal cochlear nucleus? Desensitized neurotransmitters? Why does this continue? Is it stress? Did depression make it worse?
DID MY BRAIN LEARN HOW TO MAKE TINNITUS A LIVING HELL FOR ME? Now my brain won't let it go because it learned how to notice this miserable sound?

Tinnitus is a symptom? But WHAT IS THE PROBLEM?