Recently Diagnosed with Tinnitus and Having Hard Time Dealing with It

[We can beat this]

Hi everyone. I was recently diagnosed and am freaking out about it. Trying very hard to stay positive and find treatments or help.

I am 43 years old and started noticing a ringing sound mostly in my left ear that sounds like a whistling sound around 4 week's ago. Didn't make much of it at first. About a couple weeks ago I went to my ENT and he said the worst thing possible that it is Tinnitus. I was in denial and didn't want to believe him.

I have been taking care of my father who is 81 years old and he has been battling tinnitus for few years and I have seen how it has affected him and how difficult it has been for him made him. I have seen a gentle man become extremely irrational and irritated more and more. I didn't understand it fully until now. I have since been to another ENT and hearing doctor and they confirmed it's tinnitus. They all say to just not focus on it and to accept it.

As the last few days have gone by, I have become extremely anxious realizing that this can be the rest of my life. It seems to have gotten worse each day and I can't focus at work in my office and and consumed by it all day. I try playing music on my phone but it seems to work only at certain times. Then the worst part is when I get home and it's time to get my kids ready for sleep and start to read to them and put them to sleep. The ringing sounds is most loud at night. It feels like it has gotten louder just in the last week and now starting to hear it in my right ear as well. It's only been a couple weeks and I just can't imagine living like this.

I am writing this as I am laying in bed next to my young daughter waiting for her to fall asleep. Any help or advice is greatly appreciated. I plan on buying a sound machine that I got my father to help him sleep at nights. I am still hoping it is situational and due to the chronic migraines I have been getting more regularly last few months and also possibly from TMJ???

Feeling so hopeless and scared of the future. I feel like tinnitus is probably the worst for a person like me that has anxiety and OCD about health issues. My focus is fully consumed for now by this and hoping to find some solutions and treatments to help me cope with it.

Any advice or personal experiences that have been helpful with others suffering the same is greatly appreciated.

So far they have said it's probably from my heightened level of anxiety and some hearing loss that is causing it. But I ask why now? I have had same hearing loss which is very minimal for several years and also the same with my anxiety which has been ongoing for 10 years. I have two beautiful young children and a third one on the way and want to be able to beat this.

Thanks for reading and listening to me.

Hope we can all find success. And I will be sharing any information I get in my journey as I meet with drs. I have a special appointment in couple days with a tinnitus specialist that is supposed to give me some advise and an introduction to tinnitus and on how to accept it and learn the basics for now.

 

[Bill Bauer]

Any help or advice is greatly appreciated.

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/thread...eone-else-who-has-tinnitus.26850/#post-307822

 

[Lane]

I feel like tinnitus is probably the worst for a person like me that has anxiety and OCD about health issues.

Hi @We can beat this,

I'm a BIG believer in nutritional interventions for just about any kind of health condition we may run across. A couple years ago, I ran across a remarkable article on OCD, and how a researcher in Israel discovered that a simple supplement can often dramatically improve OCD symptoms. Here's a link to a remarkable article in case you might want to check it out: -- LISTENING TO INOSITOL: CLINICAL NOTES

I'm sharing this Inositol/OCD link because I think any brain condition that results in OCD can also result in tinnitus. And that successfully treating OCD "may" just improve tinnitus. Insitol supplementation sounds like one of the best possibilities for doing that. -- You may also want to check out THIS POST & THIS POST I made, which describes some supplements and other alternative type therapies that may be worth considering. -- All the Best...

 

[GregCA]

So far they have said it's probably from my heightened level of anxiety and some hearing loss that is causing it. But I ask why now?

Most likely hearing loss related indeed. Why now? Because hearing damage is cumulative, and at some point the straw breaks the camel's back...
Do you have an audiogram that you feel comfortable sharing?

 

[Bill Bauer]

Insitol supplementation sounds like one of the best possibilities for doing that.

Is it available without a prescription?

 

[Lane]

Is it available without a prescription?

Yes, here's where I ordered mine for $20 (not saying it's the best deal, but I generally shop pretty carefully).

Inositol Powder One Pound

 

[Bill Bauer]

Yes, here's where I ordered mine for $20 (not saying it's the best deal, but I generally shop pretty carefully).

Inositol Powder One Pound

Thank you.

How long have you been taking it? Are you seeing any changes in your T?

 

[Lane]

How long have you been taking it? Are you seeing any changes in your T?

I've been taking for the past 2-3 years, well before tinnitus onset earlier this year. I pretty quickly noticed that it did have a calming effect, and could understand how somebody with OCD could benefit from it--perhaps greatly. It would make sense it could help tinnitus just because of its ability to calm the brain, reducing OCD, anxiety, etc.

I just ran across the following on this thread: -- Inositol deficiency, a literal footnote (for a foot crack!)
................................

It has happened. I have dropped out of hyper/OCD and back into fatigue! No idea why. I had started inositol Oct. 22 so about 2 months for the effect to go away. -- I did have thyroid labs done, and all is normal for me (FT4 and FT3 right at mid range, TSH suppressed). -- My blood sugar is stunningly low for me. I run around 100 most of the time, and am sitting around 70 post-prandial (after a meal of eggs and some coffee) per my labs.

 

[Lane]

Good information to be aware for anybody considering high doses of inositol...

Inositol-induced mania?
http://sci-hub.tw/10.1176/ajp.153.6.839
(Three case examples)

https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/neuroscience/inositol
Under ADHD:

Because of its antidepressant effects, rare episodes of switching into mania have been reported. Patients with symptoms of agitation or depression who take inositol should carefully be monitored for signs of manic or hypomanic symptoms.

Under Anxiety Disorders:

inositol is also associated with a small risk of inducing hypomanic or manic symptoms, and case reports exist of patients 'switching' from depressive to manic symptoms (Potter et al., 2009). Careful monitoring of dose/response and adverse effects is necessary.

Under Mania and Agitation:

Because of its antidepressant qualities, some have hypothesized that it may also be beneficial in treating symptoms of bipolar disorder. However, research has shown that individuals in the midst of manic phases actually show an excess of intracellular inositol (Potter et al., 2009), and lithium, an effective mood stabilizer, may exert its clinical effect, in part, by lowering brain levels of inositol or blocking its effects (Agranoff & Stephen, 2001), although some have reported contradictory findings (Belmaker et al., 1996).

Inositol may not only be ineffective, it may exacerbate the symptoms of mania. Because of its antidepressant effects, episodes of switching into mania have been reported (Potter et al., 2009). It is apparent that patients who exhibit symptoms of depression may benefit from supplementation with inositol, but inositol is not a mood stabilizer and should not be used for this purpose. Those with symptoms of mixed mania may benefit from its use (as an antidepressant, as described in Chapter 6), but will require a mood stabilizer to address the manic portion of the symptoms.

INOSITOL FOR DEPRESSION AND PANIC DISORDER - starting at Page 120
http://www.mentalhealthamerica.net/sites/default/files/MHA_CAM.pdf
Page 125:

However, there have been case reports of inositol-induced mania in bipolar depressed patients.